Algonquin Park 2004
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Thanksgiving weekend 2004, Emily, Rob, Amber and I decided to do a three day tour of the Baron Canyon. This area is
a more popular place of Algonquin Park, but if you select Lakes to camp on that are off the main channel, privacy can
be had.
Our route was as follows.
- Grand Lake to St. Andrews Lake
- St. Andrews Lake to Cork Lake
- Cork Lake to Squirrel Rapids
I still have not developed the photos from within the canyon. I will post them once available.
Rob and Amber drove over to our house early in the morning and we convoyed together to Arnprior for some breakfast.
Emily and I were driving her parents car which they graciously have lent us for the weekend. After a very good meal,
we drove to the outfitter on Baron Canyon Road and picked up some rental canoes. They are very light kevlar ones.
Lighter than I am used to. Portaging should be easy on this trip. We drove to Achray and dropped off the canoes.
Amber and Emily stayed while Rob and I spent the next hour shuttling a car down to the take out point at Squirrel
Rapids. We saw a bicycle locked to a tree. Someone had the same idea that I had, had Rob not decided to join us with a
second car. That is, drop a bike off at the take out, park the car at the put-in, and then use the bicycle to fetch the
car on the last day. Anyway, we have two cars now, one at each end, so all is good. We had a quick lunch on
the beach at Grand Lake
and then paddled out. The wind was howling and we fought it for the next hour or so in
rough seas. Emily and I reached
the other side of the lake first and took shelter behind a bunch of rocks while waiting for Rob and Amber. We found a
pair of shoes on the shore that someone must have left behind by mistake. We paddled down
calmer waters in the narrow
channel to the first portage. This was a 30m and took all of three minutes to get everything across. There were a
couple other canoes and we asked their operators about the shoes, but alas, they were not the owners. We paddled out
onto Stratton Lake. Now the wind was at our backs so we coasted easily along for the next five kilometers or so at a
good clip. The trees were gorgeous.
Stunning yellows and reds covered the tops of the hills surrounding us. The next
portage was a grueling 45m and took about 4 minutes to get across. We paddled a short distance onto St. Andrews Lake
and found a beautiful campsite on a penninsula. A little bit exposed because of the high winds, but we decided to stay.
There is a cable strung up to hang the food. This is the first time I have seen such a contraption in this park. It is
kind of handy, as all the trees around here are tall thin pines with no branches. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon
away, keeping warm with hot coffee and soups. Rob was crazy enough to go for a swim.
He did not last very long in the
water though! We cooked up a big tofu-vegetable stir-fry for supper and then spent the rest of the evening sitting
around the fire, as darkness fell very early and the night was chilly.
Got up and read my book for a while and made coffee. A light drizzle threatened further rain, but it did not manifest
any worse. The wind was still blowing, but not as hard as it was last night. We ate a hearty breakfast of eggs,
sausages, and homefries. As we were eating, several Gray Jays flittered around and ate any food we dropped or held in
our hands. After packing up camp we paddled out into the wind. There were two canoes ahead of us and two behind, and
of course, we all collided at the portage, making for a crowded carry. We
treked over this quickly to Ooze lake, which
lived up to its name.
Emily got stuck in the mud up to here waist while approaching the shore, and it took both myself
and Amber to pull her out. As I carried the canoe, I carefully stepped around the mudhole and then promptly fell into
another one where Emily had to pull me out. The group of four people in front of us were confused and a bit lost. We
showed them on the map where they were, and they realized that they had taken the wrong portage. They decided to
continue as they could get to Brigham Lake via this route. We had a quick snack and then paddled across Ooze, which was
very mucky and shallow in parts. It also stank. The next portage brought us to Opalescent Lake which was beautiful.
We watched the four people in front of us paddle off... towards the wrong end of the lake. We caught up to them and
directed them back to the other end to the Brigham portage. A short portage
brought us to Cork Lake where we were
alone. Emily took the stern this time and steered us to the far end of the lake where we picked the most sheltered of
the two campsites, as the wind was now howling again. We had lunch, then set up camp, then fell asleep for a while.
When booking this lake, the reservation agent commented "No one goes to Cork Lake, are you sure you want to go there?".
I am glad we did because the
lake is beautiful and there is no one here but us. The campsite looks like it has not
been used in a long time. We lit a fire early to keep warm in the cold wind and cooked up an Indian buffet of boil bags
and couscous. Spent the rest of the night sitting around the fire, drinking red wine and dark rum.
Last night I did something incredibly stupid. I put the candle lantern inside the vestibule of the
brand new tent.
This in itself was fine. It gave us light as we set up sleeping arrangements. The problem was, I decided to leave
the tent for a minute to go pee. The vestibule of this tent falls inwards when unzipped, and it fell right on the
lantern, burning two holes in it. Oh well, the tent is broken in now. My old tent had a much better vestibule design.
Unfortunately, it disintegrated last camping trip after six years of hard use, hence the new tent this trip. It got
very cold over night, but thanks to sleeping bag liners, we kept toasty warm. I awoke to daylight, got up and woke
everyone else up to get an early start. We cooked up a pancake breakfast on the two stoves,
where everyone had a chance at being the chef.
After packing up and grabbing a group photo, we hit the lake.
A quick paddle brought us to the
first portage to get back to Opalescent Lake. Another 1 km paddle brought us down to the end of the lake. We saw two
other canoes, but fortunately the were heading to the Ooze Lake poertage, so we had the Birgham Lake portage to
ourselves.
Another short carry, followed by a short paddle and two more short portages brought
us to the Baron River.
We had lunch by the shore here on a large dead log that
stood erect far out over the water. We then paddled out for
a long haul through the canyon.
The scenery here is quite spectacular. 100m cliffs rise straight out of the water.
Unlike the last time I paddled through this area, too awestruck to do anything but look up, this time we stopped and got
several photos. We watched a group of rock climbers scale the cliff. We also amused ourselves by shouting and
listening to the echoes. A paddle rapped against the gunnel sounded like a gunshot. The sun also decided to make an
appearance, and for the first time, we were very warm. After about an hour and a half of paddling, we reached the final
portage. Here we met others on the carry for the first time today. Two men were having lunch beside the waterfall that
this carry skirted around. What a nice change from the crowds we encountered yesterday. Another kilometer or so of
paddling brought us to squirrel rapids and Rob's car. Amber and Emily waited with the canoes, while Rob and I drove
back up to Achray to get the other car. Once this was done, we loaded up the canoes and drove back to the outfitters.
Rob and Amber had to get back to Ottawa for Thanksgiving supper so they said goodbye and rushed off, while Emily and I
drove home at a more relaxed pace, stopping for supper along the way.
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