Western Uplands: Algonquin, Thunder Lake and the First Loop (November 18-20, 2016)

What a great trip!

Sometime in...September?  I had reached out to Sarah and Leanne to see if they wanted to do a girl's trip to Algonquin in November.  Leanne wasn't able to join, but Sarah was up for it!  I suggested we spend three days on the Western Uplands, going up to Thunder Lake on the second loop on the Friday before returning to the first loop and staying on Maggie Lake Saturday night.

Which is what we did.

Sarah brought her Husky Mika, and I brought Neb.  There was a bit of standoffishness when they first met, but they coexisted quite well and at our first break on Friday to take off layers, Neb went into squirrelly play bowing mode.  Mika seemed unimpressed, but they got along well.

Friday was warm - high of 17C - and I ended up hiking in a tshirt!

We hiked 11.08k the first day, and made it into camp in good time, lots of time to set up and relax with some tea and enjoy the view from our campsite on Thunder Lake.

I love the campsite at Thunder Lake.  I've always wanted to stay here in the summer and take advantage of the sandy bottom to go swimming, but I've only even stayed here in shoulder seasons.

Nonetheless, it was a glorious day.  We got the bear rope hung, thanks to Sarah, who got it on her first pitch (after at least 10 fruitless throws from yours truly) - I then nominated Sarah as bear rope thrower for the trip!

For this trip, I brought my Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2, and Sarah her MEC ultralight tent.

The dogs lounged - Mika is like Luc and doesn't like looking at the camera, though I managed to get one shot of her kind of doing so:

Neb enjoying a favourite camping pastime - eating wood!

We enjoyed dinner, and a fire - there were some decent sized logs, though we didn't end up using all of the wood we cut up.  We headed to bed around 7 pm - it'd been dark since 4:30, 5 pm, so it felt WAY later.  What can I say, I go crazy when I'm camping in winter time/short days.  It did mean however some thrashing around in the bush looking for the bear rope (stupid ultralight thin rope is impossible to find in that situation!!!!) but eventually we found it.

I made Neb a bed by my head but of course he slept elsewhere...typical.  It was a warm night though so it didn't matter that he didn't sleep on the mat I brought for him, which also doubled as a bum pad for me sitting.

We woke up to overcast skies but thankful that the forecasted rain had started yet.  Broke camp, and started hiking, retracing our steps to the intersection of the first and second loops and heading along the top of the first loop towards Maggie Lake.

The hiking was harder going than it had been Friday - lots more hills.  My heel, which was not entirely healed from Toby and I's Killarney trip, bothered me some - I checked it and the tape had pulled off, so I reapplied, but it still bothered me.

This plus the rain starting in earnest led us to decide to camp at the start of Maggie West, as opposed to making the long way around the lake to a different campsite.

On Saturday we hiked 13.17k.  We stayed at the first campsite on Maggie West as you come south.  It was set up a little oddly - the tent spots were far apart, part of the site was on the trail, and the water access was a good 50-70m (guesstimate) from the fire pit.  But, it had a good spot for the bear rope, lots of space, and a nice fire pit area.

We set up our tarps and tents and then had some tea.

Neb was now in his raincoat.  I would've preferred it didn't rain, but since I carried his raincoat, at least he used it!

We then set about gathering wood.  It was all wet of course, but we had a fire anyways, for warmth.  The rain turned to sleet and wet snow then snow as the temperatures dropped further.  We had cut up some hardwood and brilliant me had stacked it around the fire so it would dry out - the fire was burning hotter than I realized, because it all caught and we had a really big fire for awhile.  I felt wet, even though I was wearing thick long underwear, my MEC Uplink jacket (synthetic insulation) and my Marmot Precip rainjacket (not bought at MEC).

Because of this, I said to Sarah around 6 pm, is it okay if we go to bed?  So we hung the bear bags, put out the fire, and headed in.

...and I was wet.  Great.  The Precip jacket is no longer waterproof.  The pants were fine, thankfully.  I was able to layer up, but couldn't wear my jacket to bed - and I knew the temperature was going to drop well below freezing.  Synthetic insulation is warm when wet (in fact, I wore the jacket around camp the next morning in the snow, despite it being wet, and was fine), but down is not, and my Western Mountaineering sleeping bag is down.  So I tried to stick it under a nest of clothes in a silnylon sack in case Neb slept on it.  The sleeping pad I'd brought for him got wet under the tarps and I was worried it would freeze overnight (which it did) so I didn't want him sleeping on it - instead I put him in his Katahdin Mushing Supplies belly coat and made a little nest for him with clothes.

I read until about 7:30 on my Kobo then headed to sleep.

We had agreed to get up at 7 am, but at 6:45 I got up and discovered the tent zipper was frozen - I hate that.  I got up, rolling up my Thermarest Neoair X-Therm (man is that thing ever great!) and left the tent - Sarah was up too.

After going to the thunderbox and discovering the lid was frozen so that the whole box picked up when you tried to lift the lid (yuck), I smacked it a bit and got the lid up and was able to use the facilities in peace.  Then I went to get the bear bags.

I under the rope, without too much difficulty - the rope is waxed, so even though the knots were a bit frozen, it undid easily.  I unwound it from the tree, and waited for the inevitable gravity to bring the bags down.

They remained suspended in the tree.

"Huh" I thought, " That's odd."

Then I realized - NOOOO! - the bear rope is frozen to the branches (it was actually over two branches, one smaller, one larger).  I grabbed a stick and started throwing it at the bags to try to loosen it, to no effect.

I went back to the campsite, told Sarah, and grabbed a large branch/small tree that we hadn't broken up for wood the night before, and brought it back to the bear bags and tried to knock/pull them out of the tree.  That and I tugged on the rope, in the hopes it would loosen.

Still stuck.

Sarah came and found a longer branch, and after a good 20 minutes, we got the bags down.  They landed on my head.  Not my finest moment.  But, we had our food etc!  Phew!  I was really starting to wonder.

In all my years of camping, and I include a decent amount of tripping in all seasons, I have never had that happen before.  It just didn't occur to me.  I'm thankful we hadn't picked a higher branch though, or we would've been in real trouble.

The lake was lovely with a dusting of snow:

We had breakfast and set about taking down camp.  We had two tarps up and it took me about 30 minutes to untie the ropes because the ropes were all frozen.  Our tent flies were frozen on and of course the poles needed breathing on too.  But we got it all down and headed off.

There was more snow away from the lakes:

What a range of weather!  17C on Friday, and on Sunday when we got back to our cars it said it was -4C.  Crazy.  We had a good hike out, my heel felt better, and we caught two groups of guys - one guy hiking solo, and then three guys, one of whom had had everything get wet the night before and been awfully cold Sunday morning!  They were in good spirits though.

Sunday we hiked 14.15k out to the Hwy 60 trailhead.

I had a great time on trip with Sarah!  We've been Facebook friends for awhile, but this was our first in-person meeting, and it went great!  She's a fantastic trip buddy!

The Amazing Luc...2 days on the Western Uplands 3rd Loop

Yup, the dog that just won't quit.

So Luc, our German Shepherd Dog (with a probably bit of Border Collie, but we don't know...he's under 50lbs though and full grown) is now 13 years old.  Geriatric by any measure, and 3 years past the average lifespan of both GSDs and Border Collies.

A few health issues (hypothyroid and laryngeal paralysis, which can lead to heat distress) but he's in good shape.  We think he's got a wee bit of arthritis, but who wouldn't at his age?

A couple of weeks ago Toby said 'Hey!  I have July 30 and 31st off!' so I said 'Let's go camping!'.  Car camping was all booked up (long weekend) so I suggested we go backpacking - Frontenac was fully booked, we didn't look at Killarney as we were going to be doing the drive Saturday morning before backpacking and it's just too far away.

The Western Uplands trail in Algonquin still had sites available on the third loop, so Algonquin it was.  I was able to reserve Pincher Lake North, which is still 20k from the trailhead, though does feature 8k of mostly rail trail near the trailhead.

Still.  Gulp.  Luc is old, and it's been awhile since he's hiked that far - still does 14, 15k hikes, it's just been awhile since he's done a 20k hike, let along B2B 20k.

But he's a tough guy.  Heck, he's done the lower two and part of the third loop of Western Uplands as a non-stop 60k hike, but he was 5 years old then.  Not 13.

But hey.

We got up SUPER early Saturday morning and hit the road by 5:30 am in an attempt to beat long weekend traffic.  So tired.  Steph had said to me Friday that she'd sleep in the car and I told Toby that, and that 'I don't really/can't sleep in the car anymore'.  He laughed at me all the way up because I kept falling asleep.  SOME OF US DON'T DRINK COFFEE

We got to the permit office uneventfully, though I may have been very sleepy.  All checked in, Toby picked up a cool hiking tshirt, and then we drove to the trailhead/access point  (Rain Lake) only getting confused once (well, I got confused, Toby had the right idea).  Got to the access point, searched for a parking spot (thank goodness we got there by 9 am, it would've been worse later on as we discovered when we left on Sunday).  Hit the trail by 9:18 after changing into our boots/futzing around.

After the first 800m, the trail leaves the rail trail for a short while, which I didn't realize, so I was confused, but checked the map and saw it did indeed leave for a brief burp plus it was marked.  The rail trail was more grown in then expected, and more technical than most rail trail (keep in mind that relativity).  It had trees and roots growing across it, plus rail ties or whatever they were that were handy for navigating wet spots and not getting your boots muddy but otherwise a bit annoying.

(The rail ties or whatever were off to the side in that pic but for parts were not)

Still, we made good time.  We got to where the rail trail ends for a brief bit at an old/broken off bridge, and descended off to the side to a small log bridge (Luc wanted to keep on going...I was like 'You idiot, you'll fall 20 feet into a lake and you're scared of the water'.  He figured it out eventually but we had to yell at him).  Saw some people we'd seen at the trail head talking to another hiker with a dog - they took off, and we talked to the hiker with the dog, who was heading out after 8 days on the trail (but she only did the 2nd and 3rd loops in EIGHT DAYS...I'd be bored at those short distances, but then, I'm easily bored).  She said 'My dog is 9.5 and can't do what she used to...doing this with her while she still can' which is an amazing attitude, and how we feel about Luc, who, incidentally, looked better than her dog did despite being 3.5 years older.  Smug owner moment, me, very nice.

She did however point out the momma and calf moose feeding in the water!  I thought the picture didn't turn but it's not half bad, though how well it will show up in the blog I'm not sure.

After this little descent the trail popped up to about another km of rail trail before heading onto real trail (get it?  Rail versus real).  We had a good climb that left me going 'Oh man, I haven't done this portion of the Western Uplands, I hope the rest isn't like this!!!!'  But it wasn't, it was mostly rolling after that.

We had lunch at the first campsite on Islet Lake, after hitting the trail split.  Wouldn't want to camp there, as the trail literally ran through it (what is with Algonquin campsites and that?  Brutal).  Still, a good spot for lunch and to fill up the dog water bottles.

Then we kept hiking, along Islet, Weed, Stammer, and Stutter.

After Stammer and heading towards Stutter there was a big downhill that had our knees complaining (our packs were 25lbs and under with food and water, what can I say, we're ultralight failures, but we had lots of luxuries).

My Oregon (handheld GPS) was measuring way off from the map distances, whereas Toby was using his 920xt and it was accurate.  I was using the Oregon because I thought it'd be more accurate, but I think it's 7 or 8 years old so old technology.  And I haven't updated it in a few years oops.  I used my 920xt for mapping on the return home.

We got to Pincher Lake North.  I'd read that the second campsite was the nicest, but wanted to check out the first one we passed so we went down the side trail - it was okay, I guess, but no real good spot for swimming and it seemed a bit buggy as was in a bit of a bay and didn't have a lot of breeze.  We headed to the second site (also off the trail down a side trail), which was empty (yay) and it was nice.  Good spot for the tent, nice cooking area with two benches and tables, and a rocky area extending into the lake that was perfect for swimming and sitting with your feet in the water - nice after 20k/5.5 hours on the trail!

I wasn't super impressed with the fire pit - it looked like it was on top of some roots - but neither of us cared about having a fire so for our purposes it was fine.

We got set up then lay in the sun for a bit before going in for a swim.  At first we were just cooling our feet then I said 'Nope, I'm going in!' so Toby came too.  The water was fairly warm, but still refreshing, it was perfect.  After our swim we sat in the lake some more.

It was a truly lovely afternoon around camp.  The campsite faced east so we lost the sun and layered up.  The dogs mostly just snoozed.

For this trip, we used the Big Agnes Seedhouse SL3 - it's bigger than my 3-man Tarptent, which is a nice feature of the Big Agnes with two adults and two dogs, and it is very comfortable.  Plus, while I wouldn't call it ultralight ultralight, it's hardly heavy.

Toby was using my Big Agnes Insulated Double Z sleeping pad - the height of luxury - and as I suspected from my last trip in June, it for sure has a slow leak - Toby woke up in the morning with his hip in the ground.  I should be able to exchange it at MEC though.  I used the Thermarest Z-Lite Sol sleeping pad with my Gossamer Gear torso pad which was also nice to place over the wooden benches for extra padding!  Anyways, I digress.

But devolving into gear talk...we used two packs this trip, my custom ZPacks pack (dyneema, with carbon fibre stays and the torso pad as a 'frame') and the ULA Equipment CDT, which was carrying a lb or two over suggested weight.  I carried the ULA the first day, as it was lighter, Toby hated the ZPacks as he found it cut into his collarbone, we switched day 2 and evened the loads a bit more, and Toby loved how comfortable the ULA pack was.

Anyways, after some lovely relaxation, chocolate, and a pot of tea (well, I had it, Toby doesn't drink tea really) we made dinner.  Toby wanted to have freeze dried meals from MEC, which I like, but I find soupy at the bottom, which irritates me to no end.  These were both excellent, but soupy at the end, and in our commitment to LNT principles we packed out the liquid, so the food pack didn't lighten as much as you'd think by the second day.  The package says to use 500ml of water and we measured, think we'll try 450ml next time.

We were full enough we didn't have our chocolate mousse!  Poop!  Next time!

About 8:45 we took the dogs for an evening constitutional down the trail to the 3rd campsite to check it out (nobody was staying there).  Man did it ever suck large.  I've made nicer sites on crown land.  It seriously sucked.

Our neighbours at the first site (they'd arrived about 8 pm) were still going strong, but it was getting buggy so we decided to retreat to the tent (bug spray was hung with the bear bag...there was a perfect branch, and I love backpacking with Toby, because he can get the hang in one throw...talent).  We had the Fenix CL20 (I think) camping lantern from MEC and planned to stay up for a bit but I fell asleep pretty much right away.

Toby had the gall to say I (and the dogs) snored!  The dogs, sure, but me?  I DON'T SNORE IT'S NOT LADYLIKE.  And lord knows I'm ladylike hahahaha

I did have a sore throat in the morning though, so clearly I snored a fuckload.  I slept really well, and didn't get up to pee until 6:30ish.

Toby didn't sleep well - he was comfortable, he just couldn't fall asleep (no melatonin) so I got up at 7 and puttered, making some tea and taking down the bear bag etc, and then Toby got up at 7:40.  We enjoyed our oatmeal then hit the trail just before 9am.

We had considered doing a loop on the 3rd loop - using the portage shortcut at the bottom - but that would mean about 24k on the day and we thought Luc seemed a little stiff in camp the night before.  He was fine, so we would've been fine, but in the end we just did the out and back for another 20k day.

Toby's knee bothered him this day - he had Neb both days, attached to his waistbelt, and Neb can really pull and going up and down stuff - well, yeah.  Toby is physically stronger than me but I trail run so I think all the little intrinsic muscles around my knees and ankles are stronger than his.

We hit the big up that we'd gone down the day before - offf.  But we made good time and stopped and had lunch at the same spot as day 1.  Shortly after lunch I took Neb which helped Toby though of course we'd already done the bulk of the day and most of what was left was rail trail, so it's not as helpful as it seems.

In keeping with Neb's theme when he backpacks on the Western Uplands he found some poop and ate it - SO GROSS.  That dog, I tell you.  That's okay, Luc stepped in some.  Sigh.  Our dogs.

Anyways, we were on trail for about another 5.5 hours.  My feet hurt - my plantar was sore (I can't get orthotics in those boots and fit my feet in, and yes, I take out the insoles) and my left ankle was sore on the outside from the boot pressing against it - it's now swollen!  A lot!  What the heck!  I'm getting new boots, sheesh.   I may not be doing my long run tomorrow grrrr

It was nice to get back to the car, the dogs promptly flopped down.

When we got to Kearney (where the permit station is) we stopped and checked out the festival on Main Street.  Not sure exactly what it was, but there were races on the waterfront in canoes (no paddles...some people swamped their canoe LOL) and we saw a few people portaging cardboard boxes...perhaps like the flotilla on the Ganaraska?  Not sure.  We met some nice dogs and eventually popped back into the car and headed for Huntsville, where we stopped for food at Westside Fish and Chips (Toby: fish Me: grilled cheese oh yeah) and ate on the picnic tables with the dogs.

We had a great trip!  The next one isn't until October sadly though we do have some car camping planned before then.

And I'm so, SO proud of Luc.  He keeps defying expectations - I think he probably could've done further than 20k/day, but good to not push too hard at his age.

Western Uplands Algonquin November Backpacking Trip

I haven't been posting much here because what is there to say?  I'm still depressed and haven't been doing much.  But - last week was an improvement, not only did the dogs get more walks, but I ran TWICE (oh la la) and I was determined not to depress-out-of my planned solo (with Neb of course!) backpacking trip November 7-8th.

Originally I was supposed to be backpacking from November 6-9th and had the time booked off, but I've missed so much work with being sick (short term disability after all, partial disability) that I didn't feel like it was appropriate to take vacation.  So it was just to be a quick weekend trip.

My new Western Mountaineering Apache MF -10C bag came from MEC (it's a special order) at the end of October, so I was ready to go and excited to try it.

Friday I worked my half day then headed home and drove up to Huntsville.  Rather than camp at Mew Lake (the only campground open in Algonquin this time of year) I decided I would stay at the Motel 6, which takes dogs, as it's about 30 minutes outside of Algonquin Provincial Park's West Gate, near the access to the Western Uplands Trail.  Luxurious and all that.  It was nice to be able to Facetime with Toby when he got off work, and I was able to talk with Mom too.

Originally the plan had been to do the entire first loop, but the runs that week had really shown how much fitness I've lost.  I was worried that by the time I got on the trail (I wouldn't be able to get a permit from the West Gate until 9 am) that I wouldn't have time to get to Norah Lake before dark, given how out of shape I am.

So I picked up a permit for West Maggie Lake, as I've never stayed on the lake before (though I've run by it, and hiked past it once in the dark when I was doing an overnight hike).

As it turns out, my pace was fine, and I could've easily gotten to Norah, so it just ended up that I was able to be picky about sites on Maggie and relax and read on my Kobo in camp.

The trail was muddy - I slipped in a couple of places and came down on my hand.  I was worried about my wrist, but it was fine.  That was the anxiety talking, feeding into the depression, telling me I should turn around and go home so I could see Toby.  I took it one kilometre at a time, pushing forward, telling myself I would make the decision about turning around the next kilometre - after all, who wants to be alone in camp when it's dark, and yes, I had Neb, and dogs are amazing, but they aren't great conversationalists.  But I kept going.

Eventually I saw the only people of the day - 4 guys and 2 dogs heading the other direction.  One guy said 'It's muddy'.  Yeah, no kidding!  Ha!  It had rained Friday and despite the weather reports saying that there would be very little rain on Saturday, there was a few moments where it was coming down decently, plus some wet snow (SNOW!  YAY!) and small hail (not as exciting).

By the time I got to Maggie Lake, I decided I didn't have time to go back to the car before it was dark, so I wandered along the western side and picked a campsite on a peninsula down a side trail.  It was decently set up - I was able to set my tent up separately from the fire pit/cooking area.

Yup, that's my new sleeping bag!  And my Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 tent.  I got the tent because I wanted something that was better to take both dogs in then my 2-man Tarptent (which is like a 1.5 man tent) (I dislike my three-man Tarptent, it's fiddly to set up).  The dogs get along, I could get them both in this tent, but they'd have to file in and out, it would be a bit picky, but doable.  This time of year it's moot as Luc gets cold so easily he doesn't come out past early October.

The view from the campsite was nice:

 I don't think I'd like to swim from this campsite, so not so sure about it for the summer, but hey.  Not so sure I'd want to do the Western Uplands in the summer anyways.  Maybe one year I'll get over how busy Algonquin is in the backcountry.  It doesn't bother me in the front country except for maybe fall colours.

You might be wondering why there are no trail pictures.  I just had my phone, not my camera, and no handy pocket to put it in.  Plus, with much love to Algonquin - and heck, it is my home away from home come winter time - skiing, hello? - the Western Uplands Trail is heavily forested so doesn't make for thrilling pictures.

 Neb looking cute in camp.  Dogs may not talk, but they are good company, I didn't get a tonne of reading done because I had Neb to entertain and chat with.  He ended up sitting on my lap for a while and grooming me for a good 10-15 minutes without stopping.  I don't think my face has ever been so 'clean'.

Neb also enjoyed eating the firewood I'd gathered:

 And sitting on my winter pack, which is a Granite Gear pack that is in theory frameless but which has a big giant pad.  It was one reason why I was worried I'd be slower, carrying a heavier pack and slightly more gear.  Definitely bulkier gear.

 Anyways, it was a nice relaxing afternoon, I read, hung out with Neb, did camp chores, and then made dinner (KD).  Which was the only thing I'd eaten all day.  Oops.  And it's the vegetable KD, so there's less of it and lower calorie, and even then I let Neb finish it off.  I did enjoy some peppermint tea.

Eventually it got dark and I had a brief fire:

 But I wasn't in the mood so went to the tent to read some more, take my meds, and eventually go to sleep.

I was cool to start off with, despite wearing EVERYTHING I brought - but I am the world's coldest sleeper.  Once I'd finished having to pee, my body stopped being cold and I was able to sleep fine until morning.

Not sure what the temps were overnight - Environment Canada was calling for -5C, The Weather Network for -2C.  It was definitely cool.  The water in Neb's bowl didn't freeze overnight though, not even a skim on the top, but there was frost and the mud on the trail Sunday was partially frozen and I saw part of a creek that was frozen.  So basically - no clue.  I expected Neb's water to be frozen.

I woke up about 5 am and relaxed until 6:20 when I got out of bed and got going.  I was in no hurry and took so long getting ready I didn't leave camp until 7:30!!!!!  SLOW!

I was on trail for about the same time both days - 4 hrs, roughly.  13.18k each way.  Total elevation gain was 513m, same with the loss, over both days.  Just a nice relaxed time on the trail, not hurrying at all.

Neb did manage to be gross on Sunday - he was sniffing at a tree and some moss/ferns.  Then he grabbed a mouthful, and for some reason, I decided to take it out of his mouth - it's just moss and ferns, right?  Wrong.  My hand came out covered in something brown, and of a certain shade of brown, and smelling...a certain way.  WHY WOULD THERE BE POOP ON THE SIDE OF A TREE???????  Stupid Neb.  This isn't the first time I've reached into his mouth to take something out and regretted it for this very reason.  Ugh.  I wiped my hand on some frosty leaves, washed it in a stream, and then when we were done I drove to the West Gate to the comfort station there and washed my hand obsessively for quite some time.  GROSS.  DOGS.

I only saw one guy on Sunday, heading in as I was heading out.  So it was a nice people-free trip, just what the doctor ordered (though my depression has taken grasp again this week, but it was good for the weekend, and I'll take what I can get).

View from the campsite Sunday morning: