Managed to get to Algonquin Park at the end of June (June 18-21st). Great, if short, trip.

Here’s the run down:
June 18th
- Jim and Elsie’s Diner on the way up to the access point was superb. The big breakfast is… big.
- Relatively easy portages into North Tea.
- Great little creek paddle.
- Amusing light post/street light in front of a cottage just where the river merges before heading to North Tea.
- North Tea was pretty calm – nice long paddle across North Tea to Biggar.
- Bugs were worse than last year’s Dickson Loop (at about the same time of year), but not severely so.
- Camp site was pretty good, though I picked a slope-y patch of land to pitch my tent and woke up several times in the middle of the night. Bob paddled around the rest of Biggar while we setup to see if there was a better site. As we predicted would likely be the case before he left, but we were too lazy, tired, set-up, hungry to move.
- An older group were across the way were at what was likely the best site on the lake. When we put in, the park staff assured us we were the only booking on that lake that evening and they certainly didn’t pass us on North Tea or beat us from some other access point. Which leads me to believe they were squatting. Ah well, I hope I’m still as active when I’m that age! It isn’t as though we all haven’t not-quite-made-it-as-far-as-we’d-hoped on some trip in the past…
- Salmon and veggies for dinner. I’m told the wine was pretty good too. It’s as heavy as bricks, but we eat like kings!

June 19th
- Tasty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast.
- The day was spent crossing puddles where we could see the next portage at the put in to the previous ones. Bob often didn’t bother properly putting his kayak’s holds back together properly as he was just going to have to take it all out again in two minutes.
- These portages were mostly uphill, mostly buggy, though at least one was significantly along a logging trail. I finally lost my mind and threw my bug jacket on.
- We made it to Three Mile Island where nesting ospreys made it very clear we weren’t welcome.
- The site was spectacular. It had it all: easy pull up for canoes, large flat area for the tents, a great campfire area complete with benches, and a big rock to go swimming off of.
- Steak and veggies for dinner. And more wine. Hard liquor was also available. You know, given that I don’t drink, I wonder how much lighter all our packs would have been if we weren’t carrying in so much alcohol…

June 20th
- Up near the campfire, while we were eating breakfast, we found a turtle trying to lay eggs. She’d managed to turn up the soil a fair bit, but in the couple of hours it took to eat, pack and leave, she hadn’t managed to lay a single one.
- Another day of uphill portages.
- On the final portage into North Tea Lake, Dave spotted a fishing cabin across the waterfalls and went to inspect.
- Dave had a flight to catch and I had a dinner to be at in the city the evening of the 21st. Not wanting to be late for either, we pushed through to the west arm of North Tea Lake where we stayed on a little island. You can tell from the GPS track that we tried a site on the north shore first. It was so infested with bugs I think we would have summoned the energy to make it to the cars had there not been other options!
- Bob went out in his kayak to scrounge the shore for firewood.
- Food was dehydrated Chillimac & cheese and Cashew Chicken. Tasty, but not as good as real food. Thankfully we had a few veggies (and more alcohol…) left over!

June 21st
- Back out the way we came in. Pretty uneventful until the end. Bob threatened to drink the remainder of the drinks at the outfitters if he got there first. I threatened him with his life if he did. We were both a little dismayed – the outfitter outdid us both and was closed when we arrived!
- In need of calories, Jim and Elsie’s diner again! I had a grilled peameal and cheese sandwich. Best I’ve ever had. I’m sure the food was good, but I give most of the credit to the fact that pretty much anything tastes good after you’ve been in the backcountry for a few days!

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By the looks of things, I’ll be in Algonquin Park for June 17-21 (Friday night – Tuesday) this year. There is one spot left in our six person trip, if anyone is interested in joining us. If you are, please send me email privately. (Stephanie and Sarah are going to stay in Toronto.)

With Sarah at 7 mos pregnant, we decided to go somewhere we’d been before. Penn lake! We did day trips south and west to the neighbouring lakes, leaving all our gear at Penn. This let us explore more of the backcountry without Sarah being too concerned about overexertion.

Penn Lake has two beautiful waterfalls at the south end (one at each portage). Both are well worth investigation. (See photos.)

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June 11 – 14, 2010

Dave, Harold, Bob and I went on this epic adventure, which included a 5K portage and paddling Opeongo in one day. Thankfully the lake was as flat as a mirror on the way out. Dave and Harold stayed on extra night (half way down Opeongo) and had a frightening time getting out the next day. Bob slipped as he sat down and cracked the front seat of Timon’s canoe, causing it to crack. Thankfully the repair was relatively cheap and easy.

We saw a tremendous amount of wildlife during the trip, including five moose and a deer.

Itinerary (see GPS track and photos for details):
- Opeongo Taxi to the north end of the north arm of the lake.
- Paddle north to the ranger cabin which we had rented for the first night. There is a spectacular hike up to the old fire tower that is well worth doing even if you’re just paddling through. Even though you can not climb the tower, it is perched upon a beautiful (and extremely high) point of land, allowing an unparalleled view of the park.
- Paddle to Lake L. for the second day.
- Paddle to Dickson the next day.
- Portage 5K and paddle Opeongo, drive home. We were extremely lucky that Opeongo on the way out was as flat as a mirror. The original plan was a second night at Dickson and to take a water taxi home. The day was so inviting, we couldn’t just sit around the campsite at Dickson. We had to get on the water!

Here’s the map and photos:

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Over the May 21-24 weekend, Sarah, Victoria, James and Stitch went to Algonquin Park. That morning, on the way to work, we unfortunately learned that Bill had been struck by an airplane. After two evenings (one at Tea Lake campground and one on Burnt Island) of being eaten alive by bugs and concerned about Bill’s well being, we headed out of the park on the Sunday instead of staying all the way through the long weekend.

There is not a lot to report about the actual trip – it was a nice relaxing weekend but the bugs were bad. The site we stayed at was exceptional for families – complete with a beach and large boulder that overlooked the lake.

Since this area is such a well travelled part of the park, it was fairly busy (relative to the rest of the park so early in the season), but the put ins and takeouts are pretty well developed to handle the traffic. We had three people and gear in one canoe (ie. pretty minimalistic) so we were able to easily one-carry our gear and get ahead of other groups.

As we got further into the park, it quieted down significantly.

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Matt, Catherine, Fares, Sarah and James went to Achray for a 24-hour trip from the put in at Achray campground down to Squirrel Rapids. We spent the night at Opalesence Lake. We hiked above the Barron Canyon before setting out after lunch from the Achray access point.

We called the Ministry of Natural Resources and confirmed you can park at Squirrel if you plan on using the access point at Achray campground. It’s permitted, so we basically left a car down at Squirrel and did a one-way trip, using that car to rescue the other car from the campground before heading home.

More photos: Photos!

Porcupine Lake – our first trip with David and Victoria!

Still mosquito season, but we were able to find relief in a relatively open campsite.

This was a relatively simple “destination camping” trip: we paddled down Smoke, Ragged and Porcupine easily in one day and setup camp on one of the islands at the north end of the main body of Porcupine. From here, we did various day trips into neighbouring Bon Chere lake and around Porcupine and spent a lot of time reading books, talking and relaxing. Aside from not having spent enough money on gear yet to make the portages comfortable (we were still lugging our big green metal briefcase Coleman stove!), the only hiccup was that we found out first thing in the AM that we weren’t going to be able to load the rental canoe onto the canoe blocks we’d borrowed from Timon. Victoria and I paddled the boat down the creek from Tea Lake Campground (where we stayed the night before the trip) through Smoke Creek and met Sarah and David who had taken the car to the Smoke Lake access point. The GPS was with James and Victoria, so you can see this leg of the trip on the map. Note that the Smoke Lake access point is the track at the end of the trip (as that’s where the car was parked). We then portaged the rental canoe north to the Canoe Lake access point to return it. The portage from Rugged to Porcupine is pretty steep and “rooty” and in some books that we read, was (one of many portages in the park) called the Devil’s Staircase. I’m not sure it’s that bad, but it was steeper than most of the ones we’ve seen in the park.

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Sarah, Matt, and I did our first trip into Algonquin park August 2008. Despite having done a lot of car camping, we had no idea what we were doing, and it showed. We borrowed a canoe from our friend Timon and rented a kayak from one of the outfitters. We didn’t plan any portages, which was our saving grace. We stayed at the border between the north and south arms of Opeongo. Opeongo was rough that day, as it often is. Just as we were closing in on our desired campsite, we saw a literal wall of water charging towards us out of the north. The rain was so heavy we couldn’t see the opposing shore. Before it hit us, we saw a nice looking sheltered site and decided to make it home. We just got the tents up before the rain hit.

Opeongo settled down to a perfect mirror several days later and we used that as our opportunity to head closer to the access point. We spent the last night across from the access point and Matt and I even paddled over at dusk to buy a bag of chips!