Arcly and Elo 2022

Oh yeah, I still have a blog! I recently read through some old "adventure" posts, and really appreciated having a record of the experience. They are still happening (although shorter and less extreme than before.. growing up sucks). 

Temagami 2022

Its been a few years and there have been quite a few changes. Leo has long since boycotted google and now uses fringe email providers which ensures all of her emails go straight to your spam filter. So she will not be providing the glut of posts that she used to do (eye roll)..There has been a pandemic, some career changes, I've moved back to Ontario, have a few kids... etc etc. 

In 2022 Leo came to Ontario for our annual camping trip. We originally booked Algonquin, but after reading about the 100 million portages and the can ban, I decided to go to the lawless and seemingly easier (but farther) Temagami. We drove up north to Temagami for a four day, three night trip. Its.. 4 years later, so I'll do my best rehash. 

Lake loop: Temagami - Olier - Denedus - Wasaksina - Driftwood - IceLand - Temagami

Day 1: We drove from Toronto to Lake Temagami where we lanched the Langford. We took the long Lake Temagami access road off highway 11. I was a little worried about being so remote (I had had car troubles earlier that year) but when we got to the lake, there were a ton of cars... and people..... it did not feel remote. 

We made our way out of the large lake over through Olier to Denedus Lake, where we found our own personal island to camp on. This was probably the best camp site of our trip. I belive it was along the portage between Olier to Denedus that Elo found the lobster mushrooms (see image below). Almost certain they were not poison, she cooked them up and I watched her eat them. The following morning I observed that she was still alive, so I also had some lobster mushrooms with my potatoes and eggs. They were great.

An enthusiastic Elo, excited about finding lobster mushrooms

Lobster mushrooms for breakfast

Day 2: This was a short paddle day, we found another great campsite, and set up and waited out the mid-day rain. We were on a larger lake (Wasaksina Lake) which meant some nice deep clear swimming, but we also saw powerboats as well, which was very annoying after two days of paddling. This was a common theme in Temagami (at least where we were). Some local outfitter clearly stocks little portage-in only lakes with boats. Then I imaging the anglers get dropped at a portage point, and hike in with a little motor and then off they go. That meant out tranquil evenings were often accompanied by middle aged men yelling "wooooo" as they pose for a picture with a fish in the quintessential man-with-fish pose. 

An Arcly. Thrilled about her new light kevlar canoe

Day 3. After a little crummy weather, and a lake a little too large, we headed up to Iceland lake for our final night. We found a lovely site with a great view of the setting sun. This was a smaller lake and we didn't see anyone on it the entire day/night. It was this evening that we caught some bass to eat for dinner.  It was not challenging at all.... cast and catch. We cooked up the bass over the fire with what we had on hand. Our meal really gave me an appreciation for deep fried bass (the way it should be eaten). bleh. One slight downside of this lake is that you could hear a distant hummmm from the highway in the distance. But there was also cell service (pro or con?). 

Some easy fishing on Iceland Lake, Temagami

Day 4: We started this day with a little portage over the long service road that we took into the park. portaging over a road, which was close to our car, we a little demotivating. Hitchhicking back to our car felt very tempting. however, we continued on back to our car via the Northeast Arm. I remember it was a long paddle and very windy. One of those multi hour paddle days where no one does much talking and you just getter done. 

Overall, I was surprised by the number of motor boats on the back lakes. I would do Temagami again, but I'd go deeper in and try to find areas more remote.