Mommy Roze: Algonquin June 25

Time to pack up, today is a big day! Dad planned this trip, and wants four portages done, just so we can be tough and ready for the "big trip".

Packing up seems to take a very long time. Even with helpers!

Still packing. It takes over an hour, easily, sometimes two, to get the tents, sleeping bags, clothes, cooking gear and everything else into the bags for the day. Watch out where you put your raincoat! You want to be able to find it later.

Evelyn fooled around in the pine forest with Daniel while we were hard at work packing.

At last, it is time to fill the canoes. This can take a lot of time too, especially if only one person is swinging the bags in.

Last canoe is ready to go in the water. Goodbye!! We didn't mind leaving. There were people camping not far from us who brought a radio. And played it loudly. Late. Why??? If you want a loud radio, please don't go in the back country!

Off we go through Tom Thomson to find our portage. It is easy to find, since there are really bright signs at the portage that you can see far far away! And if you are not sure where you are, they even, in Algonquin, tell you what lake you are on and where you are going, and how long the portage is. Our "big trip" will not have any signs. I worry about how much we rely on spotting the campsite and portage signs to navigate.

We are almost there Mom!

Our first portage of the day is the longest one. 1 km. And buggy.

Waiting for the second load of gear to come across was very annoying, with all the bugs.

We zipped across a pond do our next portage.

Lots of lily pads often means lots of bugs.

Only a half kilometer this time. It was a bit muddy. We had a few dirty feet and some very unhappy camper. All the wildlife disappeared...and hopefully some character was build?

We had Pathfinder Lake to paddle through, now it wasn't much bigger than the pond, really.

But we stopped for lunch anyways. We found a spot next to a small island where we could hang on to something and catch a breeze. Bye bye bugs. Everyone enjoyed having lunch on the water for a change.

We are hungry!!

And then another portage (200 meters) to Potter lake. Finally, a biggish lake to paddle on where you can be out of reach of the bugs.

Soon enough we are nearing the last of the portages of the day.

Note the bright sign. Can't miss it! (Well, actually, we may have missed some signs in the past, but let's not mention that.)

After a steep jump up we are on a highway again. It feels a bit lame, after 5 portages, to realize maybe we could just have driven here and dropped off our gear. We are hoping it will be quiet tonight.

It was very buggy here, and we were tired and hot. But we kept moving quickly...otherwise you felt like you were dinner! Melanie wore her rain coat and sweated lots, as she preferred that over being bitten. I preferred being bitten.

Hurry up and load so we can get away from the bugs! Our campsite is on this lake, almost there!! We rejected the campsite that was closest, it was way too close to the bugs at the portage.

This campsite marker for the only other site looks sketchy. It turns out we have another portage to just get to the campsite. Only about 40 meters, and definitely worth it.

Big, open, flat.

Nice view. Steep drop though. Wouldn't want to camp here if the kids were toddlers!

There are no bugs. But. There is rain.

When the rain let up, we found, after some searching, a sketchy pathway to down where we can pump water. It really is a long way down!

We hung our food up here. The food bag net is all ready to go for the night. We wonder how we are going to manage to hang two weeks worth of food on our "big trip".