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Spring 2008 Trip Log
(4 days)
May 16th - May 19th
Cedar – Ravenau – Lantern - Cedar
Above you will find an extrapolated section of the Algonquin
Canoe Map©. Contributed by Jeffrey McMurtrie., a regular contributor to the
Algonquin Adventures Website forum, Jeff has compiled this map and made it
available for free download in May of 2008. Click on the following link to
download this map. http://homepage.mac.com/canoecamping/Map/About_the_Map.html
Waiting through the
winter to get a chance to head back to Algonquin is one of the hardest things
to do when you love the park as much as I do.
This year was no exception. The
May long weekend finally arrived and I was once again Algonquin bound. This year, the crew would grow by one member,
as my youngest Son, Trystan joined us for his first visit to the greatest place
in Canada. I had decided
to introduce Trystan to Algonquin with a simple 4-day stay close to one of my
favourite access points. With that in
mind, I booked a simple trip to Ravenau and Lantern Lakes near Access Point 27 (Brent). The trip would see us entering the Park on
Friday May 16th, and exiting four days later on May 19th. We arrived at the Park Office at
approximately 8:00 A.M., purchased our permits for the weekend and headed down the over
45 km of dirt road leading to Cedar Lake. It was a
little chilly with a temperature of about 5◦C or 6◦C, but the sky was a deep
blue and completely void of clouds.
Twice now, when entering the park, I have been fortunate
enough to run across wildlife while driving down the Brent road. This time, however, I was out of luck. Besides the occasional ground squirrel or
chipmunk running across the road, we saw no signs of animals all the way to Cedar Lake. The dirt road into
Cedar is long and winding, but the forest is beautiful. There are plenty of natural bogs and small
lakes that offer wonderful scenery and, “usually”, wildlife viewing. At the beginning of your drive, you will come
across numerous logging sites with large equipment and heavy trucks traveling
the road. This all takes part outside
the actual boundaries
of the park and
The stream from Lantern Lake
Meaghan on the portage trail to Ravenau
all signs of
logging stop and they are replaced by virgin forest and occasional wetland. Once
you enter. At 8:36 A.M. the canoe was in
the water, the kids had their lifejackets on and we were ready to go. Cedar was calm and inviting. We pushed off the wharf and heading across
the lake in the direction of the Nipissing
River. I was a bit worried about this trip as far a
weight was concerned. The canoe would be
heavily loaded down. There were three
kids now, four packs and myself. My
canoe is rated for 800 lbs. but, by my calculations we were coming close and I
was hoping for a calm crossing. We got
just that and I was impressed to see that the water was still a good five
inches below the gunwales. We crossed
easily and entered the marshy area, which was the Nipissing
River’s
delta as it enters Cedar. We snaked our
way through some grass islands and eventually came the portage to Ravenau
Lake. We decided to double-carry the portage. It was the first of the year, over 1500
meters (although it seemed longer), and I did not want to burn myself out on
the first one. The first part of the
portage is a steady uphill climb for at least a third of the entire length of
the portage. It levels out somewhat
after that but is frequently wet and areas of deep mud consume the trail at regular
intervals. Near the top of the first uphill climb the trail borders the stream
descending from Ravenua
Lake
and emptying into the Nipissing delta. We took a small 30-second
break here at the stream where I took the picture above. I also managed to snap a shot of Meaghen
coming up the portage with her pack. She
is a tough little girl and she works hard on these trips. A true outdoor girl. We managed to make it up to the end of the
portage and found the landing there filled with mud. A single canoe was upside down at the landing
and no one could be seen on the lake from this vantage point. I dropped my pack and headed back down the
trail to pick up the canoe. Kevin wasn’t
far behind me and he too headed back down the portage to help with the rest of
the gear. Several hundred meters down
the portage we came across Meaghen who was busy cleaning a thick layer of mud
off her running shoes. It seems that she
had lost one of her shoes in the mud and was in the process of cleaning it off
and putting it back on when I passed her.
I helped her back to her feet and she continued on to the lake with her
little brother by her side. Shortly
after we Kevin and I passed a group of men coming up the portage from the
Nip. They were headed up to Ravenau for
a day of fishing and it was their canoe that we found at the put in. They were up for the long weekend and decided
to leave their canoe there from a day of fishing before. We exchanged pleasantries and continued back
down the trail to pick up the canoe. It
took us about twenty minutes to return to Ravenau with the rest of our gear and
we launched the canoe on to the lake, trying to avoid the thick mud of the
landing as much as possible.
Ravenau is a small lake, by
Algonquin standards and we made little work of it as we paddled its
length. The fisherman we passed earlier
were pulled up on shore at the campsite there and were casting along the
shoreline for trout. They had already
landed a nice speckled trout for lunch and were in the process of catching more
for their midday meal. We waved as we went by and asked them how
they were doing and then headed off in the direction of the portage to Lantern Lake. The skies were still blue and the sun was
warm as we unloaded the canoe and began the much shorter portage to Lantern Lake.
I have a tendency to forget to
take pictures as I travel along the portages in Algonquin, a bad habit I need
to correct. As such, I did not take any
pictures of this area of the trip. I
will say that that portage was relatively easy to manage and reasonably clear
of obstructions. With the exception of a
large downed tree across the portage trail about midway, we made good time
travelling the 685 meters to Lantern. There
is a discrepancy in the maps and I would like to make note of it. Both the Algonquin Canoe Routes Map and
Jeffrey M’s Algonquin Map show the campsite on Lantern to be located on the
northern shore of the lake at about its midpoint. This is wrong. The remnants of an old campsite, including
thunder box, are located at the end of the portage from Ravenau and it does not
seem to have been a long time since it was moved. The site was still fairly clear and the
forest had not begun to reclaim the area yet.
There were no signs of a campsite further down the lake on the northern shore,
but instead is located on the other
shoreline, (see map above). I made note
of it for this trip log report and we headed down the little lake too survey or
home for the next four days. Lantern Lake is about ¾ the
length of Ravenau and the site is located almost in the center of the lake on a
small point. The landing is relatively
easy to negotiate and there is room for at least two canoes there. We landed and walked around camp looking for
a suitable place to pitch the tent.
There is not a lot of flat ground here and I had the larger tent with
me, so we had to clear a little debris and shrubbery away to make room for
it. The fire pit is located close to the
water and offers a good view of both ends of the lake. As Kevin and I began putting op the tent and
setting up camp, Meaghen and my youngest son Trystan gathered wood for the
fire.
Our campsite once the tarps were set up
The cooking area looking back towards the tent
Once the tent and tarps were set up, we decided to
have a little bite to eat. I boiled up
some water on my little Primus camp stove and we pigged out on Kraft Diner and
Tang. I finally relaxed a bit after what
was already a long day and began setting up the fishing rods. This would be Trystans first fishing trip, so
I wanted him to catch a fish. He would not
be disappointed, but he would have to wait until Sunday until finally getting
his first trout. I was tired from
driving from Montreal, but I still had
to try my luck with the fish for a little while. I made a few casts with a size 1 Mepps Black
Fury and was soon rewarded with a 1 lb. speckled trout. I placed it on the stringer and kept casting
for more. Meaghen was casually watching
her line that we through out with bobber and worm and Trystan was busy
exploring the area around the camp and gathering some more firewood. Kevin took advantage of this opportunity to
catch some much needed sleep. He had
stayed awake with me as I drove all night and was now feeling the effects of canoeing
and portaging to the lake.
While Kevin slept, I decided
to take Meaghen and Trystan out in the canoe and we circled around the lake a
couple of times as we trolled various presentations. I was using a small spinner blade followed by
a simple worm on a hook, Meaghen was trolling a small yellow and white floating
Rapala and Trystan had on a simple Canadian Wobbler spoon. We all experienced some luck with the fish,
catching trout between ¾ and 1½ lbs. We
released all of these and kept trolling around the lake. Near the western end of the lake, a commotion
erupted from the underbrush of the shoreline as a turkey vulture burst into the
air only 20 feet away. I scrambled for
the camera and snapped a few picks of the large bird before he soared out of range.
 
The kids were impressed with the size of the bird as
it drifted higher and higher on the thermals.
As we trolled around
the lake clouds slowly began drifting in from the east and soon the
beautiful blue sky turned a steadily darkening grey. We fished for about another ½ hour until a gentle mist began to
fall upon he lake. We headed back to
camp and relaxed around the fire, trying to rid ourselves of the chill that
cooler temperatures brought. We passed the
remainder of the day relaxing around camp and occasionally casting from the
shoreline. We landed the occasional
trout and basically relaxed until dinner time.
Tonight’s menu was compliments of my Mom. She had cooked us up some of her great
lasagne and frozen it for us to take on this trip. We fried up the lasagne with lots of butter
over the fire and pigged out on pasta
for dinner. Afterwards we planed on
heading out to try our lake on the lake as the sun went down, but the steady
showers put a damper on that. So we
spent the remainder of the evening playing cards and other games until night
fall. All the while, we were serenaded
by a robin in the tree above us…….well past dark. The next morning
dawned no better than the day before. A
steady rain was already locked into Lantern Lake and it put a damper on my morning coffee. I managed to get a fire going and quickly
fried up some bacon for bacon & cheese bagels for breakfast. The rain came and went, and came and went, and
came and went all day, as we tried to fish and explore the area. Just after breakfast the sun managed to stick
its head through the clouds for about 20 minutes, so I took the opportunity to
snap some shots around the camp. I was
hoping the rain wouldn’t be here for the day, but there was nothing I could do
about it except hope for the best. I
definitely wanted Trystans first trip to Algonquin to be a good one and this
weather wasn’t helping.
Kevin & Trystan around the fire
Meaghen on Friday morning
After breakfast and my morning coffee, we
decided to head out on the lake again and try our luck some more. Kevin decided to stay in the camp and cast
from shore while Maeghen, Trystan and I trolled around the lake with a variety
of presentations. The rain was already
playing that on and off game with us. A
steady drizzle was covering the lake, making the morning cold and damp. I decided to go out anyway and we were
shortly rewarded with a few pan-sized specks.
We returned anything we caught back into the lake and continued fishing
up ‘till almost noon. We then
headed back to camp for lunch. I took a
few pics from the campsite of our lake and managed to get a couple of distant
shots of the loon that cam to visit.
Our resident loon
The rest of the day was spent fishing, when the
rain let up, and playing cards in the tent.
Every time the rain hit the lake, the wind would pick up as well. So, we fished when we could and tried to
explore when we couldn’t. We did manage
to take a small hike down the portage to Ravenau Lake but the rain played havoc with us again all of the
way. Several chipmunks and ground squirrels
crossed us on thee portage as we traveled back from the other lake, but they
were too quick to get a shot of them. I
did manage to get a shot of our resident loon though. It seemed like he followed us over to the
other lake and back.
At one point in
the afternoon on Saturday the sky turned really dark and a low rumbling could
be heard just north of us over the rise.
The wind also started to pick up to almost gale force, so I frantically
rushed around the campsite tying down anything that was not and putting gear
under the tarps. Fortunately, the
“storm” blew right over us and we slipped out of the tent for some more
fishing.
We cooked chicken
fajitas for supper that night and cast for more trout until nightfall. After dark, we played games in the tent and
laughed until our stomachs hurt. We were
again serenaded by the lone Robin in the tree above our tent.
Meaghan around the fire
Playing cards during the approaching storm
Spring 2008 Trip Log – Part Two
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