Camping in Canada Part 2: Portaging & Rocky Shorelines

Last week, we introduced you to camping in Canada. This week, we're taking you deeper into the wilderness!

In Part 2, you'll learn about portagining, which is one of the most unique and challenging parts of canoe camping. Larissa shares stories from her teenage son's recent backcountry adventure, while Misha talks about taking her toddler on his very first camping trip. We also chat about swimming in the beautiful rocky lakes of Ontario, and the episode ends with Larissa inviting herself on Misha's family's next camping trip!

This episode is packed with natural Canadian English, real-life stories, and plenty of vocabulary to help you understand conversations about camping, travel, and the outdoors.

Grab a coffee, put on your headphones, and join us around the campfire for Part 2 of our Canadian camping adventure! 🛶🏕️

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And I'm gonna tag along in the back of the canoe.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

We'll pull you. Yes! You can swim. Just kidding, we'll bring a kayak. Or an inner tube.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

An inner tube? Yes. Yes. This is the perfect. This is my dream vacation right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hello, Eepers.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to another episode of Extra English Podcast with Misha and Larissa. We're two Canadian English teachers talking about life in Canada, our lives, and anything else that might interest us. And hopefully will interest you too. So join us for another conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Hi Eepers. This is part two of our Camping in Canada episode. Last week was part one. We found we had far more to say than we thought, so we split the episode in two, and this is the second half. Last week we talked about car camping versus backwoods camping, pop-up trailers or camper vans, and camping food. If you haven't listened to last week's episode, you might want to listen to that first before continuing with today's episode, which again is part two. Enjoy. Also, we should mention portaging. This is a word that you might hear when people are talking about camping. I'm sure it's a French word. Yeah, it sounds French. Sounds very French. Um, and it means to carry your boat and stuff over your head. Walking. Exactly. So boats have a little canoes have a little like shoulder bar in the middle, usually built a little bit to fit your shoulders. I mean it's not comfortable. Some people put like a life jacket over their shoulders to give or a towel to give a little padding. The worst part about so then your canoe is fully on top of your head and your head is inside under the canoe. And you're watching your feet. So you're watching your feet. Because also you're often walking on people in Ontario camp on the Canadian Shield. It's rocks. So you're often walking on uneven rocks. But the worst part is you don't have because you're holding on to the canoe usually, you can't swat the mosquitoes. Okay. It's the worst thing about portaging.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Okay, let me tell you a story. Tell me. My son is 16. He just came back from a five-day outback canoe camping trip. His first ever. He was portaging. Yeah. And he had exactly this story. He was like, Mom, the the bugs were so bad. So every now and then I would get someone else to hold it so I could just like wipe them off my arms. Yeah. So like every few few minutes, well, a few minutes, but like he as long as he would go as long as he could, and then he would have to get someone else to do it so he can wipe them off. But like he got so many bites that his arms flared up with bites. And also he has some skin issues. So he has eczema and like that flared up. Anyway, it was a it was a it was this trip was connected to camp, which we'll talk about. Um and so on this camping trip, they they try to find a way to give each of the kids a name, a camp name. Yeah. So because of this experience, he ended up with the camp name Flair, which is kind of a cute name. It's cute. It's cute, but it's religious. It's a traumatic memory. But he also kind of felt proud of himself that he like could resist for so long and let the bugs bite him, and then eventually, when he couldn't take it anymore, he would just get someone else to do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I was gonna say it's like a little bit of forest cred, like street cred, but the forest.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, it's I I was very impressed. Yeah. Very impressed. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Plus, it's hard to carry a canoe. Sometimes if it's a long portage, and usually there'll be a sign at the start of the path telling you how long it is to the lake or to the next lake or wherever you're going. But if it's a really long one, they'll have a resting spot, like a bar. So you can stand and just lean the canoe to have a break. That's a good idea. And then you tilt it and carry back on.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

He said his longest portage was a kilometer. Oh, that's pretty long. It felt long. Yeah. Was a canoe on your head?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Good for him, though. I love that. What do you do with the stuff that was in your canoe when you're portaging? Other people carry it. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

And you might so this is why if you're if you're a real serious camper, if you're gonna do a lot of portaging, you bring very little. You bring very little. Because especially if it's long, like you could have a three-kilometer portage. You don't want to do that twice.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

You go once with the canoe, then you go back to get the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

If you have two people, one person carries the canoe, the other person carries the stuff, maybe. I mean, you could carry a backpack and a canoe, technically. I don't know that I could. I don't know that I could carry a canoe by myself. If it was a light one, I bet you could do it. Yeah? I mean, if I can do it, you could do it. You carry a canoe by yourself. I can do it, yes. Oh, yes, you can carry a canoe with two people. We haven't meant to be clean. That's what I assumed. Oh, yes. No, no. I like to share the load always. If we're ever camping, the two of us will do it. But you could do it. I can do it by myself, so you could. Okay. Yeah. Our one of our canoes is an old cedar strip. It's wood, so that one's very heavy. But many modern canoes are made of fiberglass, lighter materials, so they're not so bad. Okay. I could carry a kayak.

unknown 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

It's made of plastic, usually. That would be cute. How do you bring the kayak?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I mean, so our portage isn't very long. It's maybe 350 meters. So we do multiple. Also, we're not packing light. Yeah. I mean, we have a cooler for crying out loud. And like toys for the kids and you know, whatever. So we do multiple trips. Okay. Yeah. Usually my dad and brother carry the canoes, but I've done it because I like to prove that I can.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah. We're gonna call you flare.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I'll aim for that. No, I don't want enough mosquito bites. Oh no. This is also why my family goes camping in August. Because the black flies are finished? Yes, the black flies are finished. Black flies are tiny little flies that have a stinging bite. So it's not horrible, but they're annoying.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

And deer fly and horsefly, which are bigger flies that have a big bite. Bigger bite. Yeah. Uh, they're also mostly done by August. There'll still be some mosquitoes, but not as many. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Because the weather will have cooled down. Okay. So yes. Like this trip that my son went on was beginning of July. That's like the worst time.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

The worst time for Earned himself.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Forest crit. Did he enjoy it though? He he's so proud of himself. Yes. He's so glad he did it. Totally. Like it's a positive experience in hindsight. In the moment, that's a different story.

unknown 6:57

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

It was a rough. How long? Five days. That's a while.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

And he's never done it before. And anyway, I'm proud of him. He's proud of himself. Good for him. I'm hoping he can teach me how to go camping. We should go camping. We should. We should. I would love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

This year might be all booked up. Campsites get booked up. Like we book ours the minute it opens in the spring.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, it's true. I've heard that. I yes, I love the idea. I love being in nature. I love it. And I love going to a conservation area for the day. Right. Like I this is beautiful to me. It's just the idea of like organizing the whole thing and figuring it out. And you've mentioned things like a camping stove and a canoe and life jackets and coolers, which I could procure because I have a membership at the Library of Things. Yes. But I don't even know what it is I need to ask for.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

No, you I think it's hard. I mean, you could figure it all out, but I think it's easier to go camping the first few times with people who know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

I need someone to take me.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah. Because also you need in our kind of camping, you want to set up a tarp. So if it rains, you all have somewhere to sit out of the rain. You need to like set your tent up in the right spot in the right way so it doesn't get full of rain. Mm-hmm. You know, you have to be these things I think like experience, you don't want to learn it the hard way, those kinds of things. I do not. No.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

No. No. Last year we left early because it was such a I was gonna ask you like, do you are you a fair weather camping family? Do you quit if the weather's bad?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

A little bit. Last year we went home a day early. Okay. And partly mo pushed by me. But there was a fire ban. Oh because the if the land was too dry, so it wouldn't be safe to have a fire because it might spread. So we weren't allowed to have a fire, which takes away like normally we have a fire going a little bit all day. It's nice to sit and look at. We cook a bunch of our food there. You dry your clothes by the fire and your shoes. Also, it rained and it was cold. So it was rainy and cold, and we had nowhere to warm up or warm, dry our things. Not enough. It wasn't enough. It was like spitty. So and it was cold. Cold in a mind so much. We bring hot water bottles for our tents at night. We have good sleeping bags, blankets. But also, I have to figure out a better sleeping arrangement for my son and I this time. Because last time I had a mattress that was quite thick and his was thin and he likes to like cuddle up. And it was very uncomfortable for me. So I'm just gonna have to figure out a better, better method. For this August? For this August. Okay. Next month. All right. When we're recording this is July.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah. Okay. Well, you better start thinking on that. I have a loose plan. Okay. Does it involve the library of things?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

No. The library of my family's things. Yes. Good. Beautiful. My parents have some thinner. So I think I just have to, I'll be a little bit more. You need to be uncomfortable. Yes. Yes. And also I think I'll be less, it's like weighing this discomfort versus this discomfort. It's the right choice. Yeah. So I'll let you know how it goes. Yeah.

unknown 10:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

And I'm going to tag along in the back of the canoe.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

We'll pull you. Yes. You can swim. Just kidding. We'll bring a kayak. Or an inner tube.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

An inner tube? Yes. Yes. This is the perfect, this is my dream vacation right now. I just show up and I enjoy Misha's family's hospitality and float along. Sounds good. I will inform them.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Misha's mom. I'm coming on the cameo trip. Pack extra food.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I will contribute.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Oh, I'm sure you would.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah. I'll bring I'll bring it up.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Well, the snacks are important. You can bring it.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I can do snacks. I'm on snack duty.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

One more thing that might be interesting, especially if you're not living here, is that the water, so when we go swimming a lot, but the swimming is off of like the shoreline is rocks. Yes. Big rocks. Yeah. This is not a beach. No, the ground is rock, which also makes it hard to peg in your tent. Mm-hmm. Um, yes, not a beach. So you just like at our favorite campsite, there's a little rock, a little slopy rock. It goes down to the it's high and it goes down to the water. You slide down it? No, no. You just scrape yourself. Oh yeah. So you walk down carefully.

unknown 11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

And then lucky, there's a perfect little like kind of rock ledge. So the rock just goes into the water, and about two feet down, there's a little rock ledge. But it's all rock. There's no the other side has a little bit of sand, but usually we're just jumping off of rock into the water. And sometimes the water's kind of reddish because it has tannins from the trees. So your skin underneath looks red. It's cool. Oh fun. And people will often wear water shoes because you can really slice your. I've cut my foot before pretty badly on the rocks.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Well, especially if you can't see the bottom, you don't know what's there. And when you go to a beach, you expect that you're going to encounter something soft. Right? Like maybe seaweed or maybe sand or something, you know, that's been trodden upon multiple times. That's interesting. Now, if you go to, let's say, a campground or a conservation area that has camping, they would have a beach.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

That's right. And they probably it would be a manufactured beach. Yep. Like they've shipped in sand, but that's true. If you're going car camping, they've likely set up a beach with sand. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah, easier for kids also. Yeah. Yeah. And you can kind of go gradually. Like if you're just in the woods, you often just have to jump. You have to jump.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Because there's no that's actually better for me because I find I find getting into water to be really challenging. And so if I can go gradually, I will go gradually. And very gradually.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

I have a reputation in my family for being a bit of a wimp about getting in the water. So I'm with you. Better just be forced.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Don't worry. I'll be worse than you. And then you'll get they'll respect you more when we go on our camping trip.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

So all this makes us curious about whether you go camping, where do you live now? What was it like where you grew up? I think camping is popular all over the world, but I'm sure it looks so different place to place. So we'd love to hear about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yes, please tell us all your stories or any of your stories, whatever you feel comfortable with.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Any and all. To do so, you can find us on YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook to share your stories. We look forward to hearing from you.