Massasauga Solo

Forward:  It is hard to believe that I have not kept up with this blog - the last posting being the Epic Algonquin Canoe Trip.  A few entries of my canoeing adventures since 2009 can be found at my other blog ... http://bearbumbobby.blogspot.ca/

None-the-less, I'm saddened that I have not kept up with this blog and perhaps will try to recreate some of the trips I have been on since 2009.

That said, I recently completed a three day solo trip to Massasauga Park.  Leaving on Sunday, August 9th, I enjoyed a wonderful trip complete with spectacular sunsets.

On my first night, site #23, I met up with the local snapping turtle (which many sites seem to have) and was able to obtain several underwater close up shots.  It was a bit scary with my fingers dangling so close but the pictures are worth it.

Later that night I was out fishing and got to talking to two women at site #22 who lamented that they had wanted to catch, kill and eat a fish without the help of A MAN (their words) but they hadn't been able to catch a single fish and were forced on a diet of rice and smarties.  I wished them luck and about 10 minutes later returned with a good sized pike.  I apologized that I had caught it but offered them the chance to at least kill and eat it.  A long story short - I was asked to not only kill it but fillet it as well.  ??? women ???

The next day I moved to site #28 and along the way was able to catch my own lunch, another good sized pike.  Basically it was a lazy day as the weather was warm and sunny.  I did some more fishing
(no luck) and then watched the evening sky.

The next day I packed up and though originally scheduled to stay on site #1, I chose to leave the park as thunderstorms were beginning in the area and the forecast was for rain all that night.  A video of my journey can be found at the following link ...  https://youtu.be/cyZ6FfRIiCQ

Epic Algonquin Canoe Trip - August 2009

Last year I had the idea of undertaking a canoeing journey from one end of Algonquin Park to the other. I discussed this idea with a few people and amazingly enough, one friend, Mr. B., expressed an interest in undertaking the journey with me.

In August of this year that dream became a reality. With the help of a few friends, who muscled cars back and forth as well as provided us with moral support, Mr. B. and I left Kiosk on the northern end of the park and ten days later arrived at the Shall Lake access point in the southern end of the park.

The journey, entitled the Epic Algonquin Canoe Trip (EACT), proved to be more of an odyssey than I could have imagined when planning the trip. The portages were longer and harder than I had thought and the paddling was primarily into a strong headwind every single day.

In the end we prevailed, as opposed to enjoying the trip, and our achievement has been documented in the following videos.

EACT Day 1

EACT Day 2

EACT Day 3

EACT Day 4

EACT Day 5

EACT Day 6

EACT Days 7 to 10

Ralph Brice Lake - July 2009

After my last canoe trip, in which I performed poorly, I decided that it was time I went out for my first solo trip - to reaffirm myself as Paddlin'Bob. On Sunday I set off for Ralph Brice Lake - shown as Butt Lake on this old copy of the Algonquin Park map.

I arrived around 2 pm and was surpised by the 15 or so canoes that were headed back after the weekend. I guess the economy now favours cheaper canoeing vacations. Anyway - on the second portage I was standing talking to one of these groups when a moose - a female - walked right across the portage route some 50 feet from me. Of course my camera was back with my pack at the other end of the portage but I did manage to get some video shots, though rather poor ones because she was already in the bush by the time I got the camera out. Who knows what you will see on a portage!

The site I choose offered me both a south view of the moon rising as well as a north-west view of the sun setting. The site was also home to a family of loons who kept me busy with the camera.

As the sun set, I spent the evening by the fire watching the almost full moon. It was wonderful!

Unfortunately it rained all the next day and I stayed put on the same site. It was a long day but I filled the time by practising my cooking skills in anticipation of my 8 day trip in August. As well, I went for a 1 km - 90 minute hike through the bush. It is amazing how hard it is to walk through the bush without a defined path.



Though it rained all day, it did clear in time for me to see both a glorious purple coloured sunset and an almost full moon rise. All in all a perfect day.


I awoke the final morning with overcast skies and headed home early before the next wave of rain. A perfect solo trip. My thanks go to Golden Girl who performed wonderfully!


I have also worked on my new blog format - video! Unfortunately my video is too long for Utube (max of 10 min they say) so I have broken the 24 minutes into three parts on Utube. The links follow:



Part1


Part2


Part3

Kingscote Lake - June 2009

Alternative Title - The retirement of Golden Boy and the birth of Golden Girl.

Day #1 - June 26
The much anticipated first canoe trip of the season! In keeping with tradition I had planned to do the Kingscote Lake trip but, in a break with tradition, I was making the journey with Megan and Pat instead of doing a solo trip. To further break with tradition, we were also going to do the trip as a loop - starting off in the park but arriving back near our starting position at the lodge where we first arrived.

Since I had the day off, I arrived early on the Friday and paddled out to the site to set my gear up in anticipation of Pat & Megan's late arrival. This was my first time solo paddling Golden Boy. As with Old Green, to solo paddle I had turned the canoe around and was sitting in the front to better distribute the weight. The problem I encountered was that the flat bottom of the canoe made it difficult for me to get into the canoe. It was extremely unstable compared to Old Green. Maybe it was this lack of instability, or perhaps it was because this was the first trip of the year, or maybe I was just not comfortable with Golden Boy - but after erecting my tent on site and upon leaving to meet up with Pat & Megan - I managed to tip my canoe all by myself. A first! To say the least, I was a tad annoyed with Golden Boy - Old Green never would have let that happen.

Pat & Megan arrived on-site at about 5:30 and after shuffling cars around, we set off, in a light rain, for the 3 km paddle to the site. After setting up their tent we enjoyed a celebratory drink of whiskey with Tang and ice! Yep - I decided that if Golden Boy was going to pull a first and dump me in the lake, that I was going to break with tradition and bring a bag of ice for the first night. Later that night, again breaking with tradition, we dined on Pizza. Most delicious.
















Day #2 - June 27
Up late the next day, we were off for Byers Lake at the crack of noon. Two portages totalling 2 km. The mosquitoes and deer flies were brutal as they awaited us at the end of each portage, eager to fill their bellies with our blood. The pace set by Megan & Pat just about killed me and in the end I had to give in to my aged body and slow down. The result being that Megan carried Golden Boy for most of the second portage. I hate getting old! I actually don't know how I did this by myself with 73 lb. Old Green.

We arrived on Byers Lake to find that my favourite spot, the one with the sandy beach, was occupied by two idiot couples - one with children and the other with a red canoe - seriously - who buys or rents a RED canoe! We had no choice but to select the site further down the lake which turned out to be an acceptable alternative. Here we made camp and after a few sporting events such as Pat's 'kick the banana' and Megan's 'I peed on my shoe', we got down to the serious business of making THE STEW for dinner. This was followed by another glorious night of sitting by the fire drinking whiskey and Tang - only we had run out of Tang so it was orange Kool-Aid.



















Day #3 - June 28
We arose early to a perfect warm cloudless day. We had 5 portages to do in order to make it back to the lodge so we got started at a reasonable time of 10 am - after pancakes of course.

The day was pretty uneventful, filled with numerous beaver damn pull-overs and even more numerous bugs. We stopped briefly for lunch at High Falls and as we completed the last portage the rain began to fall for the one hour river paddle back to the lodge. All in all a very enjoyable trip - did I mention that Pat managed to dump himself in the lake at one of the portages. I think Old Green was just being pissy!



A note here about Golden Boy. At some point during the second day I realized I was having great difficulty with getting in and manoeuvring Golden Boy. He just didn't have the stability of Old Green. The only thing I could think of was to reverse the direction of paddle and sit in the canoe as it was designed. Although the front end was lifted more and would be unwieldy in a strong wind, the new paddle direction worked very well - improving both the stability and manoeuvrability. Given that, the canoe had to be renamed ...

Golden Girl !

French River East - August 2008

As part of the Duke of Edinburgh program, Mr. B. and I accompanied six students; Jessica, Taya, Margaret, Nick, Isobel, and Lisa, on a 5 day canoe trip to the eastern arm of the French River in late August of 2008.

Day #1 - August 24th
The trip began at the school in the early hours of August 24th. Mr. B. in his truck and canoe and me in my car with my brand new canoe, Dijon (later renamed Golden Boy) left the school with great anticipation for the days to come.

As fate would have it, however, we experienced out first delay only 10 minutes from the school when we drove past a car in the ditch. Mr. B., a paramedic, stopped to offer assistance but finding that the situation was under control informed us that we could resume our adventure. As we all began to pile back into our vehicles Nick noticed that my front tire was flat. Thirty minutes later, with the spare mounted, we headed back onto the road. Because the spare was one of those temporary mini tires, we were unable to make good time on the four hour journey north, arriving at the Pine Cove Lodge near Wolseley Bay approximately one hour behind schedule.

After renting two additional canoes (each weighing 90 lbs at least), arranging for my tire to get fixed, and loading up the canoes, the 8 member team left the beach around 2 pm. The first sign of trouble began as we rounded the turn into the main part of the river. It was then that Mr. B. and I realized that some of the students hadn’t practised their canoeing skills as promised.

In the 90 lb red canoe, Lisa with Isobel at the stern began the traditional novice ‘Z’ manoeuvre down the river. That is paddling from one side of the river to the other. If the wind had not been at their back they would not have made any forward progress at all. Since we had to allow the students to paddle their own canoe as well as navigate, the 10 km trip took a lot longer than planned 3 hours. We finally arrived at our destination, a small island, around 6 that evening. The evening was uneventful and a tired bunch of canoeists headed to bed shortly after sundown.


Day #2 - August 25th
The next morning we were greeted with a spectacular sunrise. Following a quick breakfast we were back on the river by 8 am for the longest day of the trip, an expected 16 km paddling with a 700m portage. In hopes of having the canoes travel in a more direct line, canoeing partners were switched for the second leg with Nick replacing Isobel in the stern. Though this did little to straighten the direction of the canoe, the brute strength of Nick allowed him to travel much faster from one side of the river to the other.

The first portage was an unexpected one - for most. The height of the river did not permit us to travel through a narrow passage and most of us had to bush whack a 200 m portage. The exception was Nick and Lisa who managed to hitch a ride with a pontoon boat. I guess they took pity on Nick given his ‘Z’ canoeing technique.

After 30 minutes of paddling we came to the first official portage. The 700m portage was made without incident and the group stopped for a quick shore lunch on the far side of the portage before proceeding on the second half of the leg. To give some people a break, we once again decided to switch canoeists and Margaret replaced Lisa in the green canoe with Nick at the stern. For the next two hours the group was faced with a stiff headwind as we had begun to round the point and head in a northerly direction. It was tough paddling but the tediousness of paddling into the wind was finally broken up when we completed the route around the point and started to head in a westerly direction. Coincidentally, this was also when Nick decided to lean on the same side of the canoe as Margaret and they both wound up treading water while the rescue teams hurried to their aid.

In this picture you can see that although Margaret has been dumped in the water she is still smiling. This is because when she and Lisa switched canoes after lunch they didn’t switch their gear in the canoes. Consequently , the gear seen floating in the water belongs to Lisa. Lisa who didn’t have the foresight to pack any of her gear in waterproof bags!

The upside of Lisa’s decision was that once we stopped for the night, Lisa was compelled to beautify our camp with an underwear tree. Only a novice would pack so many undergarments for a 5 day trip but all those thongs blowing in the wind certainly leant a unique sparkle to the camp.


Day #3 - August 26th
The spectacular weather of the first two days continued into the third as we headed in a westerly direction on our circle route. With only 12 km of paddling and one small portage in front of us, the third day was very relaxing and all of us enjoyed the warm sun and low winds as we slowly made our way to our third camp. Arriving at camp early in the day allowed enough time for some students to go fishing while others laid upon rocks and soaked up the sun.


Day #4 - August 27th
The weather was again perfect and the team had an easy day of paddling, stopping at the only portage for the day, the five fingers rapids, for lunch. Since the weather was so warm, two of the girls (who shall remain unidentified) had decided to canoe wearing only the briefest of bikinis. As we approached the portage a middle aged woman, wearing a Tilley hat naturally, came out to assist us. As the Tilley hatted woman approached the canoe one of the unidentified girls in our team stood up and the woman actually came to a full stop as she took in the unorthodox canoe wear. She must have let out a small gasp as her husband, who had been laying on a rock several feet away, raised his head to see what the fuss was all about and nearly choked on his soft drink. Their teenage son, who was fishing at the time, also turned to see what was going on and nearly dropped his pole in the water at the spectacle a mere 10 feet from him. Over lunch at the portage we all had a good laugh at the commotion our team had caused.


Following lunch we proceed across the river to our last camp site. Given that it had been an easy day of travel there was plenty of time for the students to practice their canoeing skills. Here we see Nick experimenting with a new technique for putting in a canoe from the top of a hill. He suffered only minor injuries.


Day #5 - August 28th

A cloudy morning seemed fitting for our last day. Since it was only a 5 km paddle back to the lodge we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and didn’t launch the canoes until 10 am. Arriving at noon, we all enjoyed a home cooked meal at the lodge, replaced my tire and headed home. All in all - one of the best experiences I have had canoeing with a group of people.

Ralph Brice Lake - June 2008

June 2008 and the first canoe trip of the season. Coincidentally, it was also the last trip for Old Green, the canoe that has seen me through many trips over the past 6 or 7 years. During this trip it seemed to me that Old Green was gaining weight. The portages were becoming increasingly more difficult and my back and neck were unusually sore. When I returned and before I put Old Green away, I weighed my favourite canoe. It turns out that Old Green weighed 73 pounds - that’s about 20 pounds more than I thought and was the deciding factor in retiring Old Green.

Day #1 - June 19th
I was excited for the first trip of 2008. I had purchased an expensive new tent (I was tired of cheap leaking tents), a new sleeping bag, and a foam mattress (my back had had enough of sleeping on the ground) earlier in the week. Old Green was freshly polished and waited in gleaming splendour on top of my car. In the early morning I left the school and headed north for 3 days of solitude.

I arrived at Magnetawan Lake and had the canoe in by 1 pm. Two small portages later I was settling in on Ralph Brice (formerly known as Butt Lake) by 4 pm. I decided to camp early as I had never set up my new tent and wanted time to read the instructions if it came to that.The fire was going by 6 pm and I enjoyed sitting by the fire until the wee hours of the morning drinking a wee dram of Scotch while watching a cloud obscured full moon. Total solitude and exactly what I needed.

Day #2 - June 20th
I awoke to light rain and decided to stay put in my new tent to see if it leaked and if the rain would let up. The tent was dry and the rain didn’t let up so under cloudy rainy skies I took off after having a soggy lunch. My goal was to reach Queer Lake - the lake of many echoes (9 to be exact). Two portages later and with the rain still coming down I finally made camp at about 5 pm. I was quite wet since I didn’t pack rain gear (I never do) but the sun started to come out as I was setting up the tent. The beauty of the last site on Queer Lake is that there is a huge rock that protrudes out into the water and it is perfect for a large fire.

Another night sitting by the fire, drinking Scotch and watching the full moon reflect off of the lake. Can life get any better?






Day #3 - June 21st
Up early as the trip back was going to be long as I had to return along the same route. This meant 4 portages and a long car drive home in one day. The weather was co-operative until the very end when a thunder storm rolled through while I was on the lake. It was pretty scary travelling on a lake surrounded by lightening. I also got caught in a small hail storm while 100 feet from the last portage. A great trip to start the year!

Ralph Brice Loop - June 2006

Day #1 - June 27
Finally, meetings are over and CanoeBob is set for his first solo trip of the year. A journey into the wilds of Algonquin; from Hambone Lake, north-east through Ralph Bice Lake (the big one on the map), Little Trout Lake, Queer Lake, Little Misty Lake, and then return along the Petawawa River to Daisy Lake and back to Hambone.


I must admit that in the morning, as I prepared to leave my apartment, I was beginning to have reservations about the canoe trip. First, I'd never gone on a solo trip for 5 days before and secondly I had never undertaken a 2.5 km portage by myself, let alone 10 portages in 5 days.

The drive north to the access point on Magnetawan Lake, took about 3 hours and gave me a lot of time to ponder the intelligence of my decision. In the end, it was the lure of the wild that propelled me forward and the journey was officially underway at 1:50 pm Thursday under clear skies, low winds and warm temperatures.

The first portage, a small one, was reached six minutes later and by 2:20 I was paddling through Hambone Lake onto the second portage of the day - also relatively short at 300 meters.

The second portage went well and by 3:10 I was in Ralph Bice Lake and beginning my search for a site to stay for the night. Since this was the first trip of the year I knew I was going to be sore and wanted to get established early so that I could begin to administer liquid medication to those muscles that haven't been used in a year.

I found a nice site by about 5 pm and immediately began to set up the tent, found a suitable spot to hang my pack the required 10 feet off the ground, as well as spend a few minutes properly organizing the medicine table.


By 6 pm, Bob was finally able to relax on the rocks with a cigar and drink in hand. I spent most of the night in this position while watching the southern stars rise (the first star coming out at 9:36 pm). Life couldn't have been better ... little did I know what Day #2 would bring.

Day #2
Watching the beauty of the stars, I didn't haul my butt to bed until 1:30 am - big mistake! At 5:30 am I was rudely woken by the howling of a cold (8 degrees that's 46 Fahrenheit) north wind . The wind was so strong I feared that my tent would be blown away and it was impossible to get back to sleep. So a tired Bob wandered about the camp site with nothing to do because the wind was so strong that it was impossible to launch the canoe let alone make any progress paddling into that headwind.

So wait it out I did and finally at 9 am the skies began to clear, the wind died and the temperature rose. It was a beautiful day and I managed to get across Ralph Brice Lake, a 450 meter portage to Little Trout Lake and lastly a 175 meter portage from Little Trout Lake into Little Queer Lake where I found a site near to the long portage I would undertake the next day. I must say that in looking at the map I don't see a Big Queer Lake so I resume the 'little' refers to the lake being just a little bit strange - though I'm not sure why.

Anyway, I set up camp at 4 pm and then went down for a wee nap. I was tired, my right leg was cramping and my back ached beyond belief. Things were not looking good for the next day's portage of 2.5 km.

At 6 pm I awoke feeling a bit better and decided to go fishing. I was about 0.75 km from my site when I heard from the near shoreline what sounded like two cats fighting. I remembered seeing something about the presence of bobcats in the park so I headed closer to shore for a better look. The animals making the noise came out of the bush onto the shoreline and I thought to myself - beavers? Did beavers make that sound when they were fighting? So I put on my glasses for a better look (all the while chastising myself for not having brought my camera along) and in a single instance (with my glasses now on) it became obvious what was going on. The two beavers turned out to be bear cubs and momma bear wandered onto the shore to have a look at me - who was now within 100 meters of her. We looked at each other for a long while and without knowing why - I slapped my paddle onto the water. This caused the bears to immediately bolt for the bush and the two cubs went up the nearest tree in lightening speed. I never did see what happened to the momma bear but I was filled with relief that I could scare them off so easily - after all there were only a few hundred meters from where I was camped.

Back at camp I brought in a new rule - no fire or first drink until I could spot the first star of the evening. Luckily I was facing south and at 9:36 pm the fire was struck and the whiskey poured. I sat on the rocks and yelled long into the night testing the echo factor. It was a pretty amazing location as I was able to produce 9 distinct echoes! But I did learn my lesson of the previous night and went to bed by 11:30 - after all tomorrow would bring the much dreaded 2.5 km portage.

Day #3
Either to rest properly, or in a lame effort to avoid the 2.5 km portage, I did not get out of bed until 11 am on Saturday. By the time I had breakfasted and loaded up the canoe it was past noon. It was a short 5 minute paddle across the lake to the portage point and the BIG PORTAGE began at 12:30 pm.

I had calculated that the portage should require 3600 steps so I originally broke it into 7 stages of about 500 steps each. Lug the canoe for 500 steps, drop it and return for the pack and lug that to the canoe. I also decided that I would take 5 minute breaks between each stage.

As it turned out the path was easier than I had originally assumed and after the first stage I decided to alter the plan to 6 stages each of 600 steps. That might not sound like a big difference but when you are being buzzed by deer flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes while lugging a canoe on your head - those extra 100 steps are huge. I had also included a mandatory 20 minute lunch break at what I assumed was the halfway point.

To make a long story short, the path did get a bit worse but after almost 4 hours I made it to the end looking a bit worse for the wear but extremely proud of my accomplishment. Other than a quick picture to record the occasion, I spent little time congratulating myself and instead loaded up the canoe and headed for the middle of the lake to get away from the bugs.


After 4 hours of continuous buzzing around my head the quiet of no bugs was almost orgasmic.

The site I had chosen to stay that night was short paddle away and I quickly set up camp and awaited the first star of the night. Luckily I was again facing south and at 9:35 the fire was lit.

Day #4
The fourth day started off a wee bit late and lazy. Floating down the lake at 1.9 km/hr while trying to ease my aching muscles back into paddling form after training them to carry a canoe the day before.


The fourth day consisted mainly of what is loosely described on the map as 'river' travel. As you can see this has to be the world's smallest river.


It was also filled with a number of obstacles such as this beaver dam which had to be carefully negotiated to avoid tipping over and smelling of swamp for the remainder of the trip.



Finally after several hours of following this meandering river I came to the second of the two portages, a beautiful little waterfall. An ideal spot for a late afternoon snack - call it lunch.

















After lunch and several more hours, I came to the last site on this trip. Tucking the canoe into the natural harbour, I immediately set about relaxing from what turned out to be a long day. Sitting on the rock, having a cigar and talking to my buddy - froggie.

















Froggie was not much of a conversationalist but after 4 days without talking to anyone it was amazing how much we had to discuss. Froggie even proposed a theory about lesbian canoeists always choosing yellow canoes, a theory which I am currently trying to validate. While I enjoyed a cigar, froggie snacked on a couple of spiders that happened to crawl by.

Later, as the sun set, I lit the last fire of this trip and decided to abandon the 'first star' rule and pour myself a wee one. After all it was a north facing site and the first star didn't come out until after 10 pm.






















The last day was pretty boring - three portages and finally home - here is a picture of the last portage. Ahhhh - memories. Just like this blog - the trip was over - much too soon.