Sat. Sept 7 – Anticipating an early start and drawing from our past experiences, most of us had our packing completed earlier in the week and the trailer was readied the previous night. A rather interesting observation was made upon our arrival at John’s home, our last pick up before setting out - his "better half" appeared to be having no difficulty seeing her man off on this trip – her repeated comment was, "Take him with you, just take him away". This, coming from the usually good-natured lady caught our attention; and was later clarified by John. Apparently, being the conscientious person that he is, John awoke at 4 am that morning concerned as to whether his equipment was packed properly. To his wife’s dismay and with much mumbling and noisemaking, John proceeded to unpack and re-arrange his gear, thus keeping her awake until his departure. Our ventures have always required time-consuming attention to detail, much discussion about our plans with anyone within earshot, and several get-togethers thrown in for good measure. We were about to embark on our fourth trip – it was no wonder that none of our wives expressed much regret to see us depart, finally, for one week!

A few miles off Route 17 towards Kiosk, we stopped at a bridge and watched swimmers sliding down the rock surfaces of the Amable du Fond River – it looked like great fun and brought back memories of similar trips John and Norm H undertook to High Falls in the park (click on http://www.canoestories.com/barron2f.htm). Later, we hiked a forest path to the Eau Claire Gorge (click here to view photos and summary) and as we proceeded along the fault ridge path, we could hear the roar of rushing water. We were not disappointed with the picturesque scenery. We could just imagine what the turbulence and the spewing mist would have been like over this waterfall during the spring "logging drive" era of long ago. Upon our return to the parking lot, we noted that the large stones on the pathway were sweating due to the high humidity and the cooler rocks lying partially underground.

By 3 pm, we registered at the Kiosk office and decided to remain in the campgrounds for the evening. With the temperature still in the mid 30’s and the humidex much higher, we just laid back in the shade over a few "cool ones" and enjoyed refreshing swims in Kioskkokwi Lake before finally setting up camp. Our traditional supper consisted of BBQ steak, baked potatoes, coleslaw, red wine and, to top it off, a slice of bumble berry pie.

The evening brought forth a galaxy of stars and a beautiful display of the northern lights, the Aurora Borealis; silver, green and red weaving a pulsating dance back and forth, shimmering in a breeze, then condensing into crisscrossing beams and finally into spires and points across the northern sky. It is said that the northern lights are triggered by solar wind carrying protons and electrons that release energy from nitrogen and oxygen atoms into the earth’s magnetic field. The released energy travels along the magnetic lines of force, and when it reaches northern and southern polar-regions, it produces the coloured lights in the ionosphere, some 37 to 312 miles above the earth. We were in awe as we sat on a log on the sandy beach with our necks craned skyward – and time passed unnoticed! We were later to comment that, "Campsites for a week for four - $224; Food & Transportation - $400; the Northern Lights – Priceless; there are some things that money just can not buy."