Aug 13th

After working a long day in Burlington (8am-6:30pm) I drove home and picked up Jives and our gear for camping. We got two subway sandwiches and a case of beer (6), and topped up the gas in the car before heading back up the highway towards Algonquin Park. Immediately we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, which seemed weird for 8pm on a Sunday. It took well over an hour to get to Burlington and much longer to get to Barrie. We arrived at our hotel in Barrie (The Monte Carlo) at 11pm. We checked in with a Swedish (maybe?) lady who had a very “ookie dookie” accent and attitude. Super adorable! We went up to the room which was perfectly ok and ate our subs which were gross. We watched some TV and went to sleep by 12pm.

Aug 14th 

The mini fridge in our room kept us awake most of the night. Jives got two hours of sleep. So at 6:30am when my alarm went off, I let him sleep until 7. I made us some coffee and we went down to breakfast at 8am. Breakfast was the continental usual. We had english muffins, bagels, a hard boiled egg and coffee. Afterwards Jives had a shower and we checked out around 9am ($137 total). We stopped briefly to pick up a pair of gloves for Jives to wear whilst paddling and then drove the remaining 4 hours to the Cedar Lake Brent entrance to Algonquin Park along the Trans Canada Highway. We stopped once briefly for gas (the gas stop guy was super friendly). We turned down Brent Road at 12:15, from there the drive took exactly one hour down a stone roadway. You have to be careful to watch for logging trucks driving like mad men on this road, and moose as well! 

We stopped to take a photo at the Algonquin sign along the way. We arrived at the Brent shop at 1:30 ish and parked our car. We found our rental info on the shop door and went down to collect our boat. The lovely shop owner helped us find our boat, much easier than the time before! Our boat was on top of the boat rack, so Jives and I lifted it down ( I had to stand on my tip toes in the mud. The lawn was super wet, and we both soaked our socks right away. We took one trip to our car to grab all of our stuff and packed up the canoe, pushing off into the lake around 1:45-2:00ish. The shop owner was lecturing a couple about life jacket safety… sort of! 

The lake started out a bit wavy, but soon turned pretty still. We should have been making great time except…we are complete bumbling tourists and we were somehow paddling the canoe BACKWARDS. It was almost impossible to keep a straight line. I wonder how many people thought “look at those morons!” Oh well! We paddled past the lovely island site with the old chimney and a couple camping there said “hello” (and probably thought, look at those idiots paddling their canoe backwards!). 

We then entered Little Cedar lake where we had our sandwiches we had packed and cracked an IPA to share. Food and a rest made the paddling much easier, even if we were still paddling backwards. The north west end of Little Cedar is my favourite! The area is full of lily pads and green water plants and it’s so calm, always. The lake comes to a little point and then goes into a river that leads to Aura Lee lake, but first there are itty bitty rapids. Little baby rapids that are almost too much for us, especially with our stupid added challenge of having a backwards canoe. 

Aura Lee is a gorgeous lake too, I camped here in 2012. At the end of Aura Lee you reach the portage point to Laurel Lake. The portage is just under 300 metres, which is not a lot, but it is pretty rocky and it was a bit swampy after a super wet summer. We tried to do a single portage pass. We made it about 100 metres and then a mosquito flew directly into my eye and got stuck under my eye lid, so I left some of my stuff behind to walk a bit faster. 

Arriving at Laurel lake was like heaven, the sun and the parting clouds were other worldly. We switched our canoe around to the right way and saw just how big of idiots we had been. It was a breeze to paddle the canoe the right way! 

We were the only ones on Laurel Lake, so we checked out all five campsites available. We were ready to go back to our favourite rocky site from last time, but then checked out a site we had never seen (as it had always been occupied) and fell in love with it. The site was a 10/10, it had three benches, a table and a huge sunny rock for sitting on. So much better than our “perfect spot” from the time before. 

I set up the tent and tarp and Jives made the bear pinata (garbage bag tied to a tree branch) in one try! It was supposed to rain overnight so I set up the tarp so we could stash wood and our chairs underneath it for the night. We split another beer and Jives started the fire. I boiled potatoes and we cooked mushrooms, zucchini and the potatoes over the fire, placing our “Beyond” sausages on the top so the flavour seeped down into the veggies. The meal was DELICIOUS! We then tried to make popcorn but we spilled a bunch and burnt the rest. We placed our food in the bear pinata, brushed our teeth and went to sleep at around 9:30pm. In the night our air mattress deflated twice so I had to wake up and re-inflate it. Jives said he hardly slept. At 5:00am I heard a loon calling in the dark, very spooky!

Aug 15th

I woke up at 7:30am. It was a rough sleep due to the air mattress deflating twice. I sat on the sunny rock that jutted out from our campsite, overlooking the entire lake and both its islands. I heard that members of the Group of Seven used to visit this lake and I can see why, in fact I think I can see the very jack pine that was painted countless times. I painted a water colour picture of my view of the lake, as well as a few sketches. 

Jives woke up not long after and we had instant coffee by the water. We then had breakfast, Jives built a fire and we had bagels and smoked salmon grilled on the fire. I cut up some tomatoes from our garden and cooked two eggs each for us. We enjoyed our breakfast with quite a few more coffees. 

At 11:30am we decided to get in the canoe to collect some firewood. We went to the marshlands first in hopes of seeing a moose or a beaver. The march lands as so beautiful with sooo many lilies and the trees that are white at the top, that sort of look dead. The water was so clear. 

We then made our way to the entrance for Loxely portage and gathered a canoes worth of wood. Back at our site I was sitting on the sunny rock out front when I heard a loud buzzing, I looked up and there was a humming bird by my head! He buzzed about and then came up close to say “hi”, as he zipped away I noticed he had a little dragonfly friend following him! My mom is obsessed with humming birds and sort of acts like one, flitting about (I mean this in the nicest way). Ever since my dad died I have thought of him as a dragonfly (one visited me on the day of his funeral), so it very much felt like my dad was checking in on my mom and I. 

We packed up some snacks and our swim suits and paddled to the big island on Laurel lake to see that campsite and swim and sunbathe on the rocks. The site (island) is novel and interesting. The thunderbox (toilet) is up on the top of the hill, so you can poop like a  king on his throne. I think the site would be cold and windy and not great to sleep on… but possibly less bugs than other sites. There was a large area for sitting, definitely a party site. The water was cold, but after sitting in the sun it was pretty quick to get used to it. We dried off after our swim and headed back to our site. 

We made instant ramen (the kimchi kind) on the stove and shared it. It was delicious! We listened to Rip Slime (our Algonquin Tradition) and Jives read me some Game of Thrones as I drew. Our hummingbird friend visited quite a few times. We had some after eight hot chocolates and relaxed by the fire. After a full day of having Laurel lake to ourselves, a canoe appeared on the horizon with a family (one kid). I guess I can share OUR lake! 

Around sunset (8:30pm) we took the canoe out and putted around the lake in the mist and saw a small sunset (pink and orange). We got back to our site and brushed our teeth then hoisted our bear pinata into the trees before going to bed. 

Aug 16th

I woke up at 7:30am, it was a much better sleep. I slept on the air mattress stopper and stopped it from popping out. It also felt a lot warmer. We went outside and had a few coffees and Jives toasted english muffins on the fire. The english muffins were perfect! We then cut up zucchini, mushrooms, onion and tomato and fried them in the pot. I then added four eggs and stirred them constantly so they wouldn’t stick to the pan as much as the day before. We also cooked some salmon on the fire as a sort of bacon. 

After some more coffees and some reading and drawing, we packed up another picnic and our swim gear (we had another visit from the humming bird) and paddled to the portage to Hurdman lake which is on the north/east corner of Laurel Lake. We walked the portage route, only 130m, it took no time at all. Hurdman lake was pretty narrow and looked very still, almost stagnant. We walked back to our canoe and paddled to the portage to Loxley lake . 

The hike to Loxley lake is MUCH longer, 1180m, and very steep. We hiked as fast as we could as the mosquitos were brutal. We were so exhausted and sweaty by the time we reached Loxley 18 minutes later. We changed into our swim suits and went right into the water. The lake was cold but nice. There is white sand for about 20 metres and a gradual slope into the water which is lovely, but as you go deeper the bottom is super spongy and gross to stand on… We derided off on the shore in the sun and then hiked back to Laurel lake. The hike back was much easier and mostly down hill. 

Once back at our site we jumped back in the water to cool off. We then ate some crackers and listened to Herbie Hancock. Later we made another ramen to share and Jives built a fire. We read and drew some more. Later on we cooked up some veggies on the fire and listened to Silk Sonic. We also boiled some instant potatoes and grilled some hotdogs on sticks to make a weird mashed potato surprise dinner. We split our last beer and watched the fire. As the evening went on more people showed up to our lake (more groups than there were sites). Jives read some more Game of Thrones to me before bed and we listened to some quiet Rip Slyme. We finished the evening on the rocks with a hot chocolate, watching the sunset. 

Aug 17th

Jives woke up slightly before me, weird! We both sat on the rocks and watched the sun rise with an instant coffee in hand. Jives made a fire to roast our bagels and smoked salmon on. We had a scrambled egg veggie concoction and slowly packed up the campsite, whilst sipping more coffee. Our humming bird friend visited one last time as we pushed off from the site at about 10am. 

Laurel lake was a breeze to cross, which we did in 15 minutes. The portage to Aura Lee took about 30 minutes total as we took two easy trips on land with our stuff. The journey from Aura Lee to Little Cedar is always my favourite and it didn’t disappoint! As we approached Big Cedar lake things got bad. The wind picked up like crazy, the waves were unlike anything I had ever seen on Algonquin. We paddled nonstop with all of our strength for more than three hours, and made it most of the way down the long neck of Cedar Lake (using an island to block some wind and cross the body of the lake). Once we were on the north side of the lake the wind got insane. The waves were over the top of our canoe. We tried to make progress but I thought the canoe was going to tip! We retreated to the next campsite we saw and tried to find the train tracks that run along the north of the lake to hike down them, but we couldn’t find them. We then changed into our swim suits, strapped on our life jackets and walked our canoe along the rocky shore and against the waves, which were still crashing over the top of our boat. At one point we had to swim and push our boat along, it was exhausting! Eventually we felt we could paddle again and hugged the coast, paddling with all our strength. Five hours later we arrived back at the Algonquin store. The lady there said she was shocked to see us come in as the waves were insane (and she had seen a lot of conditions on this lake over the years). As we were getting in our car a guy on a bicycle came over to talk to us. He was genuinely shocked we had made it across the lake! It was nice to have the validation that we weren’t over reacting thinking that the paddle back had been difficult, it had been insane! It started to pour rain just as we were getting our stuff into the car.

We then drove 1.5 hours to the Algonquin limits and then 5.5 hours to St.Catharines (stopping in Innisfill for food and gas). The whole trip cost me about $70 gas. We arrived home at 9:40pm, almost exactly 12 hours from our campsite to the door. 

THE END