Wednesday - July 16

Bob: Got home at 9:30PM. Left this morning at 8:00 for Kipawa River Lodge in Quebec. It is about 60 miles from here, but takes almost 2 hours to drive because of the little towns you pass through and the dirt road you take into the camp. This place looks like something out of a Thomas Kinkade painting. The owners, Scott and Pat Sorensen, who are from Orem, Utah, have owned the camp for over 30 years and it is beautiful. They are there from May 15th to September 15th. We did some fishing (caught 1 walleye), hiking, and spent some time in their sauna. They fixed us a walleye feast at 5:30. Delicious. Posted a picture of their home/lodge below. They have 3 additional cabins. Each cabin can handle almost 15 people. Everything is propane. The cabins have solar panels, but they only have enough light to run a few 12 volt camping lights in each cabin. Their closest neighbor to the north is about 12 miles while the closest neighbor on the south is over 20 miles. I did not see any piece of ground along the river that you could put a cabin. Their cabin is at the base of the Kipawa River which empties into Lake Timiskaming just to the left of the cabins. It is a beautiful sight.

This is an aerial view I found on the Internet. Their home is the big green roof. The small green roof to the left is a cabin called the Boat House. It now has an addition on the back of it. The white dot behind this cabin is the sauna. Seats several people. The light blue roof is another cabin and there is a dark green roof to the right and above it that is the 3rd cabin. There is a rectangle above the light blue roof you can partially make out. This used to be a tennis court that Lana Turner wanted put in before she came to this camp with her husband, Bob Topping. Not sure just who he is, but we have a book with all the information. Will update you on that later. The kayaking event is the 3rd weekend in June. This year was the 28th consecutive year of its running. As Bonnie said, participants come from all over the world to participate. The lodge has a fish fry on Saturday night for the participants. There were over 80 of them this year. Access to the camp is by road now, but for years the only way in was by boat. However, when the road is wet you must have a four wheel drive as the road goes down a very steep embankment just before it enters the grassy area you see at the top. We had to park at the top of the hill and walk down. About a 5 minute walk at the most.

Bonnie:  This is quite the place!  Quebec is fun because almost everyone speaks french.  All of the signs and businesses are in french.  They have the best ice cream there, too, better than Ontario in my opinion.  The lodge is about 30 feet from the lake. The view is stunning. We hiked up a trail by the river.  There are lots of rapids there.  In fact every year kayakers from all over the world come to ride them.  It was great talking to Pat and her daughter who was visiting.  Very memorable.

PS After the men went into the sauna, all but Bob jumped into the lake, which was 63 degrees. Party pooper!! (Of course, I didn't go into the sauna to begin with.  I was just fine inside the lodge.)