This morning was a chilly -32 Celcius when I awoke. Hard to believe that in a little more than two months I'll be on my annual fishing trip in the Park. This winter has been colder and snowier than usual and everyday I yearn to be out on the water.
While I dream about dipping my paddle in Algonquin's lakes I have been busy planning my trips for the upcoming season, tweeking the routes for my five month canoe trip through the Park (will be posted shortly), plotting all the lakes, rivers, creeks & ponds I've canoed and campsites I've stayed at in the Park on a digital map (will be posted shortly) and planning trips in other wilderness areas to do over the course of a season in several years time.
I have been neglectful in transcribing my trip logs from last season and usually have them done by this point. Thus far I have completed only one which I have posted and as each gets completed I will post them instead of waiting for all to be complete and doing a bulk post.
This year's trips will consist of four in Algonquin and one in Temagami. The annual fishing trip will be in early May and I'm hopeful the ice will be out in time again this year. This year we will be heading to the Tattler Lake Cabin. It has been several years since I've been to the Tattler Cabin I'm looking forward to getting back. Last time we did a fishing trip out of the cabin we didn't have much luck, just a nice Speckled Trout on the first day out of the bottom of the Opeongo River. This year I'm planning on heading into Round Island Lake for a day. It has some great Lake Trout. The last time I was in there I came in from Dickson Lake. I had such good luck that day that it took me half and hour to get across the lake to the campsite for lunch as I kept catching fish on the way there! I also plan to try fishing Godda and Boot over a couple of days and of course Booth.
My solo trip is again slated for early June. It will be seven days this year, longer than I have been doing the past few years. I decided on a longer trip to actually incorporate two trips. When I was thinking about this years trip back in the fall it was between starting at Crotch and going into McKaskill and then down the Aylen River to Roundbush through Alsever, Wilkins, Robitaille and out at Aylen or starting at Opeongo and going through Dickson, White Partridge, North Branch, Green Leaf, Wenday and out at Grand. Being torn between the two I decided to combine the two routes and leave from Aylen and head up through Robitaille to McKaskill up to Dickson and then across to White Partridge, Greenleaf, Wenday and out at Grand. Besides covering a good chunck of the Park I haven't been through yet the other upside to the trip is that I'll be meeting my family at Grand when I'm done and spending four days camped at Achray.
June is also the time for my trip with my colleagues from work before the busy summer season is upon us. It gives us a chance to explore a different area of the Park each year that we other wise probably wouldn't get to and allows us to add to the Park's wildlife records and better provide Park Visitor's with information on areas of the Park outside of the Highway 60 Corridor. At this point we haven't pinned down a route yet but the feeling is that we might get back to the northwest area of the Park which we haven't been too in several years.
Our annual family trip this year will not be in Algonquin. Instead we are going to make a return to Temagami. It has been nine years since I've tripped Temagami and I'm really excited to be heading back. As the boys are still young we won't be doing anything too strenuous or hitting and large lakes where winds could be a problem. The plan is to head into Wakamika Lake heading south from the Temagami Lake access road where there will be only a couple of short portages.
My annual summer trip with my Dad will depart from Kiosk this year. A good chunk of the trip with encompass areas I've been through before but my Dad hasn't. The only new spot for me will be heading east from Upper Kawa through One Mile to Maple Creek. The route is a good one but I've heard Maple Creek from One Mile to the Tillie Lake portage can be bad if water levels are low and the alders haven't been brushed recently. One of the nights will be spent at the Birchcliffe Cabin which is one of the few cabins I haven't stayed in yet on all my journeys through the Park.
So once again it looks to be another good tripping season and I might even plan on doing a trip in the fall if time and my wife permits. Until next time my the sun always be in your face and the wind at your back. Happy paddling!
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