Mimi was the grand planner of the trip, having spreadsheets and a menu planned out for the five (originally 6) people coming. I was brought on board the trip when someone had to drop out, and there were several changes to the list of people going before the trip actually happened. Martin was the most experienced hiker, so he had a bunch of the gear that possibly no one else had.
The night before we left, I helped Mimi and Ceara make trail mixes for each person and pack the food barrel in order of what was being consumed (this turned out to be an effective way to pack since going by least squishable on the bottom meant a lot of rummaging each meal time). The rest of the group showed up and we divided up the communal gear among the packs to ensure every item had a home.
The next morning we were off to the races! Picked up early by most peoples' standards, Mel got to my house around 7 and we drove to Connie's where we took the back roads (led by Mohrgan and his knowledge of these roads by bicycle) to the 400 and up through to Algonquin. I believe we put in the canoes around 3 in the afternoon and we paddled to the opposite end of Rain Lake for our first camp site. We had homemade hamburgers and hung out around the fire until it started to rain. Oh, and this night it poured, we found out the large tent, housing Mel, Mohrgan, Mimi, and myself, was not entirely rainproof, and rained onto us. Mel read a bit from '50 shades of grey' out loud before going to bed. I don't like that book, it's just plain silly hah.
The morning consisted of hanging a lot of things to dry; clothes, sleeping bags, and tents. Of the tents, we all got wet, but ours most-so. After our first night of hilarity and silliness, we were still able to get up early enough to pack up and get ready for the next leg which included 4 portages, the longest of which was 550m. I was paired with Mimi, Mohrgan and Mel were another team, and Martin, Connie and Ceara made the team of three where one person got to sit regally in the middle and watch the others paddle. Mimi was a fun canoe partner, and we got to be in charge of the food barrel, which was stupid heavy going into the park. If others said a path was clear from the rocks or trees under the water, we ended up scraping them! I had never portaged a canoe before, so I let Mimi go first, but on the second portage I gave it a try (with my pack!) and it was cool. I had thought portaging was a 2-person thing but we got the light-weight canoes. After the 4 treks through the lakes, we got to the site where we'd stay two nights. It was a great site with a nice clean rockface to enter the water or lie in the sun. Lots of swimming was had, though the water was cool. Mel and Connie only made it in on the second day at the site because it was warmer that day.
I soon realized that Mohrgan and I were the early birds of the group, frequently hanging out on the rock or going for a morning swim or canoe paddle together. I hadn't really known him much before, but he's a really interesting person. I mean, I got to learn a lot about Ceara, Connie, Mel, and Martin too but I feel I may have known them better/longer already. I like Ceara's sense of humour :)
On the full day that we were at that camp site we had pancakes in the morning (yum!) and then went on a day trip further into the park onto a portage route that was labelled 'unmaintained'. It was a nice hike but I'd rather not do it with a canoe on my head, it's just quite shrubby. We found a nice little bog with a log to sit on and have lunch. Connie and Mel were snapping away taking pictures of all sorts of trees and plants, which was awesome for memories after, I just don't have the patience for it, or is it that I just want to experience it in person and not through a camera? I don't know which. I believe that night we had spaghetti with sauce and TVP which was awesome. This is the night that I acted on my 'I can eat anything with chopsticks' and successfully drank a bit of wine by slurping it up with my chopsticks.
Heading back out of the park, we did two of the four portages and stayed a nice site that had a lot of little corners on the rock by the water for us to sit as a group together and just chill. That night was pretty cold, but we went away from the fire to watch the stars (so many shooting stars!). For some it was one of the first times to have seen them that clearly, and I had missed seeing them that well.
The last morning, most people slept in. It was super cold, and even though I toughed some pretty chilly nights in my capris and canoe shoes, I finally had to change into pants, long sleeve shirt, sweater, and running shoes. The lake was so still it was like glass, and Connie and I saw a beaver peacefully swim by.
It was an awesome trip in every sense; we got great weather (I consider the fact that we got all types of weather the best), great people, and lots of new experiences for me. Plus, being outdoors is awesome :D
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