Trip Log - Kiosk Loop: August 23 to 27, 2018 - Day 5

Day 5: AKA Algonquin Rush Hour!

We only saw 2 humans in the last 46 hours. Today would make up for that in a big way! It's Day 5, Monday. And we have a busy portaging day ahead.

Today's route (Jeff's maps)

Portages:
P1 170m Erables into Maple Lake
P2 130m Maple Lake into Maple Creek
P3 805m Maple Creek into Maple Creek
P4 630m Maple Creek into Maple Creek
P5 130m Maple Creek into Maple Creek
P6 190m Maple Creek into Maple Creek
P7 915m Maple Creek into Kiosk Lake
Total: 2,970m

I got up at 6:45 a.m. I didn't rush, but started to prepare to pack and leave at a decent time. I had done a lot of organizing the day before, which helped. The wind had shifted again, but this time it would be at our back.

Breakfast was dehydrated eggs with ham and veggies. I had a package of hash browns too, but I had used all the butter on the cinnamon buns, so they didn't taste as delicious as usual. It was all washed down with hot tea. Today's lunch was KD again. This time I pre-heated the Thermoses. We had pepperettes to eat with it. I didn't cut them up and put them into the Thermoses. We could just eat them on the side.

We were packed up and launched by 9:25 a.m. L.T. decided to put the canoe in at a different spot than where we had landed and it worked much better.

We passed the cormorant tree again.

The first portage was one we had come in through on Day 3. It's short and easy. We paddled up Maple Lake noticing how it's a really nice lake. Most of the campsites here are on islands. We got to the 2nd portage by 10:30. It's another short one, we were through it in a few minutes. Now we had a longer portion of creek to paddle down.

Note: we are going with the flow of the creek into Kiosk. Each of these portages goes around super rocky sections, parts of the creek covered with alders, and waterfalls. That means that we are mostly going downhill all day. Mostly.

We arrived at the beginning of the 3rd portage. It was a really pretty spot and we surprised a family of merganser ducks. A momma duck with 4 fairly big ducklings. They were so cute as they swam in a figure 8 trying to figure out how to get away.

This portage was going to be a bit longer. We stopped, had a snack, and changed into hiking shoes. For the short portages we were leaving our Keen sandals on, but for this longer one, we both preferred the support of the hiking shoes. 

One of the realities of this kind of travel is your feet are going to be wet all day. In the sandals it's bearable as your feet might dry out between portages. Today was the last day, so I was willing to get my hiking shoes wet. It's a good thing I learned to do that from last summer's trip to Radiant. It's just way easier. I had thick wool socks on in my hiking shoes for comfort. So we sat down and put on the shoes. 

It had started to rain while we were at this spot. Great big plopping drops of rain. At least on the portage, L.T. has his built in canoe umbrella. But it's a pretty heavy umbrella.

Also, with all the ins and outs of the canoe and the rain, the camera didn't come out very often on this leg of the journey. Which is too bad because there were some great things to see.

We knocked off P3 of 805m in 18 minutes. Back in the creek we went.

It didn't take long to get to P4. We stopped for a snack and looked at the very poor campsite at the end of this portage. Actually there wasn't a portage sign here. But as we got out of the boat we could see where it had been tacked onto the tree.

This 630m portage didn't take much time either. Little did we know this was the end of our solitude.

When we got to the end of the paddle in the creek and came upon the 5th portage, there were 4 guys there sorting through their stuff, taking up most of the room. L.T. managed to get the canoe over to the other side of this 130m portage very quickly as I trailed behind him with my bag, my trekking poles, the paddles and my life jacket in hand. He had left his bag at the entry point. He went back to get that and we tried to figure out how to put in at this point. It was completely muddy as soon as I stepped off the shore to hold the canoe. I was in about a foot of mud. Ick. All I could think about was leeches. Super ick!

The 4 dudes were double carrying their stuff, and slower than us, so we were able to get into the creek and leave then behind. However, it wasn't very far to the 6th portage and as we came around the bend of the creek to face the portage, we saw 8 people, 4 canoes, attempting to load up and launch towards us. There was no way we'd have room to squeeze in here. We had to sit in our canoe in the reeds waiting for them to clear the landing area. And it wasn't looking good. One kid was a foot offshore and he was up over his waist in water. He was holding the canoe as another kid was wrestling a bag into the canoe. 

There were a guy and girl that looked to be in their early 20's with this motley crew of boys that mostly looked like they'd never been out in nature before. I really felt for them. It wasn't a nice day weather-wise, they were going UP the creek, so climbing all their portages today, and generally looked completely discouraged.

By the time they all got launched, the 4 dudes had caught up with us. We slid into the launch first, to the far left, and we both almost fell out of the canoe as we tried to get out one at a time. 

This wasn't a very long portage either. We did a single carry, put into the water at the other end and managed to get ahead of the dudes. We had a long paddle before our last portage, the longest one of the day at 915m. It was a tricky one, a downhill portion that was steep. I do better with climbing, at least my knees are happier climbing than going down with probably about 40 pounds on my back a this point. Having the food all eaten had to have made a difference of about 10 pounds.

We passed another large group going up the creek on the water (thank god they had already cleared the portage). They looked in their 20's and there were about 4-5 canoes.

So happy it's the last portage of the day!

Strike a pose!

As I walked this portage I said a silent prayer to the Kiosk Lake god. Please, please, please, let it not be windy or wavy!

We stopped for a rest at the end of the portage. We expected to have to paddle for over an hour to get back to the access point. I started to eat my KD. It was warmer and I had poured more boiling water over it to help keep it moist. But your appetite suffers when you exert yourself. L.T. just had a Cliff bar. There was no sign of the dudes. Those double carries do slow you down a lot. You walk the portage 3 times instead of once.

Kiosk was looking pretty good from the reedy bay we were in. However out on the middle of the lake it was a bit windier. Fingers crossed, I prayed. As we got out into the center it wasn't too bad. We had to tack a bit, going straight into the waves away from our destination to get out of the larger bay we were in. It turned out to be that the wind was at our back. We cruised along at a fast clip with the extra help from mother nature. We checked out campsites as we sailed past them. There was a large group of what looked like teens at the first campsite. I had noticed in the first big group of kids they all had orange Nalgene bottles. It looked like they had been outfitted. My first thought was how would they know whose bottle was whose? At this first campsite, I could see a bunch of those same orange Nalgene bottles. 

We were able to check out a few cottages on this lake. One looked very luxurious. Motorboats are allowed on this lake, so a cottager could very well supply their cottage with anything they really needed. However they would have to generate their own electricity.

We made amazing time and before we knew it, we were ashore at the access point. The first thing L.T. did was go into the office to see if someone had left his GoPro. They had. 

While L.T. had been parking the car on Day 1, another car showed up with 2 canoes on top. The lady got out and we eventually had a polite conversation inquiring as to where the other planned to go. Her and her husband were expecting their son to join them. That lovely lady spotted the GoPro on the beach and immediately brought it into the office. Not only that, but the staff was able to discern it was L.T.'s, so it was left with his full name on it. Phew!

All that was left after loading up the car was the long drive back to Ottawa. I'm glad it wasn't me doing the driving. And the chip wagon in Deep River was open for our dinner at 5. I was home by 8 p.m. and pretty tired. It felt good to get into the bathtub to wash off 5 days of camp grime.

Trip Stats:(all distances calculated using Jeff's maps)

Day 1:
Total distance covered: 9.7 km
Total portaging distance: 1930m
Fitbit stats - 24,247 steps with 61 floors climbed

Day 2:
Total distance covered: 12.8 km
Total portaging distance: 2905m
Fitbit stats - 19,726 steps with 34 floors climbed


Day 3:
Total distance covered: 11.25 km
Total portaging distance: 3260m
Fitbit stats - 24,074 steps with 35 floors climbed

Day 4:
Fitbit stats - 17,746 steps with 21 floors climbed

Day 5:
Total distance covered: 16.25 km
Total portaging distance: 2970
Fitbit stats - 16,784 steps with 17 floors climbed

Overall Trip:
Total distance covered: 50 km
Total portaging distance: 11.065 km


Day 1                      Day 2                     Day 3                Day 4

Trip Log - Kiosk Loop: August 23 to 27, 2018 - Day 2

The early morning was lovely but the waves hadn't completely disappeared. Owls were calling back and forth around 5:30 a.m. I was up at 6:30 a.m. and immediately started packing my hammock. The night had been breezy, but there was no rain. Today looked like a day without rain as well. The forecast predicted rain by our third day.

The Mighty Manitou somewhat tamed

Dehydrated eggs with red peppers and ham, plus bacon

Hash browns are rehydrating in the fry pan

I also prepped dehydrated chicken and rice for lunch which was put into Thermoses.

We launched 5 minutes before 9 a.m. We made our way through this big lake fairly quickly. The waves would get a bit bigger, forcing us to tack back and forth to avoid being parallel with the waves. We stopped at one of the many portages along the upper shore as we rounded the last corner to take a break and stretch our legs. We got back into the canoe and got to the portage at 10:30. I was surprised to not really see anyone camped anywhere on this huge lake. We were looking for the crew of 13 teens, but they must have pulled up camp super early today too.

Today's route (Jeff's maps)

We met a couple coming out of the 2905m portage. We weren't in a hurry, this was our only portage today. It was a long one, the longest we'd ever done. The guy told us that the last third of the portage was on a road, great news! There were other bags at the landing. The couple said there was another couple with a dog doing a double-carry. 

We took a break and had a snack (Cliff bar for me) and drink before starting up the intimidating hill facing us. The first quarter of the trail went from 342m to 404m. That hill went up, and up, and up for ages. Once we were done that part it didn't seem long before we were on the road. According to the map, it looks about 1/3 of the way into the trail. We took a couple of breaks. We were confused by the comments of the people we met and I had an older version of the map where the road wasn't shown properly.

We eventually crossed paths with the other couple. The dog was a barker, the woman was more concerned about the dog, so didn't return an offered greeting and the man was quite far back along the trail and mumbled about how it wouldn't get any better (it did).

Taking a rest on the road:

The road was easy to follow and finally we veered off of it onto the trail going to Three Mile Lake. We got to the lake at about 12:20 p.m. We stopped for lunch. I had a few crumbs of my Cliff bar left so I fed a friendly chipmunk. This portage end has a campsite, so he's probably well trained to beg.

Lunch stop

After a leisurely lunch, we got back into the canoe to check the next campsite out. We paddled over to it, got out, but weren't overly happy with it. The fire pit area was all quite wet, it didn't look very inviting to sit around. Back into the canoe we went to the next site, the 4th one down the lake. It looked pretty good and for a bonus, it is right across from the portage we would be going on tomorrow.

It was about 2 p.m. Still early, but we'd been moving since 9 a.m. I was glad to be home for the night. We set up camp.

Loons

We were lucky this trip, every lake had loons. We'd see then while paddling, we'd hear them while at our campsite. Today we saw a loon showdown. All of a sudden two loons emerged from the lake's surface and they started to flap their wings and make a ruckus. Two other loons from either side of the lake started to call towards them, almost like the wives telling them not to fight.

A group of merganser ducks burst out of the water near our site. They seem to all go underwater, swim around a bit, then all spring up together. Then they swim around, usually in a line, with the lead duck dipping his head into the water to check for fish.

We also saw a large bird fishing. It may have been some sort of hawk. It wasn't a heron or a cormorant. It had feathers that were flecked white and light brown. It flew quite high then would drop out of the sky into the lake.

At one point a swimming animal went by. It kept its head out of the water, so it wasn't an otter or a beaver. It was too small for that. My guess is that it was a swimming squirrel. It never dove or swam underwater. It came ashore not far from us, but we didn't see or hear it land.

Dinner was lasagna, savoury buns and banana shortcake:

Banana pudding, rehydrated bananas, dried angel food cake, and coconut

Three Mile Lake

 

Another gorgeous evening

 

I burned the bottom of my big toe when I knocked over a boiling kettle, ouch! I developed a small blister that I was worried might be an issue with the next day's portaging. We had 5 portages to do covering just over 3 km.

I was in bed again at 9. It had been windy the night before, but it was silent tonight on Three Mile.

Day 1                         Day 3                     Day 4                  Day 5

Trip Log - Kiosk Loop: August 23 to 27, 2018 - Day 1

I've been in the park a few times this summer, but this was my first camping trip for 2018. A loop is planned, leaving the Kiosk access point, going into Manitou, through Three Mile Lake, over to Erables for two nights, and back to Kiosk via Maple Creek.

Departure time was planned for 4:30 a.m. It's a long drive from Ottawa to the Kiosk access point, the northernmost access point of Algonquin Park. We mostly stuck to the timetable with a slight detour to pick up an emergency paddle. We stopped for breakfast at the truck stop by the highway in Pembroke. 

On the road

Early morning mist

Gorgeous sunrise

We weren't the only canoeists at the breakfast stop

We arrived at the access point at 9:45 a.m. It is right on the beach/launching point. 

Kiosk Access Point

Canoe's pretty profile

See the small black item on the top of the canoe's nose? That's where the GoPro gets mounted. That is if it doesn't get forgotten on the beach. 

Not flat, but not too wavy

Getting the canoe ready to launch

By 10:30 a.m. we were on the water. It's about 6 km to the portage into the Amable du Fond River which leads to Manitou Lake. The first portage can either be one longer one, or two shorter ones with a bit of water in between which often needs to be lined at one point. L.T. lined the canoe. It took us about 2 hours to get to the river after this section.

Today's route (Jeff's maps)

As we landed at the first portage, it was apparent there was someone already there. There was only one canoe, but a lot of other bags and a barrel strewn about the landing. It turns out we'd run into a group of 13 teens on their 18th day of a 21-day trip. They were walking the full portage, whereas we put in between the two shorter ones.

We do single portaging. One carry, one walk, no retracing of steps. It can be hard, especially on the first day as we carry all our food then. But it certainly saves a lot of time and a lot of walking. Double carrying means you walk each portage 3 times. Except for a couple of 130m portages, all our carries were single carries.

And this is where L.T. realized that the GoPro got forgotten on the beach. Oh well. It would either be turned into that very conveniently placed access point office, or it wouldn't. But it did mean that we wouldn't get any GoPro footage this trip.

When we got to the beginning of the river, all the canoes were there with most of their gear. They made room for us to put in and we easily made it to the 1355m portage into Manitou well before them. A large group is very slow to move. We do single carries and they were doing double and triple carries.

It took us 25 minutes to paddle to the 1355m portage, after resting for 15 minutes we started walking the portage and finished it at 1:30, in 20 minutes. 

Start of portage into Manitou from Amable du Fond River

Looking into the Amable du Fond River

Made it to Manitou Lake

A nice walk in the park

Me and my backpack

Looking a bit windy

It's not getting any better

It wasn't very late in the day, but we made a decision. We walked over to the campsite near the portage end at the beach and claimed it. It was very windy and wavy. Tomorrow was a paddle to the portage to Three Mile Lake, a long portage, further than either of us had done before, and not much paddling after that. We wouldn't be that far behind if we just plunked ourselves down and enjoyed the rest of the day at this site. Which isn't a bad one, actually. 

It was 2:00 p.m. and we sat down to eat our fresh lunch of cured meat, Welsh cheese and fruit.

Not a bad site

The campsite front - lovely

My hammock, my backpack hung up for the night

We did some exploring walking along the shore. On one side it was immediately apparent that there was a cottage with a gorgeous view down the lake. Here are a few pictures of that cottage.

The view from the cottage

Possibly the cottage owner

We also hiked along a trail in the opposite direction of our campsite. It led to two other cottages that were not in as good shape as the first one we found. But they are still in an envious position, cottages in Algonquin Park.

I found a downed birch and decided to cut a few logs for dinner. 

Using the saw

Here are some pictures from dinner preparation:

Steak, potatoes and carrots ready at 6:30 p.m.

Firing up the stove

Setting up the campsite

The kids had come out onto the beach about 45 minutes behind us and decided to wait out the wind. They spent several hours waiting, but it got worse instead of better. Poor kids, they finally headed out. It took them quite a while to make any progress. We watched them and felt sorry for one canoe that didn't seem to be able to keep up with the rest. Finally they pulled out of sight.

The evening was lovely, well as far as the sky was concerned.

Sun setting on the right

 

Moon rising on the left

Bedtime was early as we planned to get up early and out on the lake as soon as possible the next morning. I was in my hammock by 9 p.m.

Day 2                         Day 3                     Day 4                  Day 5