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ijustfeelokay · 3 years

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Entry October 4, 2021

HK and I went camping to Elora Gorge this past weekend! We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun. When we arrived we only had 90 minutes of sun remaining so we went straight to work with setting up the tent, mattress, fire, and getting the food going. Our camp site was very close to the registration desk. As we drove through the gate house we were told to park at our camp site and come back to check in. Thanks to our proximity to the gate house, it was no more than a brisk walk that I had to take. As I walked back with our camp permits I was overfilled with emotion and excitement to get started.

The first order of business was for HK to begin marinating and cooking the KBBQ beef slices, while I worked on the fire and the mattress. I borrowed my dad’s portable air compressor that’s powered by the cigarette bud car lighter. It took a bit of fiddling with the adaptors that came with the air mattress. At first I was taking a while trying to figure out if it was working or not, because I couldn’t hear the sound of air leakage over the loud sound of the air compressor. The mattress wasn’t visibly growing so I figured the air seal was not tight. I also realized that the cable from the air compressor did not match either of the adaptors on the air compressor, so I decided to duct tape the two together, to give an air tight seal. I then plugged this into the air mattress, and then it worked! I was very glad. Around this time, HK had already finished bringing out most of the stuff and marinating the kbbq beef slices. I went on to work on the fire but I noticed that the ashes were very warm. I gathered kindling twigs and also took out a large handful of shredded paper and structured a teepee-like structure over the firepit. To my surprise, as I was struggling to light up a match I noticed that the shredded paper had begun to ignite without any assistance. I was elated and began stacking firewood on top, and fanning the firepit.

My memory of exactly what happened next is fuzzy. HK sets up the tent, and I help her as I rotate between the tent and fanning the fire. Once the tent is set up we brought the air mattress inside. I believe at this point, after the fire became more stable HK and I were bringing out and setting up various little things. By then the sun had already set and we began cooking and eating in the dark. HK then made some drinks with vodka and elderflower syrup. We also had some of her pickled onions and radish. The radish tasted great! There was a lot of marinating sauce left over so I decided to fry the rice in there, and it tasted amazing with it. We took our time with eating since there was so much meat, but in the end we managed to finish all of it. After, I believe we set up the bedding and brought what we needed into the tent. We spent a bit of time at the fire drinking tea. I also helped HK finish the rest of her food at the fire. After soaking the dishes and pans, we put away the things that we couldn’t risk getting wet overnight, and prepared to go to bed. We walked to the washrooms and decided to use the same washroom (mens side). We watched episodes 18 and half of episode 19 of Demon Slayer in the tent, before eventually dozing off to sleep.

On Saturday, we woke up early to make breakfast, which was a slew of vegetables, eggs, and bacon. Before breakfast though I showed HK my license and registration. Eventually we got out of the tent, and while I chopped the vegetables, HK took charge in cleaning the dishes and pans that we needed. While she was at the faucet I also began to fry the bacon. We decided to not make a fire for the morning since we realized the fire wood does not last as long as we would have liked (or we realized we didn’t have enough fire wood in general). I decided to ration the rest of it for a longer lasting fire in the night. We had more tea, and the food turned out great. I did a great job of frying the eggs and only popped one of the yolks! I gave that egg to myself. After cleaning up the time was already 9:30am. We went back to the tent to change into our clothes that we would be hiking in for the day. I mentioned what clothes I was wearing in case HK had anything to wear that we could match in. For a moment HK said that she could wear this red shirt to match my Victoria College hoodie, but eventually we settled with just matching with our jeans. I pointed out that it was already close to noon, and that the showers required quarters to turn on. I proceeded to show my license and registration for a second time in the morning, since HK didn’t know if she had any quarters or not that we’d be able to use for the showers. By then, it was already noon. I suddenly became sleepy, and I rolled around while she plucked me for the next hour. Eventually, we got up and decided to wear our bathing suits under our hiking clothing, rather than bringing them with us separately. We had sausages and buns for lunch, along with condensed milk, and I packed a peach, orange, and some grapes to snack on. I also made hot chocolate for us to drink on the go. I brought my camera bag with me to take photos.

We began our hike going up the road that led us from Area A5, into the hiking trail that then brought us to the Elora Gorge Lookout. The name of the Grand River speaks for itself. Far down below from where we were standing was the water. The lookout itself was unfortunately too busy to set up the tripod for a photo. We continued our hike North east up the trail, until we were met with a metal fencing that separated the conservation area with the continuation of the trail and river. We turned around to walk Southwest aljong the trail. Along the way, we noticed what I think was a white stork. HK said it was something else but I forgot what it was. Definitely not a pelican though. Maybe a white heron. We also walked down the “hole in the rock” which we later realized how it’s name came to be. We walked down a staircase through the hole in the rock, which led us to another lookout area with various places for photos. We asked a girl to take a polaroid for us but to my surmise there were no papers left in the camera. We instead took a number of selfie’s at this location. Walking further down the trail, we found another small lookout which was surprisingly much quieter than the others. It was a fantastic place to setup the tripod, in which we took a beautiful photo there. Continuing on with the trail, a bridge connected us to the other side of the grand river, and brought us to the tube launch area. It was closed off, but we joined the rest of the people going around the fence and climbed down onto the river anyway. It was quite difficult finding a spot with little foot traffic to set up the tripod, so we walked a few peninsula’s away from the fence to take the picture. We set up the tripod for a photo, and then walked another peninsula over to sit down and drink our hot chocolate. HK suggested we take a photo of us while sitting down. All of the photos here turned out amazing. It was such a sight to behold at the gorge. Even more interesting though was watching other people toe dip into the river, laying flat down onto the rocks beside the river. Regrettably, I wish I agreed to bring the mooncakes with us. It would have been nice to eat it at the river.

We hiked back to our camp site and proceeded to get ready for dinner. I left the camera out on the tripod so we would be ready for a photo of the entire camp site. I think the first things I did was move the car so I could connect the air compressor to the car and mattress. Meanwhile, HK started up the grill pan to cook the ground beef while she went to the faucet to do the dishes. Why was it always HK doing the dishes lol. Anyway I forgot what else I was doing. Because I waited until the last minute when HK was done making the nachos for me to start the fire, in order to make sure the fire would last as long into the night that it could. Honestly I don’t remember what else took up all the time. I remember us taking the photos in front of the tent. And then for quite a while we were waiting for the nachos and sausages to cook. HK has probablky done so many things at camp that I was unaware of so she probably has so much to add to this story. We struggled to heat up the nachos with the fire, and I also struggled to roast the remaining sausages over the fire. HK decided to wrap the sausages in tin foil and placed it directly over the fire, which worked perfectly. We wrapped the sausages in a bun and ate it together while sitting at a log in front of the fire. It was very nice. At this point it was already dark. The nachos were still not cooking either, even after a long time on top of the fire. We briefly tried heating up the nachos on top of the gas stove but it burnt a hole through the aluminum tray. We gave up on the nachos. Though, they tasted great when it was still hot. We took some more photos, using the lamp as lighting. It turned out great! Unfortunately, we tried to take more photos in the dark with HK’s phone but it wasn’t possible. For the rest of the night we roasted marshmallows over the fire, while also getting other things done around the campsite. Once we finished eating and taking our photos, we proceeded to pack everything up into the car. Again… HK did the dishes lol. After packing everything into the car we went to the washrooms to wash up. Coming back, HK helped me wash my hair. Then, we went into the tent to go to sleep. In the tent, I turned on my laptop and plugged in my SD card to go through the photos we took during the day. Afterwards, we played 2 or 3 questions of would you rather before HK fell asleep, at which point I gave up and decided to just go to sleep as well.

In the middle of the night, the rain began pouring, and I noticed my head to get wet. HK ran outside to cover the tent while I stayed cozy… Throughout the night and early morning I remember the tapping of the rain on the tent. It was very soothing, and it’s an experience I’ve never had before.

When we woke up we promptly set up what we needed for instant noodles and fried eggs. Afterwards, we cleaned everything up, washed up in the washrooms, then tossed out our garbage, and drove to waterloo for a quick tour before we went home.

In waterloo, we had hand pulled noodles that tasted amazing and was full of chili oil. Then, HK gave me a tour of the waterloo campus which I felt was fantastic. I wish UofT had as much study space as waterloo does.

Anyway that’s it. Need to get back to writing this email to UTVSA because of all the drama and problems going on within the club.

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