Out and Back in La Cloche Silhouette, Killarney, October 2016

Usually I get my trip reports up in a day or two!  Not this one for some reason!  

It was a great trip, after the fact.  Though I left the trail with a significant portion of my left heel missing...hmm.  

We started off from Toronto around 8am (I think) Friday morning (October 14th).  The drive to Killarney was easy, and we got to the park around noon.  

Check in was smooth, and it was off to the trailhead!  We suited up, adjusted packs, got poles ready (I wanted Toby to try hiking with poles this trip, I took Neb on leash and Luc was, as always, off leash).  

We headed out, within a few hundred metres Toby decided he hated the poles, and strapped them to his pack.  Oh well.  Nobody in the family likes poles I guess.  Well, I don't mind them, but I also don't need them.

The hike to the turnoff for H2, our campsite for the night, was unremarkable, though we saw some beautiful fall colours.

We arrived at the turnoff further than the stated map distances, but later decided this was because of starting our watches at the car rather than the trailhead.  

We did get lost on the side trail - I am good at navigating!  Maybe not!  We wandered around for a bit before finding it.  It was a sharp turn with a cairn, but there was also a bit of a footpath straight at the cairn, so we had kept to that.  In the end we hiked 3.94k Friday.

H2 is a decent site - I'd stayed there once before on Luc's first ever backpacking trip, on our last night (where I was unable to get a site further in like I wanted..much like the first night of this trip).  

It's a nice enough site though.  Sort of set up on a hill, but we squished our Big Agnes Seedhouse SL3 onto the tent pad, set up the tarp, and hung the bear rope fine.  Managed to gather a boatload of wood and set about breaking and sawing it up.  I realized I accidentally brought the new saw AND the old saw, and they're the same saw, so good luck telling them apart now me.  The new saw is brighter though...I hope.  Certainly it's sharper!  I should get a replacement blade for the older saw.  But I digress.

I've mentioned before how much I like going on trip with Toby, because he's so good at throwing the bear rope...I also like going with him because he's good at sawing wood, which I hate (my arms get tired, wah wah wah).  

We had lots of wood, so started the fire around 4:30.  Soon we had a nice blaze going.

Our dinner the first night was mac n cheese, we added all the water and let it sit for longer than the package suggested (freeze-dried food) - the sauce was great, though watery, but the pasta was...'al dente' would be kind.  It had crunch.  Next time we'll let that one sit for way longer, or give that brand a miss.  They can't all be winners.  We skipped dessert as the day had not exactly been long enough to work up an appetite.  

Hanging around the campfire, we heard a funny noise - at first I thought it was Luc scratching, but Toby pointed out it was coming from the wrong direction - we investigated, and found a beaver (their lodge isn't far from the site) chilling in the water eating some wood!  Completely unphased at  us watching it with our headlamps shining on it.  Very cool.  

We didn't stay up too late though, and headed off to bed, as we had an early start to the next day.  6:30 am!

We woke up at 6:30 on Saturday, and Toby hadn't slept well, so we stayed in bed til 7 am.  Got up,  had breakfast, broke camp, took just over an hour and a half (so not fast, but not horrifically slow either).  Headed out, stopping once we'd crossed Lumsden Creek to go up the little hill for the view out to Georgian Bay and to enjoy the fall colours.  

Headed off, taking our time - I wasn't in the mood to hurry, and our packs were heavier as we may - MAY - have overpacked in the sleeping bag department.  We boiled each night.  It was colder when we were in Killarney at the end of September!!!!!  Sheesh!  

Saturday just felt like it went on forever.  We got to the Pig, the steep portage by Baie Fine/Threenarrows and on the way to Topaz...and headed up.  Toby was like 'Geez'.  Yup.  Gotta love the Pig.  We turned off it, and had been planning to cross at the dam to cut 3, 3.5k off our day, and I got worried we'd gone past it, but found it soon enough.  Got a little lost finding the main trail again - we wandered towards the old H8 - but soon found our way. 

The day was measuring long from the map distances, which was very frustrating, as it felt like our progress was slow.  I've hiked this lots before, but never used a GPS before, so there wasn't the constant 'WTF we should be closer to the next campsite' that we experienced Saturday.  

We had lunch at H16 and I took a look at a hot spot on my heel - WHICH I SHOULD HAVE DEALT WITH SOONER, BUT I NEVER DO WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO - not pleasant, but not the end of the world either.  

We headed off after a pleasant lunch, and I was like 'Hmm'.  I remember the Threenarrows section being flat, but it's constantly changing elevation, and we were getting tired (I know, US?  But we were.  It wasn't so much the physical as the psychological with the GPS/map differences).  FINALLY we made it to the turnoff for H19, our campsite for the night, and headed down the long side trail.  Our total for Saturday was 18.67k.

H19 is a NICE site!  There was a bit of a 'Hmm, smells like thunder box' at first, but it dissipated and/or our noses adjusted.  Mostly by our tent - there was really only one spot to set up our Big Agnes.  There was a great spot for the bear hang right off the side trail further down from our site, nice water access, BEAUTIFUL view of the ridges - paradise!  Would love this site in the summer!

We gathered wood, finding 4 or 5 GREEN potatoes in the process - talk about random - no animals had touched them.  Who humps in potatoes that far?  And then doesn't even eat them?  There was also garbage in the firepit, gross, but we managed to burn most of it.  

And someone had kindly left some big logs.  

We were sitting at the firepit relaxing  (and probably bemoaning the state of our feet) when we looked down the lake and saw a large animal swimming.  Either a moose or a bear, we figured a moose.  It was swimming away though, probably at least a km away, so can't be certain.  Two cool water sightings, one at each campsite!

We enjoyed our fire, had our freeze dried meals, and...HAD DESSERT!  Chocolate mousse or something.  Man was that good.  

We hit the hay early as we were both tired, and had a long day the next day - I figured we'd be anywhere from 21.5-23k.  

Another boiling night - I slept better, I had the closed cell foam pads as the thermarest I bought (which is at least 10 years old) was not holding air very well I found on Friday night.  I used the pads we'd brought for the dogs and Luc slept on the thermarest, Neb slept on some clothes between us both nights.  

Toby however did not sleep well again, but we still got up right at 6:30 Sunday morning.  It had rained overnight, and was still misting in the morning, so we were a bit slow breaking camp, and didn't leave until 8:10, 8:15.  

My feet, in particular my left heel, were in bad shape, so there was discomfort, but we had a better idea of the distances between campsites so mentally this day was WAY easier.  We took a few water breaks, took our time on the Pig, and stopped for lunch and a water refill at Baie Fine.  

Which reminds me - Toby had advocated for Platypus Gravity Filter (vs. tablets) and we picked up a 4L one.  It worked GREAT!  And the water tastes WAY better.  Good call Toby.  Picked it up for a reasonable price from MEC.  Definitely look into getting one if you're in the market for a filter.  

On the way out, crossing Artists Creek, I'd had Neb on leash and Luc off leash.  Going back over Toby wanted them on long leads, but - we crossed the same way.  It was fine.  I'm not the most graceful balancing on rocks and logs, but I made it across in one piece!  Luc did good.

Though, Toby had mentioned earlier in the day that his back end was collapsing and he was having trouble getting back up.  Apparently it has happened before.  Luc is almost always exclusively behind me when we hike so I didn't realize this, though I did see it crossing creeks by Acid Lake.

:(  My poor guy.  He is 13 years old now.  Still.  We had been planning to do the full La Cloche next summer when he is 14, but instead we're thinking of doing a trip where we won't exceed 10-13k/day.  And sticking to the 'gentler' side of Killarney.  We're taking him to the chiropractor and are hopeful that this will make a difference - if it's not chiropractic/arthritis, then it is probably a progression of his polyneuropathy to his hind end, as that is generally the next place for paralysis.  He doesn't seem to be in pain, and recovers well - he did end up running ahead at one point towards the end of the day on Sunday, so it's tough to say.  It's hard to see them get old.  

We met one hiker near Acid Lake on the way back, and he passed us again when we stopped for a break on the narrow strip of land there.  He was wearing a bear bell, and Neb heard him going and started to bark and howl (despite being excited to meet him 5 minutes before) - it was hilarious!  The guy thought it was funny, we saw him when we finished (he took a picture of us) and he was laughing at the howling following him.  Tough guy Neb, way to intimidate.  

We enjoyed that break though, it's such a pretty spot, there were good colours, and the sun was FINALLY out (after a cloudy weekend).  Warm weather too.  

We finished in good spirits, 22k exactly on the day.  Went into town for some food before heading home, but greatly happy at a weekend well spent and excited for our next trip!

Though, no backpacking in Frontenac October 29-30th for me though, not trusting my heel to the hiking boots.  Boo.  I was really looking forward to that trip too.

Luc and the La Cloche in 2 days, September 2010

I believe today is the sixth anniversary of Luc and I doing the entire La Cloche Silhoutte trail in two days with our friend Julian.  I'm recording this now because it used to be on a now-defunct Friends of Killarney Park forum, and Luc is 13 years old and not getting any younger.  He's geriatric.

Luc was younger then (obviously), 7 years old.  I'd wanted for a while to fastpack the trail and had done extensive googling and been unable to find any record of any dog doing the La Cloche in two days...so we had a plan.

We reserved H33 (Little Mountain Lake) for two nights, in case we were unable to do the trail in two days, we didn't want to trigger SAR.

Luc and I had spent the week prior to going up to Killarney Provincial Park at a family friend's cottage with Neb.  It was a nice relaxing week, I remember Lynn came to visit one night with a couple of her Huskies.  Other than that it was hermit-styles for the week though.

I'd come back to Toronto, dropped off Neb, dropped off the cottage keys, and headed straight up for the five hour drive to Killarney.

We got there in good time and got checked in, Julian arrived at night and we decided, instead of setting up the tent to sleep in, we'd sleep in the back of his van.  Which, FYI, is not all that comfortable.  We set our alarm for 3:30 am...

...and overslept.  We woke up at 5 am if I recall correctly.  Got ready in a hurry, then headed off to the western trailhead (we did the loop in a clockwise direction, getting the easiest hiking out of the way first).

We started off with our headlamps, for the first hour or so, before it got light enough to see.  One bathroom break early on, then we pressed on.

By the time we hit the Pig (steep portion of the trail that is also a portage) we realized we had a couple of failings - I had forgotten to bring my asthma meds and Julian's knees were bothering him.  Luc, of course, was fine.

We pressed on, like two old people, making slow progress.  At least it was easy going.

Soon enough though (after about 25k), we hit the ridges.  We stopped at the top of Moose Pass, which is a brutal climb, and contacted our loved ones/took the only pictures of the trip.

We were pretty pleased with the time we were making, though made quite a team - my asthma meant climbing ridges was brutal for me, and Julian's knees meant descending was brutal for him.

We made it to our campsite on Little Mountain Lake with lots of time - and what a pretty site!  We set up the tent, made dinner and had a fire before going to bed.  We slept pretty well, though it was cool, being September, and us trying to pack lightly (though it wasn't really fastpacking, my pack was over 25lbs!!!!).

We got up about 6 am the next morning, had a quick breakfast, and hit the trail when it got light, as neither of us had an appetite for route finding on the ridges in the dark and hoping we could make out the next cairn by headlamp.

It rained.  Oh how it rained.  Between that, my asthma, and Julian's knees, we were making slow progress.  Sliding down a rock face I tore a hole in the bum of my windpants, so I was very much hoping we wouldn't run into anyone!

Julian was thinking we'd have to camp somewhere for the night, the ridges were so slippery and brutal in the wet.  But I was like 'No, we have to get the dog record for Luc!  Keep going!' and Julian loves Luc, so it was easy to convince him.

We made it to the Crack in decent time, descended, thrilled and knowing nothing would stop us now - we had an easy 8k or so of walking back to George Lake and our cars.  It was great.

We arrived in George Lake, 80kish later, after somewhere over 20 hours on the trail between the two days.

I had taken my mom's car up, and on the trail had only taken the valet key, since I didn't have to worry about it getting wet.  I'd locked everything in the trunk and locked the trunk.

....Valet keys do not unlock trunks when they're locked from the inside.  It's an anti-theft measure.  I did not know this.  Much panic was had, especially as my pants had a big hole in the bum.  Eventually we got reception, I called my mom, who explained this to me, I got the other key from wherever genius me had put it, got the trunk open, changed pants and was much relieved.

We decided instead of camping in the campground we deserved a little luxury, so went into town to the Killarney Bay Inn, which takes dogs.  There's ALWAYS rooms at KBI.  Well, not that night...there was a wedding.  One room left, and the desk person very apologetically said 'But it's got two double beds, not a queen or a king'.  Julian and I were like 'GOOD we're not a couple!'  Heh.  So it worked out well.  I think we got Luc a burger from the restaurant, and Luc was acting like a jerk if I recall and barking in the room so we went and ate there.  Silly dog!

But it was great to have done such a tough trail so quickly, and to get Luc the (known, anyways) doggy record.  If I remember from the old Friends forum, a few years later another dog did it in two days, but Luc was the first that we knew of!

And now he's 13.  Toby and I are planning to do the whole trail next year with the dogs, but in 5 days.  What can I say, he's slowed down, but then, he'll be 14 then, which is ancient in dog years.  The average life span for German Shepherds (and Border Collies which may be in him) is only 10 years old!

So proud of Luc to do the La Cloche Silhouette in two days!  He did great, way better than the humans.  It is a memory I will always cherish.

Killarney Proulx Lake Trip

This trip had lots of changes.

First, we were supposed to go backpacking to Topaz Lake in Killarney in July, but there is a family wedding that weekend, so we switched it to May 7-8th heading up to Killarney to the campground on the 6th.

Then, Toby's back went.  It was bad.  He only missed one day of work, but I had to drive him to our RMT which is MAYBE 700m away from our house because he couldn't walk.  Physio, massage, and muscle relaxants helped but he wasn't  in a position to backpack, carrying a pack, or even car camp and sleep on an air mattress and day hike.

I decided to go anyways.  When I switched our reservation to May I reserved Cave Lake, H5, but with Toby not coming I decided to go to H48, Proulx Lake.  Which is one of the prettier sites on the trail.

Watching the weather leading up it was supposed to rain on Saturday, but be nice Sunday.

I worked a half day Friday and then headed up.  I knew I'd be arriving after the office closed (it closed at 3:30pm) so I called and asked if they could sit aside some firewood for me.  I arrived and - no wood.  Bah.  The next day when I checked in I mentioned it as I thought maybe they forgot to put it out, but no, someone else took it, despite it being clearly marked for campsite 8.  Jerks.

Anyways.

I had initially been planning to take both dogs, but Toby said he didn't think I would be able to get both dogs up the Crack by myself.  I thought about it, and agreed with him.  We agreed that he would stay with Neb and Luc and I would go on a buddies trip.  After all, Luc turns 13 in July and we don't know how much longer he'll be able to do this sort of thing.

The drive up was uneventful, though on Hwy. 69 there was a turtle (I think snapping) crossing the highway - myself and the cars behind me swerved to avoid it but traffic was busy and I'm not sure it made it.  I just felt sick that it would get hit, but I couldn't safely stop and get it.  Still, it cast a pall for awhile.

On Hwy. 637 I saw what I think was a marten dashing across the road followed shortly by a black bear on the side of the road.  The car behind me stopped and they got out!  Honestly, leave the bear alone, don't habituate it to people.  Sheesh.  Dumb people.

Friday night was uneventful.

Saturday I woke up to a light rain.  Packed up and went to the office, checked in, charged my phone for a bit then hit the trail about 10am.  It was raining but not overly hard.  I was wearing my rainpants and rain jacket, then quickly decided I was way too warm and took off my rain jacket so I was just in my merino tshirt - after all, merino is warm when wet.

Shortly after we crested the first hill, we saw two day hikers with a dog on leash, so I put Luc back on leash.  They said they'd seen a bear (the other side of the A.Y. Jackson Lake) so after we passed by I elected to keep Luc on leash for awhile.  I didn't want a bear to spook him or him to spook a bear.  No signs of it though.

This weekend was the spring clean up weekend that the Friends of Killarney Park puts on, and at Wagon Road Lake crossing the beaver dam I came across two women and a girl who were engaged in cleaning up backcountry campsites.  The girl fell in crossing the dam.  The lead woman was using a shovel as a hiking pole, which I thought was incredibly strange, until she explained they were cleaning campsites...ahh, that makes sense.

The rest of the way to where the La Cloche Silhouette intersects with the Crack trail was unremarkable, though Luc did experience some doubt crossing a swollen stream and eventually had to run through it much to his horror.  I was very impressed at his bravery though.

It did really start to pour in this section, and I was cursing the thought of having to go up the Crack (which Luc does not enjoy) and onto the ridges in the rain.  Those rocks are s-l-i-p-p-e-r-y when wet.
Shortly after the La Cloche intersects with the Crack trail, I saw two trail runners on their way to Silver Peak, so we had a nice quick conversation about running.

Once onto the ridges below the Crack we ran into some people with their dog coming down from the Crack.  Heading up the ridge was fine, though it was wet, as Luc can attest to:

Then we got the Crack - Luc's nemesis.  I was dreading taking him up it in slippery rocks.

Yes the picture above is the trail.  You can imagine how much fun it is to take a geriatric German Shepherd up that!

But he did good.  We got up to the top and two people said 'Wow, we were just wondering if our dogs would be able to make it up here!  Hey, he's on old timer, a grey beard!' and I was like 'Aww, well, yes, but he's ageless really'.

I'd been making okay time until the hills before the Crack, but once hitting the wet exposed rock and route finding I slowed down.  I fell twice.  Sigh.  The first time Luc was like 'What are you doing?'  Thanks Luc.

We saw some early spring flowers!

It was just under 13k to Proulx Lake and I took under 4:20hrs to get there - I'm not sure exactly because I forgot to stop my GPS when I got to the campsite.

When I got there the three guys and their German Shepherd mix who had stayed their the night before were still there!  They'd decided to wait out the rain before heading out.  Their dog got in Luc's face but like a good boy he just ignored it.  I was unimpressed.

They decided to do a last minute site check for garbage - how nice!  The volunteers I'd seen early said they were at Proulx Lake and that it was in great shape.

I feel like the volunteers probably would've removed the copious amounts of pistachio shells that were around the campfire.  That were undoubtedly from the guys who had stayed there Friday night (but oh yeah, they checked for garbage...idiots).

Anyways, I set up camp, got the bear rope hung, did a terrible job with the tarp (I just kept the pack under it, it was clearing by then).  I was reading my Kobo on a log around the campsire when I saw orange out of the corner of my eye, looked over, and saw a guy heading towards the site!

I went over to say hello, Luc barked in his best German Shepherd style - the man was tired and couldn't make his campsite for the night, he asked if he could camp below my site and I said sure, not a problem.

I went back to reading then felt bad - he might want a fire!  I'd been too lazy to gather wood, but he might enjoy it.  I went over to tell him that he was welcome to come up and use the fire pit.  He said he was having some trouble finding a flat site for his tent, so I said there was one next to the tent pad he was welcome to.  He came up, Luc barked some more, but then calmed down.

We introduced ourselves - Atanu was his name - he'd come in from Bell Lake bushwhacking and was heading the Crack parking lot.  I was jealous, I've always wanted to do the Bell Lake bushwhacking route.

Anyways, after he was all set up we got to chatting.  Turns out he is also a Toronto Outdoor Club member (the club I used to volunteer for and that I was president of).  We discussed mutual people we know and agreed that Jesse makes the best chai tea on winter backpacking trips!

Atanu unlike me wasn't lazy and gathered firewood, so we had a fire:

We had a nice night talking and Luc enjoyed himself.

The evening sun was beautiful.

I had a good sleep.  It was forecasted to go down to 0C and that seems pretty accurate, at least, so I was glad for my big Big Agnes sleeping pad and -10C sleeping bag.  The world's coldest sleeper slept comfortably.

I woke up when Luc wanted to get up.  We got out and it was SNOWING!!!  On May 8th!  Incredible!  What the heck....

We had a quick time breaking camp and then started hiking together.  Luc did good getting up the ridge by Little Superior though needed some help in places.

Don't believe me when I said it was snowing?  Check out these pics, including snow caught in a bush and on a spider web.  Of course this meant that rocks on the ridges were once again wet and slippery thanks to the snow.  Sigh.

We got down the Crack okay - Luc finds it easier to go down then up, probably because he can actually see the route easier.  He's short enough he can't see where he's going when he goes out.  I'm taller than him (obviously) and I find going down easier for the same reason.

Atanu had offered if I wanted to go the Crack parking lot with him (which is closer than George Lake) and give me a ride back to my car at George Lake.  I could feel a hot spot/blister developing on my big toe and the snow had changed to rain so I decided to take him up on it.  We did just over 7.5k on the day.

It was great to make a new friend in Atanu!  After some initial barking Luc really took to him too, which was great.

Gear - I used my Granite Gear Vapor Ki pack, as I was carrying more weight, my Big Agnes Fly Creek 2, my Big Agnes Double Z sleeping pad (I think that's it) and Luc had my Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol sleeping pad.  I brought my Western Mountaineering -10C sleeping bag so my pack was HUGE.  Heh.  But all worked well, it's just a better workout I guess.