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I had the chance to bring the two oldest with me for an ice out trip. I took my daughter (now 6 1/2 years old) on a similar trip 2 years ago and now I'm also bringing my 3 1/2 year old son. Just a simple trip to Ragged Lake which I have never been to.
So what happens if you take you get taken out of school/daycare and watch mindless TV for several hours without asking for a single pee break? You get a massive Ice Cream at 11 in the morning! This is daddy's parenting style at it's finest.
My 25 year old backpack had finally died so my new pack is the large MEC Slogg and I love it. No more need for all those little dry bags, just stuff in all the sleeping bags, clothes, and toilet paper, seal it up and go. My daughter had grown so I got her a new bag for her and packed it kind of heavy. My daughter's old pack went to my son who was carrying all the food.
We didn't see another boat all the way down to the portage. We were planning to single carry and things started out good until both son and daughter started struggling on the steep rocky and muddy incline, they were almost falling backward from the weight of their packs so change to Plan B. I put the canoe down and helped them carry their packs over the short portage then went back and got the boat. Still made good time and before we knew it we snagged Campsite 3 on Ragged Lake which was perfect for us. On a point with shore on 3 sides and wide open space inside. On the tip of the point I got an intermittent cell signal that allowed me to text the wife to assure her everyone was fine.
The hammock is the only toy we brought. The kids spent a lot of time hunting "crystals" which to me looked like slightly sparkly rocks.
There was a good climbing tree too.
This was our sleeping arrangement. The kids on the mondoking, feet in the middle and heads on opposite sides and I was on the smaller thermorest. It was the perfect plan but I miscalculated because they both wanted me to sleep with my head beside theirs. Arrrrrg! Luckily we all fell asleep quickly.
The official firepit was on a huge rock but it was just a pile of rocks and muddy ashes with no practical place to build a fire. I had to chuck all the rocks over to the side and scrap off all the muddy ashes with my axe until I got down to the base. Then we had one nice fire.
I prefer not having a fire ring as it lets you feel the fire more. Unfortunately previous occupants had built two auxiliary firepits which were used to pretend cook some pine cones with some white fungus like deposit that the kids called marshmallow. Speaking of marshmallow, that and maple syrup, chocolate chips, fruit and granola bars, plus a bit of pancakes, oatmeal, and Annie's pasta was all that the kids ate. Their diet was 90% sugar.
This was a perfect site with lots of room for play and exploring for the kids. We had taken a couple of exploratory hikes. First towards the nearest campsite but we turned back when we could see it was occupied by people who were much quieter than us. The other hike was to the top of the hill behind the site where I was hoping to get a better cell signal, but did not. We got slightly thrown off course coming back down and had to walk much further than expected along the shore to make it back to our site. On the day we left it was a beautiful morning.
Before we headed out we explored 3 of the nearby campsites and we found the coolest looking tree.
This time I made sure the kid's packs were much lighter and we rocked the portage in a single carry.
Another successful trip with the little ones. Next year's goal, if my wife allows it, is to get out with all 3 kids, including the youngest who will be 2 1/2 at that point.
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hello solos and family
great trip report,,, ice cream always tastes better in algonquin park,,
the photos will make for wonderful memories for all,,
my experience with children is to have the kids sit backwards in the front of the canoe facing you,, that would give them a little more leg and elbow room. much easier to chat , get snacks, pass items back and forth,,
cheers
Last edited by swedish pimple (5/18/2024 7:36 am)
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Nice report, it sounds like everyone had an amazing time!
I really love that campsite on Ragged. Unfortunately when I stayed there, the squirrels almost made their way through the lid of my barrel overnight (luckily they were unsuccessful, but they left a lot of poop on top of the lid to display their anger).
The fire pit looks totally different in your photo compared to when I was there. Seems like it has been completely dismantled.
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I should have taken a before photo, the pit had no structure at all and was just a large jumble of rocks. I dissembled that and cleaned it all off so it could be rebuilt from scratch. That took a lot of time and energy. If I was there another day I would have built up some solid walls.
There is something weird about your photo, I don't remember having a view of the water from in front of the fire pit. I took a closer look and in your photo the fire pit is build on the opposite side of the rock compared with my photo. Seems like it was moved.
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What a great trip to hear about you and your kids together ! I will guarantee they will remember those moments for the rest of their lives ( I’m 74 and still remember the camping / fishing trips my dad took with me) They are lucky to have you as their Dad! Thanks for sharing
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solos wrote:
I should have taken a before photo, the pit had no structure at all and was just a large jumble of rocks. I dissembled that and cleaned it all off so it could be rebuilt from scratch. That took a lot of time and energy. If I was there another day I would have built up some solid walls.
There is something weird about your photo, I don't remember having a view of the water from in front of the fire pit. I took a closer look and in your photo the fire pit is build on the opposite side of the rock compared with my photo. Seems like it was moved.
Ok now I'm super curious to see what it looked like from the same angle as my photo lol. Were all of those rocks from my photo removed and it was just the bare, large rock? So both sides were completely dismantled and left in a jumble, and then you rebuilt it on the opposite side to how it was when I visited?
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Ok now I'm super curious to see what it looked like from the same angle as my photo lol. Were all of those rocks from my photo removed and it was just the bare, large rock? So both sides were completely dismantled and left in a jumble, and then you rebuilt it on the opposite side to how it was when I visited?
When we arrived there was a large jumble of rocks with a small fire pit at the top which was really useless for having any kind of fire but evidence of previous fires was there. This was on the opposite side of the pit in your pic. I dismantled that and piled all the rocks to the side of the big rock.
The pit in your pic didn't exist, it seemed like it was mostly dismantled before we arrived but it looked like some fires had there previously because you could see the rock was blackened.
I never got around to rebuilding walls. We just had a single fire on the second day and it was on the large flat part of the rock. Whoever uses the site next has the option to build up the pit the way they like it. Hopefully they don't use the "auxiliary" pit that was on the east side of the site or the other "auxiliary" pit that was on the west side of the site. With 2 little ones running around and only being there for 2 nights I could only do so much. With more time I would have cleaned all that mess up. Not surprisingly, there was a lack of firewood anywhere close to that site.
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On second thought, maybe a fair amount of the base of "your" fire pit still existed but it seemed like to me that the official pit was on the other side and I didn't want to change the location of the official pit. Maybe it makes more sense to have the pit as it appeared in your pic. I wonder where the park staff located the official pit?
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