Fri, May 20 2016, Sat, May 21 2016, Sun, May 22 2016 - Epic QEII overnight trip (View Original Event Details)
|
TOC QEII Wildlands Adventure Full of vitamin D and banana chips, I fell asleep smiling each night of this trip—an odyssey of equal parts paddling, portaging and hurdling over dams through the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands, a park that Torontians ought to know more about. The group meshed like peas in pods. No whiners, no Queen Elizabeths, but rather eight good Samaritans who paddled their own weight and offered up bites of their freeze-dried lasagna. Kevin, our fearless organizer, led us from car to canoe to campground with the calmness of a fisherman and the know-how of Alexander Supertramp. We swam in gasp-cold lakes and built fires, along the way spotting a teenage bear, beavers, a turtle and a water snake (which we ate). Kidding! People joked and shared stories – including tales of hitch-hiking in Japan and cycling in Peru – and bonded over the paramount puzzle of the trip: how to beat the black flies. Bugs. To revise Shakespeare, there is a tide in the affairs of black flies, which, encountered after breeding season, can leave you bitten on all four cheeks. “Do you have the chicken pox?” asked my roommate upon return. The group initially viewed the bugs as merely annoying, like fruit flies. When we realized our bites were swelling into grape-sized epicentres of itchiness, we dressed more conservatively and sprayed repellant more liberally. Some of us hid in our tents. At the end of three days, we came across cottagers dozing on patios and keeping away bugs with zap lanterns. Despite the apparent utopia, civilization felt colourless compared to the trip, which was rewarding, truly fun and quintessentially Canadian. - Meagan Campbell
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.