I planned this out for months, 3 nights coming in at Basin Lake, where I’ve never been before. A couple of nights before the trip I felt a little off like I caught something. The night before I was debilitated, with some kind of killer cold and sinus pressure build up on the right side of my head … felt like somebody was standing on my face. The wife says to me, “you’re still going right?” and I said yes. She suggested some Tylenol, which I don’t usually take but wow, the stuff works … for a while.
 
Hit the road in the dark hours of the morning and ate my breakfast while waiting for the permit office at Bonnechere Provincial Park to open at 9. The road to Basin Lake just had a couple of puddles that I carefully drove through but I was stopped shortly after the turn off to the access by 10” deadfall across the road. I removed my trusty 30” Bacho Ergo Force from my pack and made short work of the log. I pulled into the access point and got out of my car to see the park warden just pulled in. He had a report that the road was blocked and this was the first chance he had to come clear it out. Too bad he wasn’t there ten minutes sooner. I didn’t bother with a canoe this trip because Basin Lake has several sites that are accessible without one.
 
On the first day I set up camp and cut up a bunch of appropriate pine logs to use as poles for my experimental tarp system. I also had a little power nap in the afternoon where the warmth of the sun heated the tent but I wasn’t sure if I was feeling hot because of the sun or because of a fever. Played around some more with the tarp but couldn’t get it to stand up the way I wanted and then at 6 pm it started to rain. I thought, screw this, I feel like crap and the dog and I retired to the tent for the night. Turns out it kept raining until 1:30 am and it was cold. Also, I was feeling wet in spots … my tent was leaking. Tons of condensation built up on the inside of the fly plus some drips coming in directly from overhead. I wasn’t surprised as I’ve seen some of the holes before, some from sparks and a cluster of 3 holes in the mesh that exactly matches my dog’s paw. I liked The North Face Vector 22 for its light weight but I always hated that when I stretch flat then both my head and my feet touch the sides. I’ll revert back to using my trusty MEC Wanderer 2.
 
I got up with the first light at 5 am but didn’t feel good enough to make a hot breakfast so I eat some bars and made Aeropress coffee. I adjusted the tarp setup to make it workable, which is a bit pointless because it wasn’t raining anymore. I got a good fire going, keeping myself warm, and I dried out my sleepingbag, tent, and thermarest. It was not a warm day. That night I felt good enough to sip some rum around the fire. That night’s sleep was much warmer.
 
The next day it cleared up a bit but it was still cool. I learned a new trick to stay warm around camp that morning. Open the 2 way zipper at the bottom of your sleeping bag and pop your head through. It’s like wearing a down overcoat. I should have thought of this sooner. For much of the day the air was completely still and the lake was like a mirror. Then at the end of the day I heard a big tree come crashing down several hundred meters away. I was feeling better and that night involved more rum and more fire. It rained again for 90 minutes during the night and the inside of the tent got a little wet. The next day I dried some things off and broke camp to go home.
 
The highlight of the trip was making the journey from Basin to Clover Lake. I took the old road on the east side of Basin and followed it as it became increasingly overgrown until it led me up the big hill towards a primary logging road that gets you over to Clover Lake. Clover Lake is really pretty and the walk there was only a little over 3 hours.