The Campfire! My home away from home.

Sunday April 29th 2007

This was a case of  bad news and good news....very tough week at work...end result...I managed to parlay it into a weekend off...cleared my spur of the moment plans with my better half and scrambled around Saturday night to put my gear together. This was to be my first solo paddle since 2005 and was an important one for 2 reasons...

1...My first paddle in the new canoe

2...It was crown land camping with a couple of portages...not easy to get my ass back to the car if the heebie jeebies struck in the middle of the night

Sunday

  Loaded the car and hit highway 400 northbound under clear skies....the weather forecast for McRae Lake called for sunshine, a high of 23c and a low of 8c ...amazing weather for April. Stopped in Barrie to buy a steak for the campfire and a cup of Tims( along with the required Timbits) and headed back north. Drove for an hour and a half. Started watching the offramps as I neared McRae but be darned if I couldn't spot any place that would allow me to get onto the lake. Drove till I realized that I had gone too far...turned around and headed back south till I realized that I had gone too far...stopped to ask directions....got an answer..."oh yeah...your only 5 minutes away...watch for the sign...can't miss it. Drove north again till I knew I had gone too far....turned around and drove south....not a single sign anywhere indicating McRae Lake. This is the point where I started to feel really stupid...can't miss it?...I missed it about 4 times already. Headed back north and stopped at the Georgian Bay Store. Called my wife to tell her of my predicament...said that I'll try for another half hour or so and if no luck by then I'll just come home as I was already 4 plus hours into my 2 hour drive! Asked another local fella for directions and he marked it out clear for me on my map....turns out I had driven down the access ramp off the 400 twice already without realizing that the unmarked road off the ramp was the access. Got into the parking lot and saw the 12"x12" sign for McRae...yeah....couldn't miss that from the highway!

   Unloaded the gear and carried it 100 meters down to the put in. An very easy portage even with the mud from the previous days rain. Set off across Macdonald Lake and paddled slow and casual. Relaxing in the shear pleasure of strating out on a new adventure. An uneventful half hour later I made it to the portage from MacDonald into McRae....coud not resist the roar of the waterfalls and had to paddle over for a look...spent the next hour just sightseeing this little corner of MacDonald Lake. What a georgeuos peice of Muskoka! It was now 3 pm and I had to make some tracks if I was going to have my campsite set up before nightfall.  Made it back to the portage and humped my gear over the small hillock to McRae...a 250 meter portage...quite an easy port by any standard I had seen before. Launched into McRae and set out. Since it was already past 4pm I started looking for a campsite as soon as I hit the lake....passed on the first three sites due to the amount of garbage on tham. It really is a shame, such a beautiful area and folks just leave all their garbage behind. I'm not talkin about a few cans lying around...when I finally settled on a site I spent a full half hour cleaning it and filled my one garbage bag...everything from pop cans to beer bottles to plastic bags to soiled diapers to spent CO2 cartridges for airguns...it was a disgrace!

   Set up camp and set out to gather enough firewood to get me through the night. This area is heavily used and there wasn't much deadfall.  I gathered what wood I could and started a fire. As the fire was burning down to a nice bed of coals I got a visit from a ruffed grouse. When she left I started a bannock mix...threw a potato into the coals and slapped the steak on the grill. What a feast! I regretted not having brought a box of wine to wash that meal down with!

   Then the rain started. At about 6pm a soft rain started to fall, the weatherman was wrong again! Fortunately the rain only lasted about an hour. The clouds cleared and the sky lit up in a trillion pinpoints of light! I watched the stars for a while...listening to the sounds of mother nature as she settled all her creatures down for the night. Around 10(ish) pm I doused the fire and crawled into the tent. Despite my previous attempt at solo camping, the heebie jeebies didn;t rear their ugly heads this time. I slept like a baby till sun up!

Monday morning, the sun rose to an incredible beautiful morning. Made myself  a pot of coffee and some oatmeal for breakfast and spent a couple of hours walking the shoreline and fishing. Of course nothing was biting. Around 9 am I started another small fire and relaxed for a while at camp. By 12 I had cleared camp and loaded back into the canoe....full garbage bag and all. The trip out was uneventful although the portages were quite slick from the rain. Arrived home at 3:30 pm to warm hugs and smiles. A great overnighter...the new boat handled like a dream. My spirit was cleansed  and my focus switched to planning for a more extensive solo paddle into The Massassauga in May.That report will come later!

Kirk

Shop the Clearance Department at Basspro.com

   If you have never taken the opportunity to get out and take part in an semi outdoor gathering you are doing yourself a disservice! There a few that happen...Deep Freeze, The SOG (Southern Ontario Gathering), The Changing of the Seasons, as well as others, this particular trip was to The FOG (Fall Outdoor Gathering). These events are open invitation to anyone, a place where friendships are found and nurtured around an open fire and a wee drop of the pure...or two!!!!or three!!!, oh what the heck is the point of leaving something in the bottle anyway!

The FOG, an outdoor gathering sponsored by OAC  http://www.outdooradventurecanada.com/ , Whitefish Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, September 21 to 23, 2007!

   This event I look forward to all year!

Left work early Friday and hit the highway to Algonquin Provincial Park by noon. Had a nice casual drive up as few people were on the roads North that early in the day. The autumn colors were not quite at peak yet but surely a welcome sight to my workstrained eyes! Stopped for a quick cup of Tims in Huntsville, then made my way into the park! As I pulled into the campground I was met by John and Brian, John is a regular at the gatherings but it was Brian's first. I sat and had a beer with them while soaking up some of the beautiful autumn sunshine. As the afternoon wore on, other vehicles started trickling in and I had to find a good spot to pitch my tent before the place became an OAC version of Tent City!

    Shelly arrived later and informed us that our hosts would not be attending, a family emergency had arisen that would keep Laurie, Brian and Tobias at home this weekend. The news took us all back a bit, and although they weren't there in person I can tell ya that they were in our thoughts and in our prayers this weekend. The number of tents steadily increased and as they were pitched the coolers came open and the libations began to put a rosy glow to a lot of cheeks. With dinner time drawing close the fire was stoked up and John layed down the Mother of All Barbeque Grills!

With darkness, the gang drew their chairs around the fire and we settled in for a wonderful night of tall tales, jokes, bs, and stories of canoe trips past. The skies were clear and the moon cast a long light under the trees to our little group of campers. I hope I am not forgetting anyone here, but I will try to remember everyones name....myself, John, Brian, Shelly and  Claude, Joanne, Chris and his wonderful daughter McKenna (ok that name I probably spelled wrong), Micheal, Samantha and the kids, Kim, Eddie, Cory and Rebecca, Robbie and Chuck, Rob, Alex, and Andrew and Richard, I may well have missed someone and if I did I apologize! About half of this group I had met already on previous gatherings, but it was my first time meeting the rest! Ahhh...old friends and a bunch of new friends, a warm autumn night, a campfire and a few bottles of bubbly to keep the game lively...what more could ya ask for?

Morning arrived calm, clear and geourgeous. John was already up when I crawled out of the tent and I started up the stove to make a pot of coffee. While the coffee was perkin I grabbed the bottle of water beside my tent and let the cold liquid pour over my head to shake the cobwebs from the past evenings festivities...man that was cold...the temps had gotten down into single digits last night..and it did the trick...now for a sweet cup of joe. As we drank our coffee , the rest of the cgang made their way out of their shelters and a cummunal breakfast started to unfold. While the late risers were eating I grabbed my camera and set off into the morning light for a hike Around 10:30 I was just arrivin back to the campsite in time to see everyone frickin leavin!...Yeppers...they all decided on a group paddle up the creek to Pog Lake and I had just enough time to grab the canoe and join them. Our put in was at a nearby campsite and was down a small but very slippery embankment so it took a while to get all the canoes down there. Richard and I decided to share a canoe rather than paddle two boats solo. Richard was an awseome paddlin buddy! He can share a boat with me any day. We paddled up the creek for about 45 minutes till we found a nice beach to get out and stretch our legs. We spent an hour there soakin up the scenery and watchin McKenna feedin a chipmunk then loaded aback aboard and made our slow lazy way up to Pog! Once at Pog we were greeted by wind driven whitecaps and most of us brought our canoes to shore for a look around. Kim showed no fear as she paddled alone out into the waves and had a little fun, so did Chris...the rest of us stayed shorebound.

After an hour or so we loaded up and headed back home. Richard and I took point and of course missed the takeout and paddled around the creek and Whitefish Lake for 45 minutes wonderin where the hell everyone else had gotten to. Once back at camp, everyone started the preps for a big evening potluck feast, except for Shelley.......who of course had to hit the showers down at Lake of Three Rivers before joining in...sorry Shelley...you know I could not have written a trip report without gettin in a little dig at someone! Lucky you eh? What a feast! Johns grill was startin to sag under the weight of all the food we put on it to cook....beef steaks, buffalo steaks, chicken, suasage...a PETA nightmare! But damn that meal was one of the best I have ever eaten on a camping trip.

With the dishes cleared away, and darkeness setting in on us it was time to pull the chairs around the fire and sit in for another evening of laughter, tall tales, and hilarity. This was a great night! And of course we got some visitors...the raccoons showed up, enraptured by all those wonderful food smells. I followed Claude's lead and grabbed my camera and tried to get a picture of the little campsite marauders. Smart! Spend a long day under the hot sun paddlin...down large quantities of beer, then go roamin thru the bush at night chasin wild animals with nothing but  a camera for protection! . We wound the night down and I headed for the tent around 1 am...only to leave the tent shortly there after to deal with the six or so raccoons that were invading us tryin to get into coolers, tipping over pots and bottles and makin a hell of a racket!Serves us right for invading their neighbourhood I guess....crawled back into bed and slept like a baby till 8 am.

Another gloriuos day as we went about our business making breakfast and breaking camp....for some reason we were much slower breaking camp this year. We all know that we have to go, but it relly felt like noone wanted to. I said my goodbyes around 10am and pulled away. Spent another 2 hours drivin around Algonquin Provincial Park just absorbing the fall colors. Had a great weekend hanging out with some old friends and made a few new ones as well!

Kirk

Planning for the FOG 2008 is already happening, check it out at

http://www.outdooradventurecanada.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1552