Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, October 5-9, 2017

Thanksgiving in Algonquin!  This is usually the trip I look forward too the most since it's a long weekend, the weather is pretty decent, the colours are usually still good, and we eat lots and lots of good food.

This year there were a few snags.  A friend from high school was getting married on the Saturday, my mum had a doctors appointment on the Friday, and the leaves were at peak, so we knew it was going to be really busy in Algonquin.

I'd booked the site from the Thursday to the Monday, not knowing any of this because I'd booked it in April.  This was originally the reservation for our opening weekend trip, but ice out was later than hoped for.  Getting weekends off is a challenge for us, so I couldn't just rebook for the next weekend, so I extended the trip and booked Thanksgiving.

So with all this stuff going on, we managed to make it up to Rock Lake on Thursday night, (me, the kids, my parents and their dog.  Chris was going to work, then go to the wedding and come up Sunday with Biscuit) just as it was getting dark.  it was a bit chilly so the kids stayed in the truck.  We were camping with my parents in their tent trailer, so we set about setting up.  And hit a few more snags.

2017 was a really rainy summer and my parents hadn't used their trailer at all.  They opened it up to air it out a week or so before we left, but didn't do a full inspection inside.  It smelled pretty musty, and there was a bit of mould on the wood of the cabinets.  We managed to scrub everything down and then realized we should probably wash the dishes that were in the cupboards.  That's when we realized we didn't have the dish sink.  We ended up just having salads in wraps (Squatch had a peanut butter and banana wrap), and Mum and Dad would head home after the doctor appointment to get the gear they thought had been in the trailer but evidently wasn't (we were also missing most of the pots and utensils.)

Foggy morning on Rock Lake

We went to bed early, and the next morning, got up and had some bagels and oatmeal before Mum and Dad headed out.  The kids and I had brought books to read, and spent some time on a bench by the beach reading, and went out for a paddle down the river to Whitefish Lake.  It was pretty windy so we didn't venture too far.  We also went for a little hike down to the rail trail part of the Booth's Rock Trail to take some pictures. I took the kids to the visitor centre for lunch, then we hiked the Spruce Bog Trail on the way back.

When we got back to camp, we read some more.  We had brought hammocks but our site really didn't have many trees for hanging them.  Maybe we could have gotten one up, but that would have just caused fights so we went back down to the beach with our books instead.

Fall Colours - Rock Lake Algonquin Park

When Mum and Dad returned, we made dinner of chinese noodles (and something else???)  We didn't have a fire that night.  I think we were all pretty tired and there were a lot of noisy neighbours.

Saturday morning, we got up and had bagels and oatmeal again.  We planned to go out for a paddle, find an empty campsite and cook up some veggie burgers and veggie sausages on Mum's biostove but the wind was still up, and it looked like it was going to rain so we stayed at camp other than a quick drive into Whitney to get a few groceries and put some gas in the car.  The night before, when I'd been dumping the dish water into the outhouse, I heard a thunk sound, and realized I'd accidentally left the dish cloth in the water...and it was the only dish cloth we had for the weekend, so we had to pick up a box of j-cloths.

Old Rail Trail - near Rock Lake

This day was kind of a blur of frustration.  There were so many people at Rock Lake, not just campers (one site had two 30ft trailers on it, which is a no no) and we started to feel a bit claustrophobic.  One site clearly had been chosen as the gathering site for a large family, as they had brought all the picnic tables from their other sites and basically created what looked like a cafeteria.  There was probably seating for 30 people. A couple kids (couldn't have been more than 2 or 3) drove around the campground all day in a little battery operated Jeep.  This was nerve-wracking because they had no adult with them, and they weren't looking where they were going.  I spent the whole day worried someone would back out of a site and not see them.  This was even worse on the Monday when people were trying to get out of sites with big trailers.

One of our neighbours had set up a screen tent with a movie projector inside so their kids could watch movies, and they stayed up all night talking loudly.  All weekend, there were tons of day-trip people around since the leaves were at peak.

Relics of Algonquin's History

We've decided that next year, we are going to try and get into the back country for Thanksgiving.  Yes it's nice to have the heater in the trailer but the noise and chaos and crowds really took away from our enjoyment of the weekend.

Dinner on Saturday was spaghetti with garlic bread.  Since we didn't make the veggie burgers or sausages, we cut them up and added them to the sauce, which the kids did not like.  It ended up being too much though, so we probably should have only used one of each.  We did have a fire that night, but for some reason, our fire pit had been cleaned out and dug down so it ended up being so deep we couldn't feel any heat coming off of it.

The next morning, it was sunny and less windy so we took the canoes for a short paddle down the river again.   We weren't sure when Chris would be coming, but we decided to head out and explore the Old Rail Trail Bike Trail and at least get to the bridge at Whitefish.  It's a nice trail and we ended up going a bit further than the bridge before Mum and Dad decided to head back to camp.  The kids and I continued on to see if we could get to the campsite on Whitefish that, on the map, looks like it's right at the side of the trail.  We found it easily.  It's not an ideal site, but it has a nice beach, and I suppose if you were canoe camping late in the season, and the weather turned (bad wind or the lake started to ice up) you could just portage back down the railway.  It was a pretty small site, with maybe one tent site.  There is a fully closed in outhouse rather than a thunder box, but you have to cross the trail and go up the hill on the other side to get to it.

Sunset at Rock Lake - Algonquin

When we got back to camp, Chris had arrived with Biscuit. I went with him to get his additional car permit and asked the lady at the office if it would be okay if he parked at the site until the rush of day trippers was over.  We had three cars now that he was here, and knew we would have to park one at the over flow parking area, but since that parking lot was full, we couldn't very well use it.  Even if a spot did open up, we would end up blocking someone in.  The first cars were parked up against the tree line, and the next row was basically parking a few feet behind them.  I kept thinking people were going to be coming back from doing the hike and then would have to wait for the owners of the car behind them to come back so they could actually get out.  The lady said she thought it would be okay but the Rangers might not have the same opinion.  Luckily none came around and we were able to move the car over before it became an issue.

 We sat down by the lake for a while then got ready to make our Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we weren't making a turkey, it wouldn't be such an all day process.  We made potatoes in foil, carrots in foil, turnip, brussels sprouts, stuffing and gravy.  We were all stuffed afterwards and enjoyed a nice fire.  Dad and Chris got a good size one going so we could actually feel some heat coming off it.  It did feel a little awkward though since the people on the site backing onto ours had set their tent up over the border of the two sites and so they were very close to our fire pit.

Beach at Whitefish campsite

Canoe campsite on Whitefish

For our last day, we had potato and pepper hash for breakfast, as well as bagels.  We took our plates down to the picnic table at the beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather before it was time to pack up.

As always, Thanksgiving in Algonquin was beautiful.  Evidently many people agree with this because it's gotten busier and busier every year.  No matter how many times I tell myself to just ignore the people around us, or the dozens of rules being broken, or the people walking right through our site, it's not always easy to just shrug off.  Canoe camping next year might be the way to go.