We got in the truck and drove for TWO WHOLE DAYS. Mom said we were going to be sleeping in our tent for THREE WHOLE WEEKS and she said me and Amy didn't have to have a bath that WHOLE time if we didn't want. The best thing about the drive was we got to spend our allowance in this amazing store in the middle of a field. I bought a real fur cat for two dollars and Amy bought a real fur bunny. We played with them in the truck but mostly we watched Cybermut on the TV Mom bought for the trip.

We finally got to where the canoe trip was starting-Johnson's Crossing. We set up the tent and then Tom and Marie got there. They drove on a different highway somewhere else. They didn't see the wild buffalo herd that we drove through. There was a bull buffalo bigger than our truck! Grandpa stopped driving beside the buffalo but when the buffalo looked at us-he had HUMUNGOUS horns-Grandma screamed so Grandpa drove away. There were baby buffaloes and we also saw Dahl sheep and bald eagles and deer.

Mom and Don-the guy that came with Tom and Marie and sat in the front of Mom's canoe-packed piles of stuff into the canoe in the morning. It was muddy. Our canoe was fuller than anybody else's 'cause me and Amy had to have a lot of socks along on the trip 'cause Mom says we like to play in the mud. But she kept telling us to stay out of the mud while she packed the canoe.

We all got in our canoes. There was Grandma and Grandpa and Amy in the brown canoe, Gracie and Carter (Mom's cousins) in the white canoe, Tom and Marie in the green and silver canoe (silver from all the duck tape) and me and Mom and Don in Mom's red canoe. I thought we were going the wrong way at first but Mom said the wind made it look like the river was going the other way. I paddled a bit. Mom didn't like it when I dragged my paddle but I liked the waves it made, and the ripply noise.

It rained that WHOLE first day. The grown-ups got grouchy and argued about where to camp. We stopped twice and they looked at camp spots but then we all got back in the canoes and paddled for ages and ages more. FINALLY we camped at the top of a cliff. The rain stopped and me and Amy put on our bug jackets and ran through the bush yelling (Mom told us to make lots of noise) and we had whistles around our necks but we got in trouble when we blew them-they were supposed to be only for if we got lost. Then Amy got mad at me for playing with her pinecones so I went and helped Tom set up his tent. I like Tom. He's cool.

The next day we only paddled for a bit. Amy fell asleep in Mom's canoe. I was in Grandma and Grandpa's and I pretended to fish with a stick. Grandma and Grandpa didn't mind if I dragged my paddle in the water. I could do anything and they didn't mind. Once I leaned way out to grab a branch in the water and almost tipped us over and they didn't even get mad!

Mom packed me and Amy snack bags in the morning and she said they had to last THREE WHOLE DAYS before she'd give us another snack bag. I ate all my gummy worms as soon as we got in the canoe, but I shared with Grandpa. So now I have to wait THREE WHOLE DAYS before I get anymore. Grandpa pouted when I told him that. When Grandpa pouts, his bottom lip sticks way out under his moustache.

Me and Amy played with our horse toys in a creek at the next camp. We roasted marshmallows and Gracie read some funny stories but then Mom made us go to bed. It doesn't even get dark here at bed time. Mom is reading "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" to us every night and we don't even need a flashlight to see the pictures!

I paddled in Mom's canoe for two days in a row 'cause Don let me hold his GPS. He told me the buttons to press and the GPS said how fast we were going. Mom and Don got the canoe going sixteen miles an hour! I think, or maybe it was kilometres. Then Amy realized she missed her turn and she got to go in Mom's canoe. She just wanted to hold the GPS, that's the only reason. But then I was in Grandpa's canoe and the next day we got a new snack bag so I shared with Grandpa and we finished all my gummy worms in about five seconds! Then I spilled all my peanuts in the canoe and now I don't get any more for THREE WHOLE DAYS. Grandma said she'd share her peanuts with me. Grandma's really nice.

We canoed for days and days and days and in the evenings Mom was so cold she had all her clothes on, even her toque and mitts. She told me and Amy to wear our winter jackets and toques but we were hot, running up and down the beach and through the bush. Then the weather got hot like summer. Well it was summer. When Mom had told us we were going north to the Yukon, I thought there'd be snow everywhere. But there was no snow at all. We got to spend one whole day at a sandy beach camp spot and we didn't have to get in the canoe the whole day. That meant we got a day off from stuffing our sleeping bags. Gracie and Carter and me and Amy put on our lifejackets and floated down the river and then ran back up the beach but Carter got stuck in this mud that was like quicksand. He looked so funny. Me and Amy jumped in the mud and rolled around (it was okay 'cause Mom couldn't see us, she was reading her book at the other end of the beach). Gracie had to pull us and Carter out and we had to swim some more to wash off. Tom made a mudslide for us and we pretended to be otters. Tom had a barrel named Chilko. He took all the food out and filled Chilko with water and then splooshed the water on us when we went down the mudslide.

Grandma and Grandpa made cinnamon buns and shared with everyone. The grown-ups all took pictures before they ate them. Mom washed our socks. She washed socks the WHOLE AFTERNOON! She hung them on a line and took pictures of them. She said there were thirty-three socks. One was missing. Grandpa said they looked like fish drying and he took pictures, too.

Then I found a little tiny frog. She was for sure a frog and not a toad because she was wet and shiny and didn't have so many warts. Me and Amy made a little frog house in a container that Grandma gave us. We put sand and water and leaves in it. Mom helped us catch spiders for Star (we named her Star), and she gulped the spiders down so fast and we got to see her tongue. We took some pictures and Gracie even took a video of Star eating a spider and Mom said when we got home we could look in a book and find out what kind of frog Star was. Me and Amy wanted to keep her but Mom said we had to leave her there when we left the next day.

My swimsuit was so full of mud that Mom helped me have a shower before bed. The shower was this black water bag she hung in a tree, and the water was warm because it sat in the sun all day. It felt good to get clean and get my pj's on. Amy didn't want a shower. She stayed dirty.

I was really sad the next day when we had to let Star go. But just before we got in the canoes, I found a hermit crab and Mom said I could bring it along with us in Star's container. When we left the beach camp site (the grown-ups named it Fiji), we only had three more days to paddle to get to Carmacks where the cars were. I don't know how the cars got there. Grandpa woke me up in the canoe later because a "flotilla" was going past. Grandpa showed me what that meant. We counted TWENTY-SIX canoes and three motor boats. They were a group of cadets. I'm not sure what cadets are; they looked like big kids dressed like soldiers.

That night there was an amazing sunset. Mom said it was because there was a forest fire ahead, and that the next day we'd probably be in some smoke. I dreamed about big flames that night, but we didn't get to see any the next day. There sure was smoke, though. There was so much smoke that once the sun disappeared. We had to camp in it for two nights, but we still didn't see any flames. We FINALLY made it to Carmacks. When we got there, the adults all stretched and cheered and hugged each other and took pictures. And then we all went to the store and bought ice cream. I had chocolate. It was the BEST ice cream cone I've EVER had.