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One of the best experiences in all my life has been plan, prepare and go for a canoe-camping trip with my husband to Vermilion Lake, Ontario. Everything started with an idea, then we checked the maps of the area and finally we bought all the supplies that we needed for two nights and three days. The day we decided to go was the first day of summer or near to that date depending of weather.

The first day of our adventure, was a beautiful sunny day, it was windy but we were so happy to leave the house and do something excited. We packed our stuff and put everything in the truck the day before. We left our house early and were heading to the boat launch at Lena Lake. We started paddling as soon as we arrived to Lena Lake, but before we started my husband taught me a little bit how to paddle and what to do if we encounter certain difficulties while we were paddling. It took us 45 minutes to arrive to our portage. We did not care because we were enjoying the landscape. In our way to the first stop, we saw a Beaver lodge, ducks and loons. We were fascinated for the colours of their feathers. Also we saw, three eagles flying a little bit down. It was wonderful see them so near, they were just a gorgeous. When we arrived to our portage, we had to walk 200 meters uphill to put our canoe at Vermilion Lake. We had to walk three times back and forth to get all our stuff in the canoe and continue our way now in Vermilion Lake.

When we were paddling in Vermilion Lake, we saw lots of little island that were just rock. What surprise me the most it was that all of those island have big pine trees and birch trees that where there for years and they only survive with a thin layer of soil. I saw some of them had fallen down, we assume it was because of the wind. Other thing that we enjoyed was the different vegetation, one side of the lake were pine trees and the other side were birch trees. After 1 hour paddling, we finally arrived to our campsite, it was a beach. We were exhausted but we did not waste our time, so we swam in the lake and after that we prepare everything to make a fire and enjoy the fabulous view and the sunset.

The second day, after having a lovely breakfast, we decided to pack all our stuff to continue exploring Vermilion Lake. We arrived to a place that was mark as a hiking trail in our map. We walked to a beautiful water fall, had a short lunch, a continue hiking until Big Sand Lake. After that walking we returned to our canoe. We took the decision of paddle back toward to the portage to make our way home easier. We decided to spend the night in those rocky little islands that we saw at the beginning. It was an amazing day, sunny and not windy. We started trolling to see if we catch a fish. Vermilion Lake is popular for having big lake trout. We were paddling for hours and enjoying ourselves. In the evening, we felt that we hook something with our lure, when we realized that it was a fish, we were so excited and scared. The fish was fighting so hard that we were afraid that the canoe would tip. We caught a 10 pound lake trout. I was amazed that was the perfect ending of our trip. I never imagine myself doing this and I was so happy. When we arrived to the new campsite that fortunately was empty, we cleaned the fish and then make a fire to cook it. We ate the fish with French fries. We enjoyed the rest of our night sitting in front of the fire, looking the beautiful starts and hearing some wolf howling.

The third day, we packed up early in the morning and headed home. We just were satisfied with everything we saw and did. It was a perfect trip. All the memories and the things that I saw are priceless.