Adventure #11: The Island of Birds on North Tea Lake in Algonquin
We made our way across Kawaywaymog Lake towards the Amable du Fond which would wind us through some narrow waters and a couple portages before reaching our final destination on North Tea Lake. Right from the put-in, we ended up with a canoe trailing us. The couple in the canoe was very friendly, making conversation about where we had travelled from and how gorgeous the weather was as they overtook us on Amable du Fond (they appeared to be stronger paddlers than us haha). We also ended up crossing paths with numerous other paddlers heading the opposite way through the Amable du Fond. Who would've thought it to be so busy on a Thursday morning? After a long stretch of paddling, we finally made it the first 65m portage. While unloading our gear and getting ready to make the trek across, Michelle and I were pleased to see a family with young kids loading their canoe. The kids appeared very excited to be out camping in the backcountry despite carrying a lot of gear over the portage, which is always a good indicator that they've just become hooked on the beauty of canoe tripping.
Once across the portage, Michelle and I took some time to appreciate the small waterfall, including the two frogs we found enjoying the water, before loading up and setting out again. After narrowly avoiding scratching the canoe on some well-hidden rocks, we soon arrived at the next portage as it had been a much shorter paddle. The portage was a little longer at 254m and involved a couple sets of wooden stairs built into the dirt hills. There was also a wooden pier that I'd imagine might be more usable in higher water. On this portage, we noticed a group of young girls in what appeared to be a summer camp for canoe tripping. We thought it might have been a Girl Guide group which brought us back to reminiscing about our time as Girl Guides.
The other side of the portage had another pretty waterfall to admire as well as a monument to memorialize two park rangers who had passed. Since the portage was quite busy, we opted to wait until the next morning when we'd be crossing the portage again, hopefully with fewer people, to admire the surroundings.
Once loaded back into the canoe, we set out on a quick paddle to the left (North-Western) shore in hopes of finding a nice beach site. We ended up spotting a sandy shore from in the distance and paddled that way hoping that it would in fact be a site. On the journey there, we also noticed a small cottage that was rather cute.
Once near the sandy beach, we were pleased to discover that it was, indeed, a marked site. After a quick investigation of the site, we declared it home for the night. We got to work unpacking our gear and setting up before stopping for some lunch. I enjoyed some wraps with peanut butter and honey on them, along with some Mio added to my water. After eating, we wanted to walk the sandy shore for asking as it would take us in hopes of finding some ruins at a site a few down from us. Unfortunately, we never ended up finding the ruins, but we did find a really nice, huge site that would be perfect for a large group.
As we got back to our own site, the heat of the day was really starting to get to us and so we decided to go for a swim. The water was insanely warm so it wasn't even that refreshing, but Michelle and I enjoyed spending a few hours just relaxing in the clear water. We even ended up choreographing a short little synchronized swimming routine as an attempt to spend even more time in the water haha. While in the water we also came across quite the school of fish which was pretty entertaining.
Eventually, we made our way out of the water, deciding on getting the rope situated for our bear hang so that we wouldn't have to worry about it later. Although I did get the rope over the branch on one of the first throws, unfortunately, the carabiners I had on to weight the line were not quite heavy enough, causing the rope to become stuck above our reach. Michelle luckily found a large branch (basically a small tree) that was lying on the ground of our site and caught that in the carabiners to bring it down to our reach. Stupidly, however, we weren't holding onto the other end of the rope while she did that and so that end (the one without the carabiners) ended up moving up just out of arms reach. I had to attempt to jump and grab it multiple times before I was finally successful and our bear hang was ready to be put to use later.
After the fun of setting up our bear hang, Michelle and I relaxed for a bit before preparing our dinners. For this trip, I had brought instant mashed potatoes with gravy and pieces of ready crisp bacon. I started off trying to cook the gravy, but just as I went to ignite my stove the pot slid off, dumping my gravy all over the ground. I ended up having to dump a fair bit of water on the ground in an attempt to dilute the gravy so as to not attract any wildlife before I was able to continue with my dinner. Luckily the potatoes I had chosen were seasoned and so they were still flavorful enough on their own without the gravy.
After eating, washing our dishes, and hanging our food in our bear hang, Michelle and I decided to go for a short evening paddle. We discovered a tiny waterfall (runoff from the next lake over) before heading back to camp and opting to retreat to our beds for the night as we were both tired from the early morning start and we were anticipating another early morning the next day.
Annoyingly enough, the island near our site that we had noticed earlier in the day as being filled with birds, got quite noisy overnight, with the birds never quieting down. We both managed to get a good amount of sleep, but the bird island was definitely loud.
Waking up at 5am, Michelle and I got to work packing up all of our gear and having a quick breakfast of some snack-y foods before heading out on the water by 6am. The sun was just rising which made for a really beautiful paddle back to the first portage. This time we stopped to enjoy the waterfall and monument at the portage as there were no other paddlers out yet. By the time we made it to the other side of the portage, the sun was almost fully up, creating another hot and sticky day of paddling.
We made it to the second portage rather quickly, before setting out for a rather long journey down the rest of the Amable du Fond river. While on this stretch of the river we encountered quite a bit of wildlife, including two separate families of ducks sunbathing on some fallen logs, as well as a blue heron. The heron actually ended up snapping up a fish while we were watching which was very cool!
We ended up making it back to the portage by around 9am, only having passed a couple other canoes on Kawigamog Lake heading on their way towards North Tea Lake. Michelle and I loaded up the vehicle and set out on our way home, ending our escape to the sandy beaches of North Tea Lake. Despite the annoyance of the bird island, it was a very peaceful and relaxing trip and definitely one that I'd consider making again in the future! Have any of you had any similar bird experiences? Leave a comment below to let me know how you handled it.
Until the next adventure,
- Megan
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