Fri, Feb 19 2010, Sat, Feb 20 2010, Sun, Feb 21 2010 - Snowshoe Backpack Winter Camping: Algonquin Park (View Original Event Details)
|  |
Twelve hardy souls headed to Algonquin to experience the beauty and isolation of the park in the winter. The extended weekend trip did not disappoint.
We drove up Friday morning and snowshoed 8.5 km down Smoke Lake to Ragged Lake Parkside Bay area. It was slightly overcast and just a few degrees below zero. The trip was set up to travel mostly by lakes. A few portages and some bushwhacking were thrown in to make it challenging.
Most of us used sleds to traverse the lakes. Once we hit the portage or bushwhacking sections we transitioned to backpacking mode. The sleds are strapped to the backpack like a turtle shell. In general, a sled transition takes 1-2 minutes. However Mark Ma had it down to 30 seconds. The sled designs varied, with some working better than others. The lakes where covered with 10-12” of ice and about 4” of snow.
Our first night was fairly mild, around -3C over night. Our campsite was made up of tents, tarp shelters, a bivy and a pair of hammocks. Some people used a roaring fire to cook while others just used stoves.
Saturday was our big day. We pushed off at 10am. It started off as overcast but very quickly turned into blue sky country with temperatures around -1C in the shade and about +5C in the sun according to my thermometer. Most of us where down to 1 layer. Heading south to Big Porcupine Lake we turned NE into Bonnechere. At the end of the lake we bushwhacked 1.2km to Little Mohawk Lake. The valley we followed was mostly made up of open hardwood forest which made covering the distance fairly quick (~40 minutes).
Heading north, we following a portage trail to Mohawk Lake were we made our Saturday night camp around 3:30pm. We covered 15.4 km according to my GPS.
We all camped on the side of the lake and made a great fire pit just in the woods, where there was plenty of pine and spruce firewood. Greg chopped out our water hole in about 12” of ice. Since the day was fairly mild we spent the night drying out our boots and socks, eating, and trading stories. The sky was clear and full of stars. The temperatures dropped to about -10C over night but by morning they where only about -5C.
Sunday trek home starts off with bushwhacking west about 1.25 km down the north side of Mohawk Creek to Archer Bay through some fairly demanding terrain littered with balsam, spruce and pine blow downs. I think we all had a few snow covered tree holes we managed to fall into. On one of the bum slides down a ledge I managed to permanently shorten my trekking pole. We managed to salvage the day with some medical tape. About an hour and 40 minutes later the group emerged from the adventure. Steve managed to fight his sled through the wilderness and we were ready for some easier lake travel for a while. Heading north to the dam at the top of Ragged Lake we had to bushwhack a short distance around the river system to get to the official portage trail at the dam. Downstream of the dam we skirted along the edge of the river and bushwhacked to stay away from thin ice. Well everyone except for Steve who wanted to test how waterproof his boot was. Not very, I would say. Well he got a soaker on at least one boot and leg in about 6” deep water. Once we got to safe ice he decided to push on with his boot as is.
It was a nice day and temperatures where about -2C and we had about 5.5km to go to the parking lot at the north end of Smoke Lake. In those conditions keeping active is the best solution.
Anyways we all made it to the parking lot and regrouped at the Cook House Restaurant (at highway#60 &35) for well deserved early supper. We covered around 13.4 km today. The total trip distance was around 37km.
I was very impressed with the group and am looking forward to our next adventure. See you 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.