Having bought a new canoe last week my Wife and I were super excited to get out on the water and introduce our Son "Hiker" to backcountry camping via our canoe. This was also an opportunity to get my Wife back into something that she enjoyed in her younger years teaching paddling skills to youth at the Haliburton Scout reserve. We reserved a site on Long Lake that would allow for an easy introductory paddle to test the waters so to speak, with our Son and Australian Cattle dog "Chaya". Our plan was to spend the night and take our time paddling back out the next day as we had a gathering with friends that evening to attend.
With the canoe loaded and our gear in the van we were on our way to the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, the largest park in Ontario South of Algonquin P.P. We left our home in Cavan, Ontario at around 2:40pm with a stop in Lakefield for a late lunch (early dinner?), coffee at Tim Horton's and then back on the road up Highway #28 to Long Lake Rd. During our road trip we were hit with driving rain, heavy thunder and lightening. We arrived at the Long lake access point around 4pm and as we pulled up to offload the canoe the rain stopped with the echoing sounds of thunder off in the distance. What luck! We made short work of loading the canoe and parking our vehicle. I witness the renewed joy on my Wife's face when the paddle hit the water and the constant chatter of my Son as he points in all directions with excitement. Chaya our furry friend, not so much. This was her first time in a canoe and it took her a good half hour of being in the boat to find her sea legs and settle.
All our happiness came to a brief halt when we arrived at our site, #402. From about 30 yrds away we could notice that the site we would be calling home for the night was covered in garbage. Disappointment set in. Not in the park staff, as we know they have their hands full, but in the people who thought they could occupy this spot and leave it in a horrible mess. As the saying goes, it only takes one bad seed to spoil the apple, or something like that. Regardless we were not going to let this spoil our trip and it aloud us the chance to teach our three year old proper backcountry etiquette. We unloaded our canoe and got to work cleaning up the site separating garbage and recycling, crushing cans and bottles so they were more compact to pack out. This chore took us about 45 minutes of our time but felt a sense of accomplishment in keeping the places we like to visit clean and showing our boy the leave no trace aspect of occupying these beautiful spaces. With that out of the way we setup our camp and enjoyed cooking over the fire, Hiker and I tried our hand at fishing and short hikes around the trails that stretched out from our site. We retired to our tent shortly after 10pm and spent the night with high winds pounding our tent walls. Our Kelty "Getaway 4" held up good against the onslaught and we remained comfortable throughout.
We exited the tent in the morning to some cooler temperatures as the Sun hadn't had the opportunity to grace our site yet due to high cliffs and tress on the East side of our site. I quickly got to building a fire and cooking breakfast (hot oatmeal) to warm us up. Hiker took every opportunity to strike up conversation with all the paddlers that would go by our site heading down the lake to their own destinations. He was quickly becoming a part of the outdoor community right in front of my eyes. It brought on a sense of complete joy. I always knew we were doing the right thing exposing him to the outdoors at a young age but it really solidifies it when you see your teachings and dedication come to fruition. Later in the morning we were visited by Park Staff to check our permits and ask us how our trip has been. After talking for a few moments they asked about the condition of our campsite when we arrived. My Wife told them our story and they were not surprised as they had a complaint that they were checking into on the condition of the site. They had been told that the site was trashed and that the people who had permits to occupy that site the day before us changed sites and made the complaint. They also said that it was possible that this group of individuals who left the mess had possibly broken into the cottage across the lake. The staff were grateful that we took the time to clean it up and took the bags of garbage from us and loaded in their boat so we didn't have to pack it out. We took our time making our way back out of the park that day taking in the scenery and capturing some photo's. The weather was amazing on our paddle out and it capped off our little adventure just the way we like it. Such a great experience for us all to share together, and more to come now that we have our new canoe "Dhara". Looking forward to exploring this park some more very soon :)
More pictures to follow below.
Until next time, adventure awaits!
Johnny- Two4adventure
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