Day 296: Corinna Wilderness Experience — Hiking, Kayaking and Fire Building
Last night will definitely go down as the coldest of the 295 nights we’ve had on this trip. Margaret and I were fully clothed and under several blankets and were still chilly. James ended up coming into our room in the middle of the night — I would usually object to that but I needed his warmth so I happy accepted him into our bed. Margaret eventually moved into his bed in the room with Willa.
It’s so quiet here we all slept until about 8am, then hit the continental breakfast buffet at the restaurant across the street. After countless breakfast buffets we saw something new today: a handheld bread toasting device that you lay on a burner.
Back at the “Old Pub” cottage we did homeschool near the fire. James wrote his journal without help and then also read a few chapters of Princess in Black.
After school we motivated to do the Whyte River hike, a 90 minute loop through the rainforest along the banks of the Pieman and Whyte Rivers. We’ve seen a lot of nature and done a lot of hikes this year — but we will not forget this one.
The forest is like a green fantasy world or a set from Game of Thrones: massive moss-covered trees, sunlight streaming through little cracks in the canopy, little waves lapping against the shore. It looks like platypus heaven but we didn’t see any.
I think we all had frozen solid over night and the hike finally got some blood flowing through all of us. It also fueled an appetite. We went straight to the restaurant for lunch and were once again pleasantly surprised by what Corinna had to offer: a legitimately awesome chicken sandwich. Margaret and I both crushed ours and the kids enjoyed their chicken “cackles” (nuggets).
I decided to take a kayak out on the river and was glad that Willa and James wanted to come with me. We got a triple boat and staffer Matt helped us get it in the water.
We were out for about an hour — taking the same route as the first half of our hike this morning. We followed the Pieman then hung a left on the Whyte River.
The wind and current were both with us on the way out. I knew it would be more difficult getting back but underestimated how much more. I had to paddle my ass off coming home. If I stopped or we got a little sideways, the wind and current would take the boat perpendicular to the current and start pushing us backwards. I was relieved when we finally made it back to the little boat launch. Man, my arms and back are going to be stiff and sore tomorrow.
Back at the house Margaret had put similar effort into stoking the fire. Her dad’s fire building skills haven’t fallen far from the tree, and she’s always freezing, so being responsible for fire maintenance is a good fit for her. She had the fire blazing and had closed the doors to the kitchen and the hallway so it was finally very warm in our antique-y little den here at the Old Pub Cottage.
This was the perfect environment for reading, writing, coloring and napping which filled the time until dinner.
We were all asleep in our full clothes and jackets by about 8:30.
