Algonquin Trip 2 - August 1998

What follows are some random notes that I've made about the trip (as well as the route that we took if it wouldn't be obvious looking at the map ). It's not a complete list of my memories but should give a little flavour for the trip and for those that were on it, may serve to refresh their memories....

Enter Canoe Lake
Night 1 Little Otterslide Lake

• Entered the water at around noon and had to haul ass. The original trip was to stop on Burnt Island Lake (about 12km wide lake that we didn't want to have to cross on the first day).
• Went to bed early, complete exhaustion.
• Had some nightmare portages in a sense that I wasn't expecting. With so many day trippers, I had to climb over coolers with the pack and Jodi got forced off the path by someone carrying paddles...
• Joe lake is deceptive on the map. You don't realize that it will be so big ...
• Had an interesting dinner. Made our normal spagetti dinner and found to our surprise that something was in the pasta. Something like a larvae was in the pasta. Seems to have cooked right in...

Night 2 Big Trout Lake

• Had to travel on Otterslide Creek which turned out to cause one of our longest days.
• First time that I've had to walk the canoe most of the way between two portages ..

Night 3 Burntroot Lake

• Toilet news: They had an outhouse with a door and actual graffitti!
• Bad news: doors == smelly!
• Discovered the joy of life jackets -- when you're too tired to swim, you can always just float in the lake! The only thing that we were missing were some beers to be the lords of all creation.

Night 4 Catfish Lake

• Subtitled: The night the couscous yuppies died
• The start of the lake is a swamp that actually contains two campsites. Decide that we would never, ever, stay there. Have to travel well out of our way to find a free site but it is worth the trip as we end up with our own bay.
• Floating in the bay watching the people frantically looking for sites.
• Return to childhood as we have to build a dam system to get the water away from our tent in the torential down-pour.
• Another dip in the lake.

Night 5 Hogan Lake

• Saw a mink! We didn't actually recognize it. Looked very much like a small otter.
• Giant wall of rock right across from our campsite, beautiful!

Night 6 Proulx Lake

• 3750m portage today! It was actually lots of fun.
• Weather is pretty miserable. On the brighter side, we do get to use the tarp that we've been carrying around for 6 days.
• Jodi sews my poor shorts.
• I got to climb a tree because the bear rope was on the wrong side of a big knot.

Night 7 Happy Isle Lake

• Nicest, cleanest lake that I've ever seen ...
• Plaque on the cliff below a campsite as a memorial to the mother and son that died in a hurricane there.

Night 8 Burnt Island Lake

• The strap on my sandal breaks and we're forced to the sandal to my foot using a strap off of pack.
• Really big lake + really big wind = really tiring afternoon!

Last Day

• Met a young couple that were planning on camping for 15 days on Otterslide lake but left after only 9 days because a bear walked through their site. For the only other 9 day people that we met, they sure looked clean!
• Left the park, put the gear in Jodi's car and went to the restaurant for a bite to eat. Boy were we ever dirty and smelly! But the beer sure tasted good.