Day 1
Cedar - Laurel
Thursday July 20th
5 Portage = 5.46 KM
Another year has come and finally my trip to
Algonquin Park is almost here. As was the case last year I headed to
Ottawa to meet up with the lads before we headed out. Up early at 4:00 AM
(not that I slept at all, I'm like a child on Christmas Eve) and over to Ted's
for the 4:45 pickup.
On our way up to the park we stopped at the Laurentien Dairy once again for a wonderful breakfast that always includes a milkshake no matter what time it is.
As we approached the part we couldn't help but notice
how quiet it was, something seemed a bit odd and when the access point just off
the highway was closed we knew something wasn't quite right. There was a
note instructing us to head back to a house
on the road for our permit so we
did. The lady at the house informed us of a wicked storm that had blown
through a few days earlier and that the access road had been blocked for 3
days. It was only on the day of our arrival that they finally had it
cleared all the way down to Brent. 
We headed down the road and were amazed at the number of fallen down trees that had to be cut in order to pass on the road. Finally down to Brent we talked more about the storm with the guys at the store as we got everything ready.
The first day was tough, tougher than normal as the
portages seemed to have many fallen trees lying across them. Little did we
know that this would
actually be the easiest day as the trees cut larger and more difficult to pass
the deeper into the park we went.
We were heading for Camp Five Lake but when we got there
the site was not in any shape to stay so we moved on to Varley. This
portage was also really bad with fallen down trees, so much so that Moe and Bert
ended up taking their canoe back to the start and decided to go back and get
them in the morning.
|
|