A Word in the Woods

Not entirely accurate, but if you’ve got a bit of a sense of humour, you’ll appreciate the fun at the weekend warriors’ expense.

White People Like Camping | Toronto Mike’s Blog.

Tags: external link, humor, humour
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Suzanne Dimma | Canadian House & Home

Great blog post about Suzanne Dimma’s cottage build. I’m very very jealous. She describes the truly epic process that it took to get her dream cottage ready for her wedding to Arriz Hassam. It helps that they and their build team (Level Design Build) are all very talented and this definitely has the look of a labour of love.

The cottage is water-access-only, and off the grid, so their methods had to be innovative and creative to get the level of  refinement and quality they wanted. A series of pulleys and ropes were used to haul all the materials. There was no power, no machinery once they got to the dock by barge, so from there, every single piece of lumber and other building supplies used manpower alone to get in place.

I love that this demonstrates an unplugged approach to build a very modern, elegant cottage. Nothing rustic about it, yet some ‘rustic’ cabins use much more modern building techniques.

Read the entire article on Suzanne Dimma’s blog at Houseandhome.com

Tags: construction, cottage, off-grid, Suzanne Dimma
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So, I’m long overdue on the trip reports. I started a new job last year, and I’m coming up on my first anniversary in a week. The time has flown by, and the crunch of new responsibilities has died down a bit. I’ve gone on a few trips, and I’m ready to start keeping up with the photos and reviews and trip reports. This is a bit of a year of firsts.

The first first on this trip was going to an entrance point I’d never been to: Entrance 16, on the East side of Algonquin.

View Algonquin Park Access Points in a larger map

The drive there is quite nice. Once you get off the 401 east, you’re immediately on some smaller highways, and it’s not far to some very nice scenery for the rest of the drive.

We stopped in for a good mom-and-pop breakfast, something I can’t recommend enough. It’s a great way to start what will be a long day, especially if you’re driving a desk for half a year before your first trip of the season.

My camping partner for this trip was Ian Hoar, and this was our second trip out. He had come with me last year in late September, and we were going to stay for four days on Little Hay Lake.

Ian at a beaver dam

The access point is Hay Lake (the bigger, I suppose), and when we finally drove up to the shore, we discovered there was no station where we could pick up our permits. We backtracked, and made our way to a lodge, where we found there is no place at the access point at all. To pick up permits, you have to go to the East Gate entrance point. Back out to the highway we went, up to Highway 60, to the crazy mall that is the East gate.

Once we got that sorted, we made our way back to the put-in point, which is a public boat launch. This entrance point is actually outside of the borders of the park, so you have to canoe across the large (and it always seems windy) Hay Lake, avoiding the powerboats and numerous cottages, and into a little river system to take us to our one portage. It was a buggy one, and it felt like June, not August. There was a rest bar halfway through the one-kilometre portage, and I was glad to use it for a moment.

resting on the portage trail

At the end of the long, humid portage, I was greeted by a completely unexpected sight — a well-traveled logging road. In fact, as I crossed it to get to the river, I nearly got hit by an empty flatbed zipping along a breakneck speeds. It was a bit of a noisy and unexpected immersion-killer.

Once at our site, however, things calmed down.

The tranquility of the park started to soak in, and the tasks at hand took on their simple importance.

Ian had made a new purchase, and brought along a Hennessy Hammock, the same as the one he borrowed last year. Unfortunately, he seemed to get a dud, as the mosquito netting was ripped, and it looked like a hook had been melted off.

I’m very happy with my hammock, but was disappointed to see this condition on a new product. He told me later that he couldn’t find the receipt, so still hasn’t returned it. Unfortunately, he bought it at Europe Bound, which, although $5 cheaper than MEC, doesn’t seem to be as accepting or lenient with their returns.

I’ll keep you updated when I hear more.

My hammock is still performing admirably and like new after years of use, so I’m inclined to think this is a fluke, and would still recommend them. It’s great to keep your gear dry and close at hand under you, and provides one of the best nights sleep you can get, provided it’s not colder weather.

My Hennessy hammock, set up. Underneath, my gear is stowed in my military poncho. That poncho is also just the right size to be used as the fly.

It was colder than expected, and my new purchase was a one-pound bag, a very small, light summer bag that was a joy to portage. I like my heavier bag, but it’s bulky and heavy and overkill for the summer.

The mist coming off of the lake dropped a chill on us that first morning after, and I had forgotten to bring my espresso. I don’t normally drink espresso, but it’s a traditional pick-me-up on back-country trips. I could have used the warm treat.

We had very little in the way of wildlife, but there was still the occasional curious visitor.

All in all, an uneventful trip, one that’s nice to experience, perhaps not as interesting to describe. I’m perfectly fine with that, however. For more pictures, you can see my Flickr set of Little Hay Lake, or check out Ian’s. We both took the pictures, depending one which camera was closest at hand.

Tags: algonquin, Canoe, canoeing, Entrance Point 16, flickr, Gear, Little Hay Lake, summer, Trip report
Posted in Canoe, Gear, Trip Reports | 2 Comments »

P8030118, originally uploaded by A Word in the Woods.

I’m going to try and streamline some things a bit to get my photos organized. I’ll put them all on Flickr, and link directly there. I’m actually playing around with creating blog posts in flickr, and having it sent automagically to awordinthewoods.com

Hope it works!

Tags: blogging, flickr
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