My First Solo Canoe Trip | 6 Days Alone in Algonquin Provincial Park (well kind of)

You guys, I can't even put words to this right now. I was just getting my inReach going, testing it, sending Tracy and running my track, but like holy... I could turn around now and this would have all been worth it. Holy man, I'm so overwhelmed. It's so beautiful out here right now. It's early, I don't know, maybe 7 30. I woke up this morning at three o'clock because I wanted to get on the water before the wind picked up. Oh man, I was not expecting this. Just this humongous flood of emotion. This is a midlife crisis. It's pretty damn good. Oh man, I think before I even really get going, I have to acknowledge all of the people that have cared for these lands that I'm paddling in. The traditional territories of the Anishinaabek and Michi Sagi and Algonquins. This place is so beautiful and I'm so lucky to be able to do this. Also, of course, oh my god, to Brian who, I just, he just is a dream maker. He never says no to me and encourages me and sometimes I would say is tough on me, but it's only to see me realize my own potential. And I feel really selfish that I'm doing this and not him, but just right now I feel like it was just the right time and I needed it. Oh my gosh, what a place. Wow, that was nuts. I haven't cried like that in a very long time. I guess it was needed. Holy smokers. So the wind today is supposed to be out of the southwest, so I'm actually paddling right into it. It's starting to pick up now. I can just see the little ripples on the water. Nothing, no big deal. I packed everything but the kitchen sink because I am only doing one short portage at least on the way in. It's supposed to be a high of 30 today. Feels like 36, so yay because I love heat. That's total sarcasm. I actually hate heat. Man, I'm just feeling so many emotions. I'm stopping at a very special place here at the end of this lake for a minute, but I'm going to turn the camera off now and just enjoy this because it is just... This is going to be up there as one of the most special mornings of my life. I'm about halfway across smoke. This is actually going a lot faster than I thought I would. For some reason I thought it would take me three hours to paddle across, but there's just so many unknowns for me because I've never done anything like this before. I don't know how long it takes me to paddle my own boat. I guess I could have like done some tests, but it's okay. I've given myself enough time and you know if I get to find my campsite like early afternoon I would be happy with that. There's no other place on this planet that I would rather be right now. Like not one other place. It's a pretty cool feeling. So far I've had fish splashing all around me, which Brian would be telling me, put your rod together and fish. I know it's at the front of the boat. Tough to get. I've seen six loons and I just saw a group of four. So like there's a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows. What is a group of loons called? I should know this. And if it's a group, I feel like that's too boring for loons. They are one of the most magnificent creatures for sure. Hands down in my book anyways. Both for their beauty but also for their song. Oh there's a fish right there. It's probably bass, but still. And they're all big, whatever they are. They're like big, which is exciting. Even if I don't catch them, I just like to see them. So what's really cool, I mean Brian is usually the navigator on our trips. I usually don't even see the map, I just paddle. But this Avenza Maps along with the Jeff's map open, pretty slick I have to say. I know exactly where I am. Brushed up on my compassing skills this morning just to make sure. But yeah I'm pretty pretty stoked about that. It's getting warm so I think this afternoon I'll be shedding some layers. Not until I'm over this portage and closer to my destination. But the good thing is, oh there's the beaver. I'm gonna have to smoke the plane. So great. Telling you what, there's dragonflies buzzing all around me. I had one man on the brim of my hat here earlier and I'm just like, this is surreal. Honestly, honestly, if I get eaten by a bear on this trip or something happens to me, please know that I died happy. I'm sure I'll be fine. But oh man, like what a remarkable morning. What a remarkable morning. This woman like literally changed my life. There's the two big white pines just have a minute here. I'm glad to see those trees are still standing. That's why she picked this spot. Beautiful. That's all I needed. 300 meters. I can see the hill already. One of the things for this trip that I took a bit of a risk was wearing my Tevas because they're not really a secure hiking shoe. But the only other hikers I have are my winter hikers. So nay nay. I might regret not bringing bug dope. But we made it. No problem. Next stop campsite. Cool. Okay. On ragged. Just passed my first two canoes of the day. At least two of them aren't wearing life jackets. Switch to the double paddle just to switch things up a little bit. Even things out. I tend to paddle all on my right side. It's just more comfortable. And with my shoulder injury, the other side is a little bit uncomfortable. I don't know if it's the reach or what. But this double paddle is a bit of a lifesaver. In that boat, only the kids had life jackets on. It's so interesting. I just don't understand. I'm seeing my first loon baby. Here on my left. It's pretty big already. This lake is very busy. I will not be alone. That's okay. That's what I was hoping for. I found a campsite on a point. So I'm just gonna pop you off and check it out. It's actually pretty nice. Nice big white pine. Lots of cedar back in here. Nice hemlock. I see a yellow birch or white birch. Is that yellow? Let's go back and check out the thunderbox. Tracy, this is what you would do. But lots of good tent sites. So like nice spots for a tent. I think I find, I see a good spot. Oh, I see some Indian pipe, which is cool. Always a good sign. Nice big hemlocks in here. Holy smokes, this is a hike back. But doesn't look to there to be much garbage. Oh, brand new. Yay. Oh, somebody broke the lid off. This does not look promising. Oh, an actual seat. Well used. I can work with that. No problem. Okay, this is it. So I got here. I'm setting up my tent. And I hear a boat motor. And then a chainsaw. I feel like I'm with my people. Maybe they're trail maintenance or parks maintenance people. Because imagine if people brought a chainsaw in here. That'd be kind of funny actually. It's warm. But I like where I've set up my tent. I like my tent set up. I'm going to set up the tarp after the rangers were just going by and the lid to the thunderbox is busted off. So I flagged them down and they're going to come and help. How's it going? Pretty good. How are you doing? I'm good. Yeah, I just got here and I picked up the thunderbox. We came around to do maintenance. Okay, good. Yeah, I heard you. I heard a chainsaw. Good timing. Yeah. Yeah, nice. So we'll go and check it out for you. Cool. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate it. My trusty friends are out fixing the thunderbox. It's not the best job I've ever done. But for the first time, not too shabby. Okay, that's it from us. Thank you. That's a pretty sweet summer job. Yeah. Yeah. Do you like it? I love being out here. I really appreciate you guys stopping. Yeah. I was like, do I flag them down or do I just like work with a toilet seat? Well, we're here to fix things. Yeah. We're glad we could make this. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. I have my, I just recharged the inReach. I used like 7% battery to get here, which took this morning, four hours. No, like three and a half hours. Um, so I've got the no bug zone set up. I've got my tent and the tarp set up. The only thing left to do is my bear hang, but I'm going to have something to eat first because I'm not feeling lightheaded, but I'm just feeling a little, um, so I'm probably gonna eat bear hang and then try and hang the hammock out there and then maybe have a siesta. What does one do? Read? Knit? Chill? I don't know. It's all very odd, but loving every moment so far. I'm digging the new camp chair. Okay. I really can't decide the order of operations. I'm just so wired to always be like problem solving. Oh, I should go plug in the battery. Yeah. I'll do that. Um, eat, but I only have that much fluid left. I probably haven't drank enough today. Um, so I'm gonna eat my pizza on level ground, do the bear hang, and then maybe go for a swim. Thanks, Bri. I love you. That's good. Cheese, pepperoni, pineapple, and some cowboy candy with no bugs. I always find when I'm camping that I don't really have much of an appetite, especially when it's hot. So I have to force myself to eat. One thing about solo camping is like when you're with a group of people, you spread out all the chores or the tasks, not chores. But when you're by yourself, you gotta shelter, food, water, shelter, water, food, one of the other. Probably water first, because you can live without food, but you can't live without water. And I need water. So I've got multiple shelters. So I'm going to focus on when I get ready to go swim and I'll go pump water first. Good thing I brought a bathing suit because there's lots of people. Bear hang done. Got my bathing suit on. Tent set up. Tarp up. No bug zone. Hammock in a primo location. So thank you, Brian, for encouraging me to bring that while bringing the bigger barrel meant that I could bring the hammock. I feel better after I ate that piece of pizza. Um, this is, this is supposed to be that wobbly. Okay. Um, yeah. Next steps. I gotta go out and I'm going to take the canoe out and I'm going to pump some water and then I'm going to go for a swim and then I'm going to hang in the hammock for a bit. Okay. Pumped about five liters of water. So we're good for H2O. I saw a cute little garter snake, but now it's time for a swim and maybe a hammock siesta. Not bad. Okay. Here's the hammock. Look at that. It's perfect. We got a breeze coming in from that direction. There's the hammock. All this construction noise is making me feel right at home. It's like chainsaws and they must be building those nice benches. I just, uh, made a little clothesline to dry my bathing suit and stuff and now I'm going to get in the hammock and do some reading. I have been reading and laying in this hammock for like four or five hours. Dozing off. The breeze is beautiful out here. It's hot. If I leave this spot, it's really, really hot. I tried to go look for some firewood, but all these campsites are pretty much cleaned out. So I might take the boat out tomorrow and go look for some, but I just finished reading this book by Farley Mowat, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. Oh, what a tearjerker. Of course I bawled my eyes out. Oh my gosh. But such a good book. If you've never read it, I highly recommend it. It's a good one. So I have dinner going and it's pretty loud, but all I'm doing is boiling the water. That's what she looks like rehydrated. And then I'm just going to add some Parmesan cheese. It's almost too hot to eat hot food, you know, in the summertime when you lose your appetite because it's so hot. But I want to make sure that I eat because I had a big day. So down the hatch. Mmm, that's good. I'm going to try and watch the sun set, but we'll see if I make it that long. Got a couple hours before that happens. Good morning. I slept pretty good considering I was by myself, but I attribute that to my neighbors on both sides and just feeling more comfortable. It's like five o'clock. I rolled around quite a bit after three thirty because I usually get up, you know, anywhere between four, five. But it's calm this morning. Some loons have been calling. I heard a barred owl and some birds. So I know it's morning, but I'm just standing here for a little bit. I can tell it's going to be hot today because it's so calm and still and already a little muggy. But I'm going to wait for a little bit, get up, go pee and then go get my beer barrel and make some coffee in the bug shelter because I know those mosquitoes. OK, my water has boiled, so this is how I make my coffee and I really like it. So you pour just be careful of your feet. You pour your hot water no longer boiling into your Nalgene and then you screw on your coffee top and then you screw on the top of your Nalgene. So this is what it looks like and then you just set it on its side. And I just usually like roll it around and you can't see because it's red, but it's starting to turn into coffee. So it's a pretty cool way to make coffee while you're camping, but it keeps the coffee contained in the Nalgene. So usually I just lay it on a bench and I'll let it steep there or not steep, but perk or I don't even know what you call it soak for probably like 10 minutes or so until it's ready to drink. And then I'm going to make cafe mocha. So I just add a little bit of a hot chocolate packet, not the whole thing because it's too sweet to my coffee and enjoy. I am on the Nitero drink some coffee. Nitero drink some coffee. It's amazing. This could be a Eureka commercial. I've got Eureka. Eureka. My tarp is Eureka. My tent is Eureka. It's funny. I was like, I could be, I should be sponsored Eureka. Um, but I do love Eureka products. Um, I think they're probably a little bit heavier than some of the other products on the market, but still they're awesome. Um, so the feeling, so I actually, so, um, the worst part about camping for me, canoe camping in the interior is the nighttime. Uh, I don't sleep very well, but last night I put my earplugs in and I just did some like breathing exercises. I read before bed and then I slept pretty good. Like I slept from like nine till 12 and then I was up every couple of hours, like twice to go pee. Um, that's normal for me. Um, yeah, so it wasn't bad actually. It was, I had a pretty good sleep. Um, and the, the, the temperature was cool enough that I actually used my sleeping bag. Um, but I've been having, like I get anxiety or like, what am I going to do? What am I, should I be doing? Like I should be doing something. Um, so the purpose of this trip was to learn to relax. I know that sounds funny, but that is, that is a problem of mine. I always have to be doing something case in point, uh, with my hands or, you know, um, that keeps my mind occupied. Um, and when I'm not doing that, my mind can race like, and I mean race, like so many thoughts. Um, and so it's like, is it going to be too hot? Am I going to be too sweaty? Should I paddle out tomorrow? Um, you know, it's supposed to rain on Wednesday. Am I ready for rain? Uh, and that's, you know, like just all the things. And so when I got here, I always survey the sea and I try and find the highest point of ground, but the highest point is right in the sun. And I knew that if we're going to have days where it's, you know, highs in the upper thirties, I didn't want to put my tent or this somewhere where it was going to be in the sun. So they're in low spots. So when it rains tomorrow, I'm going to probably be sitting here in water. Um, my tent is on a little bit higher ground, but it's still in a low spot. So I might have to contend with that. But yeah, these are all the things, you know, it's, uh, it's interesting, especially when you're out here by yourself, when you're with other people, you can talk through those, those challenges, but you really have to, um, try to reason through all of the thoughts that you're having. And that's what I've been trying to do just when I'm in a moment of like panic or anxiety, just kind of like breathing it out and, and trying to think through and just take some breaths and like remind myself that I'm okay, which I am totally okay. I'm actually better than okay. I have five more days. That's a really long time to stay in one spot. So that I might change next time. And I might also change, like, I probably wouldn't come back here because there's no real, um, easy paddles to other lakes. Um, and that would be, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what I get up to. I'll probably just lily dip around here for the day. Maybe go out to the, there's two islands off the point and go explore them. Maybe try and look for some firewood. Although like no, no part of me wanted a fire last night or yesterday at all. So we'll see what that's like today. Usually I love having fires, but it's just so hot, just sitting, you're sweating. So guys next door last night, we're fishing out here and they were losing a ton of fish and it was, it was kind of comical to hear them. Oh, that was the biggest fish I ever caught. It was funny, but they were catching lots of smallmouth. So that's kind of cool. Okay, I got a little stash. Let's see. Behind me. Let's see if there's any other pieces. Okay. Oh, I just enjoyed a little bird bath. Also known as skinny dipping. Um, my neighbors to the side with the dog left this morning. Um, my party neighbors are still next door, but they're really good. Um, but I wanted to have a little dip before, um, if we get rain this afternoon or overnight, I wanted to, it looks like it, the clouds are moving in and the wind's picking up. Yeah. So I just wanted to, uh, have a little wash off. But you know, what's interesting, um, is that like I've been not watching them, but I watched one of the young ladies over at this campsite this morning. She came down to the water with like six bottles of different products and was just having the greatest old bath in there, suds and all. And, uh, it's not the way to do it. Um, so I mean, it's good to have a scrub every now and again, but water does just fine. So if you're camping, either biodegradable soap and bathe away from the water source, or just go in and kind of give yourself a wipe because you feel so good after. Um, but you don't need all the products. Um, and if you have long hair, wash it with a sink away from the water, not into the water. I'm seeing a lot of infractions on this trip. Anyways, I feel better. Just to show you how much relaxation I've had. I'm almost done this sock. I'm going to run out of yarn before I finish it. And this is only day two. So I'm going to either run out of yarn or run out of books. When I run out of both, I'm going to consider getting out of here because I won't have anything to do and I'll go bonkers. I don't know what's happening here. I came in because it started to spit and then the wind stopped completely. So this might be the calm before the storm. There's a little hole right there in the ground and I pulled the needles out of it and it's look at how fast it's filling up. And then we've got a pool there. Here, that water seems to be kind of draining away, but yeah, we're in a low spot. The ship took on a little water. We're all right. We're still dry. Have you ever had pizza soup? Me either, but that's what we're having tonight because I put too much water. I don't know what I was thinking. I had a cup out to rehydrate the sauce and I accidentally dumped all the stuff into this pot instead of the cup and started to boil it. I don't know what I was thinking and it just wasn't simmering down. So I've added my pepperoni, my tortilla and the cheese all in this pot. Let me tell you. It's good. Well, that's really good. It's a little spicy because I got hot pepperonis and that jalapeno, that cowboy candy I made last year is like so spicy. Those jalapenos were hot, but it's good. It is the second night of my trip. I've turned in early. As you can hear, it's still raining out. I've actually been reading my journal. So this journal Brian got me before we went on our first ever canoe trip in 2007. That was the year. It wasn't 2010. It was 2007. I know this because I've been reading it. And man, is it bringing back. Oh my gosh. I've cried and I'm laughing at kind of my recount of some of our trips. But I head in and the first thing I do before I go to sleep or the last thing I do before I go to sleep is write in my journal every night about kind of what happened during the day and wildlife that I saw and whatever. So tonight it's only about 7 30, but I've been sitting out in the bug tent and it's just kind of overcast and dull and rainy. So I think I'm going to turn in early. I'm going to write in my journal and then I'm going to read goodnight and I will see you in the morning. Hopefully not as early as this morning because it's not getting light out early now. So I wake up really early but not even the animals are awake when I wake up. So I'll just roll around in here tomorrow. We'll see. Hopefully have a good night's sleep. Morning of day three. It rained and thunderstormed all night last night but I slept really well. It's because of the earplugs. I only got up a couple times to pee and just because of the thunderstorm, big crack of thunder. But otherwise good sleep. It's very wet especially under here but I mean like I put everything up on the chair so I'm dry. But this morning we're having oatmeal with walnuts and coffee and I'm gonna knit. It's pretty dreary um yeah but nice very calm morning. I just checked, I checked the weather because I wanted to see if it was going to keep raining uh and it's supposed to clear up this afternoon. High of 29 feels like over 30 something um but the weather for Saturday which is the day I'm supposed to leave is supposed... says storms right now so I'm going to keep an eye on that because if it is supposed to storm I'll probably head out on Friday just to be able to head out in nicer weather. I carried this fishing rod in here knowing that I probably wouldn't catch trout because I know that there's not... I don't think there's trout in Ragged. But I thought it might be something to do which is true because you know if you're not gonna travel every day you have to have something to keep you occupied. I'm not going to carry a fishing pole all the way in here if I'm not going to try and use it at least one day. I'm going to shop for a lure. I did find uh I don't can't remember if it's called a swim bait uh lure here on the campsite but I brought an assortment um I think like I know that bass like these but I kind of want to like one that is flashy like a top water like that's not going to sink too far so I think something like this maybe this little guy so that it doesn't get caught because there's lots of rocks. I'm going to bring this out with me. Brian picked all these so they gotta be good. When I'm paddling like when I'm not loaded um the lady when I was when I bought the canoe at Swift said just to help the boat track a little better it helps to add some ballast and when you're canoe tripping you don't want to carry any extra weight. Um so I use a dry bag. She suggested use just carrying a dry bag so I load this little 13 liter dry bag with the water and it's a kilogram per liter and that gives me some ballast in the front of the boat uh to help me paddle and then when I'm portaging I just empty it. So that has been a real help. So thanks for the tip Carmen. Let's pop. All right now this is a good one. Oh yeah not huge but at least I can say I caught a fish. Come on buddy. All right a little small. Hey easy easy easy easy. Oops fish in the boat. Get way back here buddy. Okay there's my little fish. Night number three. Sausage rice and veggies again. The breeze is stiff enough that I can eat outside. Good morning. I had a pretty crappy sleep last night but my little camper friends from next door of the camp they're already leaving and it's like 6 a.m. They were up like 5. Um but they were just paddling past my site and checking things out and they said that I was bougie camping because I had a screen tent. Bougie it is. That is hilarious. A word I never thought I would use to describe myself. I mean I just found out what it meant like two years ago or a year ago or something but that is awesome. So hey I'm bougie. Just making some oatmeal and this morning I added some gorp because I brought way too much of that and I need to lighten the load. I got one. Oh it's a good one. If it gets off I'll be in. It might not be a bad thing. Okay this might require some... I'm actually close to land right here. I wonder... oh I didn't get my pliers out. Oh that's a good fish. Okay interesting how I get myself into these situations sometimes. Okay pliers. Come on baby. Oh he just got off. Dang. There's a little one. Let's start small. I think that's a good idea. Okay it was a bit of a lunker. That was a big fish. That was probably like a two pounder. Yeah not bad. Okay got another one. Let's see if I can keep this guy on. Nope. Dang. Son of a... they keep spitting the hook. I sound just like those guys out here the other night. Well that's a good lesson learned. My fishing time is over. Not really. I could tie but I'm not gonna have a leader. So I just hooked into a big fish. Something big because it was hauling and it's either snapped my leader or bit it off. I don't know if there's pike in here and that's the only thing I can think of that would bite it off but that's a bummer. Okay I don't have... I should have brought more. I don't have any fishing line. The best part was I've had my tube jig. I have another one. I can just see. I mean might as well try it. Well my luck just turned because I lost a leader because I got a big fish on and then I just lost my sunglasses in the bottom of the lake. Son of a gun. That is no good and I have no idea really where I was because I was ferting around trying to get them. Oh well. I just tied on this. I just tied directly on my line this jig so we'll see. We'll see if I can catch something. Maybe I'll come back next year and get a bigger one. Oh my god I'm so funny. It's a good thing Brian doesn't have to be getting an earful about making sure I had my chums. Oh come on stay on. This is a good one. Right off the point of my campsite. Come on sucker stay on. Not bad. He's got a good fight. Maybe a one pounder. I got him good. Come here. Come here. Let me get you off. Let me get you. Let me get you off. Let me get you off. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come here. I'm gonna help you. Come here. Finally something to write home about. Not bad. All right. One to two. One and a half. There you go buddy. Thank you. Right out in front of my campsite. There we go. Mission accomplished. Made losing my sunglasses worth it. Let's see if I can get another. It is just a little one but she's pulling. Mighty. Oh. Oh snaggle toothed it. Okay come here. I got you. I got you. I got you. Oops. Live release. Morning view from the tent. Misty morning. Looks nice out. It's almost six o'clock. I got up at four to check the weather. First of all it looks like it's gonna be a little bit windy in the morning which not great but I think I can handle. So I'm gonna stay one more day. So let's get up and make some coffee. I decided to stay the entire thing. Tomorrow's supposed to be a little bit windy in the morning but I should be okay. I'll just use my double blade and motor out of here. I hope to be on the water by like between six and seven. So I'm gonna try and pack as much as I can tonight. Like get ready um and then just have coffee in the morning and have um protein bars. Finally. Oh not a huge one but still fun. Come in here. You're good. Oh yeah. Yeah I got you good. Got you right in the jowls. Right. Oh that's in there. Not bad. Not bad. Same size as yesterday. I feel like somebody needs to write an instruction manual for people coming into the backcountry. The number of stuff like the number of things that I've seen this trip just boggles my mind. First life jackets. Lack of them. And then I just watched like this huge group do their dishes right in the lake. Like there should be you must have you should have to sign something. Like read it and sign it or sit through a movie where you have to watch a video on how to do those things like wash your dishes, get water. People getting water right at shore not a good idea especially at this time of year because of that. It's ten to five. Got up super early. I planned it like that because I wanted to get on the water early in case the wind picked up. I don't think it's going to be too bad but better to be safe than sorry. I'm just gonna have coffee I guess. Oh it's a bit it'll be late before I leave but right now it's still very dark. It doesn't get late for like 45 minutes. I'm just gonna sit and enjoy my coffee. Okay it has been a trip. Lots for sure. Enjoyable, relaxing, hard, rewarding. Lots of words. Lots of time kind of to reflect and think. I'm just gonna enjoy this last little bit. It's quiet out here. Off that portage. The boys are horrendous. Okay the final stretch. I think I see people in Esther's dock. Do I dare paddle over? Be brave. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna turn the camera because I'm gonna go and say hi. I just met Esther's daughter-in-law Marilyn. Her great-grandson and her son. I could hardly talk. I was crying so hard. What an ending to this trip. How special. When I did something that normally I wouldn't do, I stopped and I talked. I'm so glad I did. How special. If any of you are thinking about solo canoe tripping, I say go for it. It is such a good experience. I'm not going to say that my fear of the dark has cured, but I can say that this has been one of the most special weeks of my life. And if it's not canoe tripping, if there's other hard things that you're dreaming of doing and you're just, you know, you're mostly up against yourself, just do it. Do the work. Do the research. Prepare and then give her. Because you will find that it is worth it. There really are no words. You know the thing about doing hard things is that it literally scares the ---- out of you. And there is so much self-doubt. Like always, for me anyways. But if you don't do the hard things, you're never going to feel the feeling that I'm feeling right now. You never will. And so pick something. I mean, pick your hard. Because what I'm doing right now, a lot of people chuckle and say, that's not hard. But for me, this is my hard. And I think that's the other reason that stops a lot of people because, especially sharing their stories of what might be hard, is because we all have a different version of what is hard. This was my version of effing hard for now. And after this, I'll pick something else and do it. And this took years to work up to. Like years. So it doesn't matter. Time doesn't matter. It's just setting the intention and working towards it. I think that's the biggest thing. You know, once you realize, or once you decide you're going to do it, stick to your guns. Pull the trigger and do it. The home stretch here. And the wind is just starting to pick up. Like, it's some, a little bit of chop is starting to form. So getting up and getting out at that early time was a good idea. Because it's only going to get windier as the day goes on. And so glad for my double blade. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have been able to get across this lake without it. I would have had to stop and rest and carry on. Well, I would have, but it would have been a lot harder. So that would be my other advice if you're kind of new to solo paddling. And I would say I'm relatively strong, but this, using the double blade just like really makes it easier. You don't have to fight as hard to keep your boat kind of pointed in the right direction. So all in all, best, best time. So good. Definitely a happy camper.