Algonquin - days 14 - 17

Small amendments made after Tristan's editing
9:00am sharp we arrived at the Portage Store in Algonquin Provincial park where we had booked all the equipment we needed for a 4 day, 3 night canoe trip into the park.

Whilst Celso and Tris eyed up the fishing gear, I went to get all the permits (camping, fishing, parking etc). Then we were shown all our equipment, how to set up the tent, how to use the gas stove (but we never touched it and did all our cooking over and open fire), how to put together the saw, what all the food was; how to hang the food barrel so that bears and raccoons wouldn't get to it and finally how to load the canoe and paddle it.
And so we set off, me at the front (supposedly the power seat!), Celso at the rear in the steering seat and Tristan perched on a pack in the middle. We weren't very good at the old paddling bit, we weaved left and right up the first lake and I bashed my thumb against the side of the boat countless times. Fortunately it was slightly overcast because the paddling was hot enough work without the sun's heat too.
All that bad paddling aside the views were fantastic, when the lake was completely calm you couldn't tell where the woods ended and the reflections began. We had to do one portage... an overland walk carrying all the gear. Celso popped up the canoe over his head, Tris took all the paddles the water bottles and a small back pack and I took our big back pack on the first trip, then Celso and I returned for the food barrel and the tent and equipment pack. It was only about 370m but far enough just the same.
The water was sort of weak tea coloured but very clear, you could see the bottom when it was only about 3 metres deep but any more than that and it was just black. At times there were long grassy reeds, sometimes large boulders, waterlilies or just sand, and every so often there was a submerged tree trunk that warranted some nifty steering to avoid but that we had not yet mastered.
That first day we were overtaken by several other canoes but we didn't care, we were just taking all the vastness of it in, and I was getting used to trying to read the map when there were very few landmarks to allow you to get your bearings.
We found a place to camp which had a rocky shore where the fire could be made and a bit further back a more sandy area to set up the tent. It was nicely shaded by fir trees and had some very bold chipmunk residents that came out to visit. Celso disappeared into the woods bare footed to collect fire wood, he was in his element, loving doing all the manly stuff like making the fire, putting up the tent etc.
We were visited by a huge beetle, we had seen loads of what I think were Loons on the lake, a reddy brown ferret like creature that we think may have been a pine martin (we need to look it up) and loads of fish (Tris caught three little ones).

Celso went out in the canoe to go fishing and got better and better at steering (thank goodness). But no fish.

That night we saw some lights in the sky, we thought it might be the Northern lights, but when we returned to the Portage Store and asked, they said that we weren't far enough north and that it had been a meteor shower that had been going on for a few days. We also heard foxes screeching and wolves calling (or perhaps it was the Loons which we heard the next day).

The second day we went further on down a beautiful meandering river system that connected the lakes, it was so fantastic but very difficult to describe, just wilderness and silence, a turtle sitting on a log, the call of the Loons, some rocky streams with not enough water for us to paddle up so we had to jump out and pull the canoe up. We found a dead crayfish in a pool and so Celso turned over a few rocks and we found live crayfish about 6cm long, (not big enough to cook!). All in all just a unique experience.
We chose a site to camp that was up a dead end part of the lake, as far from anyone else that we could find. Immediately Celso sprung into action again to collect wood, even climbing trees to cut down dead wood (no live wood was allowed to be cut), build the fire, get the rope up into a tree for the food barrel. Whilst he was in the brush he found a huge pile of droppings that we decided were either deer or moose/elk, but we weren't sure.

There was a small pond behind a clearing where we set up the fire and the tent, it was full of frogs that were also leaping about in the undergrowth. The most enormous dragonflies (about 10cm long) and some amazing butterflies also greeted us.

I decided to wash some clothes in the lake from day 1 that were covered in pine sap and general grime and Tris and Celso went to explore another small stream that we could see on the map to see if they could find any more crayfish. After my clothes washing I stripped off to have a wash. I was just starting to enjoy my dip when a long (10cm) black thing with orange spots came wiggling its way (up and down wiggle rather than side to side) towards me. A leach - you've never seen me move so fast and then I decided to try and catch it to show the boys. A small bowl was nearby and I scooped it in but after about a minute of circling it decided to escape by sucking its foot to the bottom of the bowl and then pushing its other end up and over the side. I rushed and got a saucepan and put it in, but again it managed to push itself up over the side (probably 10cm high).... so I got the lid of the pan and shut it in. When the boys returned they had stories of leaches too. After that we saw them everywhere. They came when we washed up and I refused to get into the water again. Tris washed with water scooped from the lake and poured over him!

Again Celso did lots of fishing with no luck.

That night there was some loud snorting noises close to the tent. Later Celso heard a large animals foot/hoofsteps and then slurping (drinking?), he was a bit nervous thinking it might be a bear.. but in the morning the footprints told us that a moose/elk had visited us in the night.

We had left the pots and pans from the night before in the water by our camp site weighted down by a stone. We had cooked some sausages and the grease had attracted a crayfish to sit by our site and a host of leaches. Cornelius, the crayfish, gave us about an hour of amusement as he battled or avoided the leaches as they fought over a small piece of sausage. At one stage he grabbed the sausage and then appeared to flop over onto his back in sheer bliss as he curled his whole body around his prize.

The third day we left our tent where it was and went off to an island where Celso tried even more fishing and Tris and I lazed about reading our books or just dozing in the shade. Celso insisted that we go and leave some hooks over night in a reedy part of the lake close to the small stream where they had hunted for crayfish the day before, so he set up a line on a coke bottle that floated on the surface and attached it to some reeds so that it wouldn't float too far.

As we returned to our camp he also went to leave another line out in the lake, he dropped Tris and I off and was heading out when there was some loud chirping by some very angry birds (or chipmunks?) and some sploshing, and there about 30m along from our camp was the moose, just plodding along in the lake next to the shore, stopping to graze on this and that and basically minding his own business. We scrambled to action with the camera but only got a few blurry shots.

That night we also met a little squirrel, several frogs, one which unfortunately leapt straight into our campfire and sizzled, a pair of chipmunks and some seagulls. We left out some veg for our moose friend but he didn't return.

Last day.. up early, packed and ready to go by 8am. We checked Celso's lines and on the coke bottle line he had caught a small (15-20cm perhaps) catfish, Tristan christened him Spartipus as we set him free... Celso's one fishing success. We paddled back the way we had come but the water in the river part was much higher now so no pulling of the canoe required. However a fallen tree; that we had just passed underneath on the way up; was now impassable.... but Celso would not be defeated. Out came the saw and he attacked the tree until he finally managed to break it in 2 and he pushed half of it out of the way. We floated in style, congratulating ourselves on how easy the ride was compared to the outward journey. How wrong we were... when we hit the open water again the wind was full in our faces and the sun was beating down. It took us 5 hours of serious paddling to get back to the Portage Store.... tired but well satisfied with our wilderness experience.

Past midnight now in a motel in Peterborough. We are meeting up with Gillie Wilson for breakfast tomorrow. Tristan will need to read this and perhaps I shall add more tomorrow. There was so much that happened I am bound to have forgotten something.