Brrrrrrrrrrr

My mom's beach.
Oh so warm.

Enjoying the heat...while it lasted.

OK when did it start being so cold in September?  Seriously.  What happened to those days when I was baking in the sand on my Mom's beach and Duncan (who runs ten degrees warmer than most) was stuck in the shade?  I swear it has only been two weeks, but all of a sudden I'm sleeping in layers upon layers of clothing and still freezing my tuchas off!  I'd probably be fine under normal circumstances (normal being household), but camping in this climate requires a certain amount of good humour.  That's right…the Ontario backcountry tripping has begun (and is well underway)!  Fresh off the Eastern Pines backpacking trail in the northeast corner of Algonquin park, here I am, library internet hopping again.  But I have to go back, Eastern Pines is the second trail we've conquered so far.

Oxtongue River Rapids at our squat-site.

  

After four days of laying low in Huntsville, riding out the bout of rain that seemed like it would never end (and kind of hasn't), Duncan and I finally moved on.  Monday night we headed toward Algonquin, but decided to camp outside the park (van styles) that night and get our packing and general trip prepping done.  We found the most ideal spot imaginable along the Oxtongue River on Oxtongue Rapids Rd.  Not only was it a gorgeous backcountry road, totally secluded, but it's also a popular kayak entry point/resting place along the river, so there was a covered picnic table, a fire pit, and the cleanest outhouse I've ever seen - squatters paradise (as long as your car's undercarriage is high enough to make it there without scraping bottom)!  With not much rain we were able to get a fire going to cook some cheddar smokies (that's right, I'm eating meat these days - I can't be stopped - HELP).  Shout out to Glen and Holly - now I know why you guys always bring these delectable morsels on camping trips; they're freakin' delicious!  Meat consumption guilt ensuing, I had the most efficient packing session of my life and called it a night.  Rising bright and early (10am), we headed into the park and onto our first backcountry trail - the Highlands Backpacking Trail in the southwest of Algonquin.  The 19km loop we opted for was challenging to say the least; right off the bat we headed up a steep 200 foot incline.  Despite the up, down, up, down of the aptly named Highland Trail, the terrain was gorgeous and our camp sites (three in total) were more than satisfactory.  We only saw eight people in four days, and while the wildlife sightings weren't bountiful, we did see: a wild chicken, a group of very brave bluejays, a hare, lots of chipmunks and tree squirrels, a snapping turtle, and a few loons; their piercing cries reminding us it was about to get dark every evening at 7:30pm and then later lulling us to sleep.  We didn't have the greatest weather in the Highlands, and our nerves were thoroughly tested when we were trying to cook in on again, off again rain most evenings (which we spent camping along, no joke, Provoking Lake), but luckily we weren't rained on once while hiking - phew.  We had planned to spend five days and four nights on the trail, but after so much wetness and some chilly nights, we decided to hike on out on day four.  Unsure of how fast we would hike, we had booked way too much time for that trail anyway.  Once out of the backcountry and back on Highway 60, we decided to reward ourselves with a hearty meal at the Two Rivers Canteen - I had a clubhouse sandwich (turkey AND bacon - oh God, help me).

Momma and Baby Shroom.

Campsite #1
It cleared up on our first night just long enough for a gorgeous sunset, which was promptly followed by a downpour of rain.

Looking out the tent window to sunshine on our last day!

   

Caterpillar crawling through the bryophytes.

Campsite #3 on Provoking Lake.

Thanks for doing the dishes, Dunc!

Sunny hike out of the Highlands.

Snack time at the falls on the hike out.

From there, we headed out of the park for a brief visit to Dobson Farms in Cobden, where Nick, and now Kaley, are working for a couple months.  We spent two nights in Kaley's teepee (yah, the interns each have their own actual teepee to sleep in - so cool), and a day exploring the organic vegetable gardens, eating what we found in the ground, mooing back at the grazing, grass-fed cows, and hanging out in the barn loft.  Oh man, I want to be a farmer.  Ya, I know, farming is hard work and we didn't experience any of it while we were visiting, but the setting and apparent lifestyle were enough to convince me that I could endure the back-breaking work for the enormous rewards, which Nick put best in an email he sent to me a while back when he said, "…I love being tired at night and so hungry when I eat, things are so simple, nice and natural and the work is rewarding."  We reluctantly left two of my favourite people on CSA box harvest day (CSA being community supported agriculture, for those unfamiliar), after rising at the ungodly hour of 6am - one aspect of farming it would take me a while to get used to - and headed back west, to Algonquin again. 

Dobson Farm.

Intern hangout garage.

This time we entered the park on the east side, driving 30km down a dirt, logging road to eventually reach Achray campground and our trail head.  The Eastern Pines backpacking trail is only 15km, so we opted to do a short trip - two days and one night.  The first day of hiking was a literal walk in the park.  It was so much easier than the Highlands trail that we hiked what I thought would take four to five hours (based on how quickly we got through the Highlands) in two and a half!   Left with a whole day free to explore, we headed to the very edge of the east side of the trail, which borders a nature reserve, to High Falls and an area that the trail map described as "an area of outstandingly beautiful cascading pools and smooth rock formations".  Well, with a header like that, we had to see it, and it lived up to it's description.  High Falls wasn't so high or outstanding for the falls themselves, three or four sets of small falls were accessible to us, beautiful, but breathtaking were the rock formations - Canadian shield at it's best - thank you glaciation!  The water was beautiful, deep blue and so glassy we just had to jump in…stark naked, in true fashion; I love skinny dipping and any excuse to get naked outdoors, everyone knows it, and this was a good one!  Not breaking pattern, the Algonquin skies rained on us right after dinner, so we wrapped up the evening early and headed to bed at 8pm, played some cards, read, and got some shut eye.  However, at some point in the middle of the night I was rudely awakened by the harsh September cold.  Holy cow!  We got down to three degrees, folks!  It was unexpected, uninvited, and unappreciated.  The only redeeming factor of being awake and freezing cold was hearing the elusive Eastern wolves (they could have been coyotes, but I choose to believe they were wolves) howling.  Earlier in the night I had tried to spur it on by howling at the moon myself (sometimes it works, I'm not totally nuts), but unsuccessful, I gave up and retired.  Hearing the wolves was the only thing that could have put a smile on my face, and it did - thanks Algonquin. 

Hey frog!

Hey snake!

High Falls (part of it).

Outstandingly beautiful cascading pools.

Now the people will know we were here.

Glassy water.

Glacial boulder garden.

Beautiful old pine bark.

In the morning we got a late start (noon ish) on a day that we expected to be just as easy as the day before; how wrong we were.  While the hike was absolutely gorgeous through old pine forest - trees towering over us, steep lookouts (which we had to climb up), barely-there paths, wetlands, and a glacial boulder garden - it was rough!  More than once we questioned whether we were on the path at all and steep climbs seemed to pop out of nowhere.  The glacial boulder garden was stunning, but hard to hike and tough on the knees.  Needless to say, at the end of the hike today (10 km), Duncan and I were pooped.  We headed back into Pembroke for the night to grab some internet and supplies for the next leg of the trip to Killarney Provincial Park.  Exhausted and tired of the cold-wet combo, we've also sought refuge for the first time in a motel - the Champlain Motor Inn, which boasts on its sign "The prettiest honeymoon suite in town.  With jacuzzi!" (HA!)  The hot shower was the deciding factor - we stink!  Speaking of which, Duncan just got out of the bathroom, which means it's my turn to scrub off the stench lingering all over my body.

   

Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine in the upcoming days, and think warm thoughts for us!