Algonquin Vacation Diary

August 10-17, 2002

Trip companions: Peter, Andrew, Jill, Jeni, Benjamin, and Kevin

This is a little summary of our 5-day Algonquin adventure, traveling from Brent Camp on Cedar Lake up to Mink Lake and back again.

This map shows the extent of our trip, with our campsites and departure point marked with arrows.

Figure 1 Trip Map

Day -1, Saturday

We decided to all get together the day beforehand to go over the packing and make sure we really had everything we needed. Peter drove down to Plattsburg to pick up Kevin while Ben and I biked to La Baron for some final shopping. We were able to remove some duplicate items, but in general we were being pretty careful in our packing – dividing critical items like the cooking gear and food into two halves, making sure each canoe would have emergency items like a medical kit and matches, and bringing extra food and stove fuel. Jeni gave us some emergency first aid lessons and we ended the evening by watching the new Lord of the Rings DVD I had just bought. Jeni and Ben stayed over at our house and Kevin stayed with Peter (who lives just above us), so we would be ready for an early start.

Day 0, Sunday

This was our travel day – Brent Lake is about 6 hours away from Montreal so our aim was to get closer to the park and spend the night. We had a last “greasy spoon” breakfast and set about loading the van. Peter had arranged to borrow a kind friend’s van. It was actually more the size of a station wagon than a mini-van, so packing 6 people and all our packs was a big challenge. We had got it in our heads that we needed to tie the packs on the roof and then have the sixth person sit in the luggage area behind the passenger seat. We pretty much succeeded at this, after much bungee cording, but then we decided that the van (which was old and lacking shocks) was too top heavy for safety. So we ended up moving most of the luggage into the back and squeezing four people into the back row.

In these cramped conditions it was a long drive, but various stops along the way let us get leg and butt circulation back. We stopped for lunch in Armprior (Tim Hortons of course) and made some last last minute shopping at the Canadian Tire there, including a duplicate copy of the van key.

From there we proceeded on to Driftwood provincial Park, which is the nearest campsite I could find to Brent. We drove in and immediately had our only black bear encounter of the trip – there was a single year-old black bear cub at the side of the road. We got a good look at him before he returned to the forest – it turns out that he is common sighting at the park, getting to be a borderline pest.

The campsites were nice – stretched out along a stony beach on the Ottawa River so we got to swim right from our campsite and sample our first camp food – hotdogs. We stayed up pretty late lying at the shoreline watching meteorites – it was a beautiful night and prefect timing for the annual Perseid meteorite shower. It wasn’t a meteorite “storm” by any definition, but we all saw a good number of streaks in the sky.

Day 1, Monday

We experienced some grumpiness trying to get up at 6:45 to get a start to our long first day. Early morning rising takes a little adjustment for us city slickers. However we made great time in packing up and having our first of 5 instant oatmeal breakfasts washed down with instant coffee.

We continued up highway 17 to Deux Montagnes and then cut into the dirt road down to Brent. There was a stop at the camp office half way there and Ben picked up a bunch of the excellent naturalist field guides that they sell. The road was pretty bumpy, especially with the poor state of the car shock absorbers, but Jeni drove a steady 40km/hour and got us there in one piece.

Brent is the remains of a logging and railroad town – now it is just some summer cottages, a campsite (I hadn’t realized we could have stayed there instead of Driftwood), and the Algonquin Outfitter/store. The Brent Store jokingly has a sign saying it is “downtown” Brent and the house across the road is called the northern suburbs. Jake and Owen were friendly and got us set up with our canoes, paddles and lifejackets. We got a group photo, struggled to tie all our gear into the canoes and were on the water at 11:30 am.

Figure 2 On our way...

Cedar Lake is one of the large lakes of the park and right away we had to face the difficulty of fighting the bad winds that can blow up on it. All the time we were in the park the winds seemed to blow from the South-West, so we had to struggle at times just to keep moving forward. We had our lunch on a beach almost at the end of the lake – soup cooked on my new MSR Dragonfly white gas stove.

Next we struggled some more to get down Little Cedar Lake, but finally reached quiet water in the scenic view river that leads to Aura Lee Lake – one of the most beautiful parts. We had to get out of the canoe at one point because the water was so shallow. At the top of Aura Lake we had our first portage – only 275 meters, rocky but flat. I took a canoe – ouch, my shoulders weren’t ready for that! When I came back for my share of the packs I had a simple question that no body could answer – where is out tent? Argh! It was nowhere to be found. After thought and consideration and gnashing of teeth we realized that it was probably left behind at the Brent Store – Jill and I were the last canoe to leave and we had a lot of separate bags to juggle – somehow this one was left behind.

This mistake proved to be a suitable excuse that everyone was looking for to camp at the next lake rather than pushing all the way to our planned destination of Cauchon Lake. The wind, the extreme sun and our inexperience were making everyone feel pretty tired. Many of us were suffering bad sunburns – we just weren’t used to the excessive coverage of every single square inch of skin that is necessary when canoeing, and the need to re-apply after swimming. Going back for the tent immediately was out of the question – it had taken us 5 hours, not including lunch to get as far as we had. We talked about potentially doing the whole trip without the tent – sleeping outside is always an option. However I was wary because I knew that the forecast called for rain all week.

This portage was also our first visit with the leaches – two people were attacked and we learned how important it was to keep salt or matches handy at all times.

We found a nice site on Laurel Lake – a nice small lake. Firewood was plentiful and we cooked a meal. Jill had carefully organized all the food for our trip, we had all our meals pre-measured in zip-lock bags and rationed amounts of trail mix, coffee, and treats for each day. She even had deserts for each dinner.

I set about seeing if I could rig up a makeshift tent. We didn’t expect rain the first night, but I wanted to see what would be possible as an alternative to our tent. My tarp had been ripped to shreds in the middle by wild flapping on the top of the van, so I had to pull out of indispensable duct-tape for patching it up with some garbage bags and other plastic. Then Jill, Kevin and I struggled to configure to canoes so that would provide the maximum coverage. I knew that it was possible but I couldn’t remember how this was supposed to be done. We ended up with a configuration of one upside-down canoe and the other canoes, also upside-down, perpendicular to it. This only left a little opening that we covered with the tarp. This works reasonably well, although we suspected that the rain would have pooled in the tarp too much between the canoes. Later I found out from Jake at the outfitter’s store that he slept for 25 years under a canoe – and that you can even sleep two people under a single canoe with just wet feet by propping it at an angle and sleeping head to head. (It is also work mentioning the amplified snore affect that sleeping under a canoe can produce.)

Figure 3 Laurel Lake

Some of us swam out to an island and back, and we got to bed early. We had some trouble getting our food bags (3 of them!) into trees. Although we achieved something by the end it wasn’t really high enough for safety and we had lost one of our good strings in a tree. Never try to do this sort of thing in the dark!

Figure 4 Fruit Rollup Effect

Day 2

Jill and I were O.K. sleeping in our little canoe shantytown but by morning we had decided that mosquitoes and the risk of rain would make a return for our tent worthwhile. Roughing it is fun, but not need to pushing too far all at once. Jill and I were up early with Ben and Jen and had a quick breakfast. The mist in the trees was beautiful and the water was beautiful. No one was put out to have to spend a day lazing around camp while we were gone.

We spent two hours paddling back out on to Cedar Lake. It was so beautiful we didn’t feel bothered to have to repeat the journey. The waters weren’t so rough, but we knew that the mid-day could potentially blow up a lot more wind, so we parked our canoe at the side of the lake, before we had reached Brent. There is an abandoned railway that passes along the north shore of Cedar lake – in fact its path winded around all the lakes that we visited. We were able to leave our canoe and walk along this, (the rails have been removed), all the way back to Brent, which took about an hour. The sun was really beating down by the time we arrived, and we were wondering whether our tent was actually going to be there after all the effort. Unlike Montreal, where leaving something on the sidewalk for five minutes is a certain way to lose something permanently, we found our tent propped up against the building. Apparently Jake had even sent his son out in a motorboat to chase some canoe people when they found it, but that was long after we had left. They were very nice and Owen even drove us back to our canoe. So we were certainly impressed by Algonquin Outfitters.

In the end we were back at camp by 1:30, which gave us lots of time to enjoy the afternoon. We canoed to the top of the lake, were there is a beautiful waterfall right next to the portage. We had a lot of fun climbing it and lying in the swirling water. You could even lie on the rocks and get a forceful back massage. The powerful current was a good test for how tightly our swimwear was attached, and Kevin’s boxers failed the test, getting swept down the river to everyone’s amusement.

Figure 5 Drying the Canoe? Or a Bridge table?

The weather worsened as the afternoon grew and not long after getting back to camp the signs of pending thunderstorm were getting serious. We had already started cooking over the fire and it wasn’t boiling fast enough to avoid the pending downpour. Our recently recovered tent proved very useful, as it was the only one that could fit all of us, sitting in a circle. I stayed out in the deluge using my camp stove to finish boiling the water for our mashed potatoes. I hid under a canoe and stayed quite dry there, and again was impressed by the versatility of the little stove. After dinner Peter continued teaching us of the complexities of the game of bridge. Jill and I took a canoe ride to look for animals in the dusk. We got a good view of a beaver, who splashed his tail and disappeared when he noticed us, and caught glimpses of bats swooping around our canoe. Unfortunately the mosquitoes quickly drove us back to camp.

Day 3 – Laurel to Cauchon

The morning was cool, rainy and windy. However this started to clear up as we broke camp and started out. The portage to Little Cauchon Lake was very steep so a little harder than the 130-meter length might suggest. I switched canoes to ride with Ben for a while, while Jill went with Jeni, and we took a very leisurely time paddling across Little Cauchon Lake. We explored the bays, looks for animals in the marshes and ate our excellent lunch of walnut-cheese trail cakes. We saw on the map that there were two “black” portages to isolated small lakes to the south, which might have been an interesting sight, but we couldn’t find them.

At the top of the lake we went through some marshy water and under two bridges to reach Cauchon Lake. The one bridge is perpetually blocked by branches – the beavers are fighting a continually battle with canoeists.

The skies were darkening again and there was a threat of lightning so we stopped at the first empty campsite to wait it out. We weren’t 100% excited by this site so Jill and Jeni went out when it cleared and found us a nicer one around the corner. There are a bunch of sites there, some fairly close together, but they share a nice long stone beach. They also had a great breeze to blow away the bugs and dry clothes quickly.

Ben went searching for insects and moose with Peter but returned within minutes because of the huge leech on his foot. We forced him to endure the pain for a while so we could take photos.

Figure 6 No Leech was hurt in the Filming of this Shot...

Later that day Ben and I went for a second moose search. The marshy spots around the lake and overcast weather seemed to us to be perfect conditions. We couldn’t find anything. On the way back the wind started picking up and we were swinging too much in one direction. I switched sides to give to rudder and stuck my paddle forcibly into the water. This action was a little too sudden and the canoe got off balance. Time seemed to move really slowly as the canoe seemed stuck at a perilous angle. The next thing I knew Ben was tumbling out and I was following. We were fortunate not to lose anything – Bens field guides got a bit wet and our binoculars filled with water but we were able to get everything to shore and empty the canoe. By co-incidence Jill and Jeni were walking in the woods nearby and got to sit at the shore laughing. It was very funny, except I was sad to have wet shoes.

Figure 7 Camp Fire

Over the course of the day it rained a few times, and we tried to dig some drainage trenches. However we didn’t do well enough and two of the three tents got wet that night. Ben said their therma-rests were practically floating in a puddle of water. And I realized the flaw of using all my extra clothes as a makeshift mattress under my legs (I only have a ¾ length therma-rest). By the morning all my clothes were wet except for the long underwear that I used as a pillow.

Day 4 – Day trip to Mink Lake

Kevin, Peter, Jill and I took a nice day trip further up stream. Meanwhile Ben and Jeni stayed at camp and kindly helped get everything dried up. They moved their tent out of the puddle area onto higher ground.

Part way up Cauchon Lake we stopped at the shore and took a hike into the woods. We were able to climb a big hill and get a great view – we could see all the way back to the beginning of Little Cauchon Lake. A half hour more paddling and we reached the portage to Mink Lake. This was no problem, especially without our packs. Mink Lake is long and thin and it was pleasant paddling covering its distance. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful campsite half way up. Later we walked the two portages at the top of Mink Lake to get a view of Little Mink and Birch Lake. It would have been possible to make a loop through different lakes to get back, but that would have added a lot more portaging and we were content that this be the “half-way point” in our day, so we turned back and retraced our route.

The evening was generally spent joking about the digestive issues that were arising in the party; especially it seemed after our extra hot curry dinner the night before. We had some concerned about “beaver fever” but had been taking good precautions with the water filtering, so the most serious problem seemed to be risk of running out of TP.

Figure 8 Peter Demonstrates Thunder Box

All our wet stuff had been dried by the great breeze that hits the site all day, so we had a dry and comfortable night.

Day 5 – Cauchon back to Brent

Sadly our final day in the park had already arrived. Fortunately working our way back to Cedar Lake was just as pleasant the second time. Well in actual fact it was the third time for Jill and I…. The skies opened up violently when we were only about 15 minutes from camp, and we got totally drenched. It was so beautiful to watch it hit the lake and to see the movement of the clouds and misty forest that getting wet really didn’t seem to matter. Across the lake you could hear snippets of the folk songs that Ben and Jeni were singing. By mid-day it was sunny and the heat was scorching. We stopped for a second time at the waterfall on Laurel Lake and swam before lunch at the campsite right near the portage.

We had fun steering through the really shallow parts, even navigating through a minefield of dead tree branches rather than taking a deep channel. We knew we had a long, steady day ahead of us, and weren’t pressed for time so we even practiced seeing how the canoe could move on its one under the influence of the wind. Meanwhile Kevin and Peter, who always paddled with vigorous, scientific efficiency floating around and napped waiting for us to catch up.

Figure 9 Andrew's Shoulders Augmented for Portaging...

Lake Cedar was windy and the waves were picking up. However instead of being the struggle that we had to fight our way through on the way out, this time it helped us out. It was blowing more or less in the direction we wanted to go. At times the waves were so strong that it took all my concentration to keep the canoe pointing at the correct angle, but our progress was steady and we had plenty to time left in the day.

We arrived at Brent Store at about 4 PM and returned our equipment to the Outfitters. Some pop and comfort food in the form of chips were purchased and we sat in the grass for a while to relax before the squeeze in the van. It was nice feeling how our time spent together had made us all very comfortable and built a real sense on comradeship.

The dirt road on the way out seemed long with four of us squished in the back, but eventually we made it to the highway. We stopped at a phone and Peter arranged with one of his friends, Ray, for us to stay overnight in Deep River. Ray was a great host and we had a BBQ out on his balcony. It felt funny coming back to civilization, especially because Ray’s parents place was luxurious by any standards. I felt like I should take a shower before walking in his door.

Day 6 – Back to Montreal

We had a long relaxed morning at Ray’s, and watched a very bizarre but entertaining Indian movie. On the way home we had lunch in Renfrew and the holiday was over that afternoon with our arrival back to Montreal.