Kedgeamakoodge

For my 30th, Mike and I headed to Kejimkujik, NS to experience nature, quality time (2 year Anniversary occured during this time) and do some cross training....uh I mean, exercise. As we had scheduled to leave on Wednesday morning, Mike got up (after a night shift) at 10am and we started the "getting ready" process. As we like to make sure we have everything we need - this takes a while. With packing list in hand we scowered the house for any possible items that would help in our adventure. Key chain (you never know), small baggies/big baggies, clothes pins, scissors, waterproof matches, garbage bags, sobey's bags (we thought we need a lot of bags) and the list went on. 2.5hours later - we were ready to start the adventure.
As an anniversary present to eachother we purchased a GPS to essentially help us find our way to Keji. It's a known fact that if you spin either of us around 3x, we WILL get lost. We set the GPS to "Maitland, NS" and off we went. With 5hours ahead of us (as the GPS told us) the first portion of our trip was nice - learned how to use cruise control (1st timer), stopped at Allen's Petro for some chips (Happy Birthday to me) and life was good. We made our way to Truro, essentially without a hitch. We then decided to stop to eat in Truro as we thought we had tons of day left. After eating, Mike decided to try to find "Kejimkujik" on the GPS....hmmm...nothing....., interesting.... but there was a "Kedgeamakoodge, NS". I insisted that it can't be the same place as:
1- Tom Tom couldn't be wrong (with spelling)
2- It said total time from Truro was 3hours 50mins
We then decided to go buy a trusty 'ol map to check the surrounding areas and revise our GPS search. I was sure that Keji was by Maitland - how could it be sooooo far away....After carefully surveying the map - the GPS, although not spelled correctly, was right! By this time we were looking at arriving at 9pm. (Notes to self: research the exact location of where you're going before heading there(Keji is in Maitland Bridge NOT Maitland), Don't ask Dad how long things take - he told us 5hours...) Feeling defeated we set off for our 5hour drive. Winding roads, 50km/hour zones we FINALLY arrived at 7:40pm. We made better time then expected but still had our set up to do and supper to cook.
Our site was nice (treed in, corner lot) and my parents who had arrived 2 days before had a screened in picnic area for eating. Things started looking up. We rushed to get our massive tent up before sundown (as with the trees comes a very DARK site) and were excited to test out our new air mattresses - 1 queen airbed (3 storey's tall) and a double air mattress. I was trying to be considerate to Mike who is a restless sleeper so I suggested we buy 2 mattresses. As I'm known to thrash, talk and sprawl during sleep he was delighted. Mom had told me they had an electric pump so I went up to their site to retreive it. Upon arrival smiling at the fresh air and smell of campfire I asked "So where's your electric pump?" Dad then says "What electric pump?", "You know, the electric pump that MOM told me you have...". "Oh, the tire pump, well that's not for pumping up air mattresses...." WHAT!, I thought. This can't be right. "Ok, well do you have another pump?" I asked as Mom brought out the old foot pump. "Here you go dear". I headed back to our site with foot pump in tow and faced a look of disgust on Mike's face. "Where's the electric pump?" he asked. "What electric pump?" I said, with a smirk. "They don't have one so I guess we'll have to use this.." "Where's your hairdryer?" "Didn't bring it, I thought I would go au natural". I'm sure you can see where this is going. 3 communication breakdown's later we opened the 3 story tall mattress thinking that we'd just tackle the one - we came to find that it didn't have the right hole for the pump we had. "Well this is just great!" I said tired, hungry, and getting slightly frustrated at my birthday day. Aren't birthday's supposed to be a special days??
Mike and I then spent an hour trying to pump up the 3 story tall mattress with the wrong pump - 1/4 air in, 3/4 air wasted - we contemplated just sleeping on the ground.. With only 1/4 mattress pumped up after an hour we stopped to have a supper break. As Mike performed what appeared to be chest compressions for another hour with little progress, he then thought Why don't we just blow into it? As I was on the verge of giving up and sleeping on the rocky sloped ground he, in his sternest coach voice, demanded 30sec intervals of blowing into the mattress. He started and we switched every 30secs for approx 15mins. As the air mattress went up in no time at all, we giggled from oxygen deprivation. The final minutes we got cocky and decided to go for 1min each. At the brink of passing out we'd switch and rest up for the next minute. At 11:15pm - we were done and I was ready to go to bed as I wanted to start a new day.
The rest of our trip was awesome. On Thursday morning we canoed 10kms around the lake and stopped at an island for a picnic. In the afternoon, we rode our bikes on the trails stopping momentarily to sit by the river and 'take it all in'. At the end of our trail ride Mom, Dad and I headed back on the road to our campsite while Mike made a quick pit stop and said he'd meet up with us in a minute. 15mins later, no sign of him. With every passing second my heart started beating faster and faster thinking of all of the 'possibilities'. I decided to head back and see if I could find him as Mom and Dad waited at the main booth to see if he'd come flying by there. I circled around the outhouse he stopped at and no sign of him. Imagination running wild, I started panicking. I biked like forest would run - back to the booth and would periodically check behind me to see if I could see him - no sign.... no sign again. I went through an action plan in my head:
- head back to the site
- grab the car and start driving around
- keep panicking
As I saw Mom and Dad smiling at the booth, I was thinking "this is NOT funny people".. I turned around again and there he was riding like the wind right behind me. After another communication breakdown (turned right instead of left) he had done 8kms in another direction trying to find us. Whew - so the bears, coyotes, and masked men DIDN'T get you....
After passing out at midnight on Thursday (from exhaustion) we started Friday hiking 3 different trails, checking out a secluded beach and enjoying nature. We had a 15km trail ride scheduled for the afternoon but after arriving back I thought that I couldn't possibly endure another 15kms. We opted for a shorter 6km ride (parents stayed back - smart people) and off we went. I was feeling good - getting gutsier as I would 'jump' the tree roots on the trail, not break completely on the hills and thought I'd have Mike take a shot of me 'in action'. We stopped a couple of times for some photo ops and then went on our way. Just as I was got back going before I knew it a kid (approx 10years old) came tearing around a corner and collided with me. Bruised knee and tears welling up in eyes, I continued on. Within minutes a dog jumped up on Mike as he was biking and we decided to head to the road.
Friday night we headed into Annapolis Royal for a nice dinner and found a hidden Gem of a restaurant called "Bistro East". We fine dined and walked around the lovely little town. Not a soul to be seen, crickets chirping and sun setting on the harbour - what a picturesque place.
Saturday morning came and we packed up (went much more smoothly then our adventure to the park) and headed home. We made it in 6.5hours, unpacked and hit the sack early. What a great time!
As Mom says - the trips that don't go as planned are the ones you remember - with all of the 'little things' that happened came lots of QT with Mike and the Fam, lots of exercise and good food.