Frontenac Park 2003
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I had never done a multi-day hike before, so when Rob suggested one over the Canada Day weekend there was
little hestitation in agreeing. Emily joined us as well and we set out on a four day, fairly relaxing loop around
Frontenac Provincial Park.
Rob drove over with Ilona's car around 08:30 and we hit the road towards Frontenac. While waiting at the first
traffic light, some kid rear ended us. Fortunately there was no damage and we were on our way before the light changed.
Stopped in Perth for a brief break and then got lost several times trying to get out the right road because none of the
routes are marked. We took several further wrong turns to get to the park, but finally found it after travelling a
long way down a windy dirt road. We checked in and parked the car at Arab lake. Before leaving we met a large family
who asked us to take their picture for them as they were embarking on their own journey.
After a brief walk, we stopped for lunch on a couple of fallen logs beside the trail. We continued on, seeing no other
people, a few deer,
snakes, and lots of chipmunks. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm, but with a light cool breeze.
We hiked down into a small gorge and took some photos of the scenery. The hike up the other side was steep, but not
unpassable. At the top we continued up to the summit of a small hill and took a break on some rocks and watched several
hawks flying above the gorge. A few kilometers later we came to our
reserved campsite, where we found another party
lounging around. After talking to them, they realized they were supposed to be on the next site over and moved.
Fortunately they had not set up camp yet, so this was not difficult for them. For the record, we did offer to trade
sites, but they were very apologetic and left. We set up camp by a small lake and cooked some supper. While eating,
the family that we had seen at the start of the trip showed up and were assigned the site adjacent to us. The sites
here are very small and packed close together. I feel like we are camping with the other family now, whether we like
it or not. I did watch this other group hang their food between two trees, something I have always wondered how it was
to be done, but never took the time to figure it out. It requires three ropes. Throw one rope over a branch close to
the trunk of tree 1. Throw another rope over a branch close to tree 2. Tie these two ropes together, loop rope 3
through the joint and haul the assembly up. Attach pack to rope 3
and haul it up into the air. Rob had brought a bottle of wine, so before going to bed we drank that and then sat
around a small fire a chatted for a while.
Slept really well last night. The air cooled slightly from the heat of the day, so it was perfect for a comfortable
sleep. The family next door was also very quiet, so the only sounds were the loons, which woke us up several times
with their seranades, and the multitudes of chipmunks foraging through the leaves on the forest floor. I got up around
06:00 and read for a couple of hours while Emily and Rob slept in. After cooking up a breakfast of sausages and
pancakes, we packed up and hit the trail.
The going today was fairly smooth. For the most part, the trail followed
old cartways, so it was wide and free of rocks. We did see some very interesting scenery of rock faces and hardwood
forests, lakes and beaver dams.
We found some wild strawberries at one point so got to enjoy a small snack from
nature.
We stopped for another snack at the halfway point to our campsite and ate some dried fruit, nuts, and gatorade. We
continued on, stopping frequently to examine the trail side plants and mushrooms. As we came up to the junction near
the campsite at hardwood bay, we ran into the family that camped beside us last night. They had taken a shorter route
and were camping with us again! This time they are on the far side of the cluster however. The site closest to us is
currently unoccupied, and hopefully it stays that way. We cooked up some lunch on our site before setting up camp. As
we did this, we noticed that the nice sunny day become dark,
and heard the roll of thunder. We quickly set up the tents and
finished our meal just before the storm hit. I guess I will be testing the new seam-seals I put on my tent last year...
the tent did not leak! The storm blew over after 15 or 20 minutes and a few lightning strikes. Got up, read for a
while, while Rob and Emily slept. They got up and we sat around talking for a while and watched a party of 3 canoes
arrive to the site next to us. They brought 4 tents, coolers, lawn chairs, and a tarp to string up over their campsite.
I feel like we are back-country car camping. The path to the privy goes right through our site so we are getting to
know our neighbours quite well. As we were cooking supper, a second storm hit, but we thwarted it by eating our KD and
weiners in the rain anyway, so it
cleared up
and we were treated to a rainbow which terminated on the island about 1km
out in the lake. We polished off a bottle of rum and then sat around the fire for a while, eating gummy bears,
before heading to bed.
It rained most of the night, yet still a group of the canoe campers stayed up half the night making a racket. At one
point Emily yelled at them to shut up. They quieted a little then, and we fell asleep. The morning arrived and we
awoke to another nice sunny day. The sun shone on the tents and dried them out as we ate a breakfast of granola and
coffee. After packing up, we hit the trail. The first interesting thing we passed was an old farm which had been
abandonned over 150 years ago. There was not much left except for a well, a broken fence, and the shotgun shelled
remains of a horse drawn carriage. The next thing we saw was an
old log cabin which we stopped and explored. It
overlooked the lake, so we rested on some rocks
for a while. The next part of the trail was an access road, so we
moved very quickly along this stretch for a couple kilometers. We hiked a bit off the route to a lookout, where we
sat on some rocks
overlooking a lake
and cooked some hot dogs for lunch. There was a motorboat with some young
children who spied us from below, and started yelling things up at us. At first we responded, but the game got tiring
for us very quickly, so we ignored them and they eventually went away. We continued on some very rugged terrain,
decending down steep slopes and climbing others. I almost fell once when I stepped on a large rock that suddenly
rolled over and slid down the hill. Then the terrain became very open, where we found many blueberry bushes, so we
snacked as we proceeded. As we came around a corner, I saw a large, actually huge, beaver mosying along towards me.
It did not seem to notice us and kept coming. We took some pictures and it
kept coming. Not wanting to startle it
when it was right beside us, we started making noise, at which point it finally looked up at us with a look on its face
like "Oh well, I guess I better turn around". At this point it turned and waddled slowly away. We
followed for quite some time
as it stayed on the trail, until finally it turned off into the bushes. Maybe we should have just stepped
off the path and let it pass in the first place. It probably would have never even looked up. A little further, we
came upon a fork in the trail. Neither direction was marked, and we explored down both branches, yet did not see any
trail markers on either. Figuring the right hand path headed in the general direction we were going, we chose that one.
It did go for a while, then it ended. We forged our own path through the woods for a while, until we struck a portage
trail, at which point we were back on track. A short hike later we found our campsite. This one is very beautiful, but
of course there are four sites all crammed together. Fortunately the other sites appear to have very quiet people,
much like ourselves. The water is perfectly clear so we went
swimming for a bit, but did not stay in long as it was
very cold. Cooked up a yummy dinner of Indian boil bag curries, and then played cards and relaxed around the fire for
the remainder of the evening.
Awoke to yet another clear and calm day. The night had been uterly silent except for the frogs which sang us lullabies
until we slept. I talked to one of our quiet neighbours, and it turned out that his party was just completing a four
day excursion as well. The next time I looked over at their site, they were gone. They had packed and left without a
sound. We had a pancake breakfast, then
packed up
and hit the trail a little earlier than usual. We saw a few other
people today, but it seemed that most of them were day trippers as they were not carrying any gear. The trail was more
of the same, with nothing too challenging. We stopped for a break at a beaver pond that was full of
flowering lily pads.
After a small snack, we continued on without stopping all the way to Arab Lake where the car was parked. We got
somebody to take our picture, then packed up and head home. The drive home was much less eventful the way up as we
stuck to the main roads. We tried to stop for lunch in Perth, but found everything closed since today is a national
holiday, so ended up just picking up some snacks at a gas bar along the highway.
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