Algonquin Park Canoeing 2017

I will finally be returning to Algonquin Park for a canoe trip into the interior.  I was going to go solo this year as I couldn't find a paddling partner.  Seth, who is 16 yrs old, didn't want to go because...he's 16 yrs old and Tarah, who is 12 yrs old, has never enjoyed roughing it because "the washrooms smell!" And Marsh just returned from a 5 week trip to China/Vietnam and camping is not really her thing.

Fortunately, my co-worker, Nya, took pity on me and said she would love to do an interior trip as she's never been canoeing...at least not this kind of wilderness trip.

Amazingly, we put the trip together on the "back of a napkin."  I drew up a list of the essentials, we met once to discuss food and review the equipment list and here we are less than 24 hrs before departure.  I organized and packed for several hours yesterday and did some more detailed gathering of smaller items tonight (August 15th).

I also bought a few new items for the trip: a back pack which happened to be on sale at Canadian Tire; a dry bag which Tracey O. graciously picked up for me from MEC; and a new and more substantial utility knife.  I
passed on getting a sweet gravity water filtration bag by Katadyn even though it quickly filters all impurities (including bacteria and viruses) out because of the cost and the fact that it is bulkier than the alternative -- water purifying tablets.  The tablets or liquid version of the tablets, take about 30 minutes before the water they're dissolved in is safe to drink.  The gravity filtration bag is about $89 and the tablets a mere $14 or so.  Sigh.  The crappy thing is, when I first was looking around for a filtration option, the Katadyn bag was on sale at Canadian Tire for $70.  When I finally finished researching the topic a few days later, the bag was no longer on sale...so, yeah....lesson learned.  Be decisive.  No one likes a ditherer.

The route we'll be taking begins near Algonquin's East Gate and near the town of Whitney, Ontario.  I used this entry point with Tracey, Seth and Mickey John in 2012.  Here's an excerpt from an earlier post:

The route shown has a 1.6 km portage and this would only be possible if I was travelling with another person.  I can haul a canoe a few hundred metres but 1.6 km is just asking for trouble.
We would rent our canoe from the same place I used last time, Opeongo Outfitters.  We will begin at the east end of Galeairy Lake and travel west towards Aubrey Lake and setup camp there for the first night.
The second day we would head in a north-westerly direction to Rocky Lake, turn south at Jean Island and head south towards Pen Lake.  There are two small portages on this day: The first is between Galeairy and Rocky Lake (100 m) and the second is at Pen Falls, between Rocky Lake and Pen Lake.
I'm thinking we'll stay on Pen Lake for two nights before pushing east towards Night Lake.  There is a 1.6 km portage between Pen Lake and Night Lake and once we get through this we will paddle back into the northern part of Galeairy Lake.
The last day, hopefully, we will have any easy paddle back to our starting point in Whitney.

Click on the map to view a larger image of our route.

I will post pics when I return.