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