Three Trips Booked, Two to Go

Early March here in Muskoka and so far it's a typical early March, winter one day, spring the next, then back to winter.  Long range forecast is looking good so here's to an early ice out in the Park and dipping my paddle in before the official "opening" weekend.

Until then I'm still day dreaming about my trips to come in the Park over the next several months. Out of the five I have planned three are booked.  Of the two remaining I'm still trying to figure out where to go.  Before I get into that, thanks to those who voted on my solo trip routes.  Despite the slight edge in favour of the Cache McGarvey-Hilly route I opted for the Tim-Big Bob-Rosebary route.

The remaining trips I have left to book are my August trip with my Dad, which I'll have to decide on by the fifteenth of this month and then one with my wife for the middle of July.  My parents are looking after the kids for a few days thus allowing my wife and I to get out on our first trip since we went to Temagami 2005.

The trip with my Dad I've narrowed down to two of the seven that I have posted.  Thanks again to all that have cast their vote.  The trip with my wife we've narrowed down to four options out of about a dozen that I originally came up with.

Here are the four possible options which we'll be deciding on in the next day or two so I can make the reservation.  Three of the four have us making a base camp for three days and then doing day trips to explore the surrounding lakes.

Trip 1                                                                    Trip 2
Start: Smoke                                                         Start: Shall
Night One: Dividing                                               Night One: Booth
Night Two: Dividing                                              Night Two: Booth
Night Three: Dividing                                             Night Three: Booth
Out: Smoke                                                           Out: Shall

Trip 3                                                                    Trip 4
Start: Shall                                                             Start: Aylen (cart trail)
Night One: Shirley via Bridle                                  Night One: Wilkins
Night Two: McKaskill Cabin                                 Night Two: Wilkins
Night Three: McKaskill Cabin                               Night Three: Wilkins
Out: Shall                                                              Out: Aylen (cart trail)

I'm leaning towards the McKaskill trip but I'm going to let my wife decide what she'd like to do.

I also just booked the trip with my two boys and my Dad.  For my eldest, who is 3 1/2, this will be his second trip, and this will be the first trip with my youngest who will be 2 when we go.  I tried to book into Little Eagle Lake the earliest I could but to my chagrin the only site on the lake had already been booked steady from July 12th through to August 1st.  So either someone is setting up camp there for a long period of time or they want it for a specific date and are booking off a block then changing their reservation later to the actual dates they want.  Oh well, will have to try again next year.

So this year we are back to Crotch Lake where we went this year.  This is a good option with my youngest along as it's only a ten minute paddle to the sites and there is no portaging.

I just realized that I actually will have six and not five trips this year.  The one I forgot about is with work.  Each June the Naturalist Staff at the Park takes three days to do a trip to get better acquainted with different areas of the Park, since the majority of our time spent working in the Park is along the Highway 60 corridor.  I'm not sure where we're going this year but I'm looking forward to it non-the-less.  It's always and adventure when you send six Geeks (nickname for Park Naturalists) to fend for themselves in Algonquin's backcountry!