looks like it would be heavy. Speakers,inverter,batteries. Etc etc. All the cords with retractors. Inspector gadget would love it

Would second the eureka.  My 4 man is a eureka but a 18 year old model. Beefy,  I think it’s 15 pounds. And that’s with a skimpy fly.  El Capitan has a nice fly.  All the way down to ground.

Is it cheating to bring in a small depth sounder?  A person who shall remain unarmed used to bring in one of those suction cup jobs run by 8 aa batteries. Helps to find the deep holes and structure if you don’t know the lake. We have been hitting the same lakes for year, I think we can find the holes blind folded now. But it sure helped in the beginning. Does not seem to be as big a deal in May as even I get a few in May,  but in August. Helps a ton when they are all hiding.

Like some one else said. Let them explore some boundaries, but explain the consequences. 2years ago we were jumping of a ten foot ledge or so into 50 plus feet of water. One of the kids said I want to do a back flip. My response was not a good idea. He said I do it all the time at grandpas. I responded. If something goes wrong I can have you in an er in 7 minutes from grandpas. We are looking at many hours before we can even call for an air ambulance from where we were At the time. He got it. No back flips.

I let the two boys set up in a tent relatively far away from me.  He said the first night he hardly slept. Second night slept like a baby. Tired. Been good with it ever since. Sleeps no problem in he back country. 

Explaining consequences and letting them stretch a bit goes along way.

John that exactly the tent I was looking at.

Infigured even if I got the smallest snowtrekker or the second smallest,  The smallest stove would provide all the heat I need in the shoulder seasons.  April/May and maybe into Nov in the fall.

Plus the guys I camp with who don’t have a hot tent could at least come in to warm up and have a coffee etc. The two main people I camp with are both hammock campers in the shoulder seasons. So a place out of the elements would be beneficial to all.

I must have bad luck seems like every shoulder season trip I do lately starts with a day of rain and temps right at freezing.  So back packing/ portaging in the rain to make sure your good and soaked from rain or sweat,cause it’s 100 percent humid, then freeze.

Really got me looking at a light snowtrekker.

Is there a Canadian distributor for snowtrekker?

Nice set up John.

Jeff, thanks for all the work you put into the maps over the years. I have a set of the complete set of the old ones. 

If you have never camped back country before it can be a bit daunting at first.

First thing I did was read a couple of Kevin Callan books cover to cover. Made me realize with some basic prep you can do it pretty easily.

At the same time I found the old forum here at AA. There is a tremendous amount of info on these forums.

Then I found Jeff’s map. I think it might have been in the first year you had them online. Gave me an accurate planning tool for how to get there.

So.  Big thanks to Kevin for writing some neat books, Barry and friends for keeping this forum up and properly moderated and Jeff for giving us all a huge resource for planning trips. Not sure I would have made the leap with out all three resources.

Thanks again

Several times going in to Algonquin we have had an odd man out. My brother used to bring a 14 foot old town,  can’t remember the model and solo paddle it with a long kayak paddle. He could usually keep up no problem. Not sure how big you guys are ,  the other option is the 18 foot three seater.  I did this last year with two 14year olds. Depends how long the trip is, how much stuff you are bringing. Being back packers you probably pack lighter than most canoe trippers. I know back packing the last few years has made me rationalize my pack. The longest portage and all that.

Surprising, if I read the chart right, most of the contamination in Algonquin is Mercury and PCBs.  Possibly left over from pulp processing?  I was expecting Louisa to be contaminated with arsenic.  It was Mercury and PCBs at Louisa. If you go to the MNR site,  they have a map with clickable fish telling you why fish are not edible in each area or the limit you should eat. There are several lakes within Algonquin, every one I checked had the Mercury code. Some had the pcb code. Maybe from coal plants burning farther south?  I am guessing. I am completely uneducated on pollution travel and movement.