Setting up Camp

We got to our site a little after 2pm, which meant it was a total of three and a half hours from when we started at Algonquin Outfitters. This is a good little trip for our level — far enough to feel accomplishment, but not so far as to tire anyone out.

The island itself is essentially a round hill. One flat area is used for the thunderbox, no tenting there! We setup our tent in the other level-ish area.

The kids started to setup the tent on their own, but needed some assistance to finish the job — mainly to settle disagreement on who got to do which part. The thin soil didn't hold pegs well, we used rocks to keep some of them down.

The wind was blowing strong enough to make us question our sanity in choosing this site. It was alright though, the kids liked the site (because island...) and the view was fantastic.

Tarp Setup

Getting the tarp to stay up took some doing. We first chose a location beside the tent, but the tarp was too high and the wind blew right under, flapping it all over the place. William and I had memories of the same thing happening while trying to setup the tarp the previous year, we joked that this is just our standard tarp setup method.

We tried a different location to take advantage of some trees as a wind block. I also put one end of the tarp right down to ground level. With the hill, the front of the tarp was high enough to sit under, but no more than that. On the plus side, it would take near horizontal wind to blow any rain in, so it was a good place to keep our gear dry. We used a standing room tarp setup at later sites, but for this location I think we stumbled on the right approach.

Exploring the Site

After finishing the unpacking jobs, we went on a short exploration of the site. This was mostly scrambling around shore and then scaling the back, which was a combination cliff/steep hill.

After about twenty feet of climbing, we were greeted by the thunderbox, Yay!

Firewood from Shore

There wasn't any firewood available on the island so we needed to go collecting on shore. William was already reading a book in the tent, and had no interest in interrupting that. Katherine was super keen though, so the two of us got ready to head out. We put the saw and axe in the canoe and took a radio with us. The other radio was left with William in the tent, but I don't think he noticed it.

We spotted some fallen trees hanging over the water, directly across the channel from our island, and headed straight there. We were really lucky to have this supply because it was a well setup drive-through depot. We just had to pull up below the log and hack some chunks off. It was already well dried from being in the sun and wind for so long. We broke a bunch of sticks for kindling, dropping them right in the canoe. Then Katherine held onto the trunk while I sawed the other end. This took a bit of doing, the canoe wanted to move around with every saw stroke. Eventually I hammered the log to break through the last bit. Unfortunately, it splashed into the lake instead of the canoe. I picked it out quickly, no harm done.

It was about 5pm as we headed back across the channel to our "home". We spotted a campfire at the south west corner of the lake; other than the smoke we wouldn't even have known they were there. This was the only other site in use.

Homesick

We got back to the site and got our firewood unloaded and ready for use. We didn't find marshmallow sticks at the drive through, and there weren't any on the island, so I decided to skip marshmallows for that night. There were three more nights, and we had a total of twelve mallows.

Around this time Katherine experienced what I'm calling "sudden onset homesickness." I left her and William for a minute to do some dinner prep. When I returned, she was nearly in tears and wanted to go home. This surprised me a bit because she had been very engaged with all our activities all day, paddling, firewood, exploring. Perhaps the paddling has worn her down more than I realized. We talked about it for a minute or two, and then the feeling passed, almost as quickly as it arrived.