Day 62 - Wednesday July 19/17

(Posted on Saturday July 29/17)

Can you believe it? Day 62 – the half-way point in our 124 day adventure and two months to the day since we left London. The total distance travelled to date, which includes travel mileage and touring mileage, is 13,330 km. Very little of it has been in rain or bad road conditons. We both remain healthy and happy. We seem to be ideal travelling companions! We feel blessed by all of this.

Unfortunately the weather was less than celebratory today, with a cloudy 10 degrees as we left our almost private campground (2 other campers had found this delightful spot during the evening). Today we continued north on Hwy #37 with a goal in mind – Boya Lake Provincial Park. This park has been recommended in several publications and by fellow travellors we’ve met along the way. As it is quite small and does not accept reservations we wanted to arrive early enough to grab a site, hence the early departure of 9:00 am. (map)

During a rest stop we met a young couple from Belgium who are on a 9 month working Visa in Canada. They finished 3 months of work in Montreal and then 3 more months in Calgary and are currently taking the opportunity of seeing the Canadian north before heading to Asia. Interesting folks with remarkable English.  

We got to Boya Lake at 12:30 and snagged a campsite at the lake’s edge. (photo)

We had lunch, time to read and a nap before we ventured out to enjoy the lake.  We decided to rent a canoe (at the remarkably cheap rate of $15 for 2 hours). The lake has a unique aqua-green hue with incredibly clear waters, and a white marl clay bottom. The many bays and islands made it a wonderful place to explore via canoe. As this was the first time we had ventured into a canoe together we were very pleased to discover that our canoeing styles meshed very well. (photos)

We spent an easy two hours following loons, gulls and swallows and discovering beaver-gnawed logs and interesting water plants along the shore. 

Water plant in Boya Lake

To celebrate our half way mark in travels we had steak, baked potatoe and broccoli. Eaten by this clear, quiet lake it was a feast to remember.  Just as we were finishing our meal, the park operator came by to warn us she had just seen a bear in the campground. We stowed the barbeque in the truck and packed away in the trailer anything that might smell appealing to a bear. Then retreated to the inside of the trailer. Michael read for a while but Nancy headed to bed. Both were asleep by 9:30 – the fresh lake air had done us in. (BTW neither of us had achy arms as a result of the canoeing. Could this be a sign of good form? Or just that we weren’t working very hard?)

Early the next morning lakeside view from our campsite