Fri, Feb 5 2010, Sat, Feb 6 2010, Sun, Feb 7 2010 - Snowshoe Backpack Winter Camping: Frontenac Park - RELOADED (View Original Event Details)
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We drove from Downsview to Kingston on a cold crisp February day. Lunch at Denny's and we were all tanked up for our big adventure in Frontenac Provincial Park. We arrived at the park and got signed in and organized.
Some of us made homemade winter camping sleds and the rest did the traditional backpacking. It was 6.8km to campsite#4 for our first night. We passed a few tents at campsite#3. That's the last people we saw (outside our group) all weekend.
It was going to be a cold one. The stars were out. In the distance we can hear the coyotes singing. The wind was picking up and at -15C it was nippy. We had a few tents, but most people went with a simple tarp in the form of a tube. The next morning it was still -15C but the wind was not as firm. We started off for our first full day into the wind and a clear frozen lake ahead. Not a sole around. We did a photo opt at around campsite#5 where we found a frozen waterfall coming out of the rocks. We were heading in the direction of campsite#13 on Big Clear Lake. We followed some of the backpacking trail and bushwhacked the rest to hit the end of the lake. Once we turned to the south west the wind was at our backs. The lakes were covered with 8 to 12" of ice. The ice was covered with a thin layer of snow, which made walking on it reasonable. Sometimes the ice is very slippery due to the wind and blowing snow buffing the surface. Wearing icers is a must in these conditions.
The sleds made lake travel easy. You are basically walking with very little drag. Highly recommended! The sleds are like a turtle shell on your backpack. When we get to a land crossing you stow your lines or pull poles and pick up your backpack. The conversion process takes about a minute or 2. (If you want to learn more , I have a PowerPoint on homemade sled designs. Send me a request via email)
We crossed over into Labelle lake. In the middle of the lake we found what was left of a deer that the coyotes were singing about last night. The lake was only 2 km from our Friday night camp. (Check out the maps in the photo album). More lake jumping we head down to campiste #1 pass an old mine. On the way we crossed a small marsh full of cranberries. It was about -5C but the berries were not really frozen. What a treat.
Our Saturday night camp was just out of the park and we picked a campsite on the old Goodwin homestead and near Bear Lake. We saw some large tracks and at first taught they were bear tracks. But after looking at the photos I know they are wolf tracks. They are about 50% bigger than Misty's prints, and she is a 70 pound golden retriever. Check out the photos. All our food was hung up as usually. We covered about 13k'S today.
Our Saturday evening won't be as cold or as windy as last night. The next morning was a very pleasant -10C. Today the plan was to follow the trail a few K's and bushwhack to flagpole hill. The landscape was a rocky scared landscape. Up and down and across marshes we made it to the high point, where we snapped a few group photos. A couple more K's down the trail we were looking forward to getting back to lake travel/sled mode. We crossed Doe Lake , up and over a portage and into South Otter Lake and a K later were back at the park office. My GPS has us covering around 7.7K's today. So that puts our total at around 27.5 K's for the trip at a moderate pace. The Friends of Frontenac offered us a hot chocolate and we traded stories.
Well the adventure was not over yet. Francois car won't start. Well about an hour of trouble shooting we figured out the issue and were off to Denny's for the wrap up and late lunch. The drive home was easy with nice clean roads. The weather was pretty good,Just enough cold, snow and ice to call it a successful winter camping trip. See you all soon. Gary
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.