“And now for something completely different”. Today I stop going solo for a while. In order to try to make it at least a little less challenging for the Vances to pack their stuff in and on the car once the arrived, I spent most of the morning repacking my stuff. And fighting mosquitoes. It’s hard to believe that I never had any trouble with bugs up until now. After 10:00 I finally got everything down to the water, where the mosquitoes were much less troublesome. I had some late breakfast and talked to my wife as she was fixing to leave Bathurst with the Vances. When I hit the water around 11:00, one of the park workers asked me to keep an eye out because they were looking for the body of a man who drowned in the area, presumably from a heart attack while fishing. It was a sobering reminder of the eternal stakes for the people of the region.
I made plans to meet up with the Vances at the wharf in Lameque, after I made a brief visit to the waterfront of Shippagan itself. Little did I realize how confusing this would be! I was glad to find the boat ramp right where the nautical chart said it should be, but it took a lot of talking and looking for me to get them to the right part of the wharf. It was nice to see Nancy for a little while of course, before she had to go and I sent the Vances on to set up at the campground on Miscou Island. It was still great weather for paddling, and this was the first day that I’ve seen a few people swimming at some of the beaches. Others were just racing around on their four-wheelers.
With the late start, I knew there would be no chance of going all the way to the campground. Instead, I decided to make Petite-Riviere-de-l’Isle as my destination, on the northwest side of Ile Lameque. I got Kevin totally turned around trying to find me, but it gave me some time to talk with Anthony. He had ridden his bike to the road end where I took out. He helped me pulled up the kayak and asked if I had any “grass”. I told him no and offered him a tract. He said he was a “good Catholic”; I told him I was a Christian. After some small talk about his days fishing cod off of Nova Scotia, he went on his way. Pray for fruit.
Once Kevin found me, I discovered that the campground on Miscou had not yet officially opened for the season but was happy to have us anyway. Although the mosquitoes were not as completely debilitating as at Shippagan, they did get pretty bad as the evening went on. The Vances had some good opportunities for witness to the campground owner before I came. As they settled in for their first night in the “Great White North”, we had an impressive show of lightning over the Bay of Chaleurs. Although we missed the downpours that Bathurst and other areas got, we did get some late night rain anyway.
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