Review: Colonel By Island

On Friday, Alex and I firmed up plans to do some camping this weekend.  I had originally suggested it on Monday and by Wednesday I was hesitant after thinking of my wallet but then Alex convinced me it wouldn’t be too much to go camping (that was an understatement…I don’t even know why I thought it would cost a lot!) so the plans started taking shape and Saturday morning we were planning to leave.

Friday night I spent meandering about the empty house and watching 24.  I had taken 1.5 years to watch the entire first season and was nearing the end where it was gaining steam.  I then packed up the camping gear and we were good to go for the next morning.

Alex and I hit up the LCBO before heading out and then we hit the road with Alex and Holly towing the boat and Vero and I following.  We dropped by Matt’s parents house to see if we could use their launch for the boat.  May I point out that Matt’s parents are amongst the best out there.  We hadn’t even mentioned using the boat launch yet and his father said they needed to leave to go to a wedding but feel free to use the house for the night if we wanted to.  I was floored of the generosity of this family.

We ended up thanking them but saying we just needed to use the boat launch.  We drove back down the highway for a short side trip to a flea market and then wenb back to the boat launch.  We brought the boat down, loaded our gear into it and took a quite trip across Big Rideau Lake (stopping along the way to get ice) to arrive at Colonel By Island.

I was surprised to see that Colonel By Island is federal managed land by Parks Canada.  There were two docks to park at and people simply buy a permit to stay on the island for the day.  They have nice campsite areas right on the water and there is a working washroom.  It was beautiful.  I was amazed that we could manage to get a campsite like this.  Alex said the campsites were first-come, first-served so it was a good idea that we arrived early enough.  The people already there seemed nice enough and it seemed like a transient community that simply forms when they arrive at the island.  Alex and I commented that maybe this was the way of people who spend a lot of times on the river in their big boats.  As soon as we arrived on the docks, there were people there helping us tie off the boat and talking to us and asking where we were from.  It was quite welcoming.

We set up our campsite (picked out by the lovely Holly and Vero) and cooked up some sausages.  I also brought out le piece du resistance of the weekend…bologna!  I hadn’t had my bologna last year since the US Border Guard threw it out.   I was looking forward to frying up a few slices on the open fire.

After lunch, we hit the lake with the boat and swam for awhile and just enjoyed the weekend weather.  Might I add that this was probably one of the nicest weekends we will see during the summer.  It was fantastic!  So warm, so sunny, so amazing.  After getting cold in the water after a few hours, we took the tube out and I took some hilarious videos of Holly and Vero trying to stay on top of a tube while dragging them across the lake.

I decided to try the tube out next and the first time we started up, all was going well and then I simply lost my grip and slid backwards off the tube.  That was quite lackluster!  The next time I got back on, Alex sped the boat up and I was holding on for dear life!  It was exhilarating and I was doing my best to balance myself on it but the forces of nature were against me and as I was coming out of a turn, I hit the crest of the wake and blammo!  Vero and Holly said I looked like a skipping stone across the water!  I must have hit my foot against the water first as it was pretty sore.  The funniest part was that at one point my bathing suit got ripped off my body!  I made a grab for it and when Alex turned the boat around, Vero had the video camera on and filmed me in the water with my shorts in my hand.  We all had a good laugh and I needed a break after a wild flip like that so I hopped in the captain’s seat and took Alex out wake boarding.  It was quite choppy and it was hard to get used to the boat and getting the right speed out of it so he could enjoy the wake boarding.  I would like to think that I did a decent job in the conditions I was in.

After that excitement, we anchored the boat and relaxed for awhile.  It was around 6:30 – 7:00 and out of nowhere Alex pulls out a box and goes up to Holly at the front of the boat and says something that I didn’t really catch.  In fact, it was a marriage proposal!  I may have known a little about this beforehand, but Vero had no idea so she was shocked.  Judging from the look on Holly’s face, she was shocked as well and I’m happy to say that Holly has accepted Alex’s hand in marriage.

We headed to shore and work spread quickly that there was a couple to be engaged on the island and people were dropping in to talk see the ring.  We cracked a bottle of champagne and started up the supper of some steaks and potatoes (with a little fried bologna for good measure!).  It was a great night and it only got better considering there was a fireworks display across the lake that night that we didn’t know about (although Alex confirmed that he did in fact arrange it for this night to be even more special for Holly).  The only complaint of the weekend would be when the mosquitoes came out in full force when the sun went down.  Yipes!  They were nasty!

The fireworks went on for a LONG TIME.  At least 45 minutes.  We headed to the fire next to our campsite, chatted with some people from Montreal.  We ended up trying to teach Vero how to play euchre but she didn’t seem too interested.  I then marveled at the stars in the sky and wondered aloud about aliens and at that point I think everyone was tired so they headed to bed while I stayed up for a little while longer and took it all in.

The next morning, I awoke to find myself half off the mattress.  Turns out that we parked our tent on a slight hill so we kept slipping off the mattress!  May I take this moment to talk about Holly and Alex’s tent for a moment.  Mike was gracious enough to lend us our tent and it turned out that Alex and Holly had bought the same tent the week before!  Well, ALMOST the same.  They picked up the two man tent while we had the four man.  We all know how tent sizes really are and Vero and I had a good laugh when we saw that their air mattress was busting the tent’s seams once they got inside.  Let’s just say there wasn’t much room for anything else.  They found it cozy though.

We cooked a late breakfast of English muffins, eggs, bacon, bologna and fruit, packed up the site a little and headed out on the boat for the afternoon to see the nice houses along Big Rideau Lake.  We also took a little swim, napped a little, headed back to shore for a beer and then decided around 3PM that it was a good time to pack the boat back up.

We arrived back at the Masse’s house, brought the boat back up (unfortunately Alex hit his prop on some rocks and will have to grind it down a little), helped Matt’s dad with his patio and then headed back into Ottawa while stopping in Smiths Falls for a bite to eat.

It was an amazing weekend to be on the water and to be in such great company during a momentous occasion!  It will probably be the highlight of the summer for me.  Thanks to Alex and Holly for inviting us out (and convincing me to do so!).

If anyone has access to a boat, I highly recommend staying at Colonel By Island sometime.