Fri, Jun 27 2008, Sat, Jun 28 2008, Sun, Jun 29 2008, Mon, Jun 30 2008 - Canada Day Jubilee Canoe (View Original Event Details)
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Traffic on Friday afternoon was, to say the least, a trial in patience. We left the downtown core at 2:30, and reached Barrie at 6. We were WAY behind schedule, having planned to pick up our permits at the park office in Kearney at 6 and meet Amanda, who had driven up from Ottawa, around the same time. PS. It was REALLY hot and humid, and the A/C was on the fritz. Luckily, Amanda was early, and was able to procure our permits. We met for dinner in Huntsville at 7, and enjoyed a great meal. Around 9, we arrived at the Outfitters, and with some smooth talkin on the phone, convinced the owner to come and open up for us so that we could get our paddles, PFDs and the key for the canoes, which had been delivered to the Access Point at Rain Lake. I must say, Rob, of canoe Algonquin, is an awesome man! I have dealt with this outfitter on numerous occasions, and can't say enough good things about them, their customer service is EXCELLENT!!! We arrived at Rain Lake just after dark, and settled in for the night. Saturday morning, we awoke to rain. LOTS of rain. We ate oatmeal, out bowls filling with rain. It poured. Finally, we started packing up our wet gear, determined to get on with our day, soggy or not. Less that 10 minutes after setting off around noon, it stopped raining. I want to say that the sky cleared up, but that would be a lie, however it DID stop raining. Having traveled this route last year on Labour Day weekend, we decided to skip the first portage and run it instead. So much fun, hauling canoes over beaver dams. And way faster! At the second portage, we decided that it might be fun to try again, even though it was much longer. After about 30 minutes of being attacked by bugs and getting stuck, we abandoned our plan, and bushwacked back to the lake. To our dismay, we had not even gone in far enough to meet up with the portage trail, but exited the bush 50ft before the portage put-in. Ah, c'est la vie. In no time, we were at the prime campsite, and had set up out tents in the least mushy spots, and strung up a tarp to keep us dry. After a brief hunt for firewood, we took a swim in the lake, even though there was still some gentle and intermittent rain. We had a delicious dinner and hung around the campfire. Sometime during the night, a massive storm swept thought, however by morning, the sky had cleared. (please note that according to Rob, of Canoe Algonquin, that this same storm tore peoples' tents, blew away some of their gear and washed out the access road at Lake Magnetawan, just to the north of us. WHEW!!) Although Sunday was clearer than Saturday, it was a bit chillier. We spent the entire day just relaxing. We frequently checked our coffee mugs for those sneaky and slimy slugs, which despite being slow moving, managed to appear in the most disturbing places out of seemingly nowhere! Luckily, a newspaper purchases on the drive up Friday provided us with our entertainment. It took us an embarrassingly long time to (almost) complete the easy crossword in the Sun, but once we figured out that there was a monkey theme, and that the crossword writers had crafted clever clues such as "apes true love" = gorrillamydreams, "apes back and forth" = gibbontake and "apes alternative to bars" = rhysescups (although we all agreed that a much better answer would have been "baboonsaloon"). Monday morning, as we packed up, it rained on and off. Despite this, before leaving, we decided to take one last swim in the rain, and it was, i must say, one of the best swims that i have ever had in Algonquin park. The water was warm and calm, and the rain drops were fat. We headed back to the cars, and as we entered the home stretch, the sun came out. We stopped at the unofficial TOC restaurant off the 400, Rombo's in Gravenhurst, where it seemed that none of their staff felt the need to show up for work since it was a long weekend, leaving a frazzled, yet cute, teenaged boy to man the ship. But it was a great meal nonetheless. Although the weather could have been better, it certainly could have been worse, and despite the on and off rain and lack of real sun, we had a wonderful weekend.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.