Tornados and Tunnels - Caddy Lake Manitoba

  Five minutes after Josh left to go paddle boarding on Caddy Lake an alert came on my phone, Red Alert! Tornado Warning! Take cover in your basement. 

    "We don't have a basement!" I exclaimed and then ran to the beach to see if he was still there. I don't know much about Tornados but given that a paddle board veers off course from a gentle breeze, I don't think being on one is wise during any sort of wind event.



Josh came back pretty quickly, he didn't hear his phone alarm go off, he just saw the storm in the North. We huddled in our bug tent listening to the wind. Presently it started to rain, which was exciting, we don't get much rain in Calgary. Elsa was trying to paint a bird in our bird painting book. It was so dark she put blue polka dots all over the Wood Thrush. The wind got louder and then it started to hail. Once again we abandoned the bug tent and ran for the van. We waited out the storm there. Thankfully no tornado appeared. 

Listening to thunder

The next morning we inspected the bug tent and it looked ok. We've only been gone a week and it really has been through the wars at this point. I should write an amazon review - survived mosquito swarms and hail, however is not impervious to bears. It's already covered in duct tape!

Elsa blowing away in tornado winds

Our roof top tent was shut during the storm so it is fine, we opened it back up to dry it out. I heard a man wondering what it was for as he strolled by. 

    "What goes in there," he mused to his wife, pointing at the tent perched on top of our van. "The Dog House," he slowly read the side of the tent. "I guess the dogs go in there?" I heard him say as he walked away. 

    How would you get your dog in there?! Even Josh, who is quite tall, would have to heave a dog way up over his head. If he got it high enough and flung it forward he would still have to hope it's little paws would hook onto the edge of the tent so it could pull itself up there. And what if the door was closed? Even if this imaginary dog, who is surprising cooperative, made it that far - it's still all zippered up! No dog can open a zipper! Josh would be left standing with a dog over his head, it's fuzzy butt dangling in his face.

The next day we had sunny weather, which we are very grateful for after seeing the smoke issues back in Calgary. We rented a canoe and paddled to a tunnel. Oh have you never canoed in a tunnel? It's so common out here. I am kidding, this may be the only tunnel I have ever boated in. I believe it was built to accommodate a train overhead. We had a refreshing swim at an island on the way back. Caddy Lake was a great stop.







Notable birds & mammals

Semipalmated Sandpiper - Elsa had a great idea - I took a picture through the binoculars and fed it to Merlin which told us what kind of Sandpiper it was. It checked out! Shorebirds are notoriously difficult.

Loons with babies

Beavers - huge beavers, it's butt was facing me and it was so big I thought it was a bear

Blue polka dotted Wood Thrush - she managed to fix it up...



Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 29, 2026 at 8:12 AM

    Nice painting Elsa ❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 29, 2026 at 7:32 PM

    I’m glad it was a false alarm! Funny about the tent - will it make it through the trip?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CathyJuly 30, 2026 at 5:59 AM

      It’s pretty robust! We will see though

      Delete

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