I hope the summer is treating everyone well, despite the volatile weather.

My wife, best friend and I recently did a 6 day canoe trip through the northwest section of Algonquin and had a great time. There was some mild apprehension based on our limited canoeing skills (I haven't done a serious backcountry canoe since high school almost 30 years ago, and my companions were pretty much in the same skills category), but we ended up having an awesome trip with no real problems at all!

Day one - Kawawaymog to North Tea to Lorne
Weather was perfect with very little wind. We got our rental equipment from Voyageur Quest including an 18.5 foot Kevlar canoe to hold the 3 of us and our gear. Considering its size, the canoe was fast and light - a real treat. We had lunch at an island site early in Tea Lake and then portaged over from Tea to Lorne. Lorne was very peaceful, and there was no one else around the whole time.

Day two - Lorne to Fassett
Greeted by another sunny day, we made our way over to Fassett. Lots of portages and some muddy conditions made it interesting at times. We saw one other canoeist relaxing in the distance on Mattowacka Lake, and no one else after that. Fassett's beauty and placidity did not disappoint!

Day three - rest day
Knowing that Fassett would be quiet, we planned a rest day here. We did not see anyone else the whole time on the lake, and we relished the solitude. We took a little excursion over to Shad Lake and visited the supposed haunted site on the north shore. The site is set in well from the clearing on the water, and clearly hadn't been used in a very long time. An old logging road runs to the site. We had lunch on the other site on Shad Lake and spent the rest of the day relaxing at camp and getting in some more swims.

Day four - Fassett to Manitou
A cloudy morning as we set off, but the sun came out again in the afternoon. I figured this would be a very challenging day, but it wasn't nearly as tough as I assumed it may be. By this point, we had our portaging techniques down to a science. We had to exit the canoe on a couple of occasions due to beaver activity, but we did not encounter anything that caused any major interruptions. The section of Fassett Creek before the portage to Manitou was stunning! We got to Manitou Lake early in the afternoon and after looking around we saw a beach area and camp site in the distance. We B-lined it there, hoping it wasn't occupied. It wasn't, and we were amazed at how much sand was there. We flopped on the beach and rested a while, feeling almost like we were somewhere in the Carribean. Swimming was a must here! Manitou was much quieter than I expected, and we only saw a couple of canoes in the distance during our stay. That evening, thunderstorms were rolling in and we braced ourselves for some nasty weather. Incredibly though, several storms just missed us, and we only had some light rain later in the evening that didn't amount to much.

Day five - Manitou to North Tea
The wind had picked up a bit, and the sky was ominous at times. We paddled through some rougher conditions, but nothing too serious. We took the lesser used eastern portage into Tea by the rapids. Landing the canoe was quite a challenge here as the current was very strong and rocks were everywhere. Luckily though, no bang ups occurred! We checked out the site by the falls/rapids, but decided it was too loud. The wind was picking up more, and we had to paddle quite hard in sections through North Tea. We ended up stopping at the small northern island that had two sites to regroup. Once anchored, we decided to stay there for the night. We saw several canoes go by that day, but no one else camped on the island. The sites here were very well used, but mostly clean. The wind had picked up some more, and continued on throughout the day and into the night. It rained a little, and we could hear the waves crashing against the island all night. I was concerned about what our conditions would be in the morning and hoped that we could get out okay...

Day six - North Tea to Kawawaymog
The wind had mercifully died down by morning, and we had no problems making our way back to the access point. Voyageur Quest had a delicious Sunday lunch special and cold beer, both of which were greatly appreciated!

Overall, an amazing trip! We definitely see more canoe outings in our future. In terms of lessons learned, I guess the one thing I would do next time is program a message via my SPOT account to send out a note to designated people if we get delayed due to bad weather.

Cheers,

Rich