Day 1

Opeongo, Proulx, Crow River, Little Crow, Big Crow

For this year's trip we decided to try something a little different.  Traditionally we always like to stay at the north end of the park as we find it more remote and see less traffic.  However, now having done most of the Access Points at the north end of the park we decided on a route out of Opeongo, the biggest trip we planned to date but the use of the water taxi service would allow us to complete it in 4 days.  Also new this year was a new partner, though he certainly is not new to canoe tripping.  My father in law came with us this year and he has been canoe tripping for many, many years.  In fact, Bert's regular canoe partner Warren Sears, who had passed away recently, had spent his entire life in a canoe and cut a lot of the portage trails in several of Ontario's great parks.  It was Bert who first introduced me to the interior canoe routes of Algonquin Park.  Another twist this year is that I no longer live in Ottawa.  Shortly after last year's trip I moved to Toronto, yes I still can't believe I live in laff er leaf land, and flew to Ottawa the day before our trip.  Most of my equipment had been left in Ottawa as I knew I'd have to come back before we departed. 

The day was spent getting everything in order, packing, grocery shopping, the regular items.  My mother in law was in Toronto spending the weekend with my wife and daughters and our plan after the trip was to drive to Toronto and not back to Ottawa.  This meant taking two cars, Bert and I in one; Ted and Moe in another.  We all met at Ted's at 4:30 am and headed out.  Because we were not heading north this year we were missing breakfast at Laurentian Dairy, however we found a nice spot in Barry's Bay.  As we entered into the park I convinced the guys to stop in at the visitor centre; we had a scheduled water taxi time and we were plenty early.  I had been here before but the other guys had not.  We toured the museum and watched the film before getting back in the car and heading to Opeongo.  All told we were approximately 5 hours and 45 minutes from door to Opeongo.

We still had some time before our taxi time so we just hung out, Moe and I played guitar while ted wrote in his journal and Bert read. 

A few weeks before our trip I received an e-mail from a guy named Joe who had been on this site.  Turns out, Joe was doing the exact same trip as us on the exact same days and we had exchanged a few e-mails prior to our trip.  While waiting for our taxi we met Joe and his father Lorne and sister Marie.  They are from Michigan near Detroit.  Joe's father had tripped in Algonquin many years ago but this was the first time Joe and his sister were in the park.

Joe on the water taxi

Our water taxi picked was scheduled for 12:00 though I don't think we got going until around 12:20.  I was amazed at the size of Opeongo and can't believe the amount of people we saw actually paddling its length.

We got out of the water taxi at the North arm and our first portage was 1390.  A good distance to get us going but really it was the only portage for the day.  We traveled around Proulx Lake and into Crow River.  I love paddling winding rivers and Crow was no different.

Crow River

Into Little Crow and west to Big Crow we headed for the site on the South East shore of Big Crow.  After setting up camp and having supper, cocktails and a round of cigars we decided to head over the tower.  I have read on other trip logs that some people have climbed it so, although it was getting late we decided to head over there.  We noticed there was an old ranger cabin and headed to that location.  When we pulled up there was no one around however as we peeked inside the cabin we could tell that someone was staying there.  We headed up the hill and the climb was much bigger than I thought.  It was also getting dark so we pressed hard to get to the top soon.  Once at the top we noticed that the ladder had been disconnected and turned around so no one could climb it, probably a good thing.  We hung out for a bit then out of no where these two guys came out of the woods.  We chatted for a few minutes and they told us of a great lookout just around the corner.  We headed over and it was awesome.  It very quickly got dark so we figured we better head back.  As we got back down to the bottom of the trail, a couple who were staying in the cabin had started a fire and we sat with them for a bit before getting back to camp.  We had a fire as well and sat around playing our guitars.  Last year we brought one just to see how it would be.  This year we brought two and it was great.  Off to bed for the night, another travel day tomorrow.

Day 2