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Into The Bush
Entry 30 of 46 | show all | print this entry |
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The warm and welcome morning sunshine brought us out of our sleepy reveries as we packed the last few things into the van and headed off to collect Mike and Barb. We'd been looking forward to heading back into the bush at Algonquin Provincial Park. Careful consideration and solid planning went into our group camping list, fine tuned over several frosty brews, especially the weekend menu.
Mike and Barb were ready to fly when we arrived, coffees in hand, sparkles in their eyes. Both of them live for outdoor adventure. They've traversed much of Ontario's vast terrain through hiking, camping and portaging trails and know hundreds of interior networks well. They are definitely the people you want to be in the bush with!
The four hour-ish drive was fun and relaxing. We stopped for some chow and then waited in anticipation for an LCBO (liquor shop) stop to add to our collection of beer, wine and spirits. We hit a dandy. The plan for brew is always to take along the king cans or tall boys of beer. When emptied, we use them for drinking water after boiling it on the campfire. It's a good system for keeping lots of clean water on hand and at the end of the trip the cans get mashed and taken out, light as a feather. Naturally we stocked right up. The last thing you want to do is run out of cocktails in the bush! Tetra wine packs are really convenient for wine drinkers and we made sure to pack five while the boys handled the the beer. Then off we went until we hit Kearney, where we had reservations for a Daisy Lake site. Inside Algonquin you can only reserve canoe route sites on the lake in general. The specific site is chosen once you actually get there so want to get there early if you can.
Paddlers have to give all vital details like tent fly colors, canoe colors etc. That way if there's an emergency they can locate you quickly as normally the routes are quite isolated. We picked up the latest map of portage routes for future trips and off we went. Kearney is where the park office is. The drive to the access point is another 40 minutes or so on a long, winding, pot-holed, bumpy-ass road which sent us flying in every direction! We were entering the park on the southwest side. Upon arrival I was surprised at the amount of cars, but it's the access point to a number of portage routes so its unlikely we'd see many, if any, of the paddlers once we arrived at our final destination. After some time spent fixing our wooden yoke at home before the trip, Mike hauled his canoe onto his shoulders to head to the dock and his yoke broke! Luckily Jeremy's a builder and after a few minutes of scouring the van for screws we solved the problem and off we went.
After the first few paddles on the gleaming and calm Magnetawan Lake, our first lake in the series, the feeling of being immersed in such a beautiful and tranquil natural environment added a blanket of serenity to my excitement. It becomes evident to me again and again that nature is where we truly belong. More thumbnails ...
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