On Stratton Lake

For me, no matter how long or short a camping trip is, it seems an eternity.

Just this past weekend, DW and I packed up the car and drove to Algonquin Provincial Park for a one-night getaway, and I feel as though I've been away from home for more than a week. Perhaps this is because we gathered all of our gear and food together on Thursday evening, and made sure that everything would fit in both of our kayaks, as we were leaving our car behind and paddling to our site.

We arose early on Friday morning and packed the back of the car, and secured our kayaks to the roof. It takes about three hours to drive to the Achray Campground office, where we left our car and paddled out on Grand Lake. Having camped here more than a year ago, and having paddled all over this area, we were familiar with our surroundings.

From the campground office, it was about another hour of paddling across Grand Lake, following a short channel that includes a 30-metre portage—our kayaks weighed about double with all of our gear—and down the length of Stratton Lake until we found a vacant camp site. With interior camping, you cannot reserve a site in advance: you simply hope that you find an available spot and that it isn't next to a mosquito-infested swamp.

The route from Achray Campsite to our site, on Stratton Lake (courtesy of Garmin, Google Maps).

Our site was about three-quarters down the length of Stratton Lake's north shore, before the lake bends northward. While most of the site was sloped upward, we had a couple of levelled spots where we could set up our tent and cooking area. It was lunchtime by the time we were set up, and we had all of the fixings for pita sandwiches, stuffed with salami, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes.

The main attraction for this trip was the High Falls water slide. The smooth rock formations along this set of rapids makes for a natural slide and is also one of the most picturesque locations in this part of Algonquin Park.

We had decided, after lunch, that it would likely be better to visit the falls later in the afternoon, when many people would either be leaving the park to head home or were heading back to their camp site for dinner. Because this is a popular attraction for campers and day-trippers, we expected that the afternoon would be one of the busiest times.

Instead, we hung out around the camp, familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings, setting up our bear bag, capturing photos, and just relaxing. We set up a hammock between two trees along the shore of our site, and because there's no cellular or data service in Algonquin Park, I had a cat nap instead.

Waiting to visit High Falls until later in the day was a smart move. We arrived around 5:00 to find a father and his young-adult son, and a few teenagers who seemed to be packing up. The trail from Stratton Lake to the falls is not an easy one, and I'm sure that families with youngsters wouldn't want to tread it when the sun was sinking.

For the better part of an hour, I felt that we had the place virtually to ourselves. When a group of hooting and shouting 30-something lads arrived, we knew it was time to head back to camp.

Only one incident put a damper (literally) on our return to our camp site. As I was climbing into my kayak, the keel at the stern sank and came to rest on a rock, and rolled me into the lake. I was holding onto my paddle and a dry bag that contained my D-SLR camera. Only moments earlier, I debated whether to seal the bag or not, because I was planning to take photos on our paddle back to camp.

I'm glad I made the decision to seal that bag. I had more than $3,000 of gear inside it. My pride, on the other hand, was thoroughly dampened.

My 360-degree camera was running at the time but I have yet to decide whether I want that in the video I plan to make of this trip.

Back at camp, DW was set on having a fire, so I tended one while she made dinner, a pizza that she made on our miniature stove, which she could convert into a pseudo-oven. It was actually pretty good.

When the fire burned down and the moon began to rise, the mosquitoes proved to be too much, so we retreated to our tent, where DW convinced me to play a game of Cribbage. (I had a different idea, but oh well... .)

Because the moon was full and we kept our fly open for a cross-breeze, the tent interior was lit up almost as brightly as it had been with our solar lantern on a low setting. We closed our eyes and nothing but the sound of the wind through the trees, the buzzing of crickets, the croaking of a nearby bullfrog, and the occasional song of a loon could be heard.

It had been only one day in our two-day excursion, but with all we had done since we had first awakened, the day seemed as though it had been several.

I'll have more to say about our camping trip, tomorrow and through the week. Oh, and just as a heads up about tomorrow's post, there will be a bit of nudity in the photos of our trip. It'll be of me, so you might not want to come back until Wednesday.

You've been warned.