Day 1- This trip began with a 4 hour drive from Ottawa to Cedar L. (Brent). We planned to camp on the Nipissing R., Burntroot L., Catfish L., Petawawa R. and then to return home via Brent. We left Ottawa at 7AM, May 22nd and stopped for an hour for a good hearty lunch at Deep River.

We had the canoe in the water at 12 noon as planned. It was at this point that I noticed that my buddy Dan's pack was way over-packed. We plan our trips carefully but I must admit we are not very good at planning the food. My pack was fully loaded containing all the necessary camping equipment, tent, pots/pans, stove etc. along with my own clothes and stuff. We also each brought a tripod stool, which was strapped, to the outside of our packs. The stool was fantastic but in the future I plan to bring a chair that has a back to it. It's so great to lean back after a hard days paddling and portaging. Along with all the food, Dan's pack contained a set of pots and a stove, his clothes, etc. The food was packed in collapsible coolers and such. We simply had too much food but at this point we did not know it.

We headed off towards the mouth of the Nipissing R. or we thought we did. We were so excited to get going we didn't take a bearing from the map and we ended up down Cedar L. as far as the islands and on the south shore. After careful examination of the map we quickly turned around and found our way to the mouth of the Nipissing. Along the way we had the opportunity to examine our exit point which will be in 5 days at the mouth of the Petawawa. Hummm, I wonder ... the real mouth to the Petawawa is at the Ottawa River. Is it still called the same here even if the river continues on after Cedar Lake? OK, I digress.

As we entered the Nipissing R. we encountered a cow moose and soon after the cow we saw a young bull moose. The bull moose was suffering from the tics they can get in the winter months. About 40% of its fur had been rubbed off. He looked like a train wreck. They rub their fur against trees to relieve the itch from the tics and this rubs their fur off. If they rub enough fur off they can perish due to winter exposure. I believe the tics jump to the ground in the spring so this young bull should have been OK.

Our first campsite was on the Nipissing River just west of the dam. It's a nice site and there were no bugs. We had enough time to set up and enjoy a nice sunset.

We enjoyed a nice meal of sausage which had been purchased from Pussatories(sp) in Toronto. It was the best sausage we've ever had. We also put my new MSR water filter to use for the first time. I wasn't impressed with the water filter at all. The filter was plugged before I had 200 ml pumped. I'll confess that I hadn't scooped a pail full of water to let it settle prior to pumping. I was pumping directly from the river and the Nipissing is a little murky here, but not that bad. I could see the bottom near shore with no problem. But this is probably the cause for the filter becoming clogged so quickly. We reverted to the water purification drops and when I returned to Ottawa I returned the MSR pump and purchased a lightweight tarp. We now have two tarps, which I strongly recommend for rainy trips.

Day 2 - In the morning we broke camp headed up river.

I include this photo to show you the winding river and to illustrate the first major lesson we learned this year ... a lesson in trip planning and basic topography. You can see that the river winds to the left. As soon as it hits the trees on the opposite shore it makes a 180-degree turn and comes back to this shore, turns 180 degrees again and back to the opposite shore. So the actual advance of 100 meters is twice the width of the Nipissing valley in this section. More like 500 meters travelled to advance 100 meters. It continues this winding for a full 7 to 8 Km which makes the trip much longer than expected. I fear to guess the exact distance paddled but in terms of time it's a major consideration. Also, the wild life along this section is dead. Nada, nothing. We were lucky to see even a bird.

The P850 and P1930 portage to Remona Lake were the hardest I've encountered in my long 2 year experience at the sport of canoe tripping (I'm sure there are worse than these). The second portage is essentially a traverse over a mountain range. My apologies to westerners; but with two very full packs and a 60-lb. canoe, the hills that separate the Nipissing and the Petawawa river systems suddenly became a mountain range to us. This portage traverses between the Nipissing River valley and the Petawawa River valley, both of which run east. It's hilly and rocky and we were heavily laden. And the bugs decided to come out and so on went the 35% deet. And on we trekked.

We made it to the puddle jump Remona Lake and the P480 into Whiskejack Lake and the short P30 into Robinson Lake We welcomed the size of Robinson Lake and the nice paddle ahead of us. All we had left for the day was the P1285 into Burntroot Lake and camp at last. While we canoed east on Robinson Lake, Dan spotted a HUGE black bear ahead of us on the beach at the most eastern shore of the lake ... right at the P645 portage pull-out. It was the largest bear I have ever seen, even at our distance of about 800 meters. I've seen my share of bears and this guy was HUGE! The bear was walking along the shore towards our P1285 pull-out to Burntroot Lake ... threatening our advance. And we were running late! This was the last thing we needed. A little adrenaline started to flow. Just a little at this point because we are safe in the canoe. We observed the bear as we paddle towards our pull-out and discusses what we should do. The bear turned into the bush about 100 meters on the other side of our pull-out from us. We decided we had to go for the portage.

We landed the canoe and immediately Dan got out his bear spray and relocated his bells so that they would be sure to ring as he walked. I relocated my knife on my belt to be sure I could access it easily (like that would help). We spruced up with deet and headed off with the packs. The adrenaline was now pumping 100%. We checked over our shoulders constantly as we trekked along. Our necks were getting sore from rubber necking constantly in attempts to spot the bear.

The P1285 portage to Burntroot Lake is a little hilly but not too bad. Normally we would stop every 500 meters or so to rest but we didn't stop at all for the full 1285 meters. We practically ran the whole distance. That was the fastest portage we ever did and we still had to go back for the canoe. Back into bear territory! We cleaned up a bit, re-filled and treated our water bottles and re-applied the deet and headed back towards the bear. Adrenaline had dropped a bit but still running high and heading upward to100% again as we headed back. With the bell ringing loud and eyes alert we made it back to the canoe without stopping and without incident. We freshened up again, hoisted the canoe and one more time headed back into bear territory as alert as ever.

We never stopped with the canoe and this is where we picked up a new trick. When one of us was tired of the canoe he stopped and held the canoe high. The other stoops under and shoulders the canoe and we are off again. In this manner we never stopped to rest. Prior to this new trick we would always drop the canoe and rest. The adrenaline gradually dissipated to a lower level by the time we reached the put-in at Burntroot L. In the canoe we were giddy, tired, sore and burning off the remaining adrenaline and we were now feeling very brave. We had just completed a 1285-meter triple portage (~4Km) in record time and after an already gruesome day and a HUGE bear in the neighbourhood. We were whooping it up as we headed for the island campsite and hopefully safe from any bears. I was so tired that I had just enough energy to set up the tent. Dan found enough energy to hang the packs but to this day I don't know where he got it. We ate something (I think) and crashed for the night. It was a little hard getting to sleep thinking about bears but once asleep we slept like babies.

Day 3 - We awoke to rain in the morning, broke camp and headed for Catfish Lake. It was a steady, easy rain and it never let up. The short portages to Catfish Lake (especially the P90) were uneventful. We're getting more experienced at portaging and would prefer a portage that was meaningful rather than a quick out and back into the canoe. To keep dry we had our rain gear, large garbage bags over our packs and large plastic bags over our shoes. We arrived at Catfish Lake and chose the camp on the point east of the island that has two sites on it. We had plenty of time to set up camp but it wasn't really enjoyable. I was dry but Dan was soaked from the waist down. His new rain pants didn't work. They were only a nylon shell and were not water proof as hoped. Only water resistant and not good enough for the steady rain we'd been getting. His cortex jacket also got a little wet in the areas where he had major movement while paddling. Mainly his shoulders and arms were wet. I understand that if you wash and tumble-dry cortex clothing it resets the fibres to like new again. Anyhow, Dan was uncomfortable to say the least.

We only had one tarp and we hung that over the area where we were going to set up the tent and we piled our stuff under the tarp until such time we would erect the tent. The rest of the stuff went under the canoe. Since we wanted to sit under the tarp, we didn't set up the tent until we were ready to go to bed. It continued to rain and we tried to dry out under the tarp. Good luck! Dan changed into his last set of dry clothes and we prayed that tomorrow would be dryer. I also decided that I would trade my water filter for a second lightweight tarp when I got home. We decided that the water tablets were good enough for Algonquin Park.

Day 4 - The previous evening, we'd decided that we would head for home if it were still raining. This would cut our trip short by one day. The deciding factor would be sunshine. We would need good strong sunshine to dry things out. We were down to our last set of dry clothes and everything was wet. We woke up to a clear sunrise, which was behind us in the trees and not providing us an opportunity to dry clothes. We would have to delay our final decision for later. If the sky stayed clear and we found a campsite with strong sun, we'd stay and dry out. But the clear sky didn't last very long. The sky began threatening rain again and soon. When it started it was the same steady, soft rain and it was coming straight down. We were fortunate there wasn't a strong wind. Forever the optimist eh?

After we broke camp, we paddled past the island directly across from our site. There was a large group of campers that had settled in last evening. They were a group of students, 25 canoe pairs scattered throughout the lake and they were having a great time. It's good to see some teachers taking the young kids out like this.

We headed up to the channels in the north part of Catfish Lake to head back into the Petawawa River. However, we got lost in the northwest bay section. We eventually back-tracked and found the channels and the P80 into Narrowbag Lake. The sky was clearing, but still drizzling with the odd sunny break. We made the final decision to head for home. We would do the final P170, P2345, P255 and P715 and go home.

The final leg of our journey was uneventful, until we reached Cedar Lake. The P2345 was 95% down hill and I recommend that this loop be taken in this direction because of this slope. This was one good thing we did in the planning and a huge thanks to this web site and the folks that answered some of my planning questions. I'd originally planned the other direction until someone advised I reverse it.

We reached Cedar Lake before noon and we had plenty of time left. We had a quick lunch of Power Bars on the beach at the mouth of the Petawawa River and then decided to head across the lake to the parking lot at Brent Station. We headed out in calm waters. But that didn't last long. A very strong squall with stiff winds came up quickly from directly behind us. There was no rain yet but the winds were very strong and the sky was becoming very dark. The wind brought up whitecaps as high as the canoe gunwales ... running from the back of the canoe to the front. Thank gawd we didn't have to paddle against it! We settled into a quick and steady paddle, hoping to get to shore before the rain hit. We made it and were tightening the last strap on the canoe when the skys opened up. It poured cats and dogs for most of the ride out of Algonquin.

We were finally on our way home. We stopped in Petawawa for a good dinner on the way. Go figure eh! Even with all that food we'd had, we still wanted a good meal.

As I finish this trip-log, it's March of 2004 and almost 1 year after the trip. We're becoming increasingly anxious to return to Algonquin Park. Our next trip is scheduled for June 3rd. I wonder if we'lll have another bear encounter during our 3rd annual adventure into Algonquin Park. If it's in the cards I sure hope it's not a campsite encounter.