Macaroni Cheese
1 cup macaroni
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1 tbls. butter
1/2 cup long-life milk
Cook maco in boiling water 6 minutes, stirring well. Drain. Add milk and butter. Stir until steaming. Add grated cheese. Remove from heat and stir well. Serve with sriracha sauce and carrot sticks on the side.
*
I arrive at my home for the next nine days by mid afternoon.
It is three hours since Bud dropped me at the landing, got the canoe off the car, helped me load and lash everything in. I have kept to the shore, although there is little wind, so all has taken a bit longer.
I am in no hurry.
I smile to myself as the rock-face which marks the site comes into view.
An uninhabited quiet little offshoot bay in the south bay of Trinity Lake.
For the average tripper, there is really no going beyond this point. So even if others were to canoe this part of Trinity Lake in early September, they'd likely just paddle around the bay and out again, on to the South Bay, with portages to follow to other small lakes, and several more commonly used sites.
I have chosen this site for that reason.
It has a slightly awkward entry point, this site.
The first job, after securing the canoe, is scaling a rocky slope with load after load of supplies.
Over the years, we have tried various methods of transporting gear to camp. And in spite of the difficult slope, this is the best.
I break this job into three, so as not to exhaust myself, carrying several loads to the top, rest, then take all of that to the site where I arrange things, get a fire going, boil the kettle, have a cup of tea.
Then I repeat this two more times.
Removing a small pack jammed in the canoe well under the stern deck, I spot something behind. A tightly tied plastic bag, and a note.
"You might need these."
Bud. Inside, two bottles of red wine.
*
It is a couple of hours before everything is in the camp, the tent up, the canoe empty.
I slip down the rocky slope, and canoe around to a small harbour, a harbour that can't be seen from out in the bay. Here, I pull the canoe well up, flip it, and tie the painter to a tree. The hidden harbour, five minutes through dense bush to the campsite. Farther, but all is beautifully hidden. And while it is fairly easy for me alone to tramp through the tangly woods from the hidden harbour to the site, it would be miserable to lug the gear that way.
I have cheated a wee bit, with regard to firewood. Bud and I were here in June, a cool and buggy and delightfully uninhabited weekend. Bud, (with chainsaw), spent two afternoons downing standing dead wood - birch, cedar, pine, maple - sawing it into manageable lengths, splitting it, stacking it in an out of the way spot, tarping it, weighting it. This stash of beautifully dry wood hasn't been touched, and there is more than enough for one person for nine days.
I am in charge of kindling though. I have already split enough of the cork-dry cedar to start several fires.
I keep my small kettle-boiling fire going for supper, and into the evening.
The rock-rimmed firepit, well used (by us) for many years, in a relatively sheltered spot offering a glorious view over the bay, sits back a few yards from the edge of the rugged Trinity Lake rock-face.
I unearth supper #1.
A simple meal - macaroni & cheese, carrot sticks, tea.
I have devised a system, one which I can manage alone, for hanging the food packs.
All of the food is being stored in our 'kitchen' area, 50 yards from sleeping quarters.
Including toothpaste.
Each pack has a 25 ft. rope attached. I have marked out 3 trees with stout branches twelve feet off the ground within the vicinity.
I throw the rope of pack #1 over the first of these, (a bit of trial and error), and hoist the pack well above my head. I then wind the rope around the trunk at my waste level, and tie it tightly.
It works.
I repeat this for packs #2 and #3.
Not really surprising that I managed this, as I marked the trees and rehearsed the 'heave-ho' procedure in June. They are quite a weight, but they're up there, the three food packs, and the wanigan and plastic veggie bin, wedged among the rocks below.
I duct-tape a plastic cup 6 feet up a skinny tree, and drop my toothpaste and toothbrush into it.
I am using our traditional means of composting and kybo.
As Bud and I have stayed at this site many times over thirty-plus years, we have developed a system that suits us. Others, I am sure, have been here, but we have never arrived to find firepit mess, garbage, TP, bottles or cans at this site, unlike so many marked canoe trip sites we have happened upon.
Which makes us wonder if anyone else does use it. It's not an official site, so I suppose we are pushing the Trinity Lake canoe route rules, but as no one knows and we've been doing it for so long,
it has ceased to be a worry.
The compost pit is a bit of a walk due east, with a mound of loose earth beside it, used to scatter over the peelings, cores and spoiled vegetable matter. The trail to this has grown in a bit, but easy enough.
The kybo is closer to the tent site, and operates in a fairly similar (primitive) fashion.
Suppered, and leaving no leftovers, I am at the shore washing dishes. I deposit the lot into a mesh bag, and hang this as high as I can reach on a broken branch in the 'kitchen'.
This done, and being exhausted, I climb into the tent.
It's 7:30 but I don't care. My eyes are closing.
I will begin the artwork in earnest tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another day.
Perhaps make a bit of a schedule...
*
Camp Trident Daily Schedule - 1965
A.M.
7:30....................................................Rising
8:00 - 9:00......................................Breakfast
9:00 - 9:15..............Flag Raising and Prayer
9:15 - 9:45...........................Cabin Clean Up
9:45 - 10:45..............Games and Instruction
10:45 - 11:00...Beginners' Swim Instruction
11:00 - 12:00..........................General Swim
P.M.
12:30 - 1:30.......................................Dinner
1:30 - 2:30....................................Rest Hour 2:30 - 3:30...............Games and Instruction
3:30 - 3:45.......Beginners' Swim Instruction
3:45 - 5:30..............................General Swim
5:30 - 6:30.........................................Supper
6:30 - 7:00....................................Free Time
7:00 - 8:30........................Games/ Campfire/
..... Evening swim in hot weather
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