Algonquin Park 2007

We went to Algonquin Provincial Park last weekend with friends Jen and Mike and Jon and Kristen. We arrived late Thursday and camped at Mew Lake on the Highway 60 corridor. Friday we had a nice sleep in and only managed to leave for the interior by 11:30. No problem. We had planned a nice short trip to Burnt Island Lake which could be done as a day trip, but we a day each way. I have never been on a canoe trip with better weather. Sure, it rained briefly Friday evening and then off and on through the night, but who would have thought that we would have the wind on our backs both going in and coming back out? Fabulous! Canoe Lake can easily take more than two hours if the weather is working against you, but we did it in less than one, and that was without a whole lot of effort.

There were some adventures of course. Coming in to Burnt Island, there is a series of portages past some shallow creeks. You can avoid them therefore if you don't mind getting your feet wet and get out and pull the canoe through. Here is a picture of Jen and Mike almost to the point they need to get out:



Jon and Kristen decided (I suppose I have to admit my own mischievous suggestion of the matter) to try to skip the last portage in the sequence. This one involved a dam. I figured they would get to the bottom of the dam, turn around, and come back very quickly. Half an hour later, they still hadn't shown up. Here I am coming back from a fruitless search for the missing pair at the top of the dam.



So after this we thought maybe they did come back to take the portage and took the wrong path at the fork. So I went off on the other path which was no small matter: it was 1.1 km with copious volumes of flies and mosquitoes for company. It turned out in the end, that the missing pair took so long because they actually got out and dragged their canoe and packs around the dam. So they did the portage, but without the convenience of a well maintained trail.

We saw a lot of different birds in our travels: Blue Heron, Loons, Wood Ducks, some other kind of ducks, and we heard plenty more. No deer, moose, or bears this time, but we did come across this little guy:



We found a great campsite on Burnt Island and after in rained briefly interrupting our dinner, we saw this:



On the way back out, Jon thought he would try to harness the power of that merciful wind I was speaking of earlier:



At one point, we had the tarp spread out from the bow of their canoe to the bow of ours. Unfortunately, the wind was only intermittent and none of these efforts proved more useful than paddling. Imagine, working for your transportation, what a concept.

Now then, the only thing I'm missing is a photo of Melissa. Obviously I wasn't carrying my weight with the photography. Actually, Jon was the primary photographer of the group so perhaps we can share more later when we get his.