Day 21

10June2008

Rise and shine at Canoe and Co. - if you are paddling on the NFCT, swing in and stay. They offer a place to camp, shuttles, and guide services. Francois is super nice - they'll take good care of you - check them out: 1121 chemin Burnett Glen Sutton (QC) JOE 2KO phone: 450.538.4052.

Broke camp and made arrangements to shuttle over the Grand Portage to Memphramagog - since our portage cart died we decided it would be wise to get a lift over this 7 mile portage... and good thing too - it was another incredibly hot day!

Put back in at Perkins Landing on the lake and paddled South towards Newport, VT. We crossed back into the states at 245pm - shortly therafter a HUGE, SCARY storm rolled through. Luckily we had seen some kids playing in the water so we paddled like crazy and asked for sanctuary. The mom even ran down to help us get our boat up on land and we huddled under the porch while the heavens opened up! SEVERE weather. Lightning, thunder, torrential rain. It was biblical. Apparantly that area had recieved a potential tornado warning. We were not fortunate enough to witness the tornado part.

As chance would have it, the patriarch of the clan, Herman, had a little cottage that he rents out to folks and he offered it to us to stay the night for free. We were very grateful. Especially later that evening when another, even more severe storm tore through the area knocking down trees and power lines. Yikes. We were happy to be safe and warm!

Tomorrow we head to town.

Weather: wild and crazy

Wildlife: fish (the water is very clear), a mink, toy poodle, cormorants and ducks.

"Even at the very bottom of the river, I didn't think to myself, `is this a hearty joke or the merest accident'. I just thought, `it's wet'."
~ Eeyore