Triplogs / Triplog#19 / Days 2&3 / Days 4&5
Rock Lake (IN) - Pen L - Harry L - Lake Louisa - Rock Lake(OUT)
Days 4 & 5 - Harry Lake to Louisa and Rock Lake
I woke up just after 7:30am.
It was a beautiful clear sunny morning, and it was warm too. There was the slightest breeze on the lake. I retrieved my food pack from the tree, and made some coffee.
I walked down to the rock landing and faced east to look upon the sun rising over the lake. Turning around and enjoying the coffee immensely that morning(A huge helping of Kahlua mixed in), I realized something was wrong. Something was missing from the picture. Oh SHIT! My canoe was gone!!! It was GONE! I couldn't believe it.
I had to laugh at myself. I always knew that something like this could happen. I've heard it happen to other folks as well. In a hurry, I scanned the shoreline and the bay to the north of the site, and then along the shore, walking east. I covered maybe a hundred meters or more. No canoe.
ummm....where'd my canoe go??
I went back to the rock landing and scrutinized the rock. Sure enough I could see the telltale signs of white scrapings along the rock. I followed them till I came to the southern tip of the landing...looking up, I followed an imaginary path to the south east end of Harry Lake, from where I came 2 days before. Oh boy! My canoe was probably down at the other end of the lake. I sat down and thought it thru.
I had laid my canoe down on the rock, it's length perpendicular to the shoreline.
It was laid down on an angle, with it's open face, facing the north.
The wind had switched during the night, coming from the north. So the wind had caught the open face of the canoe and rolled it over, tumbling it probably did, till it went into the water, from there the wind and water did it's job. So that's why I woke up at 3am! If anything I didn't panic. I just laughed at my own lack of preparedness. After all, many other things had already gone wrong on this trip. They were minor things, but the canoe being gone was major.
I realized I was still safe. After all I was in Algonquin, it wasn't like I was in the arctic, a 1,000 km from anything. I could hike out in a day or two, perhaps finding a road and following it to the highway. I set up the international symbol for distress.
Three large piles of pine needles on the rock landing, arranged in a triangle, about 6m apart, it was all the space I had. I figured the Algonquin Fire watch plane would fly over sometime that day, or perhaps another plane or helicopter might pass by. I felt hesitant to use it for such a 'disaster'. After all, I wasn't dying or crippled(physically), and more than anything, I'd be awfully embarrassed to have a helicopter pick me up, cause I simply hadn't tied my canoe down.
Sun in my eyes: somewhere out there, be a lonely canoe
After this was done, I proceeded to pack up.
Later on, I spotted something at the other end of the lake. It was quite a distance away, and with the sun in my eyes it was hard to tell what it was. There was something odd about the shape of the object. It seemed to keep changing shape and didn't look like a canoeist at all. I thought maybe it was an animal, perhaps a moose. After several minutes it was obvious it was coming my way, or so it seemed. I thought, why would a moose swim down the length of a lake?
I pulled out my camcorder remembering it had zoom features on it, something ridiculous like 440x zoom. The battery was very low, but I only needed it for a few seconds. I zoomed in and my heart lept with relief and excitement. It was another canoeist, solo as a matter of fact. The strange shape I was seeing was a canoe he was towing behind him. It kept turning in the morning breeze, thus fooling my vision.
Combined with the morning wind, the empty canoe must've been a drag on his paddling. I felt bad about this, and quickly fired up my stove. I ran down to the shore jumping up and down waving my arms. "Here I am, last site on the north shore", I yelled. I lit one of the piles of pine needles to give the guy some reference, just in case he still hadn't seen me yet. Up went a white column of thick smoke.
As the soloist pulled up, I kept thanking him over and over, claiming he was an 'Angel'. The guy laughed, and said, 'well, no...not an Angel' He had saved my bacon BIG time. We exchanged introductions, and I discovered my 'Angel' was tripper 'tedjp'. I had seen this fellow online a few times on Algonquin Adventures.com, and on CCR as well. It was so cool to meet someone from the online world in the real world, not to mention having my bacon saved! I invited tedjp up to my site, I gladly offered him anything he wanted, tea, coffee, booze, etc. tedjp had some coffee.
An Algonquin Angel: Tripper 'tedjp' comes to my rescue!
What was surprising was that my safety kit,pfd, and my spare paddle were still in the canoe! During our conversation, tedjp told me how we had come onto the lake last night and had settled in on the beach site next to the narrows. He had in fact spied my canoe up on the rocks. In the morning, he saw a canoe coming around a bend and thought it was fishermen. Then when he saw it was empty, he thought 'oh oh'.
However, tedjp, told me that it was right-side up and not face down in the water.
He had looked to my sight and noticed my canoe was gone. I guessed tedjp deduced that my canoe had blown away in the storm the night before. I explained to tedjp my deductions as well, how the wind had changed, etc. tedjp, then asked if I had tied my canoe down. I sheepishly replied 'No'. Well, guess who ties their canoe down now? It was great meeting tedjp, we talked at length, and then we said our goodbyes, as he climbed into his craft(a fine one I might add), and sailed off. It was 10am. It is embarrassing mentioning this incident here, however I do mention it because it is a learning experience, and if someone can learn from my mistakes, then it makes my triplog writing all the more worthwhile. Remember to tie down your canoe! You never know, YOU might not be so lucky, to have your friendly neighborhood tedjp come to your rescue.
Mission Accomplished: tedjp heads his way to the Galipo Lakes
An hour or so later, I set out. As I approached the narrows leading to Rence Lake, a motorboat, came out of the creek and pulled up to the first site on the south shore.
Before I could complain to myself, I saw that they had pfd's and hats with insignia on them, as well, they were wearing gloves and had yellow bags. Park staff cleaning sites. Cool. I paddled on, came to an old road, where the bridge had been removed, and a Ontario Parks truck parked there. It was nice to see staff out grooming the sites, getting ready for another season. As I emerged onto Rence lake, I was greeted with a stiff wind and choppy water. Five minutes later, I was climbing over a beaver dam, on my way to Frank Lake. It was 11:45am. The portage to Frank lake was short, muddy, rocky, filled with roots, and loaded, just loaded with deer scat.
Heading up the channel to Frank Lake
Launching onto Frank Lake, I heard some branches snapping on the west shore.
I looked over and saw two deer fleeing at high speed thru the bush. After this, I never did see anymore wildlife of the large variety for the rest of the trip. I passed the site on Frank lake, it faces north, and has lots of pine around it and some rock too. It might make a great late summer site, however, there didn't look like there was any protection from a north wind there.
Both Frank and Florence lakes are small quiet lakes and upon arriving on Florence Lake, I easily spotted the 3455m portage to Lake Louisa. I was not going to take this route, but instead was taking the 1725m portage upto the lake. It was tricky to spot and when I landed, I came upon a small mud bottom landing complete with a knotted root system for a dock to step out on. Perfection! It was 1:10pm.
The Arrival: Portage to Frank Lake
Preparing to Launch onto Frank Lake
Note: Hill in the distance - North Shoreline of Florence Lake
Approach to the lone campsite on Frank Lake
The portage started off by climbing a long hill, then flattened out for a bit then descended to a flat muddy track where the portage continued on a road. After a short 2 or 3 min jaunt down the road, the trail moved back into the forest. For the rest of the portage, the trail was mostly straight and flat, with long sections of slow low angle inclines. At the very end of the trail, the portage rapidly descends to the landing at Lake Louisa. The landing is a slope of earth and rock.
The landing at the 1725m portage to Lake Louisa
I set off onto Lake Louisa at 3:30pm. during my portage to the lake, the sky had become overcast, and as I paddled up to the main body of the lake, the clouds lowered. I was protected from the wind and as I emerged onto the expanse of Louisa, the waves and wind kicked up a few notches. The lake itself is long and has many Pine clad islands. I'm sure on a nice sunny summer day, this lake would be a fabulous place to be, but not today. Heading east along the lake, as I neared the halfway point, where the lake starts to narrow a bit, the skies behind me became very dark, the wind became stronger and the waves really started to kick up.
The portage to Lake Louisa follows a logging road for a few minutes
After crossing the road, the trail ascends at a very low gradient
Fortunately the wind and waves were in my favor, and I enjoyed the semi-rough paddle. It wasn't that bad at all. Around 4:30pm, the rain showers came I was approaching a site on a point, and trying to go around it, I was treated to a surge in wind and waves and backsplash waves. It was quite scary for a few moments there, but once around the point, I was able to paddle into a small bay, protected mostly from the winds and waves. The worst seemed to be over for me, except it kept raining in waves of 5 min here, then 10 minutes later, 10 minutes more of rain there.
Lake Louisa: Pretty Islands - Scary skies
Passing this site: I marveled at the strength of the wind blowing thru it
I was pretty damp and tired and decided to camp on the 2 sites on the west shore up from the 3455 portage from Florence lake. The first one didn't appeal to me, as it had to much exposure to the north and a little bit of the west. The second one was empty as well, and I paddled to it. It was a miserable little site, but was heavily treed and faced east, and was protected from every other direction. As I stepped out on to sloped rock, I lost my balance, as the canoe started to push away from shore. To avoid a catastrophe , I hurriedly sat back down. Too fast and too hard, my bow seat went 'CRACK', and I went 'Oh SHIT!'. Yep, another bumbling mistake. This trip was getting old really fast!
Protected from wind, I had no exposure to the unexpected sunshine
By 6:30pm, I was settled in, eating dinner, taking pictures, staring at my bow seat in horror, and decided to relax and have a few drinks in front of the fire. The Gods of Algonquin began to smirk at me some more, as the sky started to clear up, and the folks at a site across from me, stood out on their rocky point, to soak in the sunshine. I had none, but that's the price I paid. Better to be protected from the unpredictable elements of the day's weather events, then pick an exposed site, and risk the wrath of a north wind. Oh well. It was around 10pm that I went to bed. Despite the troubles of the last few days, I had a great sleep that nite.
Day 5
I was up just before 6am, and broke camp at 7am. It was a gray morning.
I was hesitant to sit in the broken bow seat, so I piled everything in the bow, and paddled out sitting in the stern seat. Another rookie mistake.
The bow of my canoe, was riding pretty high, and as I paddled beyond the point and into the exposed part of the lake, I became very aware of that mistake. The wind was already up and so were the waves. Rain started to pelt away at me, as my canoe started to get tossed around like a cork.
Dark skies and waves plagued me on my way out
I would rather have had a loaded down canoe with water splashing over the gunwales, than me improperly balanced and getting tossed around like a cork.
I tried kneeling. but that game didn't last very long. I hadn't brought my pads, and every time I tried to kneel, one of the ribs on the canoe bottom got in the way. Since I had purchased the canoe, I had never had the opportunity to have kneeled from the stern seat.
Readjusting myself, caused the canoe to tip all over the place. It was really starting to get dangerous out there. I could stay on my knees perhaps 2 minutes at a time, then I was back up in the seat. A sudden realization that I could die out there, hit me. I wasn't that far from shore, perhaps 100m, but the thought of that bone chilling cold water covering my body, urged me on to the pain of kneeling more.
I got close to shore finally, but it was lined with lots of evil looking rocks and the back splash was very nasty, so I pulled farther out, with waves coming at 45° angles I grimly paddled on. I finally rounded the last point and arrived with a laugh and a sigh of relief, as I sailed into calmer waters. The rain started to come down heavily now, as I passed the last campsite before the portage. It was unoccupied, and wished I had tried to get to it the night before. I finally landed just before 8am.
Not looking back, I picked up my pack and started off on the 2895m portage to Rock Lake. This portage has some small climbs, but nothing severe. There are a few areas with boardwalks, and near the beginning the trail crosses a road. Overall the portage is downhill to Rock Lake. There were many muddy sections, but all were easily circumvented. It rained quite a bit on my return for the canoe and the trip back Rock. Woodpeckers were everywhere busy looking for breakfast. I didn't bother to pull out the camera, it was just too wet out, and I had another trip to start later that day. No time for slacking, I had to move! I launched on to Rock Lake at 10:45am, the portage had taken me 2hrs45min, solo double carry. Not bad...I'm getting better at this portaging thing. Now If I could just stop trying to strand or drown myself, my trips might be less fraught with terror!
The sun popped out as I launched on Rock Lake. I sat on my broken bow seat, leaning a little to one side, sitting gingerly on it. After all it was a mesh seat. The arrangement worked out fine, it just creaked a little more than usual. As I looked around I could see isolated cells of showers everywhere. I paddled very close to shore..within 3 meters. Many times it would start to pour rain, then I'd hide under a low hanging cedar, have a smoke and move on, once it passed. The winds were less on this lake, but I still had a long paddle ahead of me. As I swung north, the wind was in my face, and combined with the waves, I had to keep my craft from being pushed into shore. I moved farther out and paddled on.
As I approached the head of the lake and the channel, the wind became like a hurricane, even paddling up the channel, where I thought I'd be safe from the wind,
was exhausting. At one point, I had to pull over and hang on to some branches for a rest. I was starting to go backwards. The wind wouldn't let up. Finally arriving just after noon, I got out, walked over to my car, lit a smoke and sat back in my comfy seat, out of the wind!
What a trip. So many things went wrong this trip, my inexperience still showing.
However, here I was, still alive...and I had to get my butt in gear as I had a heck of a journey ahead of me later that afternoon.
I Loaded up the car and headed out to Lake Opeongo, the start of my next trip.