My Story Contest 3: "Bringing Work Friends on Their First Backcountry Canoe Trip"

Bringing Work Friends on Their First Backcountry Canoe Trip

For those following @thehappycamper, you may recall a few posts ago I wrote about my most recent canoe trip this past summer travelling by night with Connor (left) and Grant (right). I met these guys many years ago when we were all around 16 or 17 years old working at a local restaurant together. I have been on a few trips with these guys now, but this is the story of their first trips out in Algonquin Provincial Park!

July 14-17, 2014

This trip took place from July 14-17, 2014. Two of my good friends Connor and Grant from work agreed to come out on a backcountry canoe trip with me, and we were all able to get the time off work. Since this was their first trip, I planned a very small and relaxing trip. A heavy day could include up to 20-30km of paddling, depending on the amount and length of portages. But for this trip, we would only be paddling for an hour or two each day. That might seem like a lot even still, but you don't exert much effort unless you're paddling into strong waves. Plus, you get distracted from how tired you are by the beauty of the areas you paddle through, peering through the trees looking for signs of wildlife.

Highway 60 runs East and West, and is located just inside the Southern border of Algonquin. I generally like to keep away from here because due to the highway and easy access, it is where most people camp in the park. So, I like to keep to the North, East, and Western parts of the park to avoid as many people as possible! To try and ensure less people would be in the area, we planned our trip to start on a Monday, and would be leaving on a Thursday. Our first night we would start on Canoe Lake, set up camp on Joe Lake, followed by Littledoe Lake and Tepee Lake the next two nights. We would complete a loop before returning back to our starting point. Connor and Grant shared a canoe, while I soloed my own canoe.

Day One

As you can see in the photo, there was nothing special to this site. After a short portage, we camped on the West side of Joe Lake. The only feasible spot to put the tent was on a slight slope, and had quite the amount of rocks that we had to work around when laying down our blue foam sleeping mats. I think we picked it because it was the most open site to sunlight, and it was a beautiful July day, so we didn't want to be hidden from the sun beneath the trees. Now that I think about it, my friends were probably also pretty excited to spot a rope swing when we were paddling by. I had my friends buy waterproof dry-sacks to pack their clothes in. I told them to keep it light, because the more things we bring into the canoe, the heavier it will be to portage it when crossing into other lakes. Depending on the duration of trips, I like to keep it simple with:

2 t-shirts
1 short
3-4 underwear
1 bathing suit
1 towel
1 sweater
1 pant
Toiletries
Bug Spray & Sunscreen

That's pretty much the basic list. Everybody brings other things for themselves, but as long as it's kept minimal, it's usually okay. My friends and I like to dabble in a bit of alcohol, but don't have the room to pack beer. So often we will pack a bottle of two of liquor to all share. Also, if our clothes get gross enough, we just wash them in the lake, and hang them to dry.

As I was taught to do when I learned how to camp, we split up our efforts when we pulled all of the gear up to the site, and pulled the canoe out of the water. I told them I would set up the tent, while they went and collected firewood. Of course I gave them the more painstaking task, but after finishing the tent, I helped them haha. We cooked up lunch, which consisted of hot dogs wrapped up in slices of bread. Now, none of my friends have ever pulled something out of their packs that made me giddy like a little kid on Halloween. But after lunch, Connor rifled through his dry-sac to pull out three cans of Mott's Clamato Caesar Extra Spicy. I don't know what it was, seeing as they were warm, but my can of caesar had to have been one of the best I had ever tasted (and I don't even like them a whole lot!). I found a long time ago that you become significantly more appreciative of food and drinks when camping in the backcountry. After all, what you pack in the food barrel is all you have, and you can't drive to a local fast food joint. Your body is tired and sore, and you'll eat The rest of that day consisted of swinging around on the rope swing, and enjoying the sun high in the sky.

Day Two

Unlike car camping, the point of canoe tripping is to explore. So every morning you wake up, you pack up and head out after breakfast. We had a luxurious breakfast of bacon and eggs on fajita wraps. Some of you might be wondering how we had bacon and eggs without a cooler. We brought the bacon frozen solid, and the eggs refrigerated. We kept them cool with a couple of small ice packs in the food barrel. To those who have never done this, it might sound questionable, but I assure you that the food keeps well. This is what I did when I used to go to summer camp as a child, and every single trip I have been on now, I have bacon and eggs for the first breakfast.

Once we were all packed up, we paddled North-East onto Little Joe Lake, and then hit a section that contained three portages (120m, 435m, and 1140m). We were off of the main lake, and it was a Tuesday, so we didn't see anybody all day. The portages were peaceful, and quiet. We passed through areas that I had never explored, and were so quiet, it was as if we were the only three people in the world. I took a couple of photos at the end of one portage before we loaded up the canoe. We would be paddling through a small marshy area, which is the best type of area to spot wildlife. Unfortunately we didn't spot anything this time.

When we got through the portages, we ended up on Littledoe Lake. It was a very pleasant and peaceful lake that we had to ourselves. Before pulling up to our site, we saw a loon in a bay nearby. I opened my waterproof case and pulled out my camera. We slowly approached the loon in the canoe, fully expecting it to descend underwater, but it didn't. We were able to get as close as 10m before it slowly started swimming away. This was the closest any of us had ever been to a loon, which are symbols of Canada's cottage country. The loon never went underwater, but had us slowly follow it in an awkward circle around the bay.

After that, we pulled found a campsite and unpacked our gear. We set up the tent, and collected firewood soon after. But it had been a longer day than we expected. and having just finished three portages in close succession, we were beat. My friends decided to lay down in the sun and try to doze off before we would get dinner rolling.


Connor was pretty tired and just wanted to kick back. Grant got up after a little bit and snapped a few pics of Connor and I. The rest of the night was relatively uneventful. We cooked spaghetti for dinner, and had a bit of a fire before heading to bed.

Day Three

There were no portages for Day Three, which was nice. We knew we were in for a relaxing and short paddle that would only take us two hours perhaps. We kept our eyes peeled during the paddle for moose or other wildlife, but couldn't see anything. The loon we encountered was nice, but I was really hoping to be able to show these guys a moose! We eventually got to a campsite on the South end of Tepee Lake. It seemed like there might be a chance of rain, so we put a tarp over the firewood we collected at this new site.

We spent the rest of our day having a couple of drinks, and sitting by the fire whittling wood. We also tried having an impromptu knife-throwing contest haha.

To our dismay, we didn't exactly realize until after we started setting up camp that across the lake there was a camp. So it wasn't as peacefully quiet as we were hoping for the last night, but we tried to not let it get to us. The worst was at night when we were having a fire. I don't know what was going on at that camp, but they must've been having a party of some sort, as electronica music travelled across the lake to us, heavy bass and all. It was a camp for children, but it sounded like a nightclub at times haha. It was our last night, so we made the best of it.

Last Day

The last day is always the worst, as you have to leave behind the serenity and feeling of content you have when out in the wild. We packed up camp, and headed South through the last portage, and back onto Canoe Lake where we started. I was disappointed we hadn't seen a moose, but there's never a guarantee that you'll come across one. After the last portage and as we started paddling South down Canoe Lake, my head was like a lighthouse, turning ever which way looking for a moose. But, I knew that if we were going to see a moose, the chances were that we should've seen one when we were further our from the permit office and car camping sites.

I had sort of given up hope, when Connor raised his arm and pointed to the East side of the lake at a small marshy area with cattails. I couldn't believe my eyes, but there was a moose across the lake. We turned the canoe, and started paddling as fast as we could to make it there, in case the moose left the area before we arrived. We were lucky, that's all it was. As we got closer, I took us in myself from the stern to try and reduce the amount of noise and movement we were making. I took us in as close as 15m. We were as silent as mice, as the only noise we could hear was the sound of my camera, and the moose eating aquatic vegetation. We stuck around for 5 or 10 minutes to admire the elegance of this creature before we headed back to shore to leave. My friends had a great time that trip, and I knew they would've returned even if we hadn't come across a moose. But seeing that moose on the last day made this trip something to remember.