That was easily the most exhausting 2 days of my life.
Years ago I remember reading about 2 camp counsellors from a summer camp in Algonquin Provincial Park who had created a challenge to paddle from Canoe Lake (at the southern end of the park) to the Brent Store on Cedar Lake (at the northern end of the park) and back, all in one shot. As most people take 8-10 days to do that route, I thought that seemed a bit insane, and didn't give it any more thought. Fast forward a few years- at a Christmas party this year, a buddy told me about this race he's been doing with a bunch of friends for the past few years on the May long weekend. I may have had a couple of glasses of wine in me at the time, and my response was "that sounds awesome- I'm in!"
This past Friday morning, 5am found a group of 18 paddlers standing in the rain on the beach in front of the outfitter on Canoe Lake. Ahead of us lay about 160km of Algonquin wilderness. In our group there were several boats who were gunning hard for a fast time (25ish hours), and the rest who just wanted to finish (my brother and I were firmly in the "just finish" group).
Years ago I remember reading about 2 camp counsellors from a summer camp in Algonquin Provincial Park who had created a challenge to paddle from Canoe Lake (at the southern end of the park) to the Brent Store on Cedar Lake (at the northern end of the park) and back, all in one shot. As most people take 8-10 days to do that route, I thought that seemed a bit insane, and didn't give it any more thought. Fast forward a few years- at a Christmas party this year, a buddy told me about this race he's been doing with a bunch of friends for the past few years on the May long weekend. I may have had a couple of glasses of wine in me at the time, and my response was "that sounds awesome- I'm in!"
This past Friday morning, 5am found a group of 18 paddlers standing in the rain on the beach in front of the outfitter on Canoe Lake. Ahead of us lay about 160km of Algonquin wilderness. In our group there were several boats who were gunning hard for a fast time (25ish hours), and the rest who just wanted to finish (my brother and I were firmly in the "just finish" group).
We set off in the pre-dawn murk, and tried to find a rhythm that would get us through the next day or two of paddling. All of us were planning on taking the same route- it crossed several really big lakes (Burnt Island, Big Trout, Burntroot, Cedar), and lots of smaller lakes, with a pretty signfiicant portion on the Petawawa River. By the time we got through the first couple of portages
(note- there was 22km of portaging over the whole trip) and lakes, the field had spread out pretty well. My brother Dave and I were keeping about the same pace as 1 other boat (Jon & Christian) and we swapped leading back and forth with them for most of the first day.
Around 6:30pm, after we'd been on the go for 13.5 hours, we spotted the leaders coming back toward us. They had already been across Cedar Lake to the Brent Store, and were now on the return leg of the trip. They informed us that we still had about 2.5 hours ahead of us to get to the Store, so we soldiered on.
Somewhere along the way, we'd found ourselves separated from Jon & Christian- we'd managed to shoot though a rapid that they portaged around, but then we got lost, and then they got lost, but then shortly after we'd crossed paths with the leaders we met up with them just as they were starting into the longest portage of the route- 2.7km. Dave and I were really hoping to meet up with them again, as it was getting late, we were tired, and we figured that for the sake of safety it would be better to travel with another group of guys than just on our own
(note- there was 22km of portaging over the whole trip) and lakes, the field had spread out pretty well. My brother Dave and I were keeping about the same pace as 1 other boat (Jon & Christian) and we swapped leading back and forth with them for most of the first day.
Around 6:30pm, after we'd been on the go for 13.5 hours, we spotted the leaders coming back toward us. They had already been across Cedar Lake to the Brent Store, and were now on the return leg of the trip. They informed us that we still had about 2.5 hours ahead of us to get to the Store, so we soldiered on.
Somewhere along the way, we'd found ourselves separated from Jon & Christian- we'd managed to shoot though a rapid that they portaged around, but then we got lost, and then they got lost, but then shortly after we'd crossed paths with the leaders we met up with them just as they were starting into the longest portage of the route- 2.7km. Dave and I were really hoping to meet up with them again, as it was getting late, we were tired, and we figured that for the sake of safety it would be better to travel with another group of guys than just on our own
We reached the shore of Cedar Lake just as the sun was going down, and it was pretty evident that getting across to the Brent Store was not a safe option. The wind was really picking up, and the lake was getting very choppy. We decided to head out on to the lake to see how bad it was- we got several hundred metres out from shore and decided it was too risky- just getting across would be one thing, but to then turn around and paddle back again in the dark would have been a really bad idea. The rules of the race state that you have to get your picture taken in front of the store, so we did the next best thing- we took a picture of ourselves on the lake, with the lights from the store in distant background.
Once we made the descision to head back, we tried to get a couple more hours of travel behind us so that we wouldn't have so far to go on the second day. We paddled until around midnight, when a combination of exhaustion, near hypothermia, and difficulty navigating a lake that was full of islands and bays helped us make the decision to pull off to a campsite and get some rest. As we were travelling light, we didn't have sleeping bags or a tent- we just made a fire and fell asleep on the ground.
It turned out that we didn't get much sleep- it was just too cold, so we spent most of the time keeping the fire going so we could stay warm, and waited for it to get light enough to move on. At 6am the 4 of us packed up our backpacks, and headed out again. Having just passed through the same lakes the day before, it made that day's travel much easier- much less navigating was required, which was a good thing. As the day went on, the effects of sleep deprivation become pretty obvious- none of us could think straight, and just using the map to find our way from lake to lake was becoming increasingly difficult. The biggest blow came when we got to Burnt Island Lake. We'd been really looking forward to getting there as it seemed like that would put us into the home stretch- about 3 hours of paddling and no chance of getting lost. However, when we got there, we were dismayed to see whitecaps covering the lake, and what should have taken us about an hour to paddle across took us almost 2.5 hours.
By the time we got to Canoe Lake, the sun was going down, and it was a long shot straight down the lake to get to the finish. Even though we were exhausted, we were paddling hard just so we could be done, and 40 hours & 50 minutes after heading out, we hit the beach. Besides our reaction of being so glad to be done, both Dave and I were thinking "I'm never doing that again!" Funny how it goes though- yesterday he texted me and said he wanted to do it again next year. I replied "me too."
It was a pretty amazing experience- we really had to push ourselves to our physical limits, and we had to work together (not to sound overly dramatic) to survive. As difficult as it was, I'm really glad that I did it. I got to see areas of Algonquin that I never would have otherwise seen, I shared an experience with my brother and with a group of other people that the vast majority of the population could never do, and I saw how far my body can go when it's required. I'll be back again!
By the time we got to Canoe Lake, the sun was going down, and it was a long shot straight down the lake to get to the finish. Even though we were exhausted, we were paddling hard just so we could be done, and 40 hours & 50 minutes after heading out, we hit the beach. Besides our reaction of being so glad to be done, both Dave and I were thinking "I'm never doing that again!" Funny how it goes though- yesterday he texted me and said he wanted to do it again next year. I replied "me too."
It was a pretty amazing experience- we really had to push ourselves to our physical limits, and we had to work together (not to sound overly dramatic) to survive. As difficult as it was, I'm really glad that I did it. I got to see areas of Algonquin that I never would have otherwise seen, I shared an experience with my brother and with a group of other people that the vast majority of the population could never do, and I saw how far my body can go when it's required. I'll be back again!