Triplogs / Triplog#33 / Days 2&3 / Days 4&5
IN via Cart Trail - White Partridge L - Little Dickson L - Dickson L - Little Dickson L - White Partridge L - Out via Cart Trail
Day 4 (May 9)
David & Derek prepare to launch, Bo & Sheila(in the background),
are already out looking for specks.
A long un-used firepit encircled by red pines on
one of the empty campsites on Little Dickson Lake
I honestly can't remember when I had awoken this, day, I don't even remember where the morning fish meal came from. At 9 am, Mike was eating Speckled trout off of birch bark, that had once again been grilled over the fire. I think Bo caught more fish that morning and that's how we came to have fish for breakfast. We all had a bit of that fish, and it gave us energy, to go out and explore the lake. By 11 am, Derek, David, Mike & myself, jumped into our canoes and headed over to explore the campsite on the north shore, across from our site. Despite the cramped size of our campsite, I soon began to realize how "sweet" our island campsite was. It was well protected from wind, and rain, etc, as it was heavily treed. The site onshore, was treed, but had alot of exposure to the lake, and the fire-pit was really beat-up looking...crumbling stone walls, rocks tossed all over the place. The campsite had terrain that gave the impression that not very many people stayed there. It was lumpy like, and I couldn't find the axe, that I had seen on the site, as I paddled by it the year before in the month of May. We went over to the last site on the lake, next to the historical zone. The last site was really exposed, it did have trees, however, it was on a point, I liked the site, although I could just imagine on a windy rainy day, that no matter where a tarp would be placed, one would be wishing they had three tarps instead one. The four of us followed an old trail away from the campsite, looking for the historical zone. The land rose at a steep angle, where after awhile, we couldn't find no trail.
This was the easiest portage throughout our trip
We split up, me going deeper into the forest, the other three(I presumed), more in a westward direction. I came across many old deer sign, and some moose. but didn't find nothing that hinted at a historical zone...nothing manmade could be found. After awhile(still in audible contact), the other guys called me over. I worked my way over to them, as we worked our way down to a creek. We followed it for awhile, when I spied what looked like a boardwalk. I hopped over fallen logs and made my way onto the boardwalk. I turned around, then turned around again, something was damn familiar. Derek arrived, "Ya found a trail?", Derek asked. "yup, although something is very odd here", I mentioned. Wait a minute! This wasn't just any old trail. This was the portage to Dickson Lake!! "Are YOU sure", Derek asked. "Absolutely". I remembered now crossing the boardwalk(while carrying a canoe) the year before. I was just so befuddled by the fact that we had somehow ended up on the portage. All four of us had lost our sense of direction. It's interesting how in becoming 'lost', a portage comes along to rescue us! I decided that while we were there, and that we weren't likely to find the historical zone(we didn't even know what it was supposed to be..maybe a cabin, a graveyard, etc), that it might be worth the fun to walk the portage to Dickson Lake. No one objected and we followed the trail, even though I could 'sense' that some of the guys weren't too sure of my pronouncement of it being THE portage to Dickson Lake. Within 10 minutes or so, my proof came into view. It was 12:20pm and we were looking into a wide bay on Dickson Lake. It was too bad that we didn't have the canoes with us, because from where the portage starts/ends on Dickson Lake, you can't see much of anything, due to the shape of Dickson Lake, and we were down at the east end, past Cisco Bay. One of the guys found an old jacket, partially buried in the leaf litter that covered the ground. We examined the jacket found no ID or hidden treasure, then started to notice more stuff, trash in the immediate surroundings. It never seems to end, even in some more remote parts of The Park, there is always trash, sometimes(not in this case though), there are trash dumps one might come across. We headed back, pausing about halfway along the portage, to break for some water and gorp.
Netting Mike's catch: A Perch
Mike's Perch, was one of the largest either of us had ever seen,
reportedly, it tasted good too!
We made our way back, and realized we had a bit of a problem, we had to back track to get across the creek that divided us from our canoes on the north shore of Little Dickson Lake. Eventually we made it, Derek, Mike and myself, tippy-toeing our way across some fallen logs in the creek. David, went farther up, finding a less risky crossing. Soon, we picked up a trail and made it back to the campsite. We paddled back to camp and had an afternoon siesta. Derek had set-up a shower on the way to the thunderbox. I couldn't believe the set-up he had, and am kicking myself for not taking a picture of it, it really was a work of art. Derek had brought a 'Solar Shower' along, then with some bungie cords and two medium sized tarps, Derek, set-up a shower stall, complete with a place to hang your towel, just marvelous!
Going Traditional: Using birch bark as a plate,
Mike seen here is eating some tasty Speckled trout caught by Sheila.
By about 6:30 pm Bo & Sheila headed out, it was trout time again. The rest of us, soon followed. It was a fine evening both for fishing and weather. Mike paddled while I fished, then Mike paddled some more while we both fished. I took out my video camera and shot some footage. The fishing was good that night to most of us. Both Bo & Sheila caught some Speckled trout. David caught a nice sized Lake trout, over 2 lbs I believe. I caught 3 Speckled trout(threw 2 back..they were tiny), and the one I kept was a nice sized one, probably 1lb or a little more. Mike caught the biggest Perch either of us had ever seen. Derek was the only one, left empty handed, this didn't seem to bother him though, and we were all in good spirits as headed back to camp. It was another fine evening around the fire; trout, rice, camaraderie, a few drinks, good times.
My attention was captured by two huge dead pines,
towering above the forest
We had the most beautiful sunset on our third nite on Little Dickson Lake
Day 5 (May 10)
I have many pictures of this day!
Derek & David preparing to launch onto Cisco Bay(Dickson Lake)
The Gods of Algonquin smiled upon us, it was another beautiful day in May. We left camp(The four guys)just after 7:30 am, Master Bo & Sheila following us, but planning to stay on the lower section of Dickson Lake. Our destination was Dickson Lake, we had planned to paddle around and check out the sites, as well as the old giant Red Pines. Bo was not coming to see them as he had seen them before and stated, "No big deal", and "waste of time". Yeah, ok. We went anyways, with me as guide, as I had been this way before, last year. Not as far as the big pines though, so I was as much in the dark as the other guys were. Just before 8:30 am we launched onto Dickson Lake, I pointed out Racoon Island, the island campsite I stayed on the year before, while visiting Racoon and his friend Rob, in Cisco Bay. We continued on, through the straight section of water that leads to the lower section of Dickson Lake proper. We came upon a campsite on a point that faced both south and west. Here it was a bit windy, and I stayed in the canoe while, the three other guys explored a bit, but with the wind, they did not linger, and soon we were on our way again. We passed by quite a few islands as we made our way up the lake. By 9:20 am we stopped at another site, this one also south facing, complete with a table made from a "Basin Lake" sign. A Lake that is much farther east in The Park, off of Basin Lake road, next to the Bonnechere river. If tables could talk, I'm sure this one would have quite a story to tell of it's journey to Dickson Lake. Next stop the island campsite opposite the Dickson-Bonfield portage. As we headed in the direction of the island, some canoes passed us by at a distance, as they headed south. We weren't sure, but it looked like they had just left the island we were heading to.
Paddling the straight waterway between Cisco Bay and the lower end
of Dickson Lake. Ahead in the distance, the 'mountain' portage to Round Island Lake
There are many islands scattered throughout Dickson Lake
I had never been to the island, so from here on in, the rest of the lake was just as new territory to me as it was to the rest of the guys. As we passed the west side of the island, the water became quite shallow, as the island reached out to us on a narrow point of land. We paddled around to the north side of the island, where we were treated to a sweet landing. The campsite sign-age was there, but our eyes were riveted to something else...the landing. The landing was a beautiful sand beach, a long one too, with sandy shallows that went out quite a distance from shore. We imagined the site must be an oasis in the summer. We landed and headed to the campsite. Upon arrival at the fire-pit, David discovered the fire-pit was still 'hot'. Someone had put pine boughs in the fire-pit, to cover it up? Whatever the stupid reason, the boughs were smoking, when David removed them from the fire-pit. David proceeded to gut the coals and the rest of the fire-pit, to effectively put out the fire. We couldn't believe the stupidity of such people. Would you leave a fireplace in your home un-attended? Neither would we. After the fire was out, Mike & Derek went and explored the island. I went back to the beach. I had spied a bar of soap on a log, and being one not to give up an opportunity, I decided to have a bath in the shallows. The most un-man like scream emerged from my throat as I plunged into the icy cold May waters of Dickson Lake. Oh boy, the shock was unbelievable! Derek and Mike came running back, David was there chuckling to himself, pointing to me and telling the boys not to worry, it was just Markus having an ice bath. Once I was toweled off and dressed again. I joined the rest of the gang. The island was bigger than I thought and had lots of tenting room, and forest to explore as well. After about 30 minutes, we departed. Next stop...The HUGE RED PINES of Dickson Lake. We paddled up the lake, passing a small island, then a mainland campsite. Eventually we started to notice, that the trees we were passing were red pines. Tall stringy looking red pines. However they didn't look 340+ years old, at least to us they didn't. I guess we had expected huge towering pines, majestic and awe-inspiring. Instead, all that could be heard, was "Is that all?". Really, we were all disappointed. I guess after seeing some really tall white pines, our expectations were blown out of proportion concerning the "Huge red pines " of Dickson Lake. A lot of the pines were starting to lean over, weather from storms, wind, or reaching their limit of livelihood, no one knew. They were nice to see. However, be forewarned, they are NOT awe-inspiring, and if you didn't even know where to look for them, you might, just might paddle by the red pines without noticing anything unusual about them. We paddled on, to a long skinny island, with one campsite on it. David and Derek, pulled up to a steep slope and disembarked. Neither Mike nor I , liked the particular spot, so we circled around the point and found another spot to park our canoe, and climbed up to the campsite. The campsite had a nice open area for the fire-pit and tenting area. There was a large chunk of Canadian shield rock, protruding from the site, and sloping down to the Lake. Mike quickly found a good use for the rock; he settled down and proceeded to have a nap under the sun.
Mike taking in the view of the south end of Dickson Lake
An authentic Algonquin kitchen table, duct tape included!
David pointing to what careless campers left behind: A smoldering firepit
We broke up to explore the island, or laze about. David found a styrofoam cooler set in a hole in the earth that was dug out for it. Presumably a cooler to keep either beer or fish chilled. Following a trail down the length of the island, little bits of trash could be found here and there. I picked some of the trash up and pocketed it. Eventually I headed back to re-join everybody, who were all settled on the rock. It was such a beautiful day, that all we did was hang around for an hour, enjoying the weather and the surroundings...it was really peaceful there. It was 12:40, when we spied a canoe coming by. It was the most ridiculous canoe too, one of those 100lb cottage canoes, and the two fellows in it were French, and inquired about the site. We stated that we were just resting and would be moving on immediately. They looked relieved, and started to call to another canoe coming down the lake. I was a little surprised, when one of the Frenchmen observed us as having worms, stating that we were not allowed to fish with worms on Dickson Lake. I knew this was not true, but didn't really debate the fellow. I asked if he had worms in turn. The guy sheepishly admitted he did, but only for emergency purposes. I was beginning to gain a basic understanding of the Algonquin fisherman. Never show weakness to your fellow fishermen, and exaggerate like hell!
Approaching the 'Huge' Red Pines on Dickson Lake
There they are, The 'Huge' red pines of Dickson Lake
Mike relaxing on Dickson Lake
2/3rd's up Dickson Lake, we found this isolated campsite on an island
As we left, Derek wondered if we should head up and check Lavieille out. The idea was voted against, as we still had at least a 2 hour journey back to our site on Little Dickson. So we turned around, and headed south, trolling along the way. David managed to catch one that got away at the last moment. We stopped off and visited another island along the way, to stretch and take a few pictures. We also drifted by the rock shoal that is near the bottom of the lake before you head east into Cisco Bay. Here, we met up with Bo & Sheila, as they were just hanging about and fishing. It was 3:15 pm. Trolling into Cisco Bay, Bo caught a speckled trout, and a tagged one too. We completed the paddle and portage(890m) to Little Dickson Lake, and by 5pm, we were back at our site. Bo & Sheila had two nice sized Specks for dinner, and the four of us had zero. After dinner of trout and stuff, David and Derek went out to fish, while the rest of us relaxed around camp to enjoy the early evening sunshine. Bo was listening to his Senators playing playoff hockey over the radio. It was another fine evening.
We found some really tall pines on an island
Left to right: David, Mike, Derek, & Markus
A big vista on the south end of Dickson Lake,
with Mike & Derek looking on
Back at camp, Bo listening to his beloved Senators on radio
Bo & Sheila had yet more Specks to feed us...
and fish heads too, for the seagulls!
Yet more fishing on Dickson Lake, as twilight approached