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?