Rained out today. It's cold, just hovering around freezing, but instead of snow it's been raining all day. Which will really mess up the accumulation of snow that has started our winter snowpack thanks to the recent two snowstorms we've just been through. Jackie and Jillie had to content themselves with sticking around the house. Not that they mind, particularly. They're always game to get out with us to the forest trails for an afternoon jaunt, but they're just as content to stay at home, and that's just what we've all done, today.

Rain and cold don't mix particularly well with incentivizing people to get out into nature. It reminds me of the last time we went canoe camping at Ontario's great northern wilderness preserve with our younger son, an inveterate outdoorsman. We had often gone camping with him, sometimes for a week at a time. So we have in the past encountered all kinds of weather at various points of the seasons. 

Our son is always prepared for all contingencies, and though he packs light, he packs determinedly with all the absolutely necessary items for such expeditions. Among the necessities is tarps. For wind and rain protection, to enable one to take shelter, find comfort, make food preparation efficient, that kind of thing. Toilet paper is a necessity, so are ropes. 

Other necessities can be found at camping spots, like a rock heavy enough to be thrown at the end of a stout rope to balance a backpack heavy with food and toiletries slung high over a thick tree branch for the night. Fuel for the cooking stove, flashlights, or camping candles and holders to sling under the top of the tent interior to read by at night.

Oh, and food, a few plates, cups, pans and pots. You can fit a lot into a capacious 18-ft. canoe with three paddlers. Not to forget a water purifier, waterproof jackets and maybe an extra pair of socks, and you're set. The food, of course, is carefully considered; nothing too perishable if you're staying for long, but there are exceptions if it's only a weekend camping trip.

And if you've got your little dog accompanying you, don't forget a waterproof coat for him/her too. Oops, and food suitable for a little canine appetite. Consider yourself fortunate if the lake you decide on isn't too deeply set in the interior, because it's a vast wilderness area, one that we explored well and truly over the years. On this occasion, however, we stayed close to the perimeter and more readily accessible, at Sec Lake.

Weather, did I mention weather yet? You've hit the jackpot if it rains and never stops, and that's happened to us often enough, as it did this last camping expedition of ours. The rain and ferocious wind that never gave quarter at any time during our three-day stay. Canoeing from the mainland to the island we headed for was a battle against the wind and penetrating rain. But we set out for a camping experience and that's what we had.

Our son and my husband, both experienced in such settings, quickly set up tarps to protect both against the wind and the rain. Even a 'shelf' placed between two trees was made to act as a meal preparation stage to hold all the necessities. The loo was set well back from the campsite and we were grateful it had a roof; many don't. Primitive, but all we needed; a board with a hole over a smelly chasm, sides and a roof. Trekking over to it at night in the dark and rain and wind isn't pleasant, but necessary.

The morning following our arrival the rain lightened and we paddled over to another area marked on our map as a long, very long portage to another lake. This was our recreational hike, through a greenery-enclosed trail that was pleasant and quite beautiful as a landscape, the trail following the edge of the lake until it linked with another lake. We stopped for awhile there to brew some tea and enjoy a snack before carrying on.

A tough paddle back to our campsite with the wind once more challenging our direction and a new storm brewing. Once back at the campsite we watched in fascination as a thick curtain of rain approached -- and then drenched us -- again. Even so, in the late afternoon we were able to enjoy a campfire and begin to dry out a bit. There was a really cool bite to the atmosphere that never relented, necessitating that we wear rainproof jackets throughout our stay.

That night, the sky miraculously cleared. We saw stars. We saw shooting stars. We watched a satellite in its trajectory overhead. And we heard wolves howling. Our elderly little dog was a trooper throughout. We were careful to try to keep him as dry as possible. And warm. And fed and hydrated. The situation reminded us of the time we spent on the Bowron Lakes Circuit in British Columbia's Cariboo Mountain range, when for the entire week-plus we were there rain never stopped, it was unfailingly cool, and we wore winter gear.

But despite it all, the coping with the elements, we were in a wonderful natural landscape and we made the most of it, all of it. Like all such adventures the memories remain clear and distinct and recall is beyond pleasant. On day two, when the rain was coming down in buckets, two canoes approached looking for empty campsites, viewed ours and paddled on. 

 When we finally left, a day later, it was still raining, but by then the weekend was approaching and there were canoes arriving on the lake, just as we were leaving. They would find at least one campsite available.