Day Tripping: Barron Canyon Paddle

Our very first trip camping we launched at Achray (Grand Lake) and paddled to the Squirrel Rapids access point. A one-way trip where L.T. arranged for his car to be moved. That was in 2014 and we decided that it was a good time to paddle the canyon again.

This is the first trip that we've used L.T.'s new vehicle, a Honda CRV, so we needed to learn how to best tie the canoe on. Spoiler alert, it took a couple of stops on the way home and several lost foam supports before it felt really solid.

On Sunday, July 8, 2018 we loaded up and headed to the Sand Lake Gate and parked the car at the Squirrel Rapids access point. Our plan was to paddle up to the second portage near Brigham Chute and walk up to that for lunch and a rest. We'd be paddling upstream on the way there and downstream on the way back.

Jeff's Maps

The access point is shown as A51 on the map above. We had one portage to carry over, a short one at 345m. We would only carry our lunch, chairs, etc. up the next portage, 440m, not too far either.

Our previous trip we only traveled down the Barron River. It's pretty awe-inspiring to look up at the tall cliffs. There's a trail at the top that we've hiked several times (see here for some photos taken up top). It's not a long hike and can be tacked onto most day trips to that part of the park. But we didn't hike it today.

In my opinion, I found the cliffs more inspiring on the way UP the river rather than downriver. We had the GoPro on the canoe, but I did not turn it on. It's tricky to manage once on the water. The buttons are on the front and I have to blindly guess if I've got it right as there are no indicators on the back of the camera. I know, excuses, excuses.

I pride myself on having a good memory. But I have to confess I did not have any memory of most of the route we did today. I seem to remember a big bay along the river that we never hit. The low water this year brought more rocks into range, so I was a bit stressed trying to watch out for them.

Here are some pictures from the first portage:

There are quite a few campsites along the river. One that stood out is the uppermost site. Some people were camped there and they had one of those suspended tents. It's not a good site for privacy though, you'd have to want to watch, and greet, all the traffic going by.

Here are photos from the trip up the river:

Once we were through most of the cliff area, we ran into a few canoes coming down the river. Well, they were stopped actually, waiting for some other canoes to catch up. 1, 2, 3 canoes. 4, 5, 6 canoes. 7, 8....you get the idea. Boy Scouts. Nice to see them enjoying the park. What was even better was that they were just finished up on the portage coming from Brigham Chute. The put-in is awful here, a pretty steep bank with no real shoreline to speak of. Our plan was to leave our canoe here and if we'd arrived with all those canoes coming out, well, that would have been a mess!

This portage is a bit treacherous as you climb up the bank and along the very edge. It's a bit of a drop to the river below and not much to grab onto. But we weren't fully loaded. I still had my trekking poles to help me up the hill.

We got to the chute and set up to have lunch and relax for a while. We only had one couple go through, at the very end of our stay, so it was pretty private.

Here's a short video of the chute:

For the trip down the river, L.T. turned the GoPro on. It doesn't seem as spectacular on film as it does when experiencing the trip.

Our paddle back down the river was quick. Not only were we going with the current, but the wind was at our back as well. The overall trip is about 17 km and very doable as a day trip. We were not rushed or worried in any way about time and neither of us were sore the next day from the paddling.

Day Tripping: Achray Access to Stratton Lake

It's August and that means...the bugs are almost gone!

We haven't been camping much so far this season, but we've been on a couple of hikes and a couple of day trips with the canoe. This was day trip #2 taken on Sunday of the August long weekend. 

We launched on a gorgeous sunny day out of Achray, the Grand Lake was already a bit wavy. We headed to the portage into Stratton Lake, the one we famously missed our very first time on this lake.

We're using L.T.'s new vehicle, so tying the canoe down is a learning experience. A dog walker decided to stop us and give us her advice as he was picking me up to leave. 

Water is low this summer and the creek between Grand and Stratton has a few rocks you need to avoid. 

I only took my phone out to take pictures once we stopped at a campsite for lunch. I didn't want to drop it overboard! This campsite is the one at the very bottom of Stratton close to the portage into St. Andrews Lake

It was a gorgeous day and the paddling was pretty uneventful until we tried to get back to the access point on Grand Lake. As we came into the lake, the wind was coming at us in an unsuitable direction. The water was choppy, much like a washing machine and the canoe handles differently when not fully loaded. We ended up taking a break on the sandy beach. I tried to convince LT that we needed to take the short Jack Pine trail back to the campground. On our third try in the boat, we managed to make it back to shore.

Here's my Fitbit map showing our trip in. I wish I had tracked our route on the way out, it would have been much more wiggly!

Let's Pretend....a Learning Experience

I've been asked to help my sister with a couple of days of hanging out with my 8 year old nephew, Logan now that he's off school. When she asked me if I'd babysit I asked her if she thought he could carry a canoe and we'd go camping. I was joking. He's old enough to accompany LT and me on a trip, but that's not in the cards. So I thought he and I would have a "pretend" camping day. 

Our map

This pretend trip is completely on dry land. We'll drive to a park near my place and go for a short hike to a place where we can set up a campsite just for the day. It's a park meant for picnics, it has lots of picnic tables with barbecues with a river running along it. We won't have a fire, but we'll eat lunch. The menu is lasagna with apple pie for dessert.

I'll be printing out a map for him to follow, it's the one at the left.

When LT bought me my Hennessy hammock for Christmas they sent him a Cub hammock. It's meant for kids, up to 5'8", 120 pounds. We'll set up both hammocks and pretend we're going to sleep over and maybe just take a nap after lunch. 

Even though I don't need most of my gear, I'm going to bring it to show him how it works. It may be many years before he goes off on a backcountry canoe trip, but hopefully I'll pique his curiosity enough that when the opportunity comes for him, he jumps on it instead of like me, taking over 50 years to get to that place.

I've packed my stove (which I'll use to make lunch), my water filtration system, my hammock, sleeping bag, pillow, mattress. I have my chair, plus the tripod chair I had before. I picked him up his mess kit at LeBaron the other day:

Bowl, cup and KFS

The Day of the Adventure:
We had gorgeous weather. I parked my car about 1.5 kilometers from our camping spot and we hiked on the paths to the site I had chosen each of us carrying our packs.

Logan had a backpack that we put his camping hammock into as well as his mess kit. I had my usual large pack with a lot of what I usually carry.

We found our spot and set up camp, including both hammocks.

Logan is already in his hammock

 It was nice to have a picnic table for a change to keep stuff off the ground.

We lay in the hammocks and chatted to each other. We listened for birds. He recently did a school project on birds and has taken an interest in the large variety of birds he gets in his backyard at home.

Using my stove to make lunch

I brought my stove and my water filtration system. I carried 2 Nalgene litre bottles with water. I showed him how I filter water using my tap water from home. 

For lunch I brought dehydrated lasagna. For dessert I had my new apple pie recipe. I had also brought some cheese strings for the lasagna. He wasn't as eager of a fan of the dried food as LT. Maybe it has something to do with not having worked a bit harder for it without paddling. And Logan doesn't do any of his own cooking yet.

Less than eager about lunch

We climbed back into the hammocks for a short break before packing up and walking back to the car. It was getting pretty hot and we ended the day stopping by my local outdoor pool (which was empty because the Ontario kids were still in school) where Logan got to have the diving board all to himself. I know the water was fresh as I had seen the truck filling the pool up 3 days earlier. All in all, it was a great day!