Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

My neighbors out for an afternoon paddle/sail.

Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

Wild cranberries - they were every where - I certainly had my fill!
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Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

Log Book:
Monday, Oct. 5, 2009
I woke to my alarm at 6:15 am after a loooong night of tossing & turning. Strange dreams haunted me when I did sleep. The first night out is always the hardest no matter how tired I go to bed.
Peeked out the tent door to another dark, grey, dismal day with no potential of any interesting light. I dozed until 7:30 when I finally decided to get up & start my day. First on the agenda – CAMP COFFEE! Love it-love it-love-love it! I had about 6 cups before I moved on to my next item on the list – fire wood.
I had come across an old, unused beaver lodge when looking for the location of the second campsite the afternoon before (the map shows the site to be just off the point on the northern shore as you enter the beginning of the York River. In fact the site is on the southern shore just past the bay of the previous site). So after a cold breakfast of granola & apple sauce I jumped into the canoe with Tasha to go do some collecting. It wasn’t very far & when I beached the canoe I noticed low lying bushes covered with blue, purple & red berries everywhere. I picked one & tossed it into my mouth out of curiosity. A very familiar taste completely caught me off guard – wild cranberries!!! Everywhere! I had tasted one that hadn’t ripened yet (a bluish/purple one). So I immediately grabbed my empty coffee mug & began to fill it planning to use them in some capacity in a meal later on. Wood was collected & loaded into the canoe & brought back to the site. I had a lot of wood. I immediately set about the task of organizing it into different size piles & cutting down the larger diameter logs into more manageable pieces. Before I knew it, it was noon & I decide to start a fire to make my lunch.
The lake was actually pretty busy with wildlife activity – I counted 5 separate deer at different times swimming across the lake – 2 of them were about to come ashore to my site before I inadvertently scared them off in another direction. I’m pretty sure I watched a bear swim across as well, but it was too far off to tell.

Algonquin Park Map:
www.algonquinmap.com/

Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

Log Book:
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.
With the 660 m portage & Big Rock Lake behind me, I was now paddling on Byers Lake towards the first of 2 available campsites. I was planning to set up base camp for the duration of my stay at the first site on the southern shore as I had been told it had a very nice beach water front with a great view of the rest of the lake. It was lightly mist raining on me as I started out on Byers & as I approached this first site the heavens opened up on me & I got more than a little wet. When I was nearly beached I noticed some quick movement up within the tree line. Right then I saw a dark forest green canoe overturned further up shore & an elderly couple came from around the tarp shelter they had set up & greeted me with a big smile & a “HALLOO!”
“Hey” I replied completely caught off guard, as I was told by the permit office lady that I was going to be the only poor sap out this week. “Oh well” I thought, applying a heavy draw on the paddle to avoid beaching & I continued on towards the next site hoping not to find it occupied as well.
When I arrived at the site I made my usual walk around to assess & determine camp layout for the next couple of days. The site wasn’t bad – just not great – the tent set up area seemed to be in a bit of a hollow, there wasn’t much in the way of cover from the prevailing weather & I couldn’t find a suitable bear hang for the food barrel. And on top of that there was no dry fire wood to start a fire…
So, I made due. I had camp set up by 7:10 that evening with a bomb proof tarp shelter set up over top of my tent with fly on, dinner was cooking over the stove – pretty simple affair – pasta with dehydrated tomato sauce, about half a dozen cloves of garlic & lake water to wash it all down. I was way too exhausted for anything more elaborate that night – hopefully the frozen meat I had packed away in a cooler bag with ice packs would keep for another day.

Check out the link for an amazing Algonquin Park map -
www.algonquinmap.com/

Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

Log Book:
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.
No matter how long a canoe trip is, the amount of gear stays pretty much constant – amount of food on the other hand is the variable.
I always seem to bring waaaay more grub than is necessary (human nature I think), but will get less cumbersome as the trip & portages continue. Anyways, I think I have portaging down to a pretty good science.
First admit your weakness(es). Do not overload yourself to try & get the ‘misery’ over with. I can comfortably take my 70L gear pack with my hiking day pack along for the first trip. *note –I do pack all my camera gear in a 1400 Pelican case that gets strapped down to the top of the gear bag along with my trusty tripod (I never leave home without it!) & the day pack gets strapped across my chest. This pack sits nice & firm against my chest so that it does not block my view of where I need to take my next step.
So the first trip I can walk all the way to the end of the portage or stop half way & return for the canoe & food barrel & then repeat the process. Take your time; there is so much to see. I mentally force myself to slow down – especially at the beginning of a trip – tune yourself into your surroundings – let time cease to exist. It is amazing what you can observe when you do this. But this is also hard to do when you know you have limited day light left & you have the constant threat of rain looming over you every time you look at the sky & all you want to do is get to your campsite to set up before you get soaked!
The first portage in was only 1300 m from Kinsgote Lake into Big Rock Lake. Relatively short & flat by Algonquin Park standards. A third of the way in there was an extremely wet, muddy/boggy section, about 100 - 150 m long in length that just couldn’t be avoided – wet feet were inevitable. In my Adventure Tourism course I was told that for every 100 m of trail hiked, you displace 50 lbs of earth. That can add up pretty quickly & if you decided to try & go off trail to avoid the mess that I was about to go through, you would be causing significant damage by creating a new trail. As you can probably tell from the above image I wear sandals – not just any sandals – Chacos. They are incredibly stable with a very deep heel cup for amazing stability along with the toe thong (definitely takes some time to get used to – my big toe does not like to be pinned down – it’s claustrophobic!)& the non slip grip tread makes this sandal unbeatable in my opinion. So off I merrily trudged through the muck to get to the other side.
No sweat – wet feet are a given - it’s a part of the deal when your camping. You can dry them out around the fire at night,…right?

Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

Log Book:
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.
Well here I am with my trusty canoe partner Tasha for yet another solo canoe trip in Algonquin Park.
I started a day & a half later than anticipated due to vehicle troubles but still managed to salvage the trip - a great big shout out & thanks to Al Pritchard, my father in-law. Al took time out of his day to drive me to access point 15, Kingscote Lake to start my trip.
I was on the water shortly after noon & I was looking forward the peace & serenity that Algonquin has to offer.
Then it started to rain & did not stop for the next three days…
Stay tuned more to come.

Fall photo workshop

Fall photo workshop
Originally uploaded by Chasing Light Studio ~ Pie's Photography

A great big thanks to all who participated in the "Autumn Hues - Going with the flow" Workshop. It was a big success and even the weather cooperated!