Another long weekend come and gone.
Another summer bucket list adventure crossed off the list.
My family owns 50 acres just south of Westport, Ontario. They purchased the land basically when I was born and have rarely used it. Our family cottage was close to here on 200 acres of land which they finally sold this year after not being able to enjoy it anymore. The family was going to sell this land as well but then life happened. I moved back to Ottawa and this property became so much more accessible for me so my parents decided to keep it in the family. The land is bordered by two lakes. While there is only a small abandoned fishing hut on one waterfront property side there is ample space to build on the lake that’s closest to the road. So Mike and I headed up this past weekend with puppies in tow to check it out.
We learned several things during this adventure.
- When you don’t visit your property in over 30 years the neighbours begin to wonder if you actually exist. We met our neighbour to the North of us. He looked shocked to see people up there. He was very kind and helped us find our property marker as well as show us the best place he believes there is to build a cottage (when it was on the market he was apparently looking at buying it and scoped everything out well).
- People will build a boat ramp on your property because you have the best access point from the main road. We could be upset or we could build our fire pit right in the way of the access point to discourage future traffic. In reality, it’s awesome because now we have our own boat ramp.
- People will apparently bring in massive equipment to excavate your land which will lead to horrible sand erosion on one end of your property. The sand dunes were perfect for turtles to lay eggs in but it became a massive graveyard due to some pesky raccoons.
- If you let your dogs roam, they will disappear at times but they will thankfully come when called. Even Rogue the puppy comes when called! She’s freaking smart.
- If you let your large Husky / German Shepard roam in the morning and fall back asleep he will get into trouble. I won’t get into that story but let’s just say it isn’t a happy one. But Havoc is fine so I’ll let your mind wander on what happened 🙂
- Always check your body & dogs for ticks. We, unfortunately, found 2 on Mike and 1 on Havoc. Everyone is being monitored carefully.
We drove up early Saturday and stopped in Westport for coffee and a pee break. After we walked the waterfront line with our neighbour we hiked off to the far end of our property to find the fishing cabin my dad told us about. I’m not going to lie but it was hella creepy. But that’s what you get for abandoning a building for 30 years.
The waterfront along Canoe Lake has definitely been used by others. They even made a sign and built a throne, an outhouse, a fire pit and a picnic table.
The only cool thing that originally was ours and was still intact was a sign my parents put up 30 years ago.
Despite being attacked by deer flies the entire hike it was fun to hike the property. After getting back to camp, the puppies were knocked out cold from the adventure in the long grass. So Mike and I hunkered down, set up camp and made dinner.
We brought 2 camp stoves so we could boil water one for the lentil soup w/ dehydrated chicken (purchased at MEC) and the other one to boil water for the gluten-free pasta. You simply pour the hot water right into the lentil soup bag, add the powdered chicken and allow it to sit for a bit. Once the pasta (from bulk barn) was cooked we added the bag into the pasta pot, stirred and then enjoyed it in camping chairs by the boat ramp.
Breakfast in the morning was powdered eggs and pre-cooked bacon that we brought with us. Mike made coffee and we even remembered to pack almond milk 🙂
All in all, it was fun, adventurous, and slightly stressful (the puppies keep us on our toes) but a good weekend. We can’t wait for another adventure Labour Day weekend. We are going to attempt a canoe trip then!
Are you camping this summer?
