Camping eh?
I have been posting to an awesome travel messageboard for the past two years (one year with significant regularity) and for the 2nd year in a row, they decided to hold an annual campout. Last year was in Seattle, this year in Algonquin (roughly 300km North of Tronto). Sign me up!
Kevin and I were the out of towners, while Teri, Laura and Carolyn are native to Toronto.
After we squared our plans I booked a flight into Buffalo from Tampa, which is a scenic way to get there. With Dad in Mississauga at the time, he offered to come get me. On the way there we made a Niagara Falls detour. It was a bit shorter that I envisioned but a whole lot more water than I imagined. It never ceases to amaze me how idiotic parents can be. I saw at least three 5-6 year olds standing on the railing. I was so tense watching them I could barely enjoy my Tim Horton's lunch.
From Niagara, we made a pitstop in picturesque Oakville (ironically I took no photos ;) ) to check out the lake and the Tronto skyline in the background. Back at the hotel I just crashed until I would meetup at Teri's (coincidentally only about 10 minutes away) with Laura and Carolyn that night.
So they came to get me and I got to see the inside of my first Canadian house. Teri is renting the basement of her stepfather's house. He lives upstairs along with 2-3 Newfies that don't hold sobriety or pants in particularly high esteem. The neighboUrhood reminds me a lot of Washington DC only without the need for kevlar. After chitchatting we headed to the back yard to enjoy the 20 degree weather, but Teri was adamant about us just walking through not making eye contact.
I didn't listen closely enough because one of them stopped me to find out where I was from and he wanted me to stay and talk. I found out later that he was up stairs singing Yankee Doodle Dandy just after I left.
Departure day...
Our trip started with Kevin bashing his Jeep's secondary headlights in order to make room for a cooler. Three hours later we arrived at Algonquin where Carolyn and Laura had already setup camp and starting on some spaghetti. We foraged for some kindling (against the policies of Algonquin--whoops!) and before long had a decent fire going.
Our campsite was just one 1k from "the beach". Somehow a lake and beach just don't quite go together in my Floridian mind. Around 3am after several hours of pounding back Keith's IPAs (which were actually just highly drinkable lagers), we made the stroll down. The air temperature dipped down to about 50 degrees but the water was a "warm" 68. The fog that developed was so serene and was probably one of my top travel moments ever. It became our home away from campsite the following nights.The next morning the plan was to head to the beach for a swim, draw our our messageboard logo in the sand and then go on an 11k nature trail. The water was either the coldest or second coldest water I had ever been submersed in without a wetsuit. As soon the water hit mid bathing suit I was an honorary Tdot girl.
"Now eventually you might have nature on your nature trail right? :breathes on lens:"
The last time I walked 11k straight was...never. I figured we would have plenty of time to stop and photograph all the nature which would prolong the trip thus making it easier me to catch my breath. Turns out they could have made a better nature trail at our campsite. Fat racoons, black squirrels, and even a bear made an appearance tentside whereas the dedicated trail offered up a chipmunk or two. Not that it mattered, the trail was really beautiful and easy to follow (with the exception of a beaver who flooded it temporarily) and we finished in just over 3 hours.We got back to our site and started on the chicken and veggies.
The next day we did some canoing and I found that I never exercise canoing muscles...ever. Our three person boat was going in circles so for the way back, Kevin, Carolyn took the three person one and Laura and Teri took the other. Apparently it was not entirely my fault that we were slowing down. Score! In your face Teri and Laura ;)
We headed out the next day after one more trip on the lake. Algonquin rocks and it was a perfect place for my first "real" camping trip :)
Okay this blog is only a few months late...meh.. (actually almost ALL of it was written in October I just forgot to post it)
--Joey
