DAY FOUR

Sunday, 4:45 A.M. - I woke up earlier than usual, with the need to relieve myself. While answering nature's call, I looked up and noticed how clear the sky had become. Brent and Bryan emerged from the tents for reasons similar to mine, and we spent about an hour looking at the stars, making good use of Brent's rock recliner. Slowly the morning sky grew lighter and lighter, allowing us to see more detail at greater distances. After a while, we turned to the morning tasks of breakfast and breaking camp.

Photo: Brent prepares another fine breakfast. >>

Once again we were on the water by 8:30, and this was my day to be in the solo canoe again. We paddled west, then north toward the portage to Maple Lake.

We passed a campsite on another peninsula, and the young couple staying there waved to us, then pointed past us. We turned to see a young bull moose swimming in the opposite direction we were paddling. Based on his speed and heading, we guessed he was going to swim the entire length of Erables! It was nice to see a moose again, and this one was the first we had seen since almost running into a cow on the road to Cedar Lake. Brent took a few pictures of the bull, then we continued on to the portage, arriving at 9:05.

Swimming moose.

We handled the 170m portage with practiced ease. The previous day was the toughest of the trip for portaging, so we were looking forward to a more relaxing trip ahead. We still had several portages to cover this day, but nothing as extreme as the trails between the Nipissing and Skuce Lake. On the water again, we soon found ourselves on Maple Lake. I made it a point to show Brent and Bryan my favorite island site of the lake, where I had stayed twice before. This site was also the very first campsite I ever stayed on in Algonquin Park. So while we did not stay there, I still wanted to paddle around it and reminisce a bit.

The prominent rock face that makes up two sides of this beautiful Maple Lake site.

The sky had cleared up overnight, and we enjoyed the sunshine as we paddled northwest across Maple Lake. We came to the second portage of the day at 10:10. We were at the other end and paddling again in no time. By 10:30, we arrived at the next portage, the toughest of the day. This was the 805m that included an extremely steep hill. Not as bad as "Heart Attack Hill" from the day before, but certainly one to take very seriously. At least it was dry (I once slipped and fell once on this trail on a rainy day), and we were going down instead of up the hill.

Paddling on, we hit the 630m portage at 11:24. We were barely in the water before coming to the 90m portage. Whenever possible, we took a little time to enjoy the rapids we were portaging around. There were many scenic rapids along this stretch of Maple Creek. At 12:30 we came to the 190m portage. Before continuing on, we paused to chow down on some GORP. We decided that we were close enough to our planned destination for the day, so we would keep going without lunch. We had eaten so much GORP already that we weren't very hungry anyways.

After the snack break, we hit the water for the longest stretch of Maple Creek that day. This was truly an enjoyable time for me. With all of the twists and turns, I found myself alone for much of this part. I knew Brent and Bryan were following somewhere behind me, but I couldn't see or hear them. I became a little more in tune with my surroundings than at any other time of the trip. At one point, I heard something moving in the dense vegetation to my right. What was it? A moose? A bear? Probably something smaller, but unfortunately whatever it was did not show itself. I was alert, and possibly more alive than at any point that year. Truly an amazing experience.

I pulled my canoe ashore at the take-out of the last portage at 1:20. This 775m portage ended at the mouth of Maple Creek. We were a bit tired after pushing all day to reach Kioshkokwi early in the afternoon. The put-in presented a bit of a problem. The shallow water and plentiful mud made shoving off a challenge. We found some logs to lay out, so that we could reach deeper water without sinking deep into the mud. Bryan helped me get going before working with Brent to get the second canoe afloat again. I headed out to find the site I had in mind. It didn't take me long to locate it, the third site from the mouth of Maple Creek. By 2:00 we were unloading the canoes at our base for the night.

We pulled the canoes ashore and hauled the packs up to the level of the campsite, about 3m above the water. We ate a late lunch of PB&J and GORP, with the satisfaction that we could stay put for the rest of the day. The site had three good tent pads, two of which were occupied by our tents. Brent and Bryan set about hanging their hammocks while I returned to the water to wash some clothes. The other guys put their hammocks to use while I hung my wash on a clothesline. We spent the next three hours bathing, collecting firewood, and hanging the food line.

At 5:00, we ate a supper of beef stew. It really hit the spot that afternoon. Afterwards, I announced that I wanted to paddle to the ranger cabin and campground, to meet a fellow AAer. Bryan agreed to accompany me, as he wanted to try calling home. Brent was content to stay at camp and enjoy the comfortable goodness of his hammock yet again. I would have gone alone if I had to, but I was glad to have Bryan along in case Kioshkokwi became rough and windy. We shoved off and headed north, arriving at the Kiosk campground about an hour later.

We wandered around the wrong half of the campground for a while, but eventually we narrowed down where Aaron Robichaud and his family were camped. I knew the number of their site, but I wasn't familiar with the layout of the sites. Bryan stopped at the ranger cabin to try a collect call from the payphone there. I continued past the Kiosk cabin and quickly found Aaron's site. I introduced myself and he invited me to sit and talk. He introduced his wife, daughter, and two dogs. They had a beautiful view of Kioshkokwi from their site. Aaron recounted the activities of their annoying neighbors from the night before, and voiced frustration at the lack of action taken by the park staff. Bryan found us after reaching his dad, and joined our conversation. Since we all had young children, we talked about schools as well as Algonquin trips. We chatted for over an hour, and I fully enjoyed meeting such a nice AAer and his family, but we wanted to return to our distant site before dark. We said our goodbyes, hoping to meet again someday soon in Algonquin, and headed back to the beach. I regret that we forgot to take any pictures of the get-together, so you'll just have to trust me that I did actually meet another AAer (or ask Aaron).

My fears of a windy return trip were put to rest as we hit the water. It was actually calmer than when we had arrived. The water was glass, and our strokes drove us effortlessly across the distance to our camp. Bryan and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset while on the water, observing the sun go down from two sides of a hill, almost like seeing two sunsets in one evening!

When we arrived at camp, there was still a little daylight left in the sky, so we broke out the cards. We played three-handed euchre and sipped Kahlua by the fire. I'm not sure when we headed to the tents, probably the usual time for us. Whenever the mosquitoes would come out in force, we would retreat to the protection of nylon walls. The night was warm, too warm for my taste, but it was free of rain. We were able to sleep without a rain fly over the tent, so the air circulated and didn't get too stuffy.

Brent's view of Kioshkokwi from camp, while Bryan and I were paddling back from Kiosk campground.

DAY FIVE

Monday, 6:30 A.M. - We awoke to a partially cloudy morning. There was a relaxed atmosphere in our camp, since we had survived the most physically challenging days of the trip. At least that was our opinion at the time. The days of short lakes and long portages were behind us, and ahead lay long lakes with few portages. We anticipated a long day, but one of easy paddling with the wind at our backs.

Brent decided to get creative in the "kitchen". He used our extra dinner, beef and onions, and mixed it with scrambled eggs. Compared to the oatmeal we had been eating, this was heaven! It was definitely a filling meal, and a nice change of pace. We lazily packed and joked, taking our time and enjoying the morning. As we did, we occasionally looked out to the lake around our site. From our perch high above the lake, we observed a flock of ducks, then a family of beavers swim by at different times. We finally hit the water around 9 A.M., Bryan in the solo canoe this day.

The ducks that we saw twice, once in camp, then again on the other side of Kioshkokwi.

We were unable to get a good picture of the beavers that swam by. They wouldn't cooperate!

The lake was choppy, with a little bit of whitecap on the waves, but the wind was at our backs. We made good time across Kioshkokwi, as long as I was able to keep the canoe from catching the waves broadside. Bryan flew across the waves, staying ahead of us until we reached the calm waters past the railroad bridge.

Cruising east across Kioshkokwi.

Bryan approaches the railroad bridge, while a couple fishermen cast their lines.

A heavenly sky above a peaceful east arm of Kioshkokwi.

We casually paddled the leeward side towards the portage to Little Mink. Approaching the portage, the lake narrowed, and we spotted a gaggle of geese nesting in the shoreline vegetation. The 635m portage was reached at 10:00 and easily traversed. Our full bellies were already feeling a bit hungry, so we drifted a bit on Little Mink while munching on some GORP. Bryan's wife made some tasty GORP, and we were determined to eat all of it by the end of the trip.