March 1st: Day 2
Thursday morning I was up first around 7:00 am. Nature was calling me and I could no longer stand the pressure! I carefully put on my camp boots and stepped over Jake to fumble on the tent zipper. I put some wood in the stove on the way out. It was kind of useless as the fire was out. "Holy crap" was it cold! Derek had a thermometer hanging on a tree, –25°C this morning! We got about two inches of snow over night. It was clear out with no wind. I was pumped with excitement! Seeing the snow on the trees was so beautiful.
I returned to the tent and the boys were getting up. Water was being boiled on the stove for coffee. I went to fire up my Coleman Exponent stove but I'd left it outside and the pump would not work to pressurize it. I had to warm it up beside the woodstove to get it to work. The rubber diaphragm contracts and it doesn't fit tight in the tube for pumping air into the tank. I'd already had this problem in December at Mew Lake campground. Markus was soon making breakfast for us all. Derek lent a hand. We had pancakes, eggs, hash browns and bacon…yummy.
Derek and Markus making breakfast.
View down the berm towards the Lake.
After cleaning up, we were on our way by 10:30 am for a day-trip to the Rock/Pen Lake waterfalls. We walked on Whitefish Lake with no snowshoes. In areas, the snow was over 12" thick and made it difficult to walk. We got to the south end and walked down a cottage road to Rock Lake campground.
Walking on Whitefish Lake.
As we got close to the lumber road, a loaded lumber truck went flying by. I had actually heard a lumber truck at 4:30 am that morning. They start early, that’s for sure. At 11:30 am we stopped at the office building to chit-chat.
At the Rock Lake permit office.
We walked on the road through the campground and crossed Rock Lake at the end of the campground, before the last parking lot for the Booth’s Rock Trail. We put on our snowshoes at this time. The wind was moderate and the sky had streaks of clouds. We stopped on the lake near Rose Island to make a hole in the ice. We were curious how thick the ice was. Again, the ice was about 10 to 12 inches thick.
Checking the ice thickness on Rock Lake.
As we rounded the last corner, passing Pen Lake portage, we came across wolf tracks. We never did see any wildlife to speak of, just signs of their existence. As we approached the falls, it was apparent the ice was thin for 50 meters or so from the falls. We walked carefully along the shoreline passing the portage. Markus followed the portage up. I took my snowshoes off. Derek kept his on and I followed him up along the falls. We stopped about halfway up and Markus joined us. We all slid down the ice-covered shoreline to the waters edge to rest and take pictures. We had brought some food with us. Derek and I filled our Nalgene bottles carefully on the ice-covered rocks. Derek broke off huge sheets of ice and we watched them flow down the falls. Very pretty and very dangerous! Jake and Markus set up their tripods and took pictures of the waterfalls.
Rock Lake scenic falls.
Derek checking out the ice.
It took us 3 hours to get here by 2:00 pm and by 3:00 pm we had to start heading back. We still had to get more firewood for the night. It was hard work but I had enjoyed the walk up and down the lake. It was nice to make conversations with everyone as we walked on the frozen waters of Algonquin.
When we got back to camp we all got some firewood. There was a dead pine tree that was hung up high on another. It was nice and dry for burning. I pulled and pulled, and it finally broke free, sending me flying backwards. I fell on a downhill. I landed in the deep snow with the tree on one foot. I was laughing and asked Jake for help to get up. He was also laughing at the situation I was in.
Once the firewood chore was done I dug out my chili for supper. My wife Laurie had made it for us. It was frozen flat in two zip-lock bags. I had to use Derek’s hatchet on the frozen dinner to fit it into the pot. I heated the chili right on the wood stove. It took over an hour to heat. By 9:00 pm we were eating.
Chili heating-up on the woodstove.
After supper, we played the card game Wizard and snacked on some brownies. I am not a card player at all and the guys were patient while I tried to catch-on. We turned in after midnight. The night was not as cold, only going down to –10° with light snow. We did not bother to keep the fire going throughout the night. I slept much better with a constant temperature in the tent.