Western Uplands Trail 2004
[Home]
Rob, feeling a little left out after having to cancel his participation in the Gros Morne trip, had booked a three
day hike on the Western Uplands Trail in Algonquin park for the following weekend. It did take too much convincing
to get myself to come along. Rob, his partner Amber, and myself did this trip.
Got up a early and slightly hung over from a little bit of beer drinking last night. Rob drove over with Amber just
after 06:00 and we drove to Algonquin Park. Stopped for a really good breakfast in Arnprior. It rained a little as we
drove, but by the time we arrived at the trailhead the sun was shining. The hike was fairly easy. Gentle hills and
a well marked trail which was well cleared in most places.
There was strange fungi everywhere. We stopped many
times to observe.
There were many other people on the trail. At first we passed several day hikers, but then got in further
and just saw back packers. We had lunch along the trail on some logs that had fallen over the trail and been
chainsawed, making perfect stools to sit on. After a few hours, we reached Maggie Lake and found a campsite right away.
It was not the nicest spot, so Rob and I went scoutin while Amber stayed with the packs. I hiked along the Southern
shore and found a couple other mediocre sites, quite a ways away. Rob went the other direction and found a site covered
with garbage. In the end, we decided to stay where we were.
After supper, Rob went for a swim in the frigid water. He
tried to convince Amber and I to come in, but we were enjoying being dry on the bank. There is a roaring buzzing noise
in the trees as I write this. There are no biting insect bothering us now, but it sure sounds like a swarm is
approaching. The sound is getting louder and louder as the sun sinks in a fiery splendor down at the far end of the
lake.
Later, we had a small fire and drank a little scotch and some rum. The insect noise died down, fortunately with no
biting critters to bother us. After sitting around the campfire chatting for a couple hours, we went to bed.
Slept great last night except for a few wake up calls from the loons during the wee hours of the morning. Got up just
before sunrise and made a cup of coffee. I sat reading my book and watching the sun rise until Rob and Amber got up.
Ate a breakfast of eggs and sausages, then packed up and hit the trail.
The day was beautiful, sunny bit not too hot.
We saw very few people on the trail today, only a couple other parties. Again we saw
lots of unusual fungi, doing their
part to break down the many fallen trees back to the earth. Rob found a skittle (a green one) on the trail. We
had lunch again beside the trail on some chainsawed trees. Shortly after, we encountered
a snake that was eating a frog.
It took it a while, but we stayed and observed as first the body, and then the back legs disappeared into the
snake's jaw. Its belly full and buldging, the snake then slithered away. We snacked on blackberries as we hiked.
These were pretty small and sour, not at all like the big sweet juicy ones that you find along the west coast of Canada.
Early in the afternoon, we reached our campsite. There were two other parties of hikers kere having a late lunch break.
There are two sites here, almost side by side. We took the nice larger one, the other being tiny. Hopefully no large
party shows up later, otherwise we are going to have space problems. In fact, hopefully no small party shows up either,
as it would be nice to have the lake to ourselves. After a too long while, the last lunching couple left our site and
we could settle in. They were headed to Maggie Lake, but since it was getting later in the afternoon, they were attired
in tennis shoes, and had trouble finding their way 50m back to the main trail, I wonder if they will make it by sunset.
We all went for a quick dip to get cleaned off and refreshed. There were swarms of little tiny fish which would nibble
on your legs if you stood still in the water. We heard some crashing sounds at the far side of the lake, and then a
female moose emerged from the forest and spent quite a while in the water taking her own bath. I managed to throw the
rope over a tree for the food in one throw. I am attributing this to the couple ounces of Glenfiddich that I had
consumed shortly before. It is very quiet and peaceful here.
The only sounds are a few chirping frogs and a loon
which is splashing around playfully in the center of the lake. For supper we had an "Indian Buffet". Essentially this
entailed cooking up a large pot of couscous (much easier than rice on a camping stove), and then boiling 4 different
boil bagged curries. It was excellent. If only we had a bit of naan bread, things could not have been better. We sat
around a small fire for the rest of the evening and finished off the Glenfiddich and some rum. While putting out the
fire, Rob and I saw lots of little glowing things down by the watter. They were much like fireflys, but they were not
blinking. They must have been some small insects, but we could not isolate the source. A mystery to solve at a later
time.
I got up with the sun again and read by the lake while drinking coffee and chasing an annoying chipmunk repeatedly
away from the food bags. It was cloudy, but did not look like it was going to rain. Amber and Rob got up and we had
breakfast together, although we were eating different things. A pair of loons swam by as I ate. Rob took another quick
swim and then we packed up and hit the trail. The first few kilometers were
much more technical than it has been for
the past couple of days. Some sections were fairly steep, but all were tackled without too much difficulty. At Dace
Lake we decided to make an ammendment to the marked route. We took an overgrown portage trail, and crossed some swampy
area to a small campsite where we had a short snack. After some map study and a bit of compass measurement, we figured
out that the portage trail was not located correctly on the map. Anyway, we decided to head cross country to get back
to the main trail, saving us about 2 km. The bush was not too dense, so the going was fairly easy. A couple parts were
very steep, but there were plenty of tree roots to use to pull ourselves up. After climbing about 60 or 70 meters, we
got back on the main trail and hiked down to Guskewau Lake. Here we had lunch at an empty campsite, where some
thoughtless campers had previously choppped down a large tree with an axe for firewood. There was toilet paper
everywhere. In fact, this whole hike has been littered with toilet paper. There are privies at every campsite, yet
people still cannot seem to use them. The least they could do is bury or burn their freakin asswipe away from the
tent pads and trailside! The remainder of the hike was down a gentle slope on
a very smooth path. It did not take long
to complete this last 4 km. We crossed the bridge back to the parking lot, where we saw our first humans of the day.
The sun finally came out for the drive home, which was pretty uneventful.
[Home]