Blake's 25th Birthday in Barry's Bay
- Kaylin M
- Nov 30, 2018
- 7 min read
This year, Blake and I both joined the "quarter-century club". My birthday is at the beginning of October, so technically I'm the "older woman" in the relationship since I turned 25 first ... I'm 1 month and 9 days older than Blake. This year, I wanted to do something special for Blake. He doesn't like to be the center of attention in a group, so a party was out of the question. As well, a dinner didn't seem grand enough, yet I find that when I plan a jam-packed weekend, I never feel relaxed. Earlier this autumn, Blake had told me that his perfect day would be camping with me. He was disappointed that we didn't get to go camping much this year, so I knew that I had to plan something camping related. Obviously, since we are transitioning into winter ... Peterborough starting the snowy trends ... the best (and easiest) way to camp in the winter is to go yurting (is that a word?). I initially had booked a yurt in Algonquin park, but quickly cancelled that booking after I found the perfect spot in Airbnb. We were able to book a yurt from a woman in Barry's Bay, which is about 2 hours from Peterborough. The yurt has two double sized beds and a wood burning stove. All of the firewood was included in the price (approx 50$/night) and there was a semi-private outhouse about 30 steps away. I knew it would be perfect ... even if the weekend didn't start off perfect.
Our weekend was booked from November 16-18. I had booked off the Friday so that we could have a long weekend together. On the Thursday night, the weather forecast had called for snow. I asked Blake if he wanted me to take the car in since I had found a place that was walk-in friendly, but he said no. It was a no to regret because that night we got a LOT of snow. Blake was working nights, so when he came home in the morning, he put the tires in the car and we headed, first thing in the morning, over to get our winter tires put on. I sent Blake home ... it was only a short walk to our house ... because he needed to get some sleep before we got ready for our mini getaway. Side note: we just got a new car and these tires had never been on the new car. When we got this new car, Blake had done research to make sure our winter tires were compatible ... needless to say, although Blake said they would fit, they obviously didn't. This story would have been pretty anticlimactic if they had fit. I was frustrated and embarrassed since I had already waited an hour and they had already taken all 4 tires off, just to put them right back on.
When I got home, I tried renting a car to no avail. And Blake went out to buy winter tires to no avail; all places were out of stock because we had a freaking blizzard overnight. We weren't confident that the new car would make the trip, but we had no other options and we headed out on our adventure!
Google maps is a great tool to have for general navigation or if you get lost. However, when it tells you the quickest way, it's not always the best way. For most of the drive we were on highway-like roads, but once we got past Bancroft, we took a turn onto a (mostly) dirt road that had not been plowed/salted. It was a crazy, roller-coaster of a ride. Every time we came to a hill, Blake and I would pray that we'd get enough traction to make it up. As well, a lot of the roads were narrow and surrounded by water or long drops, so it was an interesting ride to say the least. On the "glass half full" side, the views along that road were breathtaking and, since everything was dusted with fresh snow, it was like a winter wonderland. After our adventurous drive, we finally arrived to our destination ... and we couldn't make it up into the driveway. One of the hosts was there cleaning the cottage that also sits on the property and brought out the shovel to help create a track for us to grip on. After a few tries, and a fair amount of shoveling, we were able to make it up the hill into the driveway. NOW, we had finally made it!
Once we had hauled all of our stuff into the yurt, Blake got the fire going and it wasn't long before we both passed out from exhaustion. I was exhausted from the frustration and anxiety of the day and Blake was exhausted from only having 1 hour of sleep in a 24 hour period. We slept until it was dark out ... so like 6:30 pm ... then I got up and made us some hot dogs for dinner on the wood stove. We quickly ate then headed back to bed for the night. Blankets had been provided, but I brought two extra comforters. That night we started with all 7 blankets on us. Blake was on fire-duty since maintaining the fire was the only way to keep us warm for the night. That meant putting on a new long and tending to the fire every 4-ish hours. He didn't mind the work. In fact, he enjoyed the chore and he did an excellent job the first night (...foreshadowing...). I was actually so warm the first night that I was sweating and, at one point in the night, slept with NO blankets on. It was toasty.
The following morning, I awoke with the sun. The yurt had a skylight that had been cleared of snow, so we could see right through the trees to the sky. Once awake and dressed, I started with breakfast. I didn't plan anything special for the morning, so we just had cereal. I also boiled some water for tea. We had brought our camp stove to cook on, but we weren't committed to cooking outside, so we sufficed with the wood stove. The only thing about cooking on a wood stove is that it takes a long time, so luckily we weren't in any sort of rush.
After a bit of waking up and relaxation, Blake and I decided to head to Barry's Bay to visit Madawaska Coffee Co. which has an espresso bar. Lately, Blake and I have been attempting to support local businesses over the corporate businesses and a major way Blake and I have been doing this is to buy our coffee/tea/hot chocolates from local cafes. This was no exception and we are so glad that we stopped here. Blake had a Kenyan coffee blend and I had a chocolate latte. Both drinks were delicious and a great way to warm our bellies. Blake even bought some of the Kenyan coffee blend because he enjoyed it so much. Afterwards, he walked along the "main strip" and visits some of the local knick-knack shops. We bought an ornament of a moose in a canoe (Barry's Bay mascot seems to be a moose) to commemorate our weekend before checking out Wilno. Wilno is a town approximately 10-15 minutes from Barry's Bay and it was the first Ontario Polish Settlement ... or so the sign said. We stopped at the Wilno Tavern for a late lunch and we, obviously, got their polish platter that included a perogie, a cabbage roll, and a polish sausage on sauerkraut. It was surprisingly tasty. After our bellies were full, we headed back to our yurt.
Once back, we decided to have some fun in the snow. We wanted to build a snowman, but it wasn't packing snow, so we just made snow angels. After a bit of fun, we warmed up inside and Blake took a nap while I read and tended to the fire. I really enjoyed sitting in front of the fire and just relaxing. I was doing a pretty good job with the fire because it got pretty toasty in there. Unfortunately, once Blake woke up from his nap and took over the chore, he threw on a log that hadn't had enough time to dry and it all went downhill from there. We could not get the fire back to it's finer form.
We had chicken caesar salad wraps for dinner (this was immediately before the e.coli outbreak) and went to bed about an hour after dark ... so like 8:30 pm. Blake struggled with the fire all night and we were freezing. That night we needed all 7 of those blankets and we could have used 7 more! It was so cold! The next morning, I woke up and broke the icicles off of my face before getting up and starting breakfast. It was our last day here and also Blake's birthday, so I wanted to make a nice breakfast. I made french toast and sausages. It took approximately an hour and a half to make on the wood stove, so it was good that I got an early start. I also boiled some water on the stove for tea. So, we had our breakfast and read our books in our last few moments of our mini getaway. Once we started gearing up to go, I went into the forest to preemptively wash our dishes in the snow so that we weren't taking home greasy dishes. While I was out there ... apparently ... a mouse crawled into our yurt and Blake searched for him everywhere to get him out. All weekend I had been saying that I'd love to see a wild animal, like a deer or a moose. Each night we hear a lot of animals and in the morning saw all of their footprints close to the yurt, but we never actually saw them. A mouse was, obviously, not the type of animal I had in mind. Blake never found the mouse after he watched him crawl into the yurt and that's when I knew it was time to leave.
So, we packed up our stuff and headed home. It was a roller-coaster of a weekend, but I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with anyone else. Happy 25th Birthday Blake!! <3
(Check out all of the pictures from our weekend ... and make sure to flip through until the very end to see what Blake's hair looks like after more than 48 hours without a shower. Haha!)
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