Trip log - Cedar to Radiant: Canada Day - Travel Timetable

Every time we take a trip we build on the knowledge from previous trips. But mistakes still get made and judgement might still be off a bit. Or we try something new and it may or may not work for us.

This trip I decided to make a schedule to see how we compare to the recommended times on Jeff's maps. Also L.T. wanted to be on the road by 4:30 a.m. so we could be at the permit office for Brent shortly after 7 a.m. It's a long drive. In order to convince myself this was a great idea getting out of bed at 3 a.m. to start my day, I created the following table:

	Minutes	Minutes	3:00 a.m.	Alarm
Task	Time to do	Done by	Finished by	Time
Get up/get ready	45	45	3.75	3:45
Drive to L.T.'s	15	60	4	4:00
Pack car	30	90	4.5	4:30
Drive to Access Point	165	255	7.25	7:15
Get permit	15	270	7.5	7:30
Drive to launch point	45	315	8.25	8:15
Load canoe	30	345	8.75	8:45
Section 1 complete	90	435	10.25	10:15
Section 2 complete	90	525	11.75	11:45
Section 3 complete	90	615	1.25	1:15
Paddle to site	30	645	1.75	1:45
	645	10.75

In theory we should be on our campsite by 1:45 p.m. without any stops, or rest time, or any other issues. Okay, I'll get out of bed at 3 a.m. if I can be sitting on my butt at a campsite around 2 p.m.

The first slippage happened when packing the car. That took 45 minutes instead of 30. Half an hour down the road L.T. realized we didn't have the paddles or life jackets. I was driving and had to wait until the next exit on the highway to get off and turn around. That added an hour to the trip. 

We lost another half an hour between getting our permit and launching the canoe. We launched at 10:30 instead of 8:45. We made good time crossing Cedar Lake, it was a calm morning on the lake.

We lost more time on the second portage as we decided to double-carry it. As we got to the end of this portage there was thunder and lightning. We waited that out for about 30 minutes. The double-carry probably added another hour.

The third portage was a tricky one. You can get out of the water a bit earlier and scramble up a very steep section to climb onto the rail bed and follow that instead of the portage. I was flagging at this point and L.T. double-carried my pack up to that point for me. Also he double-carried the canoe from the track to the end of this portage. It wasn't a full double-carry, but a partial one.

Here's the final calculation of the slippage in the schedule:

Slippage	Minutes
Packing car	15
Retrieving paddles	60
Loading canoe/permit office	30
2nd portage double-carry	60
Waiting out storm	30
3rd portage partial double-carry	30
Total minutes added	225
Converted to hours	3:45

We landed at our campsite at 5:30 p.m. instead of the 1:45 p.m. I had calculated. But as I mentioned, that time did not account for any rest stops at all. And we certainly weren't going to argue with lightning!

Today's route (Jeff's maps)

Day 1                                    Day 2                                      Day 3