Triplogs / Triplog#22-Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3
Tim Lake - Tim River - Rosebary Lake
Day 3 - Rosebary Lake to Access#2
This deer buck gave us a great view as it paused before bolting away for cover
Another bright and beautiful July day greeted us, as Sean and I prepared to leave this beautiful and quiet lake. We packed up and gave the site the 'once over', discovering an old beer can I had found in the eroding bank of our campsite, down by the beach. In days, decades past, it was accepted and lawful practice to bury one's garbage on site! Now of course, we all realize that this practice is harmful to Algonquin Park's environment. The garbage was packed away and I left behind a 10 litre jug of water. This was spring water, bought at a store. I found a piece of charcoal and dated the water jug. I had debated after the fact , if it was wise to leave such an item behind. Certainly leaving fresh water behind for another to consume is ok, but to leave the plastic jug behind? Would it ever be carried out? to a newcomer, the thinking might be, is the water safe to drink? After much consideration, I believe it is un-wsie to leave jugs of water behind. Most if not all canoe trippers & visitors, have some water purifying method available to them. A jug of plastic might not be carried out for years, and then again might not be drunken anyways. These are just a few reasons not to leave anything behind. As well, it can be displeasing to arrive on a site and see plastic occupying it. Good intentions aside, I was wrong to leave such an item behind. I now make it regular practice to leave nothing behind, except firewood, when I can.
Sean walks around shallow waters
Tim River is like a creek in some sections...narrow and shallow
I always bring a water filter with me, and on this trip I did, but I had purchased the jugs of water, merely for convenience only, for me this was my most lazy of all trips. The ultimate no-no here on this trip, was that I had brought along a cooler. I never bring coolers into the interior of Algonquin Park, but wanted to treat Sean and myself to a tasty weekend. I kept most of the food in a pack, suspended from a tree, the rest, mainly beer and water with some cheese and sour cream I keep in the cooler. I placed a few heavy rocks on top of the cooler and placed it near the water, sheltered from the sun. I realize rocks would not stop a bear or even a raccoon, so in that respect we were lucky. I mention these bad practices here, as I want readers(those that are inexperienced)to realize the error of my ways and not to make the same mistakes. I have learned a great deal over the years, both through personal experience and online, through the generous advice of others. By the way, the cooler was taken out with us. We broke camp and headed out onto the lake. We could see that our neighbours had also broken camp and were heading out as well. We crossed the lake and entered the Tim river, not five minutes goes by, and we round a bend and I spot a deer, a buck down by the river's edge drinking from the water. The deer sensed something, looked up and backed away a little bit and paused. Deer to me, seem to have a blind spot, and that is lack of motion, if you are not moving they don't seem to see you. We drifted right by the deer, motionless, then when I reached down to paddle to correct the canoe's course, the deer bolted, bounding highly and it was gone. I don't often see deer in the interior of Algonquin, so for me and certainly for Sean it was a real treat. Just before we came to Litt Butt Lake, we caught up to one of the party of canoes that had passed us by on Friday. We did not try to pass the canoe, we merely lagged behind a bit. After all it was very narrow on that part of the river; it was more like a creek. They crossed a beaver dam, then so did we, pausing for a few minutes letting the party get ahead of us. I guess with all that deadweight beer being gone, we were the speedier of the two! Just past Litt Butt Lake, we lost sight of the canoe ahead of us, but then I captured sight of something else that set my heart in high gear. I saw something black against the wall of green ahead of us. I whispered to Sean, "you see that ahead of us? What do you make of it?" i thought it odd. It looked like the rump of an animal. If it were a moose, then where was it's neck and head? It wasn't a deer, a wolf perhaps? No. The way it was moving suggested something larger. "Maybe it's a wolf" I suggested, at which point the animal heard me and poked it's head up. It was a bear. Unmistakeable, it was a bear. Thrilling awe shot through my body. Sean was ecstatic as well. I got out my camera and snapped a quick one...it was still far away and at full zoom the fellow looked far away(which it was). The bear put it's head back down, we saw it's rump move along for a few more meters and then it was gone.
Rare sighting: This black bear was gone in a flash
Sean pausing for a rest at a crossing of a beaver dam
We approached the spot where we suspected the bear had been with caution. Nothing, the bear was gone. We saw two more moose, both the cow moose we had spotted a few days earlier just past Tim Lake, and the bull moose at the launch point, but nothing compared to that brief rare glimpse of a black bear in Algonquin Park. Only once before had I seen a bear(on Maple Lake). It never gets old. I am just lucky to have seen them from the water or have a body of water separate me from a bear. You can imagine that the rest of the way back and even with the brief stop-over on an island campsite on Tim Lake, all that was running through my mind was the bear sighting. A treat of treats.
A campsite on Tim Lake, complete with water jugs!
We stopped on the eastern most campsite on the large island on Tim Lake on our way out. The landing is nonresistant, you have to improvise to park your canoe. The site itself was nice, and to my amazment, there were not one, but two of the same sized 10 liter jugs of water left behind. However, these were filled with lake water, as you could see the tainted colour in the jugs. Whether it had been purified or not, was not known. The rest of the paddle across Tim Lake and the river was excruciating. The wind had opened up, and was very strong, never relenting on our effort to paddle to the access point. It took us almost an hour to paddle out. We were exhausted(Seans's shoulder was killing him)and rewarded with a bull moose sighting right at the access point.
Paddling across Tim Lake
A bull moose blocks our way as we approach the take-out at access#2
This had been one of the most successful trips yet for wildlife viewing in Algonquin Park, not including the leeches of course. Access#2 is great, but be prepared to deal with lots of leeches. I have never seen so many anywhere else in Algonquin Park.