We Heart Caves

We have a family tradition of gifting each school age boy with a "Day of Insert Name Here" before they head back to the classroom full time.  Each kid gets the full, undivided attention of one parent and gets to plan their entire day of activities and meals according to their preferences.  We have scheduled the Days of Liam (one with Mama and one with Daddy) and Days of Seamus into our August calendar.  Now the boys just need to settle on what they want to do for their special days.  Liam is leaning towards the science museum or the Brockville aquarium.  Seamus has asked to visit his cousins for a day of swimming and driving their kid-sized jeeps.  How different each person's "perfect" day is is so interesting.

All this talk about getting a perfect day led me to desire one of my own.  So today, I left Ian to man the farm while I headed off in search of perfection.  Liam decided to accompany me while Seamus and Alistair remained with Daddy.

Liam and I headed up into Gatineau Park to do the heart shaped hike around Lac Philippe and visit the Dusk Cave.  On my goodness.  It was amazing.

The trail was practically a mushroom museum.

We stumbled upon really excellent homestead ruins and walked across a dam!

View from the middle of the dam.

The caving was incredibly fun.  We threaded our way through the cave along the underground river.  Liam was so, so brave.  The final section was a dive with only about 3 inches of air between the roof of the cave and the waterline in the complete darkness and he did it!  I think I was more nervous for him than he was.  Liam was so excited that he was literally shaking with adrenaline upon our exit from the cave.  I cannot believe I did not know about this cave before today.  It was one of the best things I have done in the Ottawa area.  So, so exciting!

I did not bring my phone inside the cave since it cannot get wet.
These are photos from on top before we went through.
We hiked through the water in all that black space!

On the hike back we rested on top of an igneous thumb and took in the gorgeous view of Lac Dusk.  Despite the beaches being packed and a few other families at the cave, it seems that we were the only hikers.  We did not see anyone else on the trail loop all day and we were perfectly, completely alone at the Dusk Lake look out.  It was wonderful and oh, so peaceful.

After yesterday, I was impressed that my perfect day contained absolutely no ice cream - who needs it when you have so much adventure!  Day of Ian is Monday, lol.