1 of 1
| Trip Planning » Questions from a first timer, reservations, safety, » 7/06/2020 7:58 pm |
Uppa wrote:
2. I bring burgers for the first night, which ride up in a cooler that never leaves the car, it's just to keep them cold as long as possible. I know plenty of people who bring frozen food in for the first two nights. With a bit of care in wrapping and storing it to stay cold, it's not much of a stretch for food to last that long in the summer. Beyond that you're probably into cooler territory. I don't imagine many people here ever take in a cooler, but I've certainly seen people do so. A very small cooler like those zip-up ones might be reasonably practical as you could hang that without too much trouble.
Thank you to you and TrippyThings for the idea of frozen meat! Such a simple idea once someone points it out. My husband makes amazing homemade burgers so we will do that for the first night!
| Trip Planning » Questions from a first timer, reservations, safety, » 7/06/2020 7:54 pm |
If the 9 and 11 year olds really are up for helping with the hard work then why not take the 1 km portage into Shirley? The trip will still be simple, the adventure factor will be upped, the bigger lake should be more scenic, and the sites are better spaced apart. You would also find out how well your family handles a medium length portage.
We are planning to do a day trip up to Shirley this time and scope it out. Having not done such a trip before, we don't have ideal equipment for a light trip. We are investing in some gear for this first tester trip and will get a better idea of what works for us then get more portage-able equipment for the trip we hop to do later in the summer/fall. We were very tempted to go to Shirley though after reading people's accounts!
| Trip Planning » Questions from a first timer, reservations, safety, » 7/06/2020 7:17 am |
Hello,
This is my first time going into the back country in 20 years. We are looking to take our 11, 9 and 1 year olds out for a first trip. We are planning to do a simple first trip to test out what works for us and make sure the kids want to come back again. So, we were thinking of Crotch Lake and Farm Lake since there are no portages.
1) When reserving, the dates are filling up fast and we keep missing dates we want. I assume the reservation system of a given day applies to the afternoon and night of that date. Is this correct? For example, we were hoping to book Friday to Tuesday, but now Tuesday is not available. If we were leaving Tuesday, does it matter that Tuesday is taken?
2) We plan to bring mostly dehydrated foods, but I have read several accounts where people took small amounts of fresh foods for the first few days. In this case, do you bring a cooler and just hang it? I feel like the cooler itself won't provide any smell protection. I read the thread about the bags vs barrels (which was so helpful!), but wonder then if people use these as a partial cooler sometimes? Or put a small cooler into a larger bear bag or barrel?
3) Does anyone have any thoughts/advice about Crotch Lake and Farm Lake sites? Having a one year old, obviously we are hoping to find one without a steep drop, but we are looking forward to the adventure of it all. Our older two thrive in the outdoors and are great contributors at hard work and finding fun anywhere.
I am so excited to get back out there. I haven't been to Algonquin in about 7 years since my grandparents sold their cottage on Smoke Lake.
Thanks everyone!
1 of 1
