2 day paddle & overnight camp, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
When visiting the excellent Algonquin Visitor Centre, we were chatting with some lovely folk from Ottawa. On their thoughts about Australia, “When you step out the door in Australia, everything wants to kill you! You get bitten by spiders, snakes and crocs!”. We were not quick enough to remark that we had seen a black bear outside the back door of the Huntsville cottage where we were preparing for our paddle adventure!
Bears were front of mind on this journey as warning signs stated:
YOU ARE IN BEAR COUNTRY
Food garbage and other bear attractants
(soap, toothpaste, etc.) must be stored in a pack, bear barrel
or stuff sack and hung at least 4 metres (13 feet) off the ground
and 2 metres (7 feet) away from the tree trunk.
So at camp, we were careful to sling packs bearing food, high in the trees, away from inquisitive snouts and paws.
This 2 day paddle was expertly planned by our Canadian/Aussie friends Deirdre and Hutch, and we could also hire and purchase all our paddling, equipment and even food needs from Algonquin Outfitters: https://algonquinoutfitters.com/
Our paddle began and finished at the southern end of Canoe Lake where Algonquin Outfitters is located. The paddle between Canoe Lake and our camp in the middle of Burnt Island Lake, a distance of 16 km (15 km paddling, 1 km portage), took about 5 hours of pretty relaxed paddling.
While the open waters of the lakes made for some strong paddling into head winds, the quieter waters at the head of the rivers contained beautiful quiet wetlands where otter and birdlife were sighted along with remnant beaver dams and lodges, and their favourite food source – water lilies.
Who knew it? Canadian canoes are a thing!
If there is a boat on a car roof in Ontario, Canada, then 90% of these boats will be Canadian canoes. We soon found out why….Portages. Algonquin Provincial Park is a paddlers dream, a landscape comprised of thousands of lakes, each separated from the other by watercourses. Many of these watercourses are entirely paddleable (is that a word?). However, when these connecting water courses are not navigable, portage is required. With a Canadian canoe the portage comprises, unloading the canoe, one paddler carrying the canoe on the shoulders via the yoke, while the second paddler carries the bulk of the gear comprising a large drybags and paddles. The aim is to make the portage in a single trip and not needing to double back to pick up any remaining items. So Canadian canoes with a carrying yoke are the perfect thing for these portages, and the packing for a paddling trip is not based on the capacity of the canoe, but the capacity of the paddlers to portage their canoe and gear in a single ‘carry’.
Kommentarer