Adventure #1: Adventures along the Tim River

With the weather getting nicer and nicer, I felt as though it was time to take a little break from my work life and escape into the wilderness with my good friend Michelle. We decided on a two-day canoe trip up in Algonquin Park from Thursday, June 14th to the 15th. We began planning for the trip a week or so in advance as this was our first trip of the season together, and my first ever canoe camping trip.

We woke up early Thursday morning to load our packs and gear into the vehicle, before strapping on the canoe, loading her dog Snoopi into the back seat, and heading on our way. After stopping at the permit office, we proceeded to our access point at Tim River- #2. After unloading the vehicle, we stopped to take a few photos before loading the canoe and beginning our adventure! The day was a little breezy and overcast at first, but the sun started shinning as the day went on. We began paddling our way through the first stretch of the Tim River, admiring the scenery as it opened up into Tim Lake. By the time we were on Tim Lake, it was nearing lunch time so we decided to stop for a little snack at a nearby campsite. After regaining our energy, we continued through Tim Lake, passing a few other people on the water, as we made our way to our first and only portage. We completed a very short little portage and then loaded the canoe to paddle through the winding Tim River.

The Tim River was an interesting adventure to say the least! We had to cross multiple beaver dams as we weaved our way through the narrow river. We passed through Little Butt Lake, which appeared to be more of a pond than a lake, before continuing through the river. After hours of paddling monotonously down the river, we began hoping, with excitement, that every new clearing of trees would bring us out into Rosebary Lake. As it was nearing 5 o'clock, we began praying that the end of our current section of river would bring us out into Rosebary Lake- which we found out later it did! But, not before we got to see a moose eating in the middle of the river ahead of us. After admiring the moose for a bit, another moose appeared out of the nearby trees, escorting the other moose to the opposite side of the river. Michelle and I were very excited to have seen the moose, but were also ready to get to our campsite for the night. Progressing further down the river, those plans were halted when a third, male moose made an appearance. The moose began having his dinner as Michelle and I were forced to wait on the river for him to move from our path. We ended up waiting over an hour before the moose finally moved from the river so that we could pass. If anyone has any tips to clear moose faster, please let me know ha ha! The unfortunate part is I also didn't manage to get any good pictures of the moose.

                           

As we finally made it past all the moose, Rosebary Lake came into view and we were beyond excited to finally have dinner. After paddling around Rosebary for a bit to try and find the best campsite, we settled on a nice site that actually had a bit of sandy beach. We ended up setting up camp fairly quick, before preparing our Backpacker's Pantry meals, watching the sunset, and calling it a night due to the intensity of the bugs. The next morning, we woke up to some beautiful sunshine, preparing some more Backpacker's Pantry meals for breakfast before packing up camp. We once again loaded our packs into the canoe as we headed back on route the same way we came in to Rosebary Lake. Luckily this time we didn't have any moose traffic on the Tim to keep us held up.

After stopping for a quick snack on our way back through the portage into Tim Lake, we ended up running into some mildly choppy waters, but nothing we couldn't handle! We came across some more paddlers on Tim Lake, the only place we had any company on the trip. As we were transitioning from Tim Lake into the Tim River on our way back to the access point, a mother goose began squawking at us as we passed by her nest. She then proceeded to attempt to attack us as she thought we intended to hurt her babies. We just continued paddling as fast as we could past her nest to try to calm the goose down. We then warned other paddlers, on their way down the river, of the goose up ahead, as she was a wee bit frightening. We finally reached the dock at the access point where we unloaded the canoe before loading everything back into the vehicle and saying goodbye to the Tim.

It was definitely an exciting trip and one I will never forget! It has made me want to continue adventuring, although I'm still not sure I'll go back down the Tim River as it is very unique, but not necessarily my taste in rivers. If you like a slow pace, with a lot of the same scenery, perhaps this is the trip for you.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my first canoe tripping adventure. Feel free to leave any tips or stories of your own below. Also, make suggestions about what sort of things you'd like to see me write about next!

                                                                       Until the next adventure,
                                                                     ~ Megan