Algonquin Park 2004 Canoe Trip - Trip Log
This trip log outlines some of the details of my second trip into Algonquin Park.
My first trip was a couple of years ago with my friend Jeff and that trip log can
be seen here. This time, I had to atone for not taking my fiance on the first trip...
my second back country camping trip into Algonquin Park would be Jen's first. To
make things easier on us, we decided to partly retrace my previous steps from the
first trip, the plan being to travel from Access point 5 north through Canoe and
Teepee into Tom Thomson lake.
Taking a lesson learned from the first trip, we decided to schedule 2 nights on
Tom Thomson before coming back out the third day. Our goal was to have a little
more vacation time, since the loop we traveled on the first trip (into Burnt Island
on second day and back out on the third) on the first trip was tiring with not much
down time.
Thanks to the pack-rat nature of my friend Jeff, our packing lists and checklists
created during preparation for the first trip were still available (ya gotta love
computers). These were amazingly helpful and greatly reduced the time spent preparing
for this trip, which was a good thing, because I was only able to secure the week
off work with one week of lead time.
Having learned some things from the previous trip, we wanted to improve on things
where we could. The two main issues that stuck in my head from the first trip was:
- taste of the water (we used CIO2 Chlorine Dioxide the first time)
- quality of sleep
It seems most things these days can be solved with money, and this time was no exception.
After some internet research, we bought an MSR MiniWorks EX water filter and an
Orbit self inflating sleeping pad from Mountain Equipment Co-Op. These would prove
to be worthwhile purchases.
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Monday, July 26, 2004
We left at 6:30 AM on Monday, July 26, 2004 from Peterborough and headed north.
We figured it was about a 2.5 hour trip to the Portage Store at the Canoe Lake access
point. Thanks to some highway suggestions from my Dad the night before, we arrived
at the lake a little earlier than expected at 8:38 AM.
My previous trip, we rented a canoe from Algonquin Outfitters. This time, we opted
to pay a little bit more and rent from the Portage Store. The trade-off here is
that the process of renting, loading and obtaining permits is all completed at one
location, meaning we were ready to leave at 9:47 AM. This was about a half hour
earlier than our previous trip, and it made a noticeable difference. As we were
about to leave a number of new groups were just arriving and began getting themselves
ready to head out. We learned during the first trip that travelling days are akin
to race days. Getting to your destination lake earlier usually means more choice
when it comes to campsite selection, especially during busy summer periods when
all campsites are fully booked.
The weather was a beautiful sunny day and very calm. Here is Jen posing beside a
loaded canoe. I was comfortable with this trip and the route, having done it once
before. The compass and the map did not seem quite as important as they did the
first time (but we still had them). After an application of sunscreen we were on
our way. I remember feeling uneasy at first in the canoe during my first trip, with
visions of capsizing dancing through my head and this trip was no exception. The
thought of diving to try and find the digital camera before its protective ziplock
baggy gave way to a water leak was not too appealing. However, after a few minutes,
the uneasy feeling gives way to a calm, relaxed smile as you begin to enjoy your
surroundings and realize that it isn't that hard to sit, relax and paddle... all
at the same time.
Apparently, it is common for travellers of this route to make a mistake at the north
end of Canoe Lake when approaching the portage into Joe Lake. Despite the presence
of this sign, many wind up entering the creek instead of going around the corner
to the portage. We made this mistake during my first trip, and I noticed that the
man re-roofing the cottage at the mouth of the creek was not there this time to
save us or others from our old mistake. Thankfully, this time we didn't need saving.
At 11:00 AM, we reached the first portage between Canoe Lake and Joe Lake. Here
I am offering up a piece of cheese with this pose beside the tree when we landed
at the portage. The time stamps on the photos from the digital camera are an excellent
way to document the trip, but you have to take alot of pictures... even if they
are bit cheesy. This would be our only portage during this trip, and is fairly short
and very well travelled. It is common to see several groups at a time here both
coming and going, at least that has been my experience so far.
Here Jen stands at 11:28 AM, ready to shove off after having completed the first
portage and reloaded the canoe. During the portage, I shouldered the 46 lbs. 16.5'
Kevlar Expedition canoe myself. I left the life vest on during the shouldering,
thinking it would provide some additional padding for comfort. That may have been
true, but the slick material of the jacket also provided a slippery surface for
the yolk of the canoe, so that may have meant some additional effort with the arms
to keep the canoe in place where it should be during shouldering. I'm still undecided
if that was a good idea or not.
After shoving off from the portage, we headed north across Joe, Teepee and Fawn
lakes. We passed by several canoes that were on their way out, as well as some kids
from a local camp whose instructors were guiding them through the process of capsizing
and righting their small sailboats. The squeals of delight seemed to indicate that
slipping off the wet hull of a capsized sailboat and back into the lake is actually
quite fun.
Passing through Fawn Lake there is a decent amount of marshland complete with lily
pads and the like. We were hoping that this might yield a moose sighting, however,
it was not meant to be. We made our way without incident to the creek between Little
Doe lake and Tom Thomson lake. A beaver dam crosses this creek and separates the
two lakes. This pic shows us approching the dam, having arrived at 1:07 PM.
Knowing our destination was just around the corner, I was anxious to get over the
dam and into the lake and claim our campsite... home for the next couple of days.
Before shoving off on the other side of the beaver dam, I dug my binoculars out
of my pack, so they would be handy a little later on. As we entered the open part
Tom Thomson lake, an inspection of campsites around the lake with the binoculars
revealed that a number of the sites were already taken. At this point, I was quite
glad of having decent binoculars and being able to roughly survey and evaluate the
available sites, without having to paddle around the lake to each one. During my
previous trip, the wind was almost northeasterly, and taking a site in the path
of this breeze kept of free of bugs and made for a very enjoyable stay. This time,
there was virtually no breeze to speak of, so our campsite selection involved other
criteria, including topography and features (swimming rock, privacy). After a brief
discussion, we decided to investigate a site on the northern part of the lake, on
the eastern side of a point of land.
At 2:10 PM we arrived at the site which would later become home had a large fire
pit, complete with log bench, and large rock to serve as a table while seated at
the bench. The site was gently sloped, with bed of dried pine needles on the forest
floor. We found out later that the mosquitos were fairly active in the woods and
on the periphery of the site, but in the open centre area, things were quite comfortable.
After checking things out, the site seemed pretty good, but I couldn't help myself
from wondering if another one around the corner could be better. Besides, if the
wind came up from the North like our last trip, we'd get no bug clearing breeze
on this site.
The decision to stay or go was pretty much sealed, upon looking up to see three
new canoes enter the lake from the direction of the beaver dam. Perhaps some of
them were folks that arrived at the access point about 30 minutes after us. With
other parties looking to find a home for the night, we decided that what we had
was perfect and began to set up camp.
The site offered decent privacy and a short trail to a fairly level clearing that
was perfect for our tent, located past Jen's left shoulder. We unloaded the canoe
and started setting things up. In a wave in inspiration, and knowing the size and
height of our tent, I figured that it might be easier to put up the covering tarp
first. My last trip we wrestled with a huge tarp, but this time we bought two 9x12
tarps, one for tent coverage and one for an outdoor rain lean-to. After spreading
out the tarp, picking its location and supporting trees, we were well on our way.
The tent went up quickly and we positioned it under our tarp, to look something
like this, by 3:23 PM.
Next on the list was to get the rope over a choice branch to be used for hanging
the food bag later on. After that I took the canoe out into some open water and
filled our jug with 5 litres of water. As I mentioned, on my first trip, the taste
of the water was a bit of a downer, and it was not time to test my new water filter.
The filter is a decent filter that is probably capable of providing drinkable water,
however, just to be sure, I treated the water with the CIO2 chemicals first, and
then filtered that water into another water jug. This proved to be a really good
method. The water filter did a good job of removing strange tastes, both chemical
and otherwise. The only thing that would have made it better would have been ice
cubes.
By 7:30 PM we had finished setting things up, and had enjoyed a bit of down time.
Now it was time to eat. Dinner was comprised of Kraft Dinner with some fire roasted
all beef hot dogs added in for extra flavour. The taste of the water was much better
than my first trip, and it also improved the taste of the food cooked with the water.
As 9:00 PM approached, Jen and I were relaxing beside the fire and enjoying the
end of the day. We were exhausted, and it was all we could do to stay awake until
dark.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
We awoke just after 6:30AM on Tuesday to a beautiful calm day. The food bag was
still secured hanging in the tree where I left it with no signs of animal intrusion.
On my first trip, it was at about this point, if not earlier, that I started to
whine about being sore from the previous day's paddle as well as the aches and pains
that come with an uncomfortable sleep on a foam pad. I now know that the self-inflating
mattress pad bought from Mountain Equipment Co-Op was worth the money. I felt considerably
better getting up this day, compared with how I felt on the first trip.
At 6:39AM the mist was dancing across the lake and the day was shaping up to be
a good one. By 8:30AM breakfast was well underway, serving up healthy helpings of
oatmeal with milk, raisins and brown sugar. Some of you may have flung your eyebrows
up when I said milk. "On a back country camping trip?" you are thinking to yourself...
well, yes, Jen found some tetra-pak milk in box kinda stuff that doesn't need refrigeration
until it is opened, so we thought we'd try it. Don't ask me how milk stays fresh
in a cardboard box without chilling, I don't know, but I do know it tasted pretty
good.
During the relaxing breakfast hour, we were visited by a couple of chipmunks. "Slash"
was a bit more adventurous than "The Other One" as he was quite comfortable to come
close and scout around for any tasty bits he could find. Slash was aptly named due
to the small chunk of fur missing from the top of his head. I got some of our trail
mix, and was able to get Slash to take a nut from my hand.
Our plan for the day was basically one of relaxation. The one thing I learned on
the first trip, is a downtime day between travelling days would be a good thing.
After breakfast we headed off to do some exploring. We left camp and travelled northeast
through the creek and into Bartlett Lake to look around. The weather was great,
although it was a little bit breezy. Bartlett is a small lake with a couple of campsites.
Some folks were swimming and enjoying their day as well. On our way back out, we
noticed the campsite across the bay from ours had been vacated. We took this opportunity
to pull ashore and check out our neighbours lot. It was a nice site with several
terraced level areas that were elevated above the lake, offering nice views of the
water and surroundings. For a brief moment, I considered moving to this site, but
then sanity stepped in (or was it laziness?) and we decided that our site was just
fine. It didn't stop us from kicking back for a few minutes, here I enjoyed a seat
with a built-in back rest provided by the rocky terrain.
Moving off to explore a little further, we made our way south to an open island.
Not many trees and no approved campsites, this island offered little shelter from
the elements, but did provide a commanding view of the lake. Not overly large, but
rising quickly on all sides to provide a decent elevation from which to take in
the scenery. Jen managed to find a few wild blueberry bushes, but the berries themselves
were slim pickings.
Around 2:00PM the lunchhour bug took hold and we made our way back to camp to rustle
up some food for lunch. We managed to waste the rest of the afternoon lounging around
on our swimming rock, doing some swimming, and watching the wildlife. A frog seemed
to like a shady spot under an outcropping at our swimming rock. The still shallow
water around the rock was home to other things too. Jen managed to catch a minnow
in my bowl while doing dishes and some kind of freaky looking water spider that
crawled around on the surface of the rock underwater was neat to watch.
At one point, our friend the frog leapt from his perch, and bounded a few hops away.
I noticed something dark dangling from one of his back legs. Before I knew what
it was, the frog kicked his leg as if possessed by Jackie Chan, sending the dark
dangler flying a couple of feet and into the water. As I watched it slither/swim
away, it was then that I realized that it was a leach that had been feasting away
on poor froggy.
By 7:00 PM we were hungry again, this time for dinner. We put together a pot full
good 'ol Kraft Dinner, dressed up with chunks of all beef hot dog. We chased that
with some pan fried bannock and some Crystal Light made with filtered water. The
food tasted really good and I was pleased with how the set of Coleman pots/pans
was working.
The evening was calm and relaxing sitting around the fire. There were no real mosquitoes
to speak of, as they wouldn't show up until later. After dinner Jen did some fishing
from shore, but she did not land any fresh breakfast.
Around 10:00 PM the mosquitoes got hungry and without much of a bug clearing breeze,
we were good bait for the hungry buzzers. We suited up to better withstand the buzzing,
because we wanted to stay up until around midnight, to see if there was going to
be any northern light shows to be had. While doing a "mosquito net check" with the
flashlight, Jen discovered another friend of the insect kind perched upon my shoulder.
I have no idea what this critter was, but he was freaky looking, especially out
of the corner of your eye when resting beside your head on a shoulder. At about
10:30PM we noted that the sky was mostly overcast, and the mosquitoes were not showing
any sign of letting up, so we decided that it was again time to crash. I was OK
with that, even though I didn't really do anything all day, I was so tired.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
The dawn revealed another nice calm day. Today was our last day in the park and
we were planning on retracing our route to make our way home later in the day. Not
needing to be back at any specific time was nice and allowed us to take our time
and enjoy the nice weather.
Around 9:00AM we dug up some breakfast consisting of more oatmeal, some hot chocolate
and a banana... not too shabby at all.
The thing I like best about the park is how calming the natural surroundings are.
I'm sure that bad weather and adversity could quickly serve to replace these feelings
with agitation or stress if things weren't going well, but both of my trips to the
park have offered excellent weather. I suppose that a comination of luck and preparation
are the keys to enjoyment when in the park. No doubt that learning lessons from
one trip to the next will further improve my backcountry camping abilities and just
might help to prevent agitation by being properly prepared when I do encounter some
bad weather on a trip.
This pic of the calm water, framed by fishing rods, a canoe and the rising sun just
scream "serenity now!"... I really like this pic. Our chipmunks again came to visit
us, as well as this red squirrel, who just happened to be nosing around the food
bag that contained the trail mix. Even doubled sealed in two ziplock bags, the critters
know where the goodies are at.
By 10:57AM we had finished packing up camp, the canoe was loaded and we were ready
to start the journey back to civilization. About 20 minutes later, we were passing
through the narrows and approaching the beaver dam situated between Tom Thompson
lake and Littledoe Lake, when we came upon a moose, wading about chest deep in the
water and munching away on lily pads. I couldn't believe how much noise this animal
made by simply slurping, scooping and chewing some freshwater vegetation. It was
very cool. The moose didn't seem to care too much that we were floating around watching
her. We then heard some thunderous noise coming through the bush behind her, and
later realized that she had two calves that were playing in the woods behind her.
They didn't seem to want to enter the water very much, instead content to chase
each other through the woods while mom ate. We watched the action for about 10 minutes,
before mom left the water and headed back into the woods. Now feeling fully satisfied
by our wilderness adventure, we again started heading back home.
We crossed over the beaver dam around 11:50 AM, pausing to apply some sunscreen
and eat a banana to refuel for the rest of the paddle home. The weather continued
to be perfect, with very light winds and nice warm sunshine escorting us home. By
1:16 PM we had made it back to the start of the portage into Canoe Lake from Joe
Lake. We took another break here, taking some time to wade into the water and cool
off, and eat some trail mix. Again, it was great not having to rush, knowing that
we didn't need to make it into another lake to set up camp, but simply toss everything
into a waiting car and head to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
At 1:53 PM we shoved off on the other side of the portage into Canoe Lake. It was
a leisurely paddle back, passing by more girls at camp screaming with glee as they
tipped their sailboat over on purpose. At 3:04 PM the hull of the canoe slid up
onto the beach. We made it back. I had survived my second backcountry camping trip
and Jen had survived her first. We had a great time, but it was also good to be
back. I was looking forward to some restaurant dinner and a shower. Once we unloaded
the canoe and loaded the car, I paddled the canoe across the bay to the rental office.
We decided to have dinner in Huntsville on the way home, so before leaving, we thought
it would be a good idea to take advantange of the shower facilities located beside
the Portage Store. After having a nice warm shower and slipping into some clean
clothes, we felt like new people and at 4:02 PM we headed off to find our dinner,
as seen here in a timer taken picture from the dashboard of the car.
Hope you enjoyed the triplog and thanks for reading!
Jen and Troy...
Feel free to
us both with comments!