Trip log - Rainy weekend on Grand Lake: July 19 to 21, 2014

This trip was meant to celebrate the beginning of two weeks of vacation for LT. After having a very adventurous trip over the Canada Day long weekend, we were just looking to chill somewhere with very little portaging and travel.

The plan was to launch from Achray, paddle on Grand Lake halfway up to the top, find a campsite there for the first night.  The second day we would paddle down the lake and portage, eventually getting to St. Andrews Lake.

I was excited to try my brand new hammock for the first time.

I had picked it up at Costco and after thinking about it a bit, I went back to buy the bug netting that went with the hammock.  

We didn't rush getting out the door for this trip, it was going to be a bit more leisurely. We rented a canoe from the Algonquin Portage store on the way into the park. We launched from Achray and headed up the lake.

We checked out what we thought would be the best sites around where we were hoping to camp and all the good ones seemed to be taken. Hmmmm. We backtracked a bit and checked out a campsite that was near some swampier looking water. It wasn't bad, but there was another one around the corner. We got back into the canoe and went around to see if it was better. It wasn't. So we went back to the first site we had stopped at and decided to camp there. It's marked on the map with a triangle, near the top.

Jeff's Maps

The site was surprisingly spacious, flat and quite nice. It was also very private, which was great as all the campsites (except one) around us were occupied. We still had a feeling like we were the only ones there.

We set up camp, including the new hammock and after lunch we both fit into it for a nap. I was very surprised that I actually fell asleep. It must have been the early hour I got up at to start the trip.  

The following was the meal plan for this trip:

Meal:	Contents
DAY 1:
Breakfast (in the car)	Egg wraps with bacon
	Tea
Lunch:	Fresh sandwiches
	Fruit/cheese
	Water/Tea
Snacks:	Granola with dried fruit
Dinner:	Pizza
	Cheese/pepperettes
Dessert:	Banana nut pudding
After Dinner:	Hot chocolate
	Chocolate
DAY 2:
Breakfast	Eggs
	Bacon
	Bannock - sweet
	Tea
Lunch:	Soft tacos with meat/cheese
Snacks:	Granola with dried fruit
	Pringles
Dinner:	Shepherd's Pie
	Potatoes
	Corn
Dessert:	Trail angelfood cake
After Dinner:	Hot chocolate
	Chocolate
DAY 3:
Breakfast	Blueberry Pancakes
	Tea
	Bacon
Lunch:	KD
	Pepperettes
Snacks:	Fruit roll-ups

Because we weren't travelling there's not much to really report on the weekend's adventures.  But as previously mentioned, after the amount of effort expended on the last trip, we needed a weekend to just chill.

Once supper was served it started to rain lightly. It rained off and on for the night and into the next morning.  

The next morning as we sat in the bug shelter having a late breakfast (meaning after 8), we made a call.  We decided to just stay put for our second night. We validated it by noticing that no one had come late yesterday to the site next to us and it was Sunday night, so people would be leaving instead of arriving. We just didn't want to pack up a soaking wet camp only to unpack it soaking wet on St. Andrews.

In the meantime, there was a slugfest going on.  No, LT and I were getting along just fine.  But slugs were appearing in huge numbers and they were attracted to our structures. They were crawling into the bug shelter and were all over the tent. We watched one huge slug completely devour a dead deer fly. This is what becomes entertainment when there's no cell reception, LOL.

The view from our site towards Grand Lake

On Sunday we went out for a little paddle when the sun broke through. We cruised close to the cabin on the peninsula near us to peek at it.  We were respectful and did not get out of our canoe though. I somehow managed to drop my sunglasses into the shallow bay we were on. LT heroically fished them out of the water for me.

Monday morning after a leisurely breakfast we packed up and slowly made our way back. We stopped at the beach for the car campers. I went in for a swim and afterwards we made some KD for lunch.

It was great to spend a weekend in the park just relaxing. We were really pleased with our campsite, it gave us tons of privacy and made us feel like we were the only ones in the park that weekend!