First of all, I'd like to thank my friend my canoeing buddy Joel Leonhardt to be my inspiration for this 2003 Thanksgiving trip. Thank you to Oom Joel who asked me whether I was going to Lake Louisa and if that was so, he wanted to join me. I forgot that I still had that plan and thus I put our names, Cecilia, I and Joel as the first three candidates. Unfortunately, there was no more sane Canadian but all crazy Indonesians that wanted to join our Lake Louisa trip thereafter. So I could understand you fully Oom Joel, why you decided not to go. For that I am really sorry because that Lake Louisa trip was the trip of a lifetime :-). Not because of it's unsurpassing beauty even though it was indeed beautiful, but because I am not getting younger to go there again and carry a canoe on a 3 km portage trail.
Yes my dear friends besides Oom Joel, that was the longest single portage that I ever did in my life. To portage or carry a backpack is actually not too bad. Besides a pack is designed for human carrier :-), a normal pack hardly weighs more than 40 lbs or 20 kilos. Compare it to my (usually the lightest) canoe of 50 lbs and all those weight has to rest on a human's shoulder. I and all the other gang members, 11 persons in the trip, knew well before hand, since we planned this trip for many months, that the biggest challenge would be to portage the canoes. I was glad that we had with us two children of 10 years and 12 years old, making the average age of me and Cecilia came tumbling down. I was also happy that I did not give up to the 'whining' of my wife to rent a canoe carrier. Where would I be able to hide my shame in front of you, or even dare writing this essay? Portaging with a canoe carrier, shame on you Use-knee :-). I can't imagine to see people laughing at us us and say, "What a weak Indonesian, oops I mean Canadian." That will be too much to bear. :-)
As I mentioned above, we did a very careful and thorough planning for this trip. Not only did we line up who were going to cook what dishes, so that we knew we were not going to eat pasta 4 times in a row like my last Killarney trip :-), we also jotted the weight and height of each person plus their packs. We calculated the load on the canoes so that we didn't waste canoe space or could rent the smallest possible canoes. We wanted to make sure, that not all of us had to go back and forth along that 3 km portage. Aren't we glad we did that gang? We had two meetings for this trip, the last time at a nice cottage in Orillia. Thus we knew that there would be extra equipment to be left behind after counting the paddles, PFDs, food-pack, day-pack and what have you. One or two of us needed to go back. On the outbound trip, going to Lake Louisa, it was my equipment pack because there was no way I could carry both my (close to) 40 lbs pack and 50 lbs canoe at the same time. I still want to live :-). I was glad we had two 'samsons' in this trip. The first one is D who is so young, almost the same age as my yougest son, the other is A who everybody in Toronto must have heard about him :-). They were the 'strikers' in this eleven persons Lake Louisa team, in Indonesian "kesebelasan sinting".
Saturday breakfast: 'kuetiau goreng Medan'; lunch: all you can eat sandwich a la Druxy; dinner: 'nasi sambal goreng udang telor kentang a la Mississauga'. Sunday breakfast: all you can eat oatmeal your choice of flavour mixed with raisins; lunch: 'nasi panggang babi dan ayam kecap bawang'; dinner: fussili pasta with mushroom and Polish sausage. Monday breakfast: mie pancake; lunch: 'bihun kuah bakso ayam dan jamur'. Now you can understand with all those Indonesian gourmet and foreign words why my inspirator friend Joel changed his mind when he heard that we will have 10 Indonesians people in this trip. I have camped with most of them for about 2 years now and in almost all camping trips either a neighbour would come and complained that we were too noisy or the park ranger told us he could hear us from several kilometres away :-). Yes, we are indeed a bunch of loud-mouth fools which is a very ideal attribute in the interior; to scare the bear away. My throat is still sore from laughing non-stop for 3 nights in a row. Oh, by the way, a very friendly lady came to us at around 10 PM on the very first night at the campground when we were still preparing ourselves to get ready to the interior. With such a sweet voice, she said "Could you please lower down your voices a little bit?" It was all H's fault cause he never stopped joking around, even to the little children he fooled and teased them. Whenever we made noise by the time we were at Lake Louisa, we checked the lake water occasionally, afraid if that lady would come and told us to shut-up cause she could hear us from several kilometres at the campground :-).
Thanks to the computer and its programmers, the weather forecast including the fall colour progression report is very easy to obtain these days. A week before the D-day, our heart sank a bit cause the temperature dropped to zero in several places around Ontario, combined with snow-flurries. Packing for 0C with snow flurries would be different from packing for a balmy weather. That was precisely what we got on our week-end, a nice Indian summer they call it. This is actually a bit 'racist' term cause it was derived from the habits of some Indian people to cheat and to lie. Feeling a bit sorry for the Indian, we just loved the weather forecast for the Thanksgiving week-end. Double digit, close to 20C high during the day and around 10C low in the evening, sunny on almost all days. Perfecto, it couldn't be better. That was the reason I took Highway 35 through Lindsay, Minden and Dorset on the way to Algonquin, one of the most scenic routes in Ontario during the fall season. The scenery at the Lake of Two Rivers campground was also breath-taking on that day.
B's family and I checked earlier for the Friday night campground or car camping. Nothing special, not much to tell cause I have been at the Rock Lake campground at least 10 times in the last few years. The reason, a trip to Pen Lake from there is very ideal to take rookies, people who had never canoe or camped in the interior before. There is only a short portage of 375 metres, enough to get a feeling of what portaging is all about. It is adequate to compare it with life's philosophy that the greedier you are, the more in trouble you will be. It was actually during a trip to Pen Lake that Cecilia my wifey perfected her rice cooking skill from Joel's wife, a true blue Canadian. The secret that M is so skillful in cooking, we learned later on, because she had to do it for her dozen siblings. Practice makes perfect but I digressed my friends, sorry.
When it started to get dark on the first night, my FRS, a new term for walkie-talkie started crackling. The other five members of the 'kesebelasan sinting' at last showed up. They told us that they missed the Highway 60 exit at Huntsville and almost reached North Bay had they not sober up during their fooling around inside the car :-). That told you how bad is this boisterous gang of 11, oops I meant 'the gang of five'. No wonder then, not too long afterwards that nice lady came 'knocking' on our door to shut us up. Yes, we Indonesians could only live in the forest among the monkeys cause sometimes our attitudes resemble our ancestors. Actually, they can get serious if they want to and that happened in the morning. They knew I had arranged for the Opeongo Outfitter to deliver the rental canoes around 9 AM and also we still had to register by the park office for the interior trip. A seemingly new employee that only followed rules and regulations did our check-in in the afternoong. She told us she or rather the computer, yes blame the computer:-), could not handle an early registration. Wrong. Last time I checked in to Pen Lake from that same office using the same computer system, the other employee who was nicer did an early registration. She was the one who told me that even though the 'computer is not supposed to handle early registration', she would do it for me. What could you do facing a bureaucrat like that other than just be patient.
Our patience paid off as soon as we started paddling through the fog toward the opening on Rock Lake. By the time we were in the open water, the fog was lifted and the scenery became so beautiful, heavenly. Had we started half-an-hour earlier, we would face a much thicker fog, proven by a remark made by a boater who pulled in to our access point and said "It is nasty out there." Yes, a canoe is designed differently from a motorboat. When the fog was thick, using the compass in my GPS and the map, I was still able to navigate, knew where to go. A boater would not have that patience, perhaps skill and would need a clear view of the lake. So he might start cursing if he cannot see anything in front of him. That tells you, your life has to slow down a bit, into 'lower gear' when you want to be a canoeist. You race your canoe, in a few hours you are a dead meat :-).
It was not difficult to find the start of the portage trail from Rock Lake to Lake Louisa cause we passed it so often on our way to Pen Lake. Actually I did that trail once with Cecilia, just the two of us. So the route was still saved in my memory, that once you hit a road, that was used as a logging road in the bad old days when they logged Algonquin, you are only 2-300 metres from the end of the portage. Cecilia started first and I told her to carry one of our FRS while I would stay till the last and have another FRS with me. This way we know for sure how many and what items are still behind. She must be happy as I was to find that the portage trail was really not meant for using a canoe carier. It was wide allright but still uneven, full of rocks and in a few spaces dead tree blocked the trail a bit. The most challenging with canoe carier is how do you use it on a wooden bridge that is only one feet wide and your carier is two-feet wide? Another impossible thing to use a carier, how do you manage pulling your canoe when the terrain was like a swamp? Yes, at the end of the trip, I had to say goodbye to my hiking boot cause it went kaput. It was already old and slogging on the swamp was fatal to its life cause with a canoe on my shoulder, I could not negotiate to find a dry spot. Sorry my beloved boots, farewell adieu till we meet again.
I was glad that the only fatality was my hiking boot and everybody else came back alive :-). Actually the Indonesians are dilligent people and observant. They have their own KBE, Knowledge By Example. Take A as one example. Now he is the one who put up rope with the pulley system for hanging our food. I told them to take a break from time to time as needed when they were in the trail, basically not to force themselves. They will remember for the rest of their lives, in the interior, one load is everybody's. They also used another trick or technique, bring as much as you can handle at the beginning and when you get tired, drop them one by one till you carry the last pack for some distance. Then come back empty handed which is your rest period. Take the load that you left behind and carry them to where you were before. That is basically what portaging is all about, those who are fitter or more able to help, carry more loads and in that way, cause the whole team to be better.
I told you canoe camping build character and you can see it in this 'graduate school' of life. You don't have to tell me the tuition fee to get a master degree or be in a university's graduate school. However, if I tell you that the cost per person for the 4 days 3 nights trip is only $ 75, I know I will be in trouble :-). Why? Last summer, I took 18 persons to the interior and unless I increase jeha outfitter's fee to be ten folds, I can see myself arranging a trip for 36 people to the interior :-). I am kidding but serious about the low cost of camping with a canoe to the interior. As I told you in my other canoeing essays, before I started canoeing I already went camping to the interior but through backpacking. This means that we are more limited in the distance as well as the equipment and food we could haul or carry. With a canoe, you could go easily for a 100 km to the interior. I shared details of my life and here is the cost calculation of our Lake Louisa trip per person. Campground fee including a free shower at the end (I would tell you more about this) for the 4 days 3 nights is $ 23.20 cheap. Canoe and tent renting including paddles, PFDs and delivery is $ 37.40. Then, the cheapest of them all is all you can eat gourmet Indonesian food for the whole 10 meals $ 14.20 only. If you add them all together: $ 74.80, Now you understand why I expect to have a 36-person team next year :-).
Well, let me tell you about the shower now. I learned one lesson when I used to climb mount Pangrango in West Java. About half way between Cibeureum where we would usually stop for the waterfall and Kandang Badak, a good place to rest before the 'summit assault' (wow eh :-)), there is a place called Kandang Batu. There is small stream or pool of steaming hot sulphuric water thanks to the volcanic activity deep inside Pangrango. I once washed my face and everything else exposed that could be washed. I became tired, 'loyo' in Indonesian, afterwards. So, I avoided taking hot showers after each camping trip because I knew I still had to drive several hundred kilometres to go back home. It is now different with this 'kesebelasan sinting' cause all of them love to take the showers. Indeed it was one of 'da best' feature after we went to the interior, a free all you can take shower. Another good thing for me, Cecilia is not affected by the 'Kandang Batu syndrome'. She could drive the car while I took a nap between Rock Lake and the Algonquin Outfitter store where we rented our tents. What a life eh :-).
I didn't really count the time we took to portage our loads from one end to the other. I believe it was slightly more than 2 hours on the outbound and less than 2 hours in the inbound cause by that time all the food was either in our tummies or inside 'da box', our most beloved spot in the interior :-). Since I had the GPS with me, I was able to tell them how many more "minutes" did they need to go. Remember my friend J from the office who went with me to Killarney? We biked together a few weeks ago and he said he would not believe me anymore if I say '5 more minutes'. The last time I did that trick to him, it was still like 15 minutes indeed but he was so excited :-). I had to find another way to keep his spirit up, perhaps by saying there is a lovely beau waiting at the end of the trail cause he is looking for one :-). What I could tell you, everybody's spirit was indeed high at the end of the portage trail. We exchanged the 'high five', the salute of the young generation in this country. Yes, the 3 km trail was one of our 'destinies'. It tested not only our physical strength but also our spiritual I believe. For me, it was like a 2-hour retreat, to humble oneself and be able to know our weakness and our strength, thanks to the grace of our Creator.
I know you have been waiting to hear or read how beautiful it is really Lake Louisa. Likewise. I have been wanting to paddle its water since a few years back. I learned about it first from a guy at the Swift canoe store. He was the sales-rep from Swift who sweet-talked Cecilia and me into buying a Swift Kipawa canoe. Actually we tested the canoe for several days before we bought it but he did a good demo I had to say. When we chatted with him, he told us that all his life was spent in Algonquin park, paddling lots of its hundreds of lakes. So, when I asked him which one was the most beautiful, he said Lake Louisa in the fall. I had to say he is not far from right :-). We were there when the peak fall colour was already a week behind. But we could still see the beautiful hills surrounding the lake, they were all colourfull. The lake water was also clear with sandy beaches, similar to Bice Lake that we visited last Thanksgiving. Actually, once you are on a portage trail, you could see from the varities of the fallen leafs colour, from yellow to red to crimson, that the area is gorgeous.
Thanks to the weather forecast again, we knew that the Sunday was indeed our rest day. With the exception of B's family who ventured a bit further to the west to check, our activities were limited to collecting firewood and singing. It was not gospel song of course even though it was a sabbath day, but lots of song with dangdut rhythm cause that was the most fun. Actually we had an orchestra other than the splendid vocal of our Killarney Trio that came back with us to join this trip. A. had the 'drum', in quote because he used our pail for that. I had the 'bell' made from the stainless-steel mug and Cecilia held the lid of our pot. Added to the instrumentation section a wood mastered by D. and couple stones played by B. that emitted excellent natural sounds. You now got the idea of our Lake Louisa orchestra. Yes, indeed it was really a splendid performance and you could hear the "more more more" encore request from the audience, 'rumput bergoyang' or Indonesian fave audience. Actually we had at least two live audiences, the children. They enjoyed our performance so much that even though it was raining at times, they sat on the swing, a hammock that Cecilia took to the interior. Way to go 'kesebelasan sinting'.
The rain was not too bad, it stopped completely after our performance was over. You could tell then that besides the 'swaying grass', the rain drops were our audiences too. There was a very low hill in one spot of the eastern view where our campsite faced, precisely where our campfire spot opened to. On the first night, an hour or so after the sun set we were sitting around the campfire, not really expecting anything special when someone spotted a glow in that direction, above the hill which was close to the water. The glow turned into a a round curve in an instant. The moon was raising, yes, in the eastern sky of course. We city boys and girls seldom saw a beautiful moonrise like that and the moon was still full. No wonder there are nations or people that made sun their god and moon their idol. I could have joined those cults if they were preaching in that evening. Not only was it so awesome, the reflection on the lake water created such a serene atmosphere. We felt so sorry for our friends including Joel that we had to leave behind :-).
There were many other nice things we could share with you even though a few would be 'off the records' :-). As I said, we couldn't stop laughing during the whole trip and for those of us who still have to work in the office, I am sure that they have charged their 'batteries' full, enough to last till the next Jeha Outfitter camping canoeing trip, likely in late April 2004 to Algonquin Kioshkokwi Lake, access point 29. Till then, adieu my friends.
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