Fri, May 30 2008 - Algonquin Park - Backpack Highland Trail-Small loop (View Original Event Details)
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When Julian posted a backpacking trip for 15K, everyone who knows him immediately thought that he made a typo. He forgot to include a 0 and what he really meant was a 150K trip. It was no typo and he really did mean 15K. You see, some time over the winter I was on the phone with Julian lamenting that I would like to go on a backpack camping trip, but I really honestly couldn't because I wouldn't be able to carry 60 lbs on my back (I tried in Montreal, I tipped over). Julian graciously offered to take me on a mini backpacking trip, which is how this all began.
Friday night
Julian, Skyy, Vanessa, and Sue were the first ones to arrive at Algonquin. They left Toronto early, shopped in Huntsville, and were eating a delicious looking dinner of salmon, roasted asparagus, and salad when Elodie, Slava, and I arrived. The three of us had an early Thai dinner at Barrie at the Green Mango Tree (off exit 90). The three of us highly recommend that place over your usual choice of Swiss Chalet or Kelsey's.
Vanessa wanted me to include in the write-up that during dinner Julian passed up MEAT for SALAD. YES, you read this correctly. He actually wanted to eat more SALAD. After dinner, we stood around the fire and watched the green and blue flames with intense curiosity. Vanessa had bought a package of Mystic Fire and threw it in. Just before midnight, Francois, Michelle, Jim, and Linda arrived.
Saturday
It rained on and off throughout the night, thus proving Elodie's hypothesis that she is the bringer of rain to events. No one's tents leaked, so we all slept well. We had a late start to the day because the hike to our campsite was 6.5 to 8 kilometers away (the distance kept on changing depending on Julian's mood). We just barely started hiking before noon.
It was my very first backpacking trip, so I was very curious about what it would be like to carry more stuff than I would normally carry while hiking. That actually wasn't the hard part. The hard parts for me were the black flies and the swamps. Because of the rains that we had been having, it was very humid that day and the black flies were out with a vengeance. Julian had warned us, so many of us were wearing bug jackets, which did a pretty good job overall of keeping the flies off us. But those jackets did trap a lot of body heat. Also because of the rains, some portions of trails were rather muddy/swampy. The entire group got to hear me scream, "EEEEWWWWW!!!!" on top of my lungs while I tried to avoid getting my hiking boots dirty. Vanessa, who was right behind me, laughed so hard at me that she lost her balance and her foot went right into the mud. I told her that it was karma.
A couple hours later, we arrived at our campsite, which was right on Provoking Lake. We set up our tents and relaxed until dinner time. Francois cooked two different kinds of wonderful soup and Linda made a very tasty vegetarian chili and couscous. Julian brought sausages, which the meat-eaters ate because well, we're gluttons. THEN, we continued on with dessert, which was roasted marshmallows and chocolates. Slava made sure that the campfire was well-fed. We saw a large hare bolt out of the forest. After hanging up our food, we tucked ourselves to bed for the night.
Sunday I woke up early and watched an otter swim before he saw me and disappeared. A couple hours later, people began waking up. I whined to Julian and Francois that I was hungry and that they really really really needed to get the food out of the trees NOW. Francois couldn't find his glasses, but I was complaining so much about being hungry that he went off with Julian despite being half-blind.
At the place where the food had been hung up, Francois looked up and wondered if his eyesight had gotten even worse, "I don't see the food bag."
Julian calmly answered, "That's because it's not up there."
Francois gasped, "Someone stole our food!"
Julian gave him a look, "Francois! We're in the middle of Algonquin! Who would steal our food?!"
Actually, Julian knew quite well who would think it would be a brilliant idea to hide the food underneath a tarp when Linda brought back all 60 pounds before the rest of the group woke up.
Vanessa proved to be very useful to have on a camping trip that has a lot of black flies and mosquitoes. They're attracted to her peanut-butter flavored blood and she pretty much had a clouds of flying insects around her at all times. Sue and I sat at one side of the camp, completely unbothered while Vanessa was busily swatting them while eating breakfast.
We broke camp and hiked back to our cars. The hike back took very little time and Sunday was much cooler than Saturday, so the black flies were not as bad. We drove back to Huntsville for a late lunch before coming back to Toronto. As we left Algonquin, I proved that I really am a moose repellent. The rangers told us Saturday night that we should almost assuredly see mooses hanging around the highway and indeed, the other TOC group that was camping in Algonquin that weekend, saw two of them, but we did not. Regardless, moose or no moose, a good time was had by all.
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.