Steep hills to Kennisis Lake; waking, tubing, and barging on our days off

It's been a few days since the Kennisis-bound crew checked in. We've been having an absolutely incredible time up at Mike's cottage, with little to no cell reception and a dialup connection that sometimes makes email tough. It's a pretty nice part of the country, so we've been taking our time to enjoy it.

The ride from Balsam Lake Provincial Park was relatively short, and Pat, Mike, and I took our time, especially in the afternoon. After lunch, we passed by the Kawartha Dairy ice cream shop, a favourite in the area, so we had to stop for a cone. They must have had 50+ flavours, all of it delicious. We knew we were getting our gear picked up by Mike's mother and sister, and we were really looking forward to riding without the panniers and the trailer. It made quite a difference without the extra weight, and we made good time the rest of the way to Mike's cottage on Kennisis Lake.

There were some absolutely wickedly steep hills along a bad stretch of road for the final leg of the ride. Just before we got there, though, we had one downhill on which Mike and Pat both broke our previously highest recorded speed. Mike cracked 76km/hr, and Pat hit 74km/hr; without the gear it didn't seem nearly as fast as it would have. Some of the inclines afterwards were just terrible, definitely the steepest we've seen, hard even without the extra weight.

Our prize was certainly waiting at the end. Mike's cottage sits right on Kennisis Lake, complete with a boat and wakeboarding and tubing gear. We did nothing but sit out on the water both days we spent here, and could not have been happier. We went out in the boat on the first day, where Mike flung me around on the tube, while he and Pat did anything but rest their legs on the wakeboard, as it's a pretty heavy workout. We got a tour of the lake and once we got back, we broke out the inflatables and sat out in the sun before it went behind the trees.

Today was more of the same, and we enjoyed an incredible steak dinner in the evening. Brian and Jon had arrived from Bracebridge earlier in the day, and Bob McDonald had come up for the weekend, so there were lots of people around. A friend of Brian's showed up as well. There has been lots of Kawartha Dairy ice cream as well! Who knows how many tubs we went through while we were here.

Tomorrow we'll start heading East again, making our way to Montreal over the next four days.
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