Back in March we booked a back country campsite on Joe Perry Lake in the beautiful Provincial Park of Bon Echo. We’ve camped here many times over the years and absolutely love it. The sites on Joe Perry can only be accessed by canoe/kayak as no motorized boats are allowed on the lake so it is very peaceful.

This year we booked the trip knowing that we were camping as a group of 6 (ok there were really 7 of us but they don’t need to know that) 3 adults and 4 kids plus our dog Cooper. We had decided that this was the year were going to take our 11 year old niece Becca with us. She had never been on this kind of camping trip before and with 3 other kids her age coming what better time. She was super excited and began counting down the days in June!!

Our departure date was Friday, August 17th. On Wednesday, August 15th I joined my team mates on the soccer pitch. Early into the second half I was clipped and fell awkwardly onto my left arm and this was the result…

After having the dislocated elbow re-set, I was put into a cast and told by the doctor that canoeing was not a good idea. After explaining to him that I wasn’t about to disappoint an 11 year old girl he instructed me to keep it dry, not to lift anything and keep it as immobile as possible.

Friday morning we left for Bon Echo as planned.

Now we had to get all this gear down to the canoe and across the lake to our site!!!

In the almost 20 years that we’ve been camping at Joe Perry lake we have never seen white caps on the lake until now!! The plan was for Judy and Becca to canoe us to our site while Cooper and I sat and enjoyed the view 🙂

Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out. Becca had never canoed before and with 3 people, a 65lb dog, lots of gear and waves pushing us backwards it was impossible for the two of them to get us there. Becca and I switched places and she got to enjoy the view while Judy and I got us to the site without dumping the canoe!!

Knowing we had the best site on the lake made the extensive effort to get there all the more worth it. Despite me only having one arm and the majority of the work in the hands of Judy and Becca, we managed to have a good time!!

With the low water levels this summer, a previous visitor built a fire pit on our private beach and we took full advantage of it Saturday night…complete with smores and grill-a-dogs!!

The kids swam, caught frogs, fished, canoed and climbed rocks for 3 days.
The usually calm lake was pretty windy most of the weekend but it still managed to give us a great sunset. In the end I’d have to say, that against the doctor’s wishes, Canoeing + Arm Cast really did equal a camping experience to remember.