For our last trip of the season, JizFree and our Ruckus friends Gill and Remil decided to take on our most ambitious camping trip to date. Seven days and six nights in Algonquin Park. Our goals for this trip were to try a completely new route in the park, entering from a completely different access point and paddle a variety of new lakes and rivers.
Our planned route was to take us down 20 kilometers of the Tim River, across 13 lakes and over 20 portages. This required a lot of extra time before our trip thinking about what gear to bring and meticulously planning our meals. With so many portages, keeping weight to a minimum was critical and carrying 30% extra food (as per our earlier French River trip) was not an option this time. It was time to cut out all the extra chips and fresh fruit and switch it up for high protein and high energy foods. Beans! Gorp! Lentils!
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| Food prepped for our 7 days for 4 adults...I foresee a problem |
Day 1
Magnetawan Lake to Hambone Lake (140M portage)
Hambone Lake to Ralph Bice Lake (290M portage)
Ralph Bice Lake to Little Trout Lake (440M portage)
Little Trout Lake to
Queer Lake (170M Portage)
Day 1's area always an ambitious day and this trip was no exception. We woke up, packed our meals, collected our gear, headed over to the Harbour Front Canoe and Kayak Center to grab LF7, zipped over the Gill and Rems, loaded up the partay van with more food and gear and hit to highway and headed north to Algonquin Park. Gill and Rems already had a canoe waiting for them at the Magnetewan access point rented from Algonquin Base Camp and after a quick stop at the rental office and the park registration office, we arrived at the access point at 9.30AM.
The Magnetawan Access point is located approximately an hour and half north-east from our usual turnoff to Highway 60 in Huntsville. I had originally imagined this access point to be little used and a less known due since it was so far from all the other campsites on Highway 60. However, this was not the case. Two large parking lots with 50-75 cars in each were completely full. The dock on Magnetawan Lake had constant traffic with groups entering and exiting the park.
After quickly unloading the partay van and getting our canoes into the water, we were paddling on Lake Magnetawan by 10AM. Our first strokes of the trip and my anticipation of the adventure to come was high. But that lasted about 5 minutes before we encountered our first portage. A short flat 140M path to Hambone Lake. This was the theme of the day, short paddles and short portages. After paddling across Hambone Lake, we crossed a 290M portage into Butt Lake, followed by another 440M portage at the west end of Butt Lake into Little Trout Lake followed by our final 170M portage into Queer Lake.
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| First of many portages to come... |
By now, the sky had clouded over and it was threatening to rain. After a quick assessment of the campsites around the lake, we decided to pick a campsite close to the next days portage into Tim River. Steak time! Best meal of the trip.
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| Mandatory first-night steaks! |
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| Liz cooking up a tasty meal. |
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| Nice sunset to cap off our first day in Algonquin. |
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| A family of ducks visiting us at our campsite. |
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Day 2
Queer Lake to Tim River (2000M portage)
Tim River to Shippagew Lake (270M, 460M and 120M portage)
Shippagew Lake to Blue Lake (950M portage)
Even before the day started, we knew Day 2 was going to be a long paddle for us. As the crow flies, we were planning to cover about 20km of the Tim River from Queer Lake to Shippagew Lake. What we would learn over the course of our 14-hour day was just how exhausting and time consuming river paddling could be.
Having chosen the closest campsite to the Queer Lake-to-Tim River portage, we took advantage of the proximity to start the day early. By 8AM, everyone was awake. We had a quick breakfast, broke down camp, packed our canoes and headed over to the portage. This was going to be the longest portage of the trip: approximately 2km. Unfortunately, we had two-carry the portage to get everything to the other side. 2km of hiking turned into a 6km slog. Lesson learned for next year: only bring gear that can be carried once across a portage!
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| Liz looking so optimistic this morning...that's pre-portage. |
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| Gill and Rems look motivated too...but look at all our stuff! |
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| Liz got the tough bag. |
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| The girls heading back for round two. |
After completing the 6KM back and forth, I jumped in the Tim River for a quick dip to cool off. A small snack to boost our energy levels and it was time to push off and take on the Tim River. What an amazing paddle this turned out to be. The first half of the Tim River was quite narrow (between 5-10M across) with 6-foot tall grass lining the banks with the dense treeline not far behind. The river was quite shallow and required constant navigation around continuous bends and hairpin turns; not to mention the beaver dams.
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| Ramming speed! |
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| Slow going along the Tim River. |
After about 3 hours of paddling, we approached the one campsite located on the Tim River. This is where we encountered the first moose siting of the trip, well more like a moose-hearing. Coming around a bend, GIll and Rems who had been paddling in the lead indicated for Liz and I to slow down and be quiet. Unclear on her hand gestures, I yelled out "What's going on!", only to scare away two moose that were at the campsite. My first moose siting consisted of a couple of large shadows running into the woods and the sounds to their feet pounding the ground. After a brief stop at the campsite to see if the moose might come back, we continued on with our paddle.
About halfway through our paddle of the Tim River, we approached a massive uprooted tree indicating a necessary portage around a shallow and rocky section of the river. Curiously though, the portage sign indicated entrance into the middle of a field that really did not seem to have any path.
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| Found the portage... |
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| ...but where do we go from here? |
We eventually spotted a second portage sign and got to the other side of a relatively easy 450M trail. The second half of the Tim River was quite a bit different than the first half. After exiting the more densely forested area, the river opened up into more of a marsh where the river itself became much wider. The vegetation was also quite different with patches of purple flowers and lilies. The opened up portion of the river and the lack of cover from the treeline also made it quite windy. And no matter direction we were paddling, we always seemed to be paddling into a headwind.
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| So nice. |
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| Keep paddling Liz...its not break time yet. |
Our plan was to complete the Tim River by 5PM, giving us
ample time to head across Shippagew Lake and cross the last portage into Blue
Lake for a relatively early evening dinner. However, by 5PM, we were
still somewhere on the Tim River (our actual location was unknown) and we were
all starting to get worried that we might not make our campsite. How far
had we actually paddled along the river? Where would we camp for the
night? Most importantly, who was going to save us? Tired, dehydrated and
generally cranky, we came around another large bend in the river and
encountered a delightful surprise, a
moose lounging by the edge of the shore munching on vegetables. Amazing! Our first full-on moose encounter. We kept our distance on the other side of the
river and I pulled out my camera to get some shots. After about half an hour of creeping on the
moose, and feeling the impending sunset approaching, and no idea how much
longer we needed to paddle, we decided to move on. However, this moose was not going to be
disturbed from her meal. Yelling and splashing
in the water did not scare her away, so we decided to gun it past her on the
far side of the river.
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| Moose minding her own business chowing down on some lunch. |
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| Quick...paddle away Gill and Rems! |
Safely downstream from the moose, it was time to set in and
finish off our day’s journey.
The final
section of the Tim River becomes even more marshy and the water gently meanders
around large groves of water reeds.
We
finally came to a large opening, the location where the Tim River empties into
Shippagew Lake.
Nearly 6PM and with the sun
starting to set, we quickly paddled across the lake and located the portage to
Blue Lake.
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| Pure muscle getting the canoe to the dock. |
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| Liz...last portage! |
Of course, nothing was going
to be easy for us today. The take out
for the portage was located in the middle of about 20 meters of dense vegetation. Too deep to get out and walk the
canoe up to the dock, but also muddy enough to stop the canoe from moving, Liz
and I spent 15 minutes dragging ourselves with our paddles to the dock. A quick unload and dash across the 950M portage
and we were ready to find our campsite and call it a day. By now, it was
7.30PM, and we were losing light quickly, but with only one campsite on Blue
Lake, it was easily located. By 8PM the
boyz were pitching the tents while the girlz started dinner. What a day; 12 hours of paddling and portages,
mooses sightings and merciless marshes, ecstatic emotions and exhausted bodies. After a quick meal, we all retired to our
tents and crashed for the night.
Day 3
Blue Lake to Big Trout Lake (840M portage)
Day 3 was a light travel day for us. Our only
goal was to get over one small portage from Blue Lake to Big Trout Lake and
locate an ideal campsite to relax at for the next two days.
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| Only one portage today...or two? What are you guys doing? |
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| Beautiful patch of lilies on the exit to the portage. |
After a short
paddle, we found the most amazing campsite, definitely a 5-star resort.
The massive site had a little bit of everything, a long shallow sandy beach to
easily dock our canoes and have relaxing swims, a brand new bench and fire pit
that must have been constructed just for this season, a rock outcropping
overlooking the lake and lots of wood for me to make.
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| Nice bench Liz. |
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| Nice beach for LF7 to rest. |
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| Gill capturing the day. |
The whole day was spent setting up our
tents, washing clothes, collecting wood, making wood, eating and unwinding. In the
evening, the sky turned dark and the wind began to pick up. We decided it
was time to employ the tarp which always turns into a great logistical
puzzle. After an hour of struggle with tying
the tarp down to various trees and vines, we had our sagging blue canopy set up
and ready to protect us from the elements. A little chattime and a little scotch, and we called it a night early.
Day 4
Day 4 was our much needed rest day. No portaging, no paddling, no moving. Time to rest and relax and get our reading and sunning on. And what a relief too since my back was absolutely wrecked and I could barely move from a horizontal position. But it turned out to be a gloriously sunny day.
By Day 4, we had all settled into our individual campsite roles:
- Camp-Mom (Gill): Responsible for organizing and cleaning the campsite
- Chef (Liz): Responsible for cooking meals and giving J half of her lunches and dinners
- Pyro-tech (Rems): Responsible for keeping us warm and maintaining FireTV at night
- Whittler (Jonathan): Responsible for preparing excessive amounts of wood
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| J's wood pile...for one night...we definitely need all this wood...for one night... |
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| Liz maxing and relaxing. |
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| Rems soloing it. |
Chef Liz says: Cooking with dehydrated "meat"- a prepared package from MEC ended up working out really nicely. We created a tasty veggie soy chili, soups with couscous (for extra texture and calories) and had cheesy pasta (Annie's white cheddar shells- like KD but better) mixed with salmon and topped with chili flakes for extra heat.
Whittler says: Mmmm...delish delish.
Day 5
Big Trout Lake to White Trout Lake
White Trout Lake to Grassy Bay to McIntosh Creek
McIntosh Creek to McIntosh Lake (750M and 510M portage)
McIntosh Lake to Timberwolf Lake (400M portage)
Timberwolf Lake to Misty Lake (840M portage)
Day 5 was going to be another long travel day, and right from the start it was looking like the weather was not going to cooperate. The morning started off cloudy with a slight drizzle, but after about an hour of paddling on Big Trout Lake, the wind turned violent and the rain became a downpour. We ended up having a couple of tricky paddles this day. The first was crossing Big Trout Lake which occurred during what seemed like the height of the storm. Pouring rain, aggressive chop and a strong headwind all combined for a frightening paddle to the other side of the lake. A second daunting section of our paddle was the crossing of White Trout Lake. As we entered the lake from Big Trout, we came across a group of campers who asked us if we wanted to dock up and take a break? We declined and they wished us luck, not realizing how much we were going to need it. Circling around their campsite, and coming into the full face of the wind, the chop picked up and the wind tried to thrust the canoe in the opposite direction. We quickly realized why those campers had chosen to wait until the storm had passed.
Realizing that we could not take the most efficient route
across the lake, we stuck to the shoreline and slowly creeped our way to Grassy
Bay. An hour later, the wind started to
let up and the rain began to die down. Winding
our way through Grassy Bay, a large confusing marsh complete with traffic signs
to help guide paddlers, we reached the
very narrow and winding McIntosh Creek.
We encountered at least two larger groups of campers consisted of 3-4
canoes each.
Chef Liz says: This was the sole point in the trip where I almost lost it and wanted to cry while paddling across the windy open water. Liz screamed, "I hate this!" while thrashing her paddle into the choppy waters. I let her keep on screaming because it seemed to help with the intensity of her paddling. Like Jekyll and Hyde, she immediately became her pleasant self upon reaching the next portage.
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| She a BIG dam. |
The last part of our paddle this day was across the large Misty Lake. Like Day 2, we got to this lake pretty late in the day. Campsites were quite far apart, and from what we could tell, most of them were already occupied by other campers. The most unique island sites were definitely already taken. Team strategy: head for the far end of the lake that was closer to the portage we would need to take the next day and hope there was an available campsite. Although tired and worried about where we would stay, the beauty of this lake was hard to ignore. With the last bit of energy we could muster, we made it to the other side of Misty Lake and located a nice campsite perched on huge rock outcropping.
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| We made it... |
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| Team duck heading home too. |
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| So nice. |
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| Star shot. |
Chef Liz says: Can't quite recall what we ate this day. I think it was couscous though. Always nice to plan a meal with little prep on your difficult days on the water.
Day 6
Misty Lake to Little Misty Lake (940M portage)
Little Misty Lake to Daisy Lake (450M and 130M portage)
Daisy Lake to Hambone Lake (420M portage)
This day was a pretty light travel day for us. A few small portages and a campsite at Hambone Lake would put us about 30 minutes from the access point for our last day on the trip. We would also get the opportunity to paddle some of the day along the Petawawa River. In fact, the Petawawa River was the location of our second and most spectacular moose sighting on the trip. Only a few minutes from the Daisy Lake portage, we came around a bend in the river and came face to face with a moose wading in the water. This guy was literally 20 meters in front of us. We decided to try and paddle by, but this might have been ill advised. The moose decided to cross in front of our canoe and eventually made his way up the bank and into the forest, but not before giving us a little scare and literally being a matter of a couple of paddle lengths from Liz.
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| Liz's camping animal came to say hi. |
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| Should we get closer...ummm...maybe no. |
Chef Liz: Ran into a food emergency at lunch. We realized we needed a portable meal so our wraps became extremely valuable. We made peanut butter and jelly wraps and sardine wraps with dijon mustard. That dijon mustard splurge purchase in Huntsville was proving useful. J was still so hungry that he was squirting dijon mustard on its own into his mouth. Our lengthy day had made us deliriously hungry and ridiculous.
For dinner, we had one of our favourite hot meals of the trip. We prepared a red lentil daal, served with Minute Rice (in a bag!!!!). Turns out Minute Rice in a bag is a pretty decent idea. Also, it was just so nice to have a hot meal at the end of a rewarding day of physical activity.
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| Liz cooking daal. |
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| Biggest poking stick ever...awesome. |
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| Sear portrait studio. |
We got to our campsite with time to have a little relaxation time and fun. We ended up with a great swimming spot and the most beautiful sunset for our entertainment at night (https://vimeo.com/72191035). One last chance to finish off our bottle of scotch and reminisce about the best experiences of the trip and how short it seemed.
Day 7
Hambone Lake to Magnetawan Lake (140M portage)
Most of the evening on Day 6 and Day 7 was spent planning our first meal upon our return to Toronto. Ramen? No...not enough meat. McDonalds, well of course, but that is just an appetizer for a later meal. Sushi? All you can eat sushi? SUSHI SUSHI SUSHI!
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| Paddling out of Algonquin on our last day. |
So hungry, so ready to overeat, so ready for sushi. We made a quick b-line for the last portage of our trip and Magnetawan Lake. We made it to the partay-van in less than a couple of hours packed up our gear and headed out of the park.
What an amazing trip and what a feeling of achievement after completing this loop. I couldn't believe how quickly a week had passed us by. Looking back and trying to document what we saw and experienced on the trip was extremely difficult. There were too many sights, sounds and stories to be able to relay them all. I only scratched the surface of what we managed to see and do on our week in Algonquin.
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| McDonalds! Should have brought some on the trip. |
