This winter, based on Jayson's suggestion, we ventured on the Sunday Lake dog sled trail in Algonquin Provincial Park. It turned out to be a well groomed, hard packed trail that allowed easy walking. Jayson and Walkinthewoods went in first on Friday followed by the late arrival of Mr.hammockcamper and the even later arrival of Connie B and Marty. Unfortunately Max B, Chard, Iguana and I had to arrive on Saturday. I have never gone to Algonquin for only one night since I live 5 hours away and it always seemed like a long way to go for only one night but this year I thought to myself that 10 hours in a car driving in clear weather listening to my music is 10 hours I'm not at home dealing with responsibilities.
I can't speak about the weather on Friday but Saturday had sun and blue skies which made the walk in more enjoyable. Since we all tend to arrive at different times there's always a little uncertainty as to where to go. The spot Jayson and Walkinthewoods picked out ended up being around 2.5 to 3 kms from the trailhead and easy to find.
I arrived just as Chard and Iguana were finishing setting up. I said hi to them and walked over to say hi to the others.
I found a spot and set up and then went to go start a fire.
Jayson and Walkinthewoods had already gathered a fair amount of firewood but Chard, Iguana and Max B went for a little extra. It gave Iguana a chance to use his new Bob Dustrude saw. As the afternoon turned into evening we all started hanging out by the fire.
There was no group meal this hang, instead we all just sort of cooked our own food sharing where we could. Connie B brought some awesome Portuguese custard tarts as well as some delicious coconut cake-Thanks Connie! Next time I'm going to grab the two tarts that were stuck together.We spent our time chatting and laughing by the fire. No auger this year meant we were melting snow for water. Chard's good old group meal pot did the duty.
We all turned in fairly early. It went as low as -21*C but there wasn't really any wind to make it colder. In the morning we packed up and ended up all leaving around the same time except for Jayson and Walkinthewoods who were staying another night.
One of the slight hills provided the opportunity for a little childhood fun.
It was cloudy with occasional sun but it was a comfortable walk.
For me it was a short but really fun trip. I almost didn't go but I'm so glad I did. Now my thoughts turn to the Spring and getting my canoe in the water...
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