Well, actually it was not quite a solo trip since I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get my 'canoeing exit permit' if I dare to go canoeing by myself without a permit from the 'goddess' of the house :-). However, if you would consider husband and wife paddling in one canoe without fighting throughout the journey as 'solo canoeist', I am not making it up, right? In all honesty, this last week-end was indeed our first experience going to the interior by canoe by ourselves. With a 17 feet Grumman aluminium canoe of 78 pounds that was an experience we will never forget and I will tell you more about this. There is a good Indonesian word to describe it, 'kapok', meaning, we will never do it again in aluminium canoe :-).
Let me ask you fellow canoeist, "Have you ever seen people camping in the interior with lawn chairs? Nobody has?" Yes, we did and that's why we called 'solo with a style' :-). It was well worth the effort because our campsite was bare, no log to sit, no rock either. We felt so lucky to get even this campsite, on a tiny lake called Sunday Lake, because for weeks I have been calling Ministry of Natural Resources automated telephone information on Algonquin's vacancy. It was always full and last I called, they said, "Slim chance to get into the interior." Yes, we saw quite a number of cars with US license plates at Algonquin, no wonder :-). Who wouldn't want to go where one gets 50% discount, thanks to our sad Canadian dollar exchange rate?
So to increase our chance, last Friday, we hit the road to Algonquin at 7:30 AM, quite a feat for Cecilia who loves to sleep :-). Driving 15 km beyond the speed limit, without stopping, we reached the West Gate at 10:30, another record time. We proceeded to the check-in counter impatiently after having to line up for several minutes. Holding my breath, I asked the lady at the counter, "Do you have any vacancy in the interior canoe sites?" Her answer was like a voice from heaven, "Not many." :-) However, when she pointed on the map, the only 2-3 sites left from nearby access points, I stopped smiling. Either the portages were too long, or the paddling will be too far. But then, I knew that my guardian angel intervened :-), she mentioned one site that was available on a tiny lake not too far from access point 9, if you are familiar with Algonquin canoe route. I almost hug her, oops, we, because I could see Cecilia was smiling now. Twenty six Canadian dollars changed hands in no time and we would have paid if she doubled it :-). Indeed, for $ 13 a nite or $ 6.50 per person, Algonquin's interior site is a bargain. Why? Because if you camp on shore and have to buy firewood, it would cost $ 5 per bag and you would need at least 2 bags to last through the night. At an interior site, you would have 'all you can burn' firewoods for free! Also on shore, you would not be able to buy pine firewood but in the interior, that's yours to haul from dead pine trees that are abundant.
Would you still have time for a short reflection? Let me close our first day journal with it. If you know Cecilia well, you probably know that she loves campfire. Her happiest moment in life is sitting, on a lawn chair, in front of the fire. That explained why we took the chairs :-). Since the woods were abundant, some left over from previous camper and some cut fresh by me, she kept on piling the woods on top of another. When the fire became weak, she turned the log over. One log in particular caught our attention. The log was at the bottom but whenever she turned that log, the fire became very much alive again. Indeed, we called it, the 'leader log' :-). Log that inspired and influenced others to be aflame again. Lately, I missed seeing that type of 'log' in one of the communities I used to be very involved with. What I rather met or encountered these days were 'logs' that made my eyes come to tears because of the sting from their smokes. Sounds familiar? Yes, to be a 'leader log', perhaps one has to be at the bottom and endures the hottest environment in order to be dry and to stop emitting stinging smoke.
"Jusni, how come you dare to call your canoe trip 'with a style' for having only one thing unusual, bringing lawn chair to the interior?," some of you may say :-). Don't worry be happy because I have many other stories to tell. Has anyone ever dined at a Chinese restaurant where the 'table cloth' was a stack of plastic sheets and it was replaced for new customer every time? We had the same thing. We found a fireplace grill on our campsite that was unusual, about couple feet high and was perfect to be used as a table. On top of it, we put our 'table cloth', i.e. the 16 pages information brochure from Algonquin Park. Every time we had meal, we peeled or discarded one layer and so we had clean 'table cloth' through-out our meals :-). I will tell you another 'style' at the end of this part.
Here is our second day trip log. Sunday Lake to Smoke Lake to Ragged Lake. Total portage length: 800 meters, total paddling time: 4 hours. Weather: hot and sunny. Breakfast: Indomie goreng (Indonesian imported instant noodle, Cecilia served it on our first interior canoe trip through access point 29, Kiosk campground). Lunch: Pita breads with turkey sub and lots of veggies, red pepper, onion, lettuce plus mayo to make them yummies. Dinner: steamed rice (as Indonesian can't function without eating rice for one day :-)) with pine charcoal roasted sausages and left-over lunch veggies plus fruits.
We met some canoeist today, in fact quite a plenty because this route is one of the major routes in Algonquin. Seeing some of them made us shake our head. We thought we have guts, with only two years canoeing experience, to go to the interior by ourselves. But when we saw how some of them paddled, we felt like we were 'chicken' :-). We met two pairs of canoeists, with load of bags inside their canoes, meaning they were going inside, paddling in zigzag mode. Every few strokes, like 3 or 4 strokes, the stern paddler changed her/his position to adjust the zigzagging pattern :-). They must be very strong too besides being brave. Indeed, they were teenagers. We saw people who paddled non-synchronously, 'you do your own I do mine' timing :-). We came across people who did inefficient paddling. With two years experience, we feel we are still novice but to criticize, we think we are adequate enough. Who said it's not easy to see other people's mistake? In seriousness, Cecilia and I spoke admirably of our canoe teachers while paddling and watching all the 'scenes' above as we believe we have had fine ones.
Well, I haven't forgotten that I promised to tell you another of our 'with style' interior canoe camping. How many of you had ever stayed in an interior site with wooden toilet box as your 'throne'? :-) Actually, that is a luxury because in non-park or crown land, you have to dig your own hole :-). If you are not familiar with this box, it's a very simple design with 4 sides plus a top side that has oval hole shape. You sit on that top side and when you finish, you close the lid covering the box. As it's made of rough wood, if you are unlucky, 'bernasib sial' in Indonesian, your bum will get a splinter. Soooo, in order to avoid this, I brought a plastic toilet seat so that our bums would get 'royal treatment' and thus I can call our canoe trip, 'with a style'. :-) Let me close this second part of our journal with another short 'reflection'.
On the last day, when we were getting ready to leave the site, Cecilia came back from her 'throne time' complaining while carrying the seat :-). "It smell so bad," she said. "Of course, what do you expect?," I responded. Then I remembered a proverb in my true mother language which is a dialect of the Indonesian language called 'Bahasa Betawi'. 'Campuran tai bau tai, campuran kembang wangi' :-). Loosely translated, it means, 'When you mingle with shit (bad guys) you will become a shitty person, when your friends are nature lovers, ooops flowers, you will smell nicely. Imagine, in just 3 days and 2 nights on top of that toilet box, our hard plastic seat became so smelly that it still emits the odour after I scrubbed and washed. Moral of the story, do not bring toilet seat to the interior :-).
As story has an end, so does canoe camping trip :-(. I felt a bit sad when sitting on my 'throne' on the Sunday, our last day in the interior. I looked up the trees to whom I would soon say goodbye. The birch tree where I threw the rope for hanging our food, the maple trees where in a few weeks their leaves will start changing colour, the evergreen pine trees. Ooops, I almost forgot to tell you another 'with style' we did at this interior camping. We brought our newspaper and read it while performing 'nature call' like we did back home :-). I am not sure whether anyone has ever read Toronto Star in the interior or saw people reading newspaper on top of the box :-).
While packing our equipment in sombre silence, it was as if nature knew. The sky was cloudy, soon it would 'cry' to say us goodbye, like when people do seeing their loved ones leaving. I was happy to see that the tent was dry, including its flysheet and the extra tarp. It is a pain to pack a wet tent because we have to dry it again at home. Seeing indeed how tiny was our 2 persons 3 seasons backpacking tent, I smiled remembering S's remark. She called our tent, the honeymooner tent. She is wise to know that only a 'solo couple' in honeymoon mode, could last for several nights sleeping in that small and crampy tent. You can't fight inside the tent, there is no room for argument :-). In a big 'tent' called house, spouses can hate one another and still live as if in perfect harmony to the outside world. If you want to test your relationship with someone or you want to build a relationship, canoe camping to the interior is the best. My closest friends back in Indonesia and in Canada, are my camping buddies. If there are wordly possessions I treasure, they are my camping equipments :-). We took some of them when we emigrated to Canada and they still came along with us in our camping trips.
Actually we didn't carry many stuffs to the interior other than the two bulky lawn chairs :-). One canoe pack, one large backpack, a smaller one and newly bought cooler pack, on sale for $ 15. It's slightly bigger than C's pink cooler pack that I loved to carry because it was one of the lightest during our several trips :-). I stored also our newly acquired headlamps, bravo to the inventor and thanks to J and C for all the 'demo', since they freed our two hands for doing 'normal things' rather than holding flashlight. Last but not the least, we put to use the MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop) squeeze pack for compressing our sleeping bag into a tiny bag, that fit neatly at the bottom frame of our backpack. Goodbye camp, goodbye loons, goodbye nature.
As soon as we finished the portaging and put the canoe on top of the car, heaven started to 'cry' :-). It was Canadian type of rain called drizzle that didn't bother us while we were doing the roping of the canoe. Remember earlier that I said 'never again' to aluminium canoe? (no offence to our friend D who is a proud owner of a Grumman :-)). Yes, this 17' Grumman did bad thing to our roof rack :-) as well as to our muscles. So, to cap this 'with style' canoeing, we paid a visit to a well known canoe store and factory near the West Gate of Algonquin, Swift Canoe & Kayak. We met the sales rep named Skip who skipped a lot of the sale talks but spoke more about his 19 years 'falling in love experience' with Algonquin. He showed us in the map nice places to check, scenic places, place where he met a bear, portaging to avoid (he called staircase), and so on and so forth. Of all, he greatly recommended Barron Canyon and indeed, it's in the plan :-).
Well, some of you are perhaps familiar with a thing called test drive a car but I am not sure how many have tested a Cadillac :-). We did on one of the 'cadillacs' of the canoe, at least for us, the Kipawa series of Swift canoe that is meant or designed for serious canoeist. Its 16'6" hull can take optimum load up to 500 lbs but has a weight of 49 lbs in Kevlar and 45 lbs in superlight Kevlar. It has asymmetrical rocker, 3.5" at the bow and 1" at the stern, making it a nice cruiser but yet maintains the stability. Yes, we learned quite a bit more about canoe that was never explained in our canoeist 'bible's' Bill Mason's Path of the Paddle. It was raining and the lake where we tested paddling the Kipawa was quite big with some waves. However, riding on this 'cadillac' of canoe, we did not feel the wave at all. Don't ask me how much was the price tag because I can't afford it. :-) So, to keep the dream alive, of owning a Kevlar canoe that doesn't cost $ 2000 and beyond, Cecilia bought a two dollars raffle ticket, with the first prize, a 16' Nova Kevlar canoe. Those of you who have enjoyed reading this, please make a wish that the ticket bearing name J.H. will be pulled this October 11. :-) This way you see, you will keep on getting more canoe camping stories from us. In the meantime, we shall soon call a canoe rental place and book a 16' Swift Kevlar for our next planned trip to Killarney Park in less than two weeks. Adieu, till we meet again my nature lovers friends, hopefully at Killarney.
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