JOURNEY #43 - June 28-July 1, 2004

Opeongo Lake: "Moose And Mosquitos"

PICTURES

View from campsite
Interesting amphibian
Double bath
Swimming moose
Blackbird on beaver lodge
Moose in field
Loon in creek
Boulder in Costello Creek
Baby ducks
Another view from campsite
Geese and goslings
Curious pair of moose
Interesting stumps
Entrance to Hailstorm
Julie in the weeds
Tenting
Sample campsite in south end

TRIP REPORT

Opeongo is the biggest lake in Algonquin Park. The biggest negative from a paddling perspective is that motor boats are allowed. A real shame. But it is a big lake and in some of the key wildlife areas like Costello Creek and Hailstorm Creek motor boats are not permitted.

Although you can reserve an interior campsite, you can't reserve an actual campsite...all they will promise you is that somewhere on the lake that you are camping on, there will be a campsite. We checked in with the park administration at the launch area. It's a busy place, and has lots of commercial trappings such as a store, boat rentals, and water taxis. Two thumbs down on water taxis.

Anyway, after a lot of fussing about - we've never done interior camping with our kayaks before - we set off for the North Arm (see map). According to all of our research, this was the place to be particularly for viewing wildlife and getting away from it all.

The water was very calm on Monday. We had heard, as expected on a large lake, that the winds can be quite challenging. The paddle is most interesting in the areas where the lake narrows, where there are typically lots of small islands. The lake varies constantly from sandy shores to rough granite. We saw quite a few loons, some ducks, a couple of birds of prey, and a mink that was swimming in open water and then slithered up some granite onto an island. Minks do not look like water creatures, but somehow they manage just fine.

Navigation was not too difficult. We had a good map (Adventure Series waterproof) and of course given our destination, it was mostly a matter of heading north. Once we got through the narrows that signals the start of the North Arm, it was then time to try and find a campsite. We checked out a spot called Hershey Island but it didn't have a decent landing area and not much of a place for a tent either...Bannock Island just north of that had someone camping on it already...there was yet another island to the north, but it too was taken...as was Eric's Island southwest of that...as were all the campsites on the peninsula...it was down to just two sites left.

Both sites on the western shore were available, but the one to the north seemed to be little more than a piece of angled granite, so we defaulted to our last choice. The great news was that it was located on a nice little secluded sandy bay with an easy landing and there was lots of room for a tent. The good news/bad news is that it was set on the edge of a thick forest and adjacent the swampy areas of Hailstorm Creek. The creek was to be our main area of exploration, so the proximity was good news...the bad news was that the mosquitos were unbelievable. We both hate wearing bug repellant, so it was a matter of wearing head nets and covering up. Yes, we still got bitten dozens of times, but without those nets...it would have been ugly.

We didn't do any more paddling on Monday. Sadly, this was actually our first time out the entire year, so we were pretty tired, especially after chasing all over the north end with fully loaded kayaks looking for a campsite. We quietly tuned in election coverage on CBC on a little radio and finding that the world probably wasn't going to change that much, turned it off and went to sleep.

We enjoyed our surroundings all day and experimented with the cooking of dehydrated foods and set off for the creek in the early evening. This is a pretty big creek and quite a huge wetland area. We had gone perhaps two kilometres before encountering our first moose. He was easily visible to the naked eye but set well back in the grasses on the edge of the forest. There was a canoe already set up in the weeds taking pictures, so we moved on. We saw only one other canoe (no kayaks) within a few minutes, and then nobody else for the rest of the night.

We paddled the remainder of the creek. It's something like 7 km from beginning to end. We didn't see any other moose on the initial leg. We did come across a family of geese, it looked like about four goslings. They seemed very out of place, but then again, being at the extreme end of Hailstorm Creek would be a nice quite place to raise a family - except for the intrusion of nosey kayakers like us!

We had fought a steady wind the entire trip west, and we wanted it to be a little closer to dusk for optimal moose-viewing on the return trip, so we mostly let the breeze push us back east. We were not disappointed...we came across two youngsters who appeared to be taking a rest in the grass. We could see their ears sticking up (very cute) and their mother in the distance. Then they overheard some of our conversation and stood up...they stared at us with what appeared to be a look of curiosity. Perhaps the whole Tilley hat and bug net combo was new to them. We all stared at each other for a while and moved on.

Within a minute or so we came across a large female who seemed to be taking a bath. She was grunting and mooing, but didn't seem to concerned with our presence. Then she started doing more of a high-pitched moo and a calf emerged from the nearby stand of trees, and they went off in the night together. As we continued on, we saw four more of these magnificent creatures hanging out in the grasses between the water and the forest. It was getting pretty dark so we decided to call it a night.

Tuesday night something pretty darn big came crashing through the woods behind our tent at about 3:00 am. It is unlikely that it was a black bear (and even if it was, extremely unlikely that it wanted anything to do with us) but when you wake up at 3:00 am in a tent in a secluded forest sometimes you assume the least comforting option. Whatever it was (perhaps a moose) it crashed on by and did not enter our camp. It was kind of exciting and also unnerving to realize that were truly in the wilderness.

Wednesday was spent with more cooking experiments and also a swim. It was certainly cold, but it felt good. Protecting yourself from mosquitos without bug repellant means wearing a lot of clothes and feeling overheated a lot of the time!

We waited until almost 8:00 pm to head back into the creek. This time we paddled barely more than a kilometre, turned a corner, and there was an adult couple just on their way into the water. They looked at us but seemed unconcered. We stopped paddling and let our kayaks glide us in a big closer. The female swam across the creek into an area where there was lots of aquatic vegetation and started chowing down. The male soon joined her. They make a lot of noise when they eat. It sounds a bit like a big group of men eating unlimited spicy chicken wings and drinking beer.

We must have watched them for half an hour. We ended up not more than 20 feet away. We had drifted into a weedy area near the shore and we were covered in mosquitos. They weren't necessarily biting us, but it was nevertheless a bit irritating over time, so we carefully moved around our two acquaintances on onward down the creek. Strangely we didn't see any moose in the area that was so busy the previous night.

A loon played hide and seek with us for a while, and then we went back. The couple were just heading into the woods when we returned to the previous spot. We waved goodnight and headed back to the campsite under the moonlight. It was almost a full moon and the beauty of Algonquin shone through. We paddled out into the open area of the North Arm, took off our hats and nets, and enjoyed the view, the noises, and the cool breeze.

Wednesday night we were drifting off to sleep when it became apparent that it was starting to rain. We like to sleep in the tent with both windows and the roof uncovered (except for the screen of course!) so this meant running out to grab the waterproof tarp section of the tent and throwing it on top. It was a good thing we did, because it was one heack of a thunderstorm! Massive episodes of rolling thunder and sheets of lightning that lit up the tent with alarming intensity! When the rain died down a bit, we could hear some sort of animal messing around close by. Then some other animal was splashing around in the lake! With the tent all covered up to keep the rain out, we couldn't even peer out to see what was there. Eventually we fell asleep.

Thursday we cleaned up the camp and started stuffing everything back into the kayaks. We both have "high volume" versions of our respective boats, but it is still amazing to see how much you can stuff in there. When all the gear is laid out on the ground and you look at the kayaks, you think "no way is that all going in there!"

It was a wickedly windy day. Paddling east out of the north arm we had big waves washing over us from the southwest, making tracking a bit difficult. When we turned south it was in our faces. It got worse when we started crossing the big bay...nasty winds from the southwest producing the occassional splash right over our heads. There were a lot of canoes out on the water and most of them starting heading for shore. Amazingly, we spotted a number of them without life jackets. Not too bright. Someone drowned after their canoe capsized the previous Saturday.

The wind was mostly in our faces, hitting from the side out of the west, or somewhere in between for the entire journey. It was a big workout! Two strapping lads in a canoe ended up alongside us for most of the trip, it was interesting to see how one person paddling a kayak matched up equally with two people in a canoe. They were obviously pretty experienced canoeists and knew how to stay low to get through the wind. The wind was blowing so hard as we got near the dock that it was almost impossible to stay on course. A few people who had rented canoes had been blown back into the weeds of Costello Creek and couldn't seem to get out. Eventually they made it.

Our initial plan was to go into Whitney for a big meal at the BP restaurant (which we did) and then return to the Opeongo launch area (which we did) and then paddle Costello Creek at dusk (which we didn't). The long hard paddle into the wind signalled the end. We took a few pictures and headed home.