Killarney Day 2

July 2, 2012 - David Lake and Silver Peak Summit - 10 km paddle, 3 portages, 8 km hike

Woke up to a beautiful morning and read my book by the lake while drinking coffee. Had a breakfast of eggs, sausages, and potatoes before breaking camp and paddling off. At the portage trail we met the father/son team from the day before (this time with our clothes on) and chatted a bit. They were off on a week long adventure as well. We quickly passed them and then paddled off on the next lake which was really a swamp. For the next few kilometers we paddled through a sea of lily pads, most of them in full bloom. Passed several turtles sunning themselves on the logs. Islands of floating swamp muck made for a bit of a maze that we had to carefully steer through, lest we get the boat stuck. A woman paddling a solo canoe with two dogs on board passed going the opposite direction. She asked about the next portage and lamented that the 400m one she just came off of was very difficult. We arrived at said portage and quickly carried over this well maintained trail to the next lake. Another short paddle brought us to the third and final portage of the day. On David Lake we paddled to the far west side hoping to score one of the four campsites along there. After passing many other occupied sites, we arrived and none of them seemed to be taken. We stopped at the first, declared it suitable and set up camp for two nights. After lunch, we decided that since it was such a nice day, we might as well climb Silver Peak today instead of tomorrow as originally planned. Packed a bag with water, some food and other supplies and set off bushwacking up to the ridgeline where we intersected the La Cloche trail. It was very hot up here as the sun was blazing, and the white stone underfoot reflected the heat from below as well. There were also lots of ripe blueberries so we made a note to pick some later. We hiked on down the trail and after about 2 hours found ourselves on the summit of Killarney Park. There was a bit of light scrambling up the quartzite steps and this was quite fun. After a brief break and soaking up of the views, we headed back down. The water was running out so had to ration it and hike along in thirsty mode for a while. We passed a stinky swamp, but bypassed this as I knew a clear lake was another 400m up the trail. Arrived there, bushwacked a bit to find a suitable spot on the shore, and filled two liters with the filter. Drank over half of what we just filled before carrying on. Back up on the ridge we stopped and collected a small bag of blueberries for tomorrow's pancake breakfast. Back at camp had a quick snooze and a swim before supper.

Another nice day.