Sunday, July 8, 2001



I guess I can write this entry right now too. I'm leaving for Calgary today after going for another psychotic ride on my bike down a mountainside. I plan to stay in Calgary two nights visiting friends. Then I head to Edmonton to visit my sister for two nights. Then I will be heading home and get ready for the kayak trip up north with my dad. The journal will resume then.



Saturday, July 21, 2001



I write this entry a significant amount of time later. I did as planned spend two nights up in Calgary visiting Wendell and Lisa, sorry Devin and Shari; i had missed out on seeing them. I then spent two nights in Edmonton with my sis and had a nice chance to look over Edmonton, as it's been more then a decade since I was last there and it's changed a lot! After all of the Alberta highlights I headed back home via Saskatoon to see an ex and her little one. Back home in Regina I spent two nights there preparing for the kayaking trip. My dad and I left Regina on July 14 and made it to Missinipe, SK (a town site on the shores of the Churchill River north of Lac La Ronge) some 7 hours later. Rather then leave so late that day on the kayaking trip we opted to stay one night in the towns campground before heading out early the next morning.

So that next morning we packed our two kayaks with all that we could fit and then departed into the seemingly endless vistas of water, islands, and dense forest. We had our boats SO completely loaded with necessities that it turned out I could not bring my camera along, much to my incredible sadness. That fact was a big reason why I didn't do a daily journal during this portion of my 2001 Gypsy Trip because I would have no pictures to show anyways.

My father and I paddled some 16-18 km's that first day, possibly more. We had a very hard time finding a place to camp. Eventually we came to the Robertson Falls where we found a fantastic! All-be-it very LOUD campsite right on the very edge of the falls. It was an incredible sight to wake up too each morning; I wish I had my camera . . . We spent three days and nights camping there. Each day we would adventure out in different directions and simply explore and fish as we went. My father got his first taste of my gypsy ways during this trip. Realizing that its not good food and easy travels that I seek, no I give these luxuries up simply for the sake of adventure. We roughed it even more then I'm used to in one way, that being, we had NO WAY to tell time the whole trip, except by the sun. It was to say the least a VERY enjoyable trip that my father and I had. What made it so much better was the fact that it was the first real father son trip we had ever done!

I know all too sadly that I missed a great many fantastic pictures that I could have taken if I had a camera with me. Next time I do this trip I WILL find a way to bring a camera no matter what. I'll make up then for all the shots I missed this time.

I was blessed to see a wide variety of wildlife on this whole excursion, often a very close look too at; besides the obvious deer and moose I saw some cute muskrats, bald eagles, and a couple of teens having sex on a hay bail on the way back to Regina. But the sight that was the highlight of the WHOLE trip was when my father and I were kayaking along on the Churchill river on the way back to Missinipe and we were coming up on either side of this little rock island in the middle of the waterway. We were passing on either side of the little island, when all of a sudden my dad and I were shocked by the site of a bald eagle taking flight not 10 feet away from us. I think the great bird was as shocked by our quiet approach to its feeding ground as we were shocked by him being there. It was just so wild being so close to this amazing MASSIVE bird whose wingspan is much wider then I am tall. Even if I had a camera with me there is no way I would have captured this moment on film, it all just happened so quickly, but it will forever be a fantastic memory . . . though watching my dad tip over in his kayak was a VERY close second place for memories, it wasn't too funny then, but it will be for years to come! :)