Day 1

Cedar - Catfish

Well, this year's trip actually began one day before we were to set to go.  At about 4:00 on Thursday August 14th my wife and I along with our two daughters were heading out for dinner as we noticed all of the street lights were out.  When we got to the restaurant there was no power either, and low and behold we have "The Blackout - 2003".  Luckily at this point most of my stuff was already packed, however it still made for quite an interesting evening.  Ted was going to drive but hadn't filled up his car yet, and with no gas stations open we had no idea what was going to happen.  Well, lucky for us at about 1:30 in the morning the power came back on briefly.  In fact it was just long enough for Ted to jump out of bed, race down the street (praying the whole time that it might just be open), it was!!  Ted filled up and as his receipt was printing, the power went out again. 

Up at 3:30, picked up at 4:10 and on it was to start picking everyone else up.  By about 7:00 we were in Deep River and ready for some amazing milkshakes and breakfast at the one and only Laurentian Dairy.  During our meal Ted was kind enough to rip one while we were all sitting there.  I swear the whole restaurant stopped and looked at us.  It was too funny, well maybe not at the time but shortly there after.

Ted - Not sure what he's doing here

As we were nearing Petawawa we saw our first black bear running down a set of railway tracks.

We stopped at what is the last gas station before the entrance to Algonquin Park.  Brandon was dying to go to the washroom, (if you have a weak stomach you may want to skip ahead a bit) and his business could not be done on the side of the road, he needed a toilette for this.  When he was done Ted entered the washroom and immediately came right back out.  The odor coming from inside was unbearable and Ted, who has a weak stomach, started to vomit.  Some might think this is pretty sick, some might think this is funny, but what did if for me was then watching the local dog came running over and proceeded to start eating it.  Anyway......

On our way into Brent we stopped at the Brent Crater,  I guess I was expecting more, especially after stopping at the Barron Canyon the year before.  Anyway, on to Brent where we checked in and picked up our canoes.  The Brent Store was pretty cool, just to see some of the old stuff in there are read all of the old newspaper articles was great.  Here I am at the desk checking in.  

Ted noticed a really neat picture on the wall of a guy in a canoe, and right in front of the canoe was a bull moose.  Ted pointed it out and told us all that was his purpose on this trip.  A little foreshadowing perhaps?

Rob - Brent Store

All set now, and ready to go.  The boys were sporting last years TCE shirts, except for Ted.

Rob Moe Ted Brandon

The first day is always slow as we just seem to want to soak up everything.  The first couple of portages have falls and we stopped at each one to check them out.  At each stop we probably spend too much time but we are not in any hurry.  On one of them we saw a peregrine falcon.

Ted Moe Brandon

Nice little butterfly here.  I believe this was on the 2345P, our longest one ever.  Although in two days we were about to go a little farther.  I decided I needed a better camera though, next year its digital.

Finally on Catfish and Moe starts getting his fishing gear ready.  Our site was great, up high on a point.  It was really windy this evening, in fact the wind was really strong all night which made for great sleeping.

Moe

A little pose after dinner.

Later that night Brandon and I stayed up for a bit while the others went to bed and were entertained by the Northern Lights, man were they cool.  I had seen them once before while driving down the 401 but never in the park. 

Day 2