Cottage Country

The clouds and cold wind rolling in at 2am Saturday morning were a good indication of things to come for the weekend (or 24 and a bit hours) in cottage country. The weather I was prepared for, the ceaseless activity on the other hand was a bit more unforseen. I've always been of the mind that the cottage is meant for kicking back and calming down, which is exactly what I was hoping for in heading up there if only for a little while.

Bring on the ATV's, and the turkey deep fryer, and the boats and your time slips away pretty quickly. Not that all said activities didn't have their fun, nor was I disappointed with the Port Carling area combined with the change of season, and the occasional burst of unobstructed sunlight. Infact the whole story behind the cottages we were in added to the whole northern experience of it all.

It turns out that Anne's (the buddy's girlfriend) grandfather ran a lumber mill on the lake, and owned all the property on the laneway coming in (which has since been named after him). The family still owns most of the cottages along there, but more interesting are the shacks built on obscure rock outcrops in the middle of the woods or down long since weeded over paths with notes hanging on the wall from squatters, and with curious family history.

The lumber mill hasn't really been run in years now, although with a few well placed drops of oil to the various pieces of equipment, it seems like it could spark to life at any time. They still sell some of the remaining stock lumber, including massive 4x10 planks to the locals, but other than that the whole area serves up the true cottage experience.

And then there was the deep fried turkey. When approaching hickville Ontario, do as the hicks do I suppose. But as greasy and disastrous as it first sounded, it didn't turn out half bad in the end. As long as you steered clear of the dark meat, you didn't feel like you were ingesting 50% oil in each bite.

And so, while not the recovery weekend I was hoping for, I still had my share of fun, got some awesome pictures, and helped keep up some ridiculousness for J's birthday. Can't very well bitch about all that.