On Friday, August 19th, at 6am, 18 UTOCers met up with their drivers to get ready for a two-day canoe trip in Algonquin. A lot had gone into planning this trip, including swim tests, making a menu, coordinating rentals for equipment, and sending out many emails. The trip was planned by Liz DaMaren, shadowed by Natalia.
The ride up to Algonquin went well; we got to the rental shop around 11:30am. Because it was during the morning, the 4 hour didn’t feel too long. All cars met up at the Barrie ON Route at 7:30am to have breakfast; this made getting to Alongquin at a reasonable time much easier.
Once we arrived at the park, we sorted ourselves into 8 canoes and started paddling onto the lake. We got in through the Kiosk Access Point (#29), meaning that we started on Kioshkokwi Lake. That paddle went fine, and led us to our first portage, which was roughly 700m long. We decided to have lunch before getting on the trail. Although many participants had never portaged before, the portage went smoothly. After a short paddle, we went down a second portage and that went well too. This led us into Mink Lake.
We then started looking for our two campsites. We had hoped that they would be side by side, but we were unable to find that. Instead, we found sites that were still pretty close to each other, with one campsite separating them in the middle. With 9 people on each site, we began putting up tents and preparing for dinner.
That night, we ate hot dogs and banana boats. The night ended with some people stargazing, others talking, others sitting by the fire.
Saturday morning, we all regrouped on one site to have breakfast together. This was one hell of a breakfast. We made eggs, bacon, and pancakes! It was filling and yummy. Once we finished tidying up, we separated once again and started getting ready for our day trip. Although a couple people stayed behind, most of us decided to paddle down Mink Lake and portage about 400m to visit Cauchon Lake. We had read that Cauchon Lake had some pretty cliffs.
The land on Cauchon Lake was pretty steep, so it did have some cliffs. We found an empty campsite and stopped there for lunch. While we were there, we got to know everyone and also went swimming. The swimming was unfortunately cut short though once we realized that there were leeches in the water. This sort of sent everyone running to shore.
Cauchon Lake
After our stop, we made our way back to Mink Lake. We once again regrouped on one of the sites and decided to go swimming. A lot of people enjoyed that time. Swimming led into dinner, which was once again, very yummy. We had burritos that came with the whole deal; black beans, pinto beans, ground beef, rice, sour cream, guacamole, cheese. And, everyone who wanted got 2!
Once dinner ended, we separated back into the two sites and got ready for bed. However, some of us wanted to go stargazing on the lake. So that happened, and that was nice. There were some pretty big shooting stars that night that we got to see. There were simply also just a lot of stars, and it was a unique experience to get to paddle out on the lake at night time.
Setting out the bear canoe
Sunday we managed to pack up our sites, eat breakfast, and get out on the water before 10am. We paddled back the way we came into Kiosk. We decreased our travel time by like 40% compared to what it had been the first time. And that was even after some of us accidentally didn’t go back to get a couple of packs on the 700m portage while we were waiting for others to finish it.
When we got back to the access point, we sorted through our equipment and ate some bagels for lunch. We also did introduce ourselves formally to the group. To be honest, I think that most of the participants weren’t even that tired. People went swimming too. We got out and on our way home.
The trip didn’t really end there though because the drive back included a storm and a dinner stop. The storm was relatively severe because water started to pool onto the highway. This was scary but we got through it. The dinner stop was nice because the place we stopped at also had nice drinks.
In the end, everyone got home safely.
The trip was great for many reasons. For many participants, it was their first time canoe tripping, and for some, even their first time in a canoe. It was a wicked amount of fun, full of adventure, great food, and new friends.
