Waking up all alone on Lake Opeongo
It was a beautiful morning to wake up all alone in Algonquin Park. Lazily, I got out of my tent around 8:30am. With my campsite northwest facing I was in shadow, so I couldn't yet feel the warmth of the sun, it was cool but not cold. The 9:00am temperature was just shy of 10°C, not bad at all. Perfect for a September morning actually!
The view of a Un-navigable section of Cameron Creek
By 10:00am I was breakfasted, my dishes were cleaned and put away. I grabbed a nalgene bottle of water and got into my canoe and paddled away. I wanted to explore Cameron Creek, following it to Rail L and onwards to Cameron Lake.
Just after 11:00am I ran out of navigable water and had to leave my canoe behind as I walked up a wet stream-bed, which soon turned into a boulder-strewn dry river-bed. By 11:30am I had reached a beaver dam where beyond lay a navigable looking creek. I hadn't brought any food with me and realized my little trek was ill-prepared. I took a few snaps with my camera and made my way back to the canoe. Perhaps another time I would come more prepared to tackle the “off-the-beaten-path” adventure.
Looking up Cameron Creek past a beaver dam
Paddling back onto Jones Bay, I found that a breeze had picked up, it was a warm wind from the South. I hugged the shoreline as I made my way back to camp and kept on going, heading Westwards along the shoreline and eventually I arrived at the neighbouring campsite, the one I had previously camped on in 2003. The smoky smell returned as I clambered onshore and up to the campsite proper.
I hadn’t remembered much about the campsite (from the 2003 visit), except that it looked like there were more trees this time around. Some idiot had painted orange coloured graffiti on a rock and a fallen tree, the fire-pit was built up quite nicely though, to protect against a lake breeze. I walked around following my nose, which led me to the rear of the campsite on the way to the privy.
The rustic fire-pit on the site with the underground fire
About 20m in, at the rear of the campsite, I saw smoke was emanating from the ground! I had never seen an underground fire before (I don't suppose many people do). This fire was coming to the surface and as I approached the smouldering ground, I could feel the heat in the surrounding air. I laid my hands on the nearby ground and it was very hot to the touch. There was a patch of blackened ground where the smoke was coming from, perhaps one meter square. I decided to grab a spare paddle and dig up the fire.
An underground fire as it reaches the surface
As I dug up the ground, I could feel the heat that had been trapped underground, it was like opening an oven door. Who knows how long this had smouldered? The ground underneath was grey ash and a few small flames appeared as I dug up the ground. I extinguished the fire with my water bottle and ran back to get more water; There was a bed of embers as well and I worked to extinguish that too.
The area of scorched earth
Only a few minutes of effort was required for me to completely put out the fire. I stood there and played many scenarios over in my mind, about how this fire had come to be. The campsite along with my campsite, were not particularly great campsites to be camping on. I would consider them over-flow campsites. For September camping they were not ideal at all..they faced north & west. No morning sun and the landings were rough, which required one to climb up from and down to shore. As a matter of fact, I had to haul my canoe up-to the campsite every night, there was no shoreline to stow my canoe onto.
Looking east along Jones Bay’s south shore
The only reason I camped where I did, is that I knew I would not be bothered by anyone, my solitude would remain intact. I had in fact passed up numerous beautiful campsites along the way, any one of them could've been mine. Thinking along this line of logic, I surmised that the most likely person or persons to last occupy the campsite would've been on Labour Day Monday, 14 days earlier!
If this were true and I suspected it was, it was amazing! To think that a fire had smouldered underground for two weeks. I was surprised and happy that it hadn't spread and become a full blown forest fire. I had heard stories of underground fires burning for weeks and even months at a time. I was astonished by the incident though and once I was satisfied it was completely out, I pumped some fresh water (What little effort was required to extinguish the fire, was hot and thirsty work) and was on my way, heading to a nearby marsh I had once visited before while fishing for bass.
A peaceful September evening on the South Arm
After spending about half an hour at the small marsh, I headed back to camp to relax for the rest of the day, chop wood, etc. The temperature that day almost hit 20°C and as the temperature went down, it became another fine solitude filled evening.
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