Location: Algonquin Park, Ontario
Price: Don't remember, but as of 2012-13 the current fee is $11.75/person/night, plus a parking fee.
Distance Covered: Approx. 28km there and back (not counting elevation on portages and wrong turns).
Links:
Links:
Trip Breakdown
This was one of the most exciting trips we've had to date. I was a little more organized in terms of taking pictures and videos so I have more to show. It was a pretty difficult trip. We had to cross two big lakes and we got turned around trying to locate the portage, which was only one hundred meters. However, the trip was mostly exciting because we got caught in a snow storm. Cold!
Itinerary
The plan for this trip was really simple. We only stayed one night this time, so we couldn't go as far, but I still wanted to do a fair trek. We met in Whitney Ontario,Access Point 13, sometime in the early morning, and drove up to the East Gate of the park to get our permits and such. Back down to Whitney, packed the canoe and headed off through Galeairy Lake. Near the end we had some trouble finding the portage and ended up getting turned around as a result. We took a break on an Island, had a snack and planned our next move. It paid off, we were headed in the right direction and saw some people come out from the inlet. I'm not sure I'm remembering the portage correctly, but I feel like it was a little narrow, rocky and a couple little hills. By the time we got out of the portage we were pretty tired so we paddle into Rock Lake a little way and set up camp. It must have been around one or two in the afternoon by then.
Lakes & Portages
These lakes were pretty nice, standards lakes. They're a nice distance for a good paddle. There are lots of little bays and inlets to explore throughout Galeairy which may have contributed to us getting lost near the end. There seems to be more traffic on Rock Lake, I know there's a camp ground at the north end. Since we stopped at the third campsite we saw, we didn't end up exploring much of the lake. In the the end it was probably a good thing we didn't go much further.
Our campsite was in a bay on the side of a cliff. The cliff was cool and
we had a pretty decent view of the lake. When we were ready to start the fire it was getting pretty windy. So, we set up a tarp between the fire and the lake to help cut down on the wind. It was a nice campsite, a log bench, a plywood table, and it was pretty flat, which is always nice for sleeping. Despite all that, it didn't seem like the best spot to be in when we woke up the next morning.
The Storm
So, it rained pretty hard all night, and it was windy, very windy. Oh yeah! Did I mention the cold. It was cold, very very cold. Like, I'm wearing my wool socks and three shirts in my sleeping bag, kind of cold. Lucky for us it was clear when we got out of the tent. Not lucky for us, by the time we started cooking breakfast we could see more of the storm come towards us from across the lake. We cooked breakfast as fast as possible. It was actually really awesome. Bacon, toasted baguette and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and Jarlsberg cheese.
Anyway, back to storm. We scarf our breakfast as fast as we can and duck inside the tent for cover just as it starts to pour. This wasn't so bad, we often keep a lot of our stuff under the little shelter flaps at each door of the tent. So, this way we were able to pack up most of our gear while waiting for a lull in the storm. Quickly we packed up our tent and remaining gear, tossed everything in the canoe and took off. Now this is the fun part. Thankfully the water in the bay was fairly calm because at the edge of the bay were three foot waves that would soon be traveling diagonally across our bow. Normally this wouldn't be too big a deal, but considering we were in a bay the waves would be pushing us right back in, and in this case, straight towards the big rock cliff. We had to be sure we could paddle across the waves, out around the cliff and there wasn't much room. So, we headed towards the opposite side of the bay. When we reached the edged we had to swing the canoe around quickly so the waves wouldn't push us over. Now we were ridding the waves.
It was awesome! I wish I could have got a video, but that would have been a bad idea. It would have been pretty sweet to ride the waves all the way home but the water calmed down once we got out around the cliff. The whole time it was snowing and I did manage to get a photo and video of some of that. From then on it was more or less smooth sailing all the way home. Then sun even came out a little.
This concludes Trip 3. Bellow you can check out the video of us caught in the storm. Come back for more. :-)
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