A few weeks ago, for the first time ever, I went camping with just some friends! I have been camping with all of these people before, of course, but always with Girl Guides. This was my first time going camping without campers to look out for.
The trip was four days, but only two of those days were entirely in Algonquin Park. They can be easily labelled—the hiking day, and the canoeing day! There isn't too much to tell, so this post will mostly be a collection of photos.
The Hiking Day (Aug 10)
The first morning, we got up and had a leisurely breakfast. My favourite part was using the Kelly Kettle to boil water for tea. I love these! You build a fire in the bottom, fill the kettle, and carefully place it on top of the fire. The 'chimney' is wide enough to continue dropping sticks into. Pretty quickly the water boils! The only downside is it's size. While that didn't matter much on this trip, I've taken them on canoe trips before and they can be a bit cumbersome!
After a quick stop at the Portage Store to ask about renting canoes, we set off for a day of nice little hikes. We started with the Algonquin Logging Museum. This trail starts off in the bookstore, with little dioramas to look at and a video (which wasn't playing at the time). The rest of the trail is made up of chronological outdoor exhibits of different buildings and equipment used for logging.
I think this trail would be interesting for anyone who likes history, but I had a special link to what we learned about—my paternal grandfather was a logger who died in a related accident when my dad was a teenager. While this museum specifically talked about logging in Algonquin Park, the techniques would have been similar across Ontario. As I read the displays, I wondered if my grandfather had lived in these kinds of buildings, or used these kinds of tools as he worked in the 50s and 60s. My dad remembers some things my grandfather told him about, such as having a horse he often worked with.
I would definitely recommend checking this trail/museum out.
After the Logging Museum, we went to walk the Spruce Bog Boardwalk. This was a short hike with some very unique scenery. Heather did a spectacular job acting as a tour guide for us by translating the French guidebook (as there were no English ones for us to use!).
We stopped off at our campsite for a late lunch, and went to do our last hike, Two Rivers Lookout. This was a short walk, but the climb was quite steep in places! Still, the view from the top was work the trek. We took lots of great pictures.
(Yeah, I look like a Girl Guide Advertisement—That's what happens when 95% of your camping clothing is related to GGC or Camp Woolsey!)
After our hikes, we went back to our our site for a quiet, relaxing evening around the fire!
The Canoeing Day (Aug 11)
Heather and I have gone on plenty of canoe trips in Algonquin Park, so we knew of a nice little day trip we could do on Canoe Lake—visiting Tom Thomson's Cairn for a picnic lunch.
Tom Thomson's story at Canoe Lake is very interesting, and I highly recommend reading more about it. The short version is that he was found drowned in Canoe Lake, but details around what happened to him, and then what happened to his body, are confusing and suspicious. He was a famous painter and said to be a very good canoer, making some people doubt his death was an accident. Whatever the truth is, the story is fascinating.
The weather was perfect for our little trip. We packed a lunch, rented two canoes, and headed out. I'll admit, my canoeing skills are a little rusty after two years away from camping. But we made good time and arrived at Tom Tomson's Cairn with no problems. It was a pretty popular spot! We had a nice picnic, then made the trip back to the Portage Store to return the boats.
(Funny aside, once as a kid my family was camping in Alqonguin and my dad and I wanted to canoe out to the cairn. I remember it being a pretty windy day. We made it to the right point, but thought we were lost and went back before going around the corner to see the nicely labelled dock!)
We had some well deserved ice cream, and went back to our campsite for another relaxing evening reading more about Tom Thomson, relaxing around the fire, and reminiscing about our old camping adventures at Woolsey (which is a very common topic for us!)
The next morning, we got up, slowly packed, and went home. Overall, a very nice couple of days with some good friends!
