On Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 14:16, Bruce Hamm <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote on "[OM] (OT) Back from the wilds...," saying..
> Hi all,
>
> Managed to get back from my trip to Algonquin Park It turned out to be an
> extreme mental, emotional and physical test. It didn't take us long to
> figure out that we bit off a bit more than we could chew. Our route ended up
> being a little over 120 km travelled over three and a half days.
Ouch. I aim for 20-25k/day
> We were on the move for most of the day and, unfortuantely, there
> was little time (or energy) for photography. We seemed to hit every
> type of water, in all conditions. We had the misforture of reaching
> a portion of our route, over larger lakes, while the conditions
> were not at all favorable. Strong winds in our faces and whitecaps
> flowing over the bows of our canoes. We spent almost as much time
> bailing as we did paddling.
Time for some spray skirts. Dangerous, too, easy to swamp.
There were a couple of deaths recently near here due to this.
Thank goodness they weren't cross winds!
> Given our tight time constraints, we were not able to take refuge
> and wait for the conditions to turn more favorable (not a wise
> decision). After that, we faced a series of portages totalling 5
> km.. My pack tipped the scales at 142 lbs.
Plus the canoe...I found 120lbs to be quite enough. And that's with a
frame pack! And when I was younger. Once I packed the Canoe and about
60 lbs about 3k along a road, thinking it was the portage. Not.
I finally noticed the shadows & sun position. Back 3k to the right
path. Not bad, if you take small steps. Felt very foolish...
But why do you need 142 lbs for 3 1/2 days? I've read that John Muir
and the other Sierra trekkers fasted on their mountain weekends,
taking only a blanket along. I guess those male-bonding beer cases
add up...Travel (blue) light!
> That night, we slept on the ground, in the rain for half the
> evening even though our tents were set up only a short distance
> away. We were that exhausted. On our last day, we reached a marsh
> that, unfortunately, had all but dried up. If we turned around to
> take an alternate route, we would not reach our access point (where
> we parked our cars) by the end of the day. Our only choice was to
> push on. The marsh was very muddy, and my first step found me up to
> my waist in boggy peat. I had to use my paddle to disperse my
> weight in order to climb out. Portaging through this stuff was out
> of the question. The extra weight of the packs would just make us
> sink further. So. for the next three hours we slogged through the
> bog and dragged the loaded canoes behind us.
Done similar stuff for hours, dragging a canoe up a stream that was
way more rocks than water.
> Finally reaching our portage, we spent about half an hour resting
> and removing leetches (I had 23 on my legs). After the portage, we
> hit open water and were treated with a brisk wind and fairly strong
> current at our backs. This helped us make really good time and we
> reached our access point around 5pm.
Finally some good luck.
> Surprisingly, we did not see too much in the ways of wildlife. Mostly,
> different sorts of birds. Most interesting were loons, which truly are as
> beautiful to see as they are to listen to. They would suddenly surface very
> close to the canoe, often within 15 feet. Usually, they were found in pairs
> as they mate for life, and when one dies the other tends to live only
> shortly thereafter. We heard wolves every night. One night was particularly
> chilling, as the usual long gentle howling was replaced by excited yapping
> and growling. What followed was more and more growling and snarling and some
> sound that can be best described as an animal screaming. Then silence.
> Presumably, a pack had brought down a deer not too far from our camp. Sound
> can carry a far distance in the bush, but later that same night we could
> hear the pack much more clearly. We could even hear the wolves panting.
> Maybe a bit too close for comfort.
Despite the movies, I believe that wolves stay away from humans.
> Mandatory OM content (lessons learned):
>
> 1) I wish I had shot more pictures. Believe it or not, I only shot 1 roll of
> film and most of those were simple snaps of my friends. I just did not find
> much time for picture taking. Shame, but next time our timetable will be
> different.
>
> 2) For the sort of trip this was, the Tamron SP with matching teleconverter
> setup was useless and needlessly added weight to my already overloaded pack.
> Any wildlife shots I got were "fleeting moment" grab shots, and there simply
> was no time to setup a tripod, etc.etc. for use with any longer telephoto. A
> 135mm and a converter will be all that I will pack for tele use next time.
>
> 3) I need to upgrade my tripod. Although the one I use now is fairly light
> and compact, which was nice for this trip, and I have not really found it to
> be lacking on the paved streets of the city where I usually shoot, it did
> not fare well on the rugged terrain in the bush.
How did it fail you?
> 4) While it did not see much use, my OM-2n didn't let me down when called
> upon during some fairly harsh conditions. At night, the temperature dipped
> to 6 degrees Celsius and by the lake, with the windchill, it felt somewhat
> colder than that. It was constantly damp and at times took a nasty bump or
> two. While portaging, I was very greatful for the small OM design and was
> glad that I wasn't hauling around some wonderbrick.
>
> If anyone on this list is considering a trip to eastern Canada in the
> future, I high recommend a visit to Algonquin Park for those of you who
> enjoy the outdoors.
Yeah, we can tell...
> Last weekend, I felt like I was living a piece of the history of
> this country as early explorers and the Voyageurs involved in the
> fur trade often paddled these waters and travelled along these
> portage routes. If someone should decide to try this, let me know.
> I can loan you most of the gear you"ll need and help you out any
> way I can. September is a great time to visit the park as the
> leaves have already begun to turn in some areas and there were
> virtually no insects.
Wanna go on another trip one weekend?
Tom
-------- Questions answered, answers questioned. No spam, please
Tom A. Trottier <Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ICQ:57647974 +1 613 291-1168
fax:594-5412 415-400 Slater St. Ottawa ON Canada K1R 7S7
*After 2001 Oct 20:758 Albert St, Ottawa ON Canada K1R 7V8*
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