We (June, Ben, Tom and Doug) were heading north on Hwy 400 to the cabin when the first tornado warning for the Barrie area came on the radio. Everything looked clear to the west so we motored on.
Around Orillia, the wind came up and the rain hit but not bad at all, some leaves blowing across and an aluminium canoe wrapped around the front of a pickup truck in the south bound lanes were the only signs of a storm.
A quick stop in Washago for ice where the hydro was out and a couple of detours around downed trees on main street and we were soon heading east on Cooper Falls road.
At Lewisham Lane we ran into the first tree across the road.
Luckily, I had brought my chainsaw and we were soon around it and heading down the Black River road ..... for about 100 yards to tree number two ... and then three and four! By this time, I had two more cars behind me. They were heading in to Langford Twp past Victoria Falls but had no chainsaw. So I cut and they cleared .. the next tree. ... and the next and the next ... On some straight runs, I could see three in a row across the road.
Once, I just cut the low one and drove under the higher one. A couple of times I was able to drive off the road and around them. Not so easy in a minivan! June took pics until her camera battery died. She thinks we were up to twenty trees by then.
After cutting the last tree in front of Phil's , I asked the guys behind me what they were going to do when I turned off. They said that there was a crew at their cabin cutting their way out to meet them. I left and have no idea how far they got.
Luckily there was no damage at the cabin except for a big pine behind the cabin that almost took out the outhouse.
Three hours, later, Barry and Family drove in, still laughing. As they passed all the cut trees, they had been guessing as to whether Phil had cut his way out or I had cut my way in. Either way, what had taken us almost 3 hours to travel had taken them 20 minutes.
Still had a great weekend!!!
P.S. By the way, the trail to Robinson Lake is closed, too. Found a lot of trees down on the trail. Would have cut them but I was out of gas.
