Mike B and I returned from a 10 day trip into Algonquin's north country. Back in Dec/Jan. The "Swedish Pimple" invited us to stay with him on Birchcliffe Cabin. Imagine our surprise when on the morning of the trip at the permit office at the access point, the Swede Backed out! Citing family and employment commitments, Swede had to leave...he was not a happy camper.
Mike and I headed out.
To make a long story short(as this is a mini-log), we had great weather, the cabin rocks, the whole area was very nice, and didn't we didn't see a soul for 7 days!!!! Birchcliffe Lake has to be the best acoustical sounding lake for Loon calls that I have ever heard, it was really amazing. We saw lots of moose, beaver, snapping turtles, a deer, heard wolves one night, and saw moose scat all over the place and Bear scat along the portage to Barred Owl Lake. Despite the absence of our friend the Swede, we had a great time, day-tripping all over the place. The fishing was terrible and am seriously thinking of giving up barbless hooks as I just can't keep anything on the hook. Birchcliffe Lake is not recommended for Speck fishing...it is a very shallow lake...12ft deep in spring at it's deepest. Even the Perch weren't biting much...perhaps the fish were turned 'off' that week.
We checked out many campsites and portages and relics...if you know where to find them, they can add to the adventures that one can experience in APP.

Birchcliffe creek in spring cannot be traversed upstream by a soloists, the current is just too strong as both Mike and I found out first hand. We had difficulty in several areas, trying to get upstream...and I'm not even talking about the dams or downed tree obstructions...some are quite tricky...one with a big tree to over come, immediately followed by a sunken log, a turn and swift all at once...whew! Then there's the Alders...they weren't too bad...I've seen worse on Maple Creek east of One Mile Lake..but being in the stern...it is a painful experience!

I suspect it is near impossible to traverse Raven creek in the summer as in the month of May the water was already very low in some places, especially west of the logging camp ruins...a vast area of water only 2 feet deep was all that kept us afloat..with 4 feet deep mud below that.


I would love to return to the area...not just top the cabin, but also to camp interior as well, there are some interesting lakes in there as well as some nice campsites.

I had the most awesome time, Mike is a great doood and friend to trip with. I look forward to our next Algonquin Adventure together.




Mike B, ready to paddle!



The crowded put-in on North Tea Lake



The first dinner of the trip, marinated chicken & rice



Sunset on Biggar Lake



Later that night on Biggar Lake



Taking a break just after the 580m portage along Birchcliffe Creek



Approaching the cabin on Birchcliffe Lake



A closer look as we approached the cabin



Mike B in front of the cabin



Steak & spuds and onions....mmmm...gooood!



dusk at the cabin



inside the cabin



another shot..opposite the previous image



Next morning, outside the cabin



Bull Moose heading for his feeding grounds



Walking the boardwalks along the 1010m portage to Calm Lake



Red Trillium



Many blowdowns littered the first quarter of the 1010m portage to Calm Lake



Mike's only Speck catch on Birchcliffe Lake, I didn't catch any



one of many falls along the creek from Calm to Birchcliffe Lake



This young Bull was in rough shape, both emaciated and with loss of fur in critical areas along it's hide



Another Bull was in much better shape, both healthier and with much less fur loss



Mike's smile says it all, "It's great to be back in The Park!"



One of many beautiful sunsets on Birchcliffe Lake



Looking up at the cabin, from my fishing attempts down below among the rocks



Later the sunset deepened



Friend and fellow AA'er "Stainless" promised to make a toast to us up at the cabin on Sat.nite, while his party and other fellow
AA'ers were on Fork and Norway Lakes. Sat. Nite Mike B & I made a toast to them as well at 10pm



mmmmmm....bacon!



Mike inspects some of the relics at the ruins of the logging camp on Raven Creek



More ruins at the logging camp on Raven Creek...alot of damage had occurred recently,
I suspect from the damaging storms of 2006, there was countless blowdowns in the area.



More ruins at the logging camp on Raven creek...there wasn't much left intact



One of two sleigh remains at the logging camp ruins



An Anvil at the logging camp on.. you guessed it...Raven Creek



Cloud iridescence on Birchcliffe Lake



Bull moose feeding on Birchcliffe Lake



While fishing I took a picture of the cabin from the canoe



One of two campsites on Birchcliffe Lake



Morning mist on Birchcliffe Lake



Sunshine inside, morning mist outside



As the morning mist was burned off



Later on as the skies cleared



The lone island campsite on Lawren Harris Lake



How dorky is that? This old ranger cabin on Lawren Harris Lake was barely a meter from shore. Too close for my comfort,
even if it was intact.



Looking down Loughrin Lake



At the end of Loughrin Lake, the take out for Barred Owl Lake


The 10m lift at the portage from Barred Owl Lake to Nod Lake. note; the portage crosses thru a campsite



Careful where you step! A bog mat is what awaits the canoeist at the take-out for Gibson's lake on Nid Lake.



A campsite on Gibson's Lake



On a daytrip to Gibson's Lake, I carried the canoe, and Mike cleared the trails, on our return, Mike had clear trails,
as he took his turn carrying the canoe



The take-out at the 685m portage to Coral-root Lake



A campsite on North Raven Lake, loaded with Hemlock..this provided a nice pleasant walk thru the forest



The take-out at the 230m portage to Tillie Lake



Mike relaxes with a coffee as he studies a copy of the Park map.



The plaque at the Birchcliffe Cabin...each cabin in The Park has one



Another image of the cabin, taken from the canoe


I'm seeing more and more Canada Goose in Algonquin, for me it is an un-welcome sight.
Like the cormorants, are they invading The Park?


A beaver swims at sunset



Mike taking a picture of the beautiful morning mist on Birchcliffe Lake



Behind the cabin, looking north



ALDERS!!! augh!!! on Birchcliffe Creek



Shortly after emerging from Birchcliffe Creek onto Biggar Lake



The falls on Hornbeam Lake



The island campsite we stayed on, on the east arm of North Tea Lake



Bushes blooming on North Tea Lake



Dawn on North Tea Lake



As I was preparing to post the images & text , Mike sent me some images he took of me...some of them, Sean of Ajax might find funny, as he can relates to them. Thanks for the pics Mike!


Markus on the docks of the outfitter on Round Lake. We arranged previously to park our vehicle and launch from the outfitter(for a fee), thus saving us from having to paddle across the Lake, Good thing we did, the winds were strong on Sat. morning, and the waves were enough to dump a bit of water into the canoe...but nothing serious.



It is interesting to note that the day going in(pictured here at the 135m portage on the Amable du Fond),
and the day going out, it rained. Only one other day during the trip did it rain, and boy was it great to comeback to the cabin and fire up the stove and dry off! It was worth every penny!



Second last day of the trip, Markus & Mike on Biggar Lake



Markus drinking Wells Beer(in Plastic of course)...it was cold and good!



One of Mike's Specks..it tasted great...unfortunately for us..it was the only fish we tasted the whole trip.



Markus filming moose on Birchcliffe Lake



I lost track of the boardwalk, as it was covered with mud and water, as it took an unexpected turn



ewww....it was oooey, gooey and stinky!



but no beaver poop...just swamp gas and muck!



It was really cold one morning(we had a light dusting of frost) as I fired up the stove...this is me before coffee...sleepyhead



I have also posted more images on my blog at www.markinthepark.com/blog
For dial-up users, I recommend checking out the "photos" section..the thumbnails provided the best bang for your limited bandwidth.

Markus
Etobicoke, Onterry-airy-airy-Ohhh!

Looks like a great trip Mark!
Awesome photos....thanks for sharing!

oops missed one photo...showed the beaver twice by mistake

here is Dawn on North Tea(Fixed)


Markus
Etobicoke, Onterry-airy-airy-Ohhh!

Great job on the trip log and pics. Thanks

Marcus,

Thanks for the awesome display of photos, it was great how you chronicled so much of your travel during your ten days with text & photos - gave me a good feel of what this section of the park is like.
It's great to have you back posting as well along with Bo since you 2 probably always have the most to share and the site has been kind of quiet with both of you gone.

Harry

sob,sob,sniff,sniff,,,,,
looks like you fellows had a trip trip!!! great photos,,

Hey doods (Markus/MikeB)

sounds you had a great trip even if SWEDE wwas a NO SHOW

Catch you l8tr online

rac ;_) n

Thanks for getting the mini trip log/pics posted dood! I know you have little free time left before you are off again.

This was my first time in Algonquin cabin. Was a special trip indeed. Swedie was missed indeed........Swede, we ate like kings the first 4 days because you did not make it...we had to eat your portion! It was tough, but we managed....heh. Anyways, we wished many times you were with us.

I brought a book to read but Markus and I were so busy everyday, I never has a chance to sit down! We bush wacked and portage to so many areas...it was great! Thanks Mark for being a great tripper partner. Now.......where is that dam firetower? We could not find it!

We had fun on the Beaver lift-overs on Birchcliffe crik. We cursed the little doods several times! But all in fun and were able to slide/ram over many on the return trip back to Biggar Lake. This makes tripping fun in my books.

My first speck was on Birchcliffe Lake. We had him for lunch...female actually. Tasted great. To bad this was the only one we consumed. Bo...the perch I caught were to small to eat! LOL.

MOOSE....Everywere! Holy cow, never seen so many...what a treat! I go back to Birchcliffe just to see the moose. This made the trip even better.

My first time hearing Wolves also in the interior...was great hearing them on a clear night by the fire. Loones calling with wolves and the Bart Owl getting in the mix....

Okay....Markus....Wells beer is great in the Park!!!
thanks again Markus!!!!

Mike

Sounds like a dream trip! So glad you had fun and saw amazing scenery and wildlife - now back to the daily grind. Sure wish I could be there or go soon - maybe Kevie will take me there in retirement in our next lives. See you next door!
Bren

Much enjoyed the great photos, Markus. In 1965 when Mark and I guided kids through the Park, we had an 8mm movie camera with us. All the film was destroyed later in a house fire, but I can still see the clip of Phil McNish sleepy eyed and clutching a blanket Linus style as he walked out the door of the ranger cabin on Lawren Harris where several of the boys had decided to bunk for the night.

In the mid 80's when I first saw the logging camp on Raven Creek, the two water sleds were in great condition. There was a wooden barrel full of horseshoes and a pile of long bolts for attaching the tongue to the front half of a bob sled. Firewood was piled along the outside wall of the kitchen, whose doors were still on hinges. It was as if at one time everything was in place for the next logging season, but no one ever returned. Do you know anyone whose passion is the history of the Park's logging camps? I would love to know when particular camps were operating, who owned them, what they were cutting, what mills the logs went to, who the loggers were, and whether anyone took photographs.

Markus,

Your pictures are always top notch. Thanks for posting. Do you use any special filters on your lens or post editing with software or do you just have the eye for composition, light and color?

Thanks so much.

Hey Markus ...

As always, thanks for posting your "mini report" so fast! (If only everyones trip logs were as packed as your "mini report!"

Loved the photos, and its nice to see the cabin was in great shape. Never been at a cabin, but it looks like it was well worth every penny!

Thanks for sharing!

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

Awesome as usual Markus. Hopefully you can share that amazing photo knowledge with me next month when we meet.
Keep on paddlin'



Canoeguy
www.canoeguy.ca

Hi All,

Thanks for your kind words. It was a great trip and am happy to share it with fellow AA'ers.

John Scarlett,

There's a fellow by the name of Doug Mackey who does lots of research on local history in and around The Park.
His column "Heritage Perspectives" has been a favourite read of many AA'ers for a few years now. here's the URl to the website;
http://www.pastforward.ca/perspectives/

hopefully he can shed some light on any questions you might have regarding the logging camp on Raven Creek.

Harry, Bo & I thank you for your kind words sir!
I hope to have more trips through-out the summer to post...yet I still don't know what my summer schedule will be, and it is driving me bonkers.

Swede,
Oh man, we missed ya doood...wish you were there!
Perhaps June on Carl Wilson/Wendigoes/Cedar?
Keep my fingers crossed

Brenda, yuppers, seclusion and heaven go hand in hand, and it had a name; Birchcliffe!

PaPaddler, I use a UV filter on my Zoom lens, which is just basically a dust cover. On my regular lens(14-45mm), I usually have a Polarized filter on, sometimes I use an ND filter for shots requiring a reduction in ƒ stops, with slower shutter speeds(i.e. photographing lightning, waterfalls, etc).

I do use photoshop to adjust some properties on some of the images, but not all of them. Some get more adjustments than others. For example, the moose shots had almost no adjustments at all, the Loughrin Lake shot had heavy adjustments, and looking back at it now...I over-compensated that one! I'd like to think I have an eye for light,colour, and composition.

Jeff P,

Yeah, Mike was threatening me to get them up before I go away tomorrow.
But yeah it was the first time for either of us staying in a cabin, what was neat though, was the combined interior camping with the cabin accommodations. It was nice to tent it, the day going in and coming out..but oh man did it pour coming out!

Hey Canoeguy,

Yeah fer sure doood...looking forward to the June meeting


Mike,

Yeah I had an awesome time too...loved all the day-tripping we did...wish I could do it everyday of my life...would lose this belly in no-time!
I lost only 5 lbs on that trip...thought or wished I had lost more!
Looking forward to hooking up again sometime for an extended trip, Swede included!

Markus
Etobicoke, Onterry-airy-airy-Ohhh!

End of june I'm going from erables to coral root to birchcliffe...i was expecting low waters but hoping for a sand or solid creek bed to wade through....Mud bottom creek? Am i doomed for failure?

Hi Chowdog,

Last year, Jeffrey M, tried to make it past the Skuce Lake portage on Maple creek...he wanted to see if he could make it to the 685m portage to Tillie Lake. He told me he never made it, as the Alders were just too thick and impossible to get by. I went thru there in 2004 it was bad enough.

Birchcliffe creek is sandy bottomed...so no problems there.
As for Raven creek...that's a tough one to answer. Where it widened to almost lake status at the logging camp ruins and west of there, it was very shallow, about 2 feet of water, but with mud bottom, and the kinda mud bottom, that you don't want to step in, as you'll keep sinking un-ending. Where the creek really is a creek, it appeared to be sandy bottomed in places, you'll notice this at the beaver dam/log jam just west of the ruins. At the 685m portage and east of there, the land as well as the creek becomes rocky...a nice scenic change. If you're coming from the east, the take-out at the 685m portage is useless. You need to paddle a further 20m, around the log jam, just past the beaver hut..the landing there is much easier to deal with and there is an old path connecting with the portage. I recommend the western most campsite on the north shore of North Raven Lake...the best of the 4 sites on that lake. There is supposedly Lakers in there, and the lake is very much similar to Ralph Bice Lake in colour and clarity and water temp...I think it might be spring fed. If you have any more questions, feel free to email me(I am away tomorrow for 8 days though), or email Mike Burns.

Markus
Etobicoke, Onterry-airy-airy-Ohhh!

Sounds like a great trip Markus. Did you try fishing Gibson? Looks like you were very close to section of the Nip where I've experienced best fishing in the Park down from Nod etc.(next to Glory Bay of course).

Hey Mr Bearcub....

We did not try fishing Gibson....We were fishing other lakes before Gibson. I did get one small spec on Lawren Harris Lake and thru it back after no more were able to make their way into the canoe. At this point the day was running late and decided to go for a quick run to Gibson. Once on Gibson the wind was strong and we made way to the old lumber camp.

So we only tasted a spec from Birchcliffe Lake for lunch....sad...
We tried fishing Calm...nothing. JEH Macdonald...clams!
Still a great day other wise...
cheers
Mike
PS Markus is unable to get to a PC (Mac) got another week.

Great shots! We camped on that portage/site the year we went down the Nip.

Awesome...awesome pics....!!!

Hey Mike, congrats on your first speck ever!!!

But Bo Knows knows that there are bigger ones out there!! Go fish 'em dude!!


Bo

Markus, you are right on dude about Raven Lake and lake trout.

I pulled a few 5 lbers from that lake a few years back!!


Bo

Thanks Markus...I'm going to try to get from Erables to North Raven in one day...not toofar so I'll have the day to struggle to get there

Markus & Mike,
Wow, looks like a great trip in a remote part of the park. Good for you guys!!!

Markus - love yer pics. I especially like:
Moose pics: soft and low-angle lighting is stunning esp on the nice "bullies"
Blowdown on Calm lake portage: reminds me so much of Wabakimi
Pic of Mike B smiling: the smile says it all!!!
Cabin shot from shore: neat perspective...postcard composition for sure :P
Misty morning shot: I always love the calming effect and mystery that misty shots seem to bring
Paddling thru alders: Too funny!!!
Boardwalk incident: Even funnier!!!

Oh and you sure look like you ate like Kings!!! Must'a been heavy hauling those cows in

Great pictures and looks like a great trip, hoping to make it to Gibson sometime myself for some fishing. The Mud picture...lol my son last week was the same at the portage from Longbow to Sittingman, up over the waste in Black mud, lost a boot too....

Hey Chowdog,
Racking my brains(memory) and going by Jeffrey's account(Last summer);
the toughest part of your trip, where Alder trees are concerned, would be along Maple Creek just east of the portage to Skuce Lake,
to the portage to Tille. If you are looking for a real challenge; west of the portage to Tille Lake upto One Mile Lake will drive you nuts, if you can get that far. Check with Carmen at the Kiosk permit office, as to when the last time the alders will cut. You might just get lucky!

Base camping on Raven sounds like a great idea, then you could daytrip down Raven creek and see how far you can get past the lumber camp.
I look forward to your report.

Jake,

yes sir, quite remote, and thanks to the Chef Mike! we did eat like kings.

Mike,

Yeah I was stuck there for about 5 minutes, I didn't want to lose my boot, was real hard trying to pull my foot out. For the size of Gibson's Lake as it is, the lack of campsites and the distribution of the sites; I figure this would be a great lake for a quiet retreat, as for the fishing, we didn't get a chance to fish it.

Markus
Etobicoke, Onterry-airy-airy-Ohhh!