Kathryn Hepburn

You might expect that "Loopers", as those of us circumnavigating the eastern US call ourselves, would be relatively evenly spread out around The Loop. In fact many are bunched up somewhere along Lake Ontario, the Tread Avon Canal in Canada and Lake Huron and Lake Michigan region during the summer. We're all following 70 degree weather. We're also in prime bug season, but that's another story. No one wants to be in the swampy low country of Georgia or South Carolina in July. While many newer boats come equipped with AC, being inside is not why you come on this trip.

So far, we've had this extraordinary region of Canada to ourselves. In fact most of the trip, except for marinas has been solitary or near so. We think this is because we chose the less traveled route through the Erie Canal and got an early start. Two days ago we finally caught up with some other boaters in a spot called Covered Portage...pronounced por-TAJ here in French Ontario. It was a diminutive cove surrounded by high bluffs, tall evergreens, and filled with blue green 69 degree water. There were 11 boats in this cove though forty smooshed in the prior weekend ...so went the scuttlebut.

We disembarked on our little dingy, "Shooter", to the top edge of the Covered Portage cove where five similar dinghies, "All with Yamaha outboards," as Brian remarked, tied up to hike the bluffs.

We hiked with another couple, chatting along the way....getting their, "What brings you here?" story. They were Canadians. We met another "Looper" on the trail. They just started their looping in June out of Georgia Bay. The next day we met a couple of Loopers from Chattanooga! They are on the last quadrant of their trip. We met one looping couple on the Erie Canal who were ending shortly in Sandusky, OH on Lake Erie. I picture one of those now banned turning tables you used to see at playgrounds.... everyone jumps on in a different spot and flings off after looping for a while. Not a great analogy but you get the idea.

The hike did not disappoint. We were rewarded with a stunning view of the cove below with all our little boats swinging on the hook.

Sadly, I've become one of those mothers that is incapable of taking, even the shortest of hikes, without a backpack...just the essentials....a roll of tp, hand sanitizer, quart of drinking water, 4 granola bars, bug spray, sunscreen, my cell phone of course and a small first aid kit with bandaid, antibiotic ointment, tweezers, razor blade, eye wash wash ampules, alcohol wipes, gauze wrap, tape, aspirin in case anyone has a heart attack, benadryl in case someone is stung by 100 bees, tylenol for whatever, hydrocortone cream for bug bites... writing this is making me aware of what I'm missing...I need to add a swiss army knife with 20 blades for an emergency tracheotomy.

Back to what got me started on this blog. .. it's 0730, and I'm in the cockpit with John with a cup of coffee as we lay perfectly still on near glassy water in a place called The Pool. The sun is just up over the rise. It's casting its sparkles on the water. At home we call this and late afternoon the "sparkle hour." I take 20 photos in hope of getting just one that I can bottle up for posterity to capture this scene, but alas, am only partly successful. The sparkle overwhelms the shutter so while the sparkles are evident, the lush green of the trees is lost. So I just stare at the scene trying to imprint it in my mind.

In the vicinity I hear woodpeckers and, here's where Kathryn Hepburn enters....as I sit enjoying the early morning, I hear the birds but focus on one in particular. I am compelled to exclaim, in a quivering voice, "The Loon! The Loon!" The loon, unlike seagulls and geese, has a solitary bird call with an echoey element that enhances the experience of the back country. I don't think I'd ponder this if Kate had not imprinted the call of the loon in my mind. John and I chuckle that perhaps our strongest association with Kate is one line from an old folks movie. I'm grateful for her for deepening my experience of wild North America and adding a moment of levity.