Welcome back to part two of our nine day canoe camping trip into The Massasauga provincial park, we last left you at the end of our stay at site 106 on Vicary lake and the morning of day five. The map I had, and the information on my GPS indicated that we would have a very pleasant non- strenuous trip to our next campsite on Creswicke lake. Lamentably global warming seems to have struck parts of Vicary lake, and the 100 metre portage was lengthened to well over 500 metres to bypass the dried up section of the lake.
Once we had hauled our gear along this lengthened portage we thankfully had a very short paddle to our next site, I say thankfully because the winds were howling today, with gusts of over 40 Km/hr, while those winds may be appreciated by Kite enthusiasts or the Tako kichi amongst us, trying to propel a canoe into those headwinds is very tiring and frustrating.
We were only to be at site 107 for one night, of this I was thankful. I mentioned earlier that one of the most desirable feature of a campsite is its swimmability *. (*The availability of one or more pleasing swimming locations – Taken from the John Russell Scrabble dictionary edition 3) This campsite was the first we have come across that offered little in the way of swimming access. Its small beach was muddy, weedy and home to a very large water snake, and the remainder of the site would make for good cliff jumping, but hard to get back.
The site was despite being a poor choice for swimming, a great choice for large groups, with multiple sites for tents throughout the site (based on some of the trash left behind, I think a large group had recently called this site home (well the kind of home you like to leave trash in)
I came across a large snake warming itself in the sun. We knew it wasn’t the namesake Massasagua rattle snake, so relaxed (Only venomous snake in Ontario is the Massasagua rattle snake) I think it was a Northern watersnake. so quite harmless despite its size. A lot of visitors to this park, and region unjustifiably fear the Massasagua rattle snake, I am more concerned about Marcus than Karen and I. The venom of a Massasauga is more toxic than that of most other rattlesnakes, but the amount it injects is relatively small compared to those snakes. Venom, typically used by snakes to kill their prey, is expensive for snakes to produce. Therefore, many snake bites contain little or no venom. These venom-less bites, called dry-bites, occur in about 25 percent (and possibly as high as 50 percent) of all rattlesnake bites. As a result of this and the successful use of antivenin treatment, fatalities from an Eastern Massasauga bite are extremely rare. There are no known fatalities in the last 40 years.
A few days later on meeting a park Ranger, we were given some Benadryl pills (which he claimed were a helpful in protecting yourself (and your dog) from the effects of the venom. I think the jury is out on that advice as on further research there is a lot of contradictory advice in regards to the use of Benadryl to treat snake bites.
Camping etiquette is something thankfully most people who back country camp adhere to. For backcountry camping in Ontario parks the rules state Check in time is after 2:00 p.m. and check out time is before 2:00 p.m. Which means you must be off your site earlier than 2:00 p.m. We have only once encountered a family that were still on site well after two, but other than that one time we have never had an issue. I bring this up to explain why we (after we had struck camp) sat at our site until after two.
Remember the family (Bermuda triangle) who had paddled past our previous site. The only campsites in the direction they were going were 107 and 108, since we were on 107, they must have travelled on to 108. Other than taking the 380m portage from 108 into the North channel and outside the park where there are no campsites, they would have to return and paddle past us. Our next site was going to be 108, but since the family had not passed by us, they must have failed in camping etiquette, remaining on their site past two.
Tired of waiting for them to vacate 108, Karen and I paddled the short distance and portaged the shortest easiest trail we have ever encountered, a mere 50m. We were expecting to come across the mysterious family, but were surprised to find no sign of them. We discussed this with the Ranger we met on site, He claimed he had heard talk on the radio about a family that were lost and trying to find their campsite…..The Massasagua triangle has claimed another family……(probably not as interesting as it appeared to us, and almost certainly would not have made Agatha Christie envious)
Site 108 sat at the north west of Speyer lake, a very scenic and small lake with only one camp site (once again we had an entire lake to ourselves)
The site ticked 4 of our 5 “perfect site” boxes, It was scenic, swimmable, easy boat docking, and secluded. Unfortunately it did not have an area suitable to pitch a tent. The site we put up the bug tent was damp and very uneven due to protruding roots and rocks (good enough for a couple of camp chairs) where we ended up setting up the tent was a hollow between two rock ridges, fortunately our tent is free standing as there was no where to put in tent pegs, I had to use rocks to hold it from blowing away.
The park Ranger that visited us at this site was considering putting in a raised tent pad at this site, we strongly encouraged him to do so. With a tent pad this would be a phenomenal site ticking all boxes and becoming one of only a few John Russell Five star rated campsites in the park. On a that subject, despite not venturing in that direction on this trip, for anyone wanting to visit The Massasagua, my highest recommendation goes to site 31 on Clear lake (without a doubt the most spectacular campsite in the park) It is incredibly hard to book (hence us not visiting it this trip)
Another piece of interesting information we learnt from the Ranger, was that at the end of the 380m portage, and a short ten minute paddle across the Seven mile Channel we could find a pub. While the thought of sitting down eating a decent meal (after living of dehydrated and freeze dried food for the last week) and enjoying it with a cold beer was very very tempting, there were still very strong winds. If I have learnt one thing, it is how dangerous the open waters of Georgian Bay can be in high winds in a canoe (after a few beer) So Karen and I settled for rehydrated food and luke warm filtered water Hmm yummy!
The pub would return to haunt us later that evening. While it was approx. 1 km from our site we could hear music blaring all night. A very surreal experience considering how far into the back country we had travelled, only to be kept awake by pub music. I for the only time on this trip was forced to use my Bose sleep buds (normally reserved to drown out the sweet angelic sounds periodically emitted from my loving sleeping wife)
We were only booked into this site for one night, a pity because other than the unwanted concert, it was a great spot to relax.
One failure in my masterplan was about to reveal itself (I cannot take all responsibility, the scarcity of available sites despite booking five months prior had a lot to do with the plan) On leaving this site and travelling to our next site (site 2) we had four portages and five lakes to navigate. We made an earlier departure than usual in order to get to our last campsite before it got too late.
Despite having devoured the vast majority of the weight (at least of the food barrel) it was a long and tiring day and I was in dire need of some pharmaceutical assistance. That night my stash of (airborne smarties aka Ibuprofen) were raided a few times.
Our last campsite, and I think we saved the nicest to last. It was very relieving to get here after all the muddy portages. When you do three carries on each of the four portages it can make for an interesting day.
Another advantage to this site, is its proximity to the start point at Three legged lake, making it a short trip at the end of the expedition. We did paddle out and recce some of the other sites close by. Two that really interested us, was site 4 and 5, both had spectacular beaches (unfortunately both were occupied otherwise I would have had a few pictures)
There was a strong possibility for some rain while we were at site 2, I noticed that the “facilities” were in dire need of some DIY if we were to remain dry during that ever so important of morning rituals. I think the toilet roll holder would make Martha Stewart weep with envy.
Site 2 is a site that managed to check all 5 in our perfect campsite checklist. A great little beach and fantastic rock ledges for swimming, it also had multiple spots to pitch tent, highly recommended.
We had planned our meals perfectly, and by our last evening we were down to our last meals (other than one in reserve) For this trip because of the length, we stuck to mostly freeze dried and dehydrated food, nuts and granola bars. For the last night I had saved the best for last (for Karen – my meal kind of sucked) Karen had Happy Yak Cheese and mushroom risotto…Not as good as my home made, but not bad for dehydrated camp food. We have tried Happy Yak a few times and have been very impressed. Their Pad Thai is incredible…And its Canadian made.
The two pictures I took of the Deer, while I would have loved it had I taken them while out in the park…unfortunately they were taken right outside our hotel room in Bracebridge..once again only wildlife smaller than a breadbox was witnessed by us on this trip.
Poor Karen seems to have come down with a case of Beaver Fever on returning from this trip, we are waiting on the test results. Unfortunately it has delayed our departure for our next trip to Vermont and Maine. But it does help to stress the importance of hygiene while backcountry camping. When it comes to drinking water we take two steps to drink safe water. Firstly I filter our water using a gravity filter with additional carbon filtration. I then follow this up by using UV light sterilization. Despite taking these precautions it looks like Karen might have got infected by accidently swallowing some water while swimming. So for all the campers out there…be careful.
Until our next adventures………
