Northern Symphony

This weekend Jaki and I headed up north to Algonquin Park. Our trip started from the bottom of Canoe lake and went up to Joe lake (~8km) and had an easy 290m portage. We rented the canoe from The Portage Store, packed it up and took off. The weather the first day was grim and carried fairly strong winds with a good nip to them. This was Jaki's first time doing any sort of backcountry camping, so I wanted to keep it gentle for her, unfortunatly we were also suffering from colds, so combine that with the cold air, difficult paddling conditions, and imminent rain, it was a recipe for disaster! Fortunatly things worked out for the best, but they could have easily turned out much worse. At one time, out in the middle of Canoe lake we were caught by a good wind and taken into a bay (when the broad side of the canoe catches the wind fugghetaboutit!), we had a hell of a time getting out of it but we finally did it! Go Us!!!! Once we set up the campsite, Jaki decided she must answer the "call". She didnt quite know what to expect, in the ways of "facilities" out there in the middle of nowhere. She was not impressed when I introduced her to the loo. Unfortunatly I forgot to take a picture of it so here is one I stole off another persons website :D. The first night we stayed in the tent because it was raining but we had a great time none the less. I was dissapointed that on Jakis first trip it had to be such miserable weather. But thats how Backpacking/Camping goes, and I guess thats part of the fun, you want to spend time with mother nature you play by her rules! The next day we noticed there was some dripping from the fly, its a brand new tent and I did inspect it so there is no leaking, I figured it was just condensation. We decided to stay in bed till around 9am (which is usually too late for me when I am camping) because we were rather lethargic on account of the cold :(. When we did finally get moving we decided to go get ourselves some fire wood as we couldnt have a fire the night before (all the wood by our place was wet) when we came back we tried to get a fire going with the wood but it was still too wet! We finally got one going later that night after it dried out, and using an antiqueted(sp?) meathod of starting the fire, the old flint and striker fire! My striker was forged out of an old file and is made in the way that the Hudson Bay Company made them (The O shape) which I thought was rather fitting, concidering the area we were in! See the video here. That night we were treated to an absolutly amazing sunset so I decided to snap a few pictures from that evening. Jaki was quickly able to se e why I love doing this so much, there are a few reasons and this is definately one of them. Anywhere you can see this is ok in my books! Later in the evening our firewood finally dried out so I started a fire using the meathod I mentioned above (See the video here. ). Here is a pic of me sitting next to my creation, and another with Jaki! That night Jaki went to bed earlier but I stayed up a bit to see the stars, and the moon (I took pictures but they did not come out well so no point in posting) and letting my boots dry out from an earlier accident involving me and a canoe. We awoke the next day again to the call of the loon, (this is where I decided to get my title from. The sounds you hear in the wilderness definately earn the term symphony) I was shivering viloently the night before on account of the cold weather and my cold. I stepped outside and realised how cold the air was! In fact it was cold enough to get some nice steam coming off the water, which I then took pictures of. Again feel free to use these as a background or print them off! Unfortunatly that was our last day there :( and it was time to pack up and head back. This will be our last trip to Algonquin this year I believe, unless I can convince Jaki to go in the winter with me. That would be incredible, but untill then that is it. We were quite impressed with our ability to pack up so well, all the gear fit in our packs exactly the way it was when we headed out there (a first!),we did it in a quick enough manner that we were able to get back to The Portage Store by before 12:00 noon so we didnt have to pay for the full day! We gave our canoe in (luckily they didnt notice the little crack that resulted from getting stuck on a rock and trying to wiggle off........It was a 16' ultra light Kevlar, so not only would they have kept the $50 deposit, the probably would have wanted more......alot more!) went upstairs to the restaurant and I enjoyed another round of Beer Battered Fish and Onion Rings, and Jaki had a Hotdog with Onion rings. She was famished, as she did not appreciate the haut cuisine (read: freeze dried food) we enjoyed in the bush. Infact her dissatisfaction with the food lead to her eating maybe 3 full meals over the course of the weekend, and her distrust for the water filter (I have a First Need which is certainly one of the best if not the very best water purifier on the market) lead her to drink less than 1.5L of water the whole weekend. Certainly not a healthy way to enjoy the backcountry. Glad you took the time to read this post, I apologise for it taking so long, but I have been busy....ya thats it.....busy. Untill we meet again......