Sometimes you just never know.......

I broke my current partner and longtime childhood chum in on one of the buggiest, marathon paddle days with hardly no fish trips ever.......

Springtime in Algonquin......the black flies were really thick. We didn't even get the boat in the water before he was asking me "what are we going to do"? It was a very good thing that I had persuaded him to get the ultimate bug shirt........

Having never done a trip in Algonquin before I had underestimated the distances involved. The days were marathon....as in, "Gib, are we ever going to stop"?

The fishing was lousy......poor guy had had dreams of big trout on the end of his line but we caught very few indeed.

One rainy night we got pinned down by a bear which knocked our bags around and snuffled through our tent fabric. My unfortunate guest spent 1/2 the night sitting up with a hatchet in one hand and a "survival" knife in the other (I went to sleep).

In spite of it all.........toward the end of the trip I got the distinct impression I had created a monster and when I asked him if he felt like paddling a bit longer in the day he was gung-ho......

So you never know how folk are going to pan out. He could of went either way. Preparation was key.......without the bug shirt I think it doubtful he could of coped and adjusted as he tended to welt up rather easily. 1/2 way through the trip he went from being afraid of the bugs and not wanting to get his feet wet to hardcore.

If anyone is interested here is the trip report.....nice place
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