Yes, another stop-gap while I procrastinate from writing my mountaineering post! Soon…
Not long after my Alberta trip, I was right back at it with a 2-night excursion in Algonquin Provincial Park over the Canada Day long weekend. I had been to physio earlier in the week to get my knee looked at, and they said provided I was able to run on it without too much difficulty, it probably wouldn’t be a problem to do the trip as it was just a mild sprain.
Preparation was a bit hasty as I wanted to wait until I got the all clear from physio, but luckily since I’ve done a ton of these trips, it was fairly straightforward to get my gear together. Nothing new or crazy in terms of prep, other than using some of my new stuff sacks to save a bit of space. I didn’t quite have time to dehydrate any vegetables for one of my dinners, so I went to Bulk Barn and picked up some dehydrated veggies from them, along with some alfredo sauce mix to add a bit of flavor, and some Clif bars for my lunches.
My trip plan was two nights on the Western Uplands trail, this time starting at the southern access point and completing the second loop of the trail, totaling roughly 55 kilometers (13 kilometers on the first day, 19 on the second and 23 on the third). The weather looked really good for the whole weekend (a rarity on my trips), so the major issue would be the bugs. I wasn’t sure whether it would be just mosquitoes or also some of the bigger nasties like blackflies, so I made sure to bring my bug net and bug spray.
Day 1
I left home at around 10am, with the aim of starting my hike at around 2pm. Unfortunately Google directed me away from Highway 400/11 and up Highway 48 instead, where it was mind-numbingly slow along the northernmost portions near Brock. I ended up arriving at the park at around 2:30pm and started hiking at 3pm.
The hike was largely uneventful and straightforward. I made really good time to my campsite at Redwing Lake, finishing 13.25km in just under 3 and a half hours. Continuing from my mountaineering course, where it was stressed the importance of time management, I closely tracked my hike and rest times in order to gauge the effects on my body and subsequently help with decision making for later in the trip. To summarize:
- Hiked 4.22km in 59 mins, rested 9 mins (Guskewau Lake)
- Hiked 4.23km in 60 mins, rested 12 mins (Ranona Lake)
- Hiked 4.80km in 69 mins
Arriving at 6:30pm at my site (Redwing-01), I was very sweaty and was looking forward to swimming, but the water access was not great. Nevertheless, I was able to briefly escape the deluge of mosquitoes and dive in for a quick dip (and to collect water, the water by the edge was a bit swampy) after setting up camp. Dinner was quick, some dehydrated sweet potato lentil soup that I had prepped for the Killarney trip, just add boiling water! It was off to bed at 8:45pm.
My camp pillow was quite wet the whole trip as I had washed it after my Alberta trip, and I misjudged how long it would take to air dry. It seemed dry when I packed it, but compressing it in a tiny stuff sack really squeezed a lot of the water from the center of it. Sleeping was a bit awkward as well as the side of my head was always damp!
Day 2
Day 2 was an entire day in the park, so I could afford to have a later start and take my time getting to my next site. After getting up, I immediately donned my bug net (they were relentless) and made breakfast (oatmeal), and unfortunately dumped almost half of it in the firepit by accident trying to drain the excess water. I was packed up and on the trail by 9am.
The plan was to stop at lakes, since it was a bit less wooded and there are generally less bugs with the wind. I stopped at Susan Lake for my first break, followed by Rainbow Lake for my second break and West Otterpaw Lake for lunch. At this point I was pretty exhausted (also was developing a blister on the SAME toe that afflicted me in Killarney) so I welcomed the chance to lie down on the bench at the site I stopped at! I took two more breaks, at Tern Lake and near Pincher Lake – where I camped on my first visit to Western Uplands! It was cool returning to somewhat familiar grounds approaching from a completely different direction.
I eventually arrived at Clara Lake where my second site was located. To my dismay, I had to walk a bit extra onto a side trail to actually reach the site. It was only a couple hundred meters, but it felt like kilometers after the long day! All in, I had hiked 20.28km in 6 hours 45 mins, with a lot more rest breaks. To summarize:
- Hiked 2.45km in 40 mins, rested 6 mins (Susan Lake)
- Hiked 3.37km in 53 mins, rested 17 mins (Rainbow Lake)
- Hiked 4.74km in 83 mins, rested 24 mins (West Otterpaw Lake)
- Hiked 3.65km in 59 mins, rested 20 mins (Tern Lake)
- Hiked 2.91km in 41 mins, rested 12 mins (Pincher Lake)
- Hiked 3.16km in 59 mins
The site (Clara-02) was absolutely phenomenal – one of the better sites I’ve stayed at on a camping trip. I’m pretty sure it’s used as a canoe campsite as the water access was really good. The site was spacious, windy (NO bugs yay), and it was a beautiful sunny day. Definitely a great reward after a long day. I went for a swim and collected water twice, and had to jump in a third time when one of my camp booties blew into the lake and started drifting away. I was able to get most of my stuff dried out in the sun, and also had the chance to finally get some reading (The China Study) in after dinner (lentils, orzo, and Bulk Barn veggies). I was off to bed pretty early as I planned a very early start to get home as early as possible.
Day 3
Woke up bright and early at 4:30am and after snoozing once, I was up and packing stuff away under the light of my headlamp. I quickly got everything together, had a quick oatmeal breakfast, and was off hiking at a record time of 6:30am! The plan for Day 3 was to move quickly and take breaks strictly every hour as my body permitted (I was feeling it a little bit in my knee, but hiking forwards felt pretty good). After not seeing too many people on Day 2, I started seeing more and more hikers as I approached Loop 1. The hike itself was largely uneventful, but I made incredible time, stopping for lunch at around 11:15am after over 16 kilometers. I ended up picking up some trash along the way as well (shame) including an almost brand new bright pink GNC shaker bottle! There was also a 12 person tent abandoned with about 8km to go that many hikers were talking about. The thing probably weighed 30 pounds and was obviously too big to carry, so I made a note of where it was and a mental note to stop by the park office on the way home and let them know about it.
Before too long, I was back at the car after a very speedy 24.89km hiked in 7 hours 10 mins. Suffice to say I was very exhausted. Despite moving really well all day, as soon as I stopped moving and started packing up, my knee really started to bother me (oddly, I was having a ton of discomfort medially despite it being a flexion issue on Middle Sister??) but it wasn’t completely debilitating. I filed a report at the park office for the abandoned tent and (as usual) suffered through the abysmal traffic of Ontario (seriously, stop and go traffic on Hwy 11 in Bracebridge??). I finally made it home at 6:30pm after over four hours on the road including a stop at A&W in Barrie.
Hiking summary:
- Hiked 3.76km in 60 mins, rested 10 mins
- Hiked 3.96km in 60 mins, rested 10 mins
- Hiked 4.59km in 71 mins, rested 10 mins (I lost track of time, hence the extra 11 mins of hiking!)
- Hiked 3.93km in 59 mins, rested 31 mins
- Hiked 4.94km in 62 mins, rested 10 mins
- Hiked 3.71km in 47 mins
Overall, not a bad trip. The weather was really good, trail was easy to navigate, and the bugs were annoying, but what can you do, it was July. Looking forward to returning to do winter camping in the future, since that’s something I’m looking to get into this year. Glad I was able to escape the Canada Day fireworks at least!
Veg 'n' Alpine 