At the annual canoe club planning meeting in November 2022, member Liz proposed a trip to Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada. Liz, Coleen and Steve, all members of the club bought land and built a house in Burk's Falls Canada. It's not just a house but a 6-8 bedroom mansion. It sits on 42 acres of land only one hour away from the Magnetawan Lake access for Algonquin. The route and dates were chosen and nine members committed to go into the backcountry.
Labor Day weekend Steve and Coleen arrived and opened "The House" followed two days later by Tony, Wil and Zach. They were tired after the 9.5 hour drive and soon everyone had a comfortable bed for the night. Tuesday September 5th Steve took the guys sight seeing in South River and Sundridge where they went to the Swift Canoe factory, the Chip shack for lunch (fries poutine) a brewery and a distillery. A stop in Burk's Falls for gas, snacks and seeing the falls wrapped up the tour. Arriving back at "The House", Coleen was relaxing on the porch in 90° heat. It wasn't long before Liz and Joann pulled in and just as they were sitting down to supper of hamburgers, hotdogs and all the fixings', Eric and Ron arrived as if on cue. To round out the group was Lance who was just staying at "The House" and doing day trips sight seeing. The 10 folks socialized until bedtime then slept with visions of paddling and portaging the next day.
PADDLING DAY and Liz was up around six or before making breakfast pizza for everyone. The kitchen was a bustling place as folks all chipped in to finish chores, then the boats were loaded, packs packed and off they went. It was an hour drive south, then east through the village of Kearney and then a 30 minute drive on an old logging road to the Algonquin Magnetawan Lake access point. It was a busy place as folks got off the lake and others going on. The nine paddlers loaded up and shoved off for the 200 yard paddle to the first portage. It was a 135 meter (145 yard) easy walk to Hambone Lake. All the distances up in Canadian land are in meters but mentally we used yards. Hambone was a little longer paddle then came the portage into Ralph Bice Lake, 322 yards. It was very hot and sunny day for a September day but the sweating felt great knowing they were working toward their destination of an island campsite on Ralph Bice Lake. The wind was getting stronger and they had to work a little harder to push canoes through the water. They found an open site that could accommodate 9 folks and 5 tents, got set up and relaxed in the 85° heat. Around 5:30pm the air changed. The breeze slowed and dark clouds formed on the horizon. Rain was imminent and at 6:18 they saw it coming across the lake. Some went into their tents and others under a tarp. The accompanying wind blew the rain sideways into the tarp and into Liz and Joann's tent as the tent door was left opened. Those two poor folks had wet gear for a chilly nights sleep. The rain finished at sunset showing some colors in the sky as darkness fell.
Day 2 in the backcountry was overcast and breezy but a nice 60°. Everyone just milled around, ate, relaxed and socialized. There were no other man made sounds except what the group made. Occasionally throughout the week in late afternoon they could hear a plane off in the distance but otherwise it was them and natural. The paddlers were paired as such: Tony, Joann and Eric were paddling solo. Steve and Coleen were tandem as was Liz and Ron and rounding it out was father-son Wil and Zach. Around 10:15am Ron, Tony and Eric took a paddle to check out the next days portage into Little Trout Lake. Getting back to camp it was noon time lunch in 70° almost windless weather. Later Tony and Joann paddled to another portage to David Lake just for a hike and to see the shores of the lake. The 678 yard walk was swampy in spots with mosquitoes and looked little used. Back at camp again it was happy hour. They were all happy. Liz had brought a gravity water filter and after putting a new filter in, it clogged very quickly. They studied the problem and came to the conclusion that filling it by wading out in the water to fill the reservoir stirred up too much sand and sediment. Putting the last new filter in and using a canoe to get water kept it working the rest of the trip. The meal situations were as such: Steve Liz, Coleen and Joann cooked together, Ron and Eric together, Wil and Zach with Tony cooking solo. After all the meals were consumed a little Indian campfire was had with everyone talking and laughing until the ungodly bedtime hour of 8:00pm. With the moon almost at new and the overcast skies if you didn't have a flashlight you couldn't see four feet in front of you and with all the tree roots at every campsite, you could be on the ground face down in no time. Luckily no one got hurt the whole trip.
Day 3 it was misty in camp as moisture in the form of light fog blew off the lake into the 52° campsite. After breakfast tents were packed and gear stowed for a move to Little Trout Lake. The 475 yard portage wasn't too bad and they soon found a nice campsite on another island and called it home for the next two days. It was still on the cool side and overcast but very comfortable. Tony and Joann again paddled out from camp as the others relaxed. They checked out another portage into Queer Lake, taking the solo canoes over the 191 yard portage to paddle and explore. They hiked the 2187 yard portage trail down to the Tim River where they heard rushing water. There were rapids and a nice waterfall on the river and they walked up and down that portage trail that folks would have to use to portage the Tim River. The river water was stained a brown tea color. Back at camp the folks had another great campfire thanks to some who found a dead tree, finished cutting it down and dragged firewood back to the fire ring.
Saturday morning, day 4, everyone slept in a bit. There was a wall of fog on the water but the sun came out and burnt it to a crisp, creating a beautiful, sunny, comfortable day. Everyone but Steve and Coleen paddled over to Queer Lake to explore the shoreline and some of the thirteen campsites on the small lake. Tony and Joann hiked the 1.5 mile portage to the Petawawa River and back for a 3 mile hike. There were 4 young couples that started the portage with them. They all had gear and canoes and made the portage in a single trip. Oh to be young again. The PaCO folks have a 36 year old up to 77 and they didn't move near as fast as those young folks. Eric took a nap in his canoe during the hike with Liz and Ron taking the portage to the Tim River to see the waterfalls while Wil and Zach went back to camp. Liz and Ron were looking for a sign to the falls but there wasn't one so they missed seeing them. Back on Little Trout Lake heading to camp, a loon swam between Tony and Joann not being the least bit afraid of the humans. Relaxing the afternoon away was the next goal then around dusk Tony solo paddled around the west end of the lake exploring that shoreline arriving back at camp to a wonderful blazing campfire. The stars were out but the tree cover at camp made viewing difficult. The woods around camp were again very dark and pitch black at night. As everyone went to bed they got serenaded, to a lack of sleep, by the neighbors on the next island, which was about 300 yards from them. That damn man could not hold key and sounded terrible singing his cowboy songs. We assumed they were intoxicated which made them sound good to themselves.
Day 5 they were heading back to Ralph Bice Lake for one more night camping before leaving. Liz sent Tony and Joann on a scouting trip to finding a good campsite but the ones they wanted were occupied. They ended up on the opposite end of the same island they camped on the first day. It had a nice sloping rocky area with a great view of the eastern and overhead sky for viewing the stars and plenty of room for five tents. The warm sunny day was perfect for some to bath in the chilly water and wash off days of stank. Then everyone relaxed, enjoying the last day in the backcountry. Dice came out and a game of Farkle ensued. Tony was victorious much to the displeasure of the others. In the later afternoon it started clouding up and hopes of seeing the stars diminished. They had another wonderful campfire sitting around chatting and solving all the worlds' issues then like a divining sign, the clouds wisped away and the Milky Way emerged. Compared to Ohio, the stars and Milky Way were so bright they couldn't believe their eyes. They could see numerous satellites passing overhead and even saw 2 shooting stars. Eric stayed up later and saw two more.
Day 6 started overcast but windless. At breakfast conversation was about the two owls talking to each other overnight. Soon everyone packed dry tents (no dew overnight) and were on the water by 9:00am. The trip back to civilization and over the two portages was uneventful and they were at the starting point by 11:00am. Gear was unloaded from boats and reloaded in and on the trailer. Steve lost the key to the trailer locks so he used a screwdriver to take the hinges off. After everything was loaded, Coleen looked down and saw the key lying in the stones. Apparently it was laying there the whole trip. The 30 minute ride back down the logging road to Kearny was dusty and talked turned to food and beer. After stopping in Kearny at a couple outfitters for souvenirs they went back to "The House" for quick showers and billfolds of money, then south to the metropolis of Huntsville, population 21,000. More shopping was had then food and beer at the Huntsville Brewery which had great food. Arriving back at "The House" Lance joined the foray and everyone socialized again until bedtime.
At 6:00am Steve was up starting a giant breakfast for the crowd. Soon there were five chefs in the kitchen getting pancakes, eggs, sausage and ham on the table. Wil, Zach and Tony were the first to pull out for home at 7:17am followed by all the others at staggered times. It was a drizzly day with rain all the way to Toronto and they were glad to have missed that weather while in the backcountry. Much thanks to Liz for planning and executing the trip and to Steve, Coleen and Liz for the use of "The House" and all the comforts of home while up in Burk's Falls, Ontario.
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