Just returned out of the park after taking a couple of friends for their first trip into the 'Gonk...actually their first canoe camping trip period. Just the highlights from my logbook now...trip report to come later:
June 27:
On my advice, we decided to take the water taxi to the Proulx portage. Bear crap everywhere, but no bears. Good thing cause one of the newbies had been panicking for a week about what would happen if we met a bear. Bugs were atrocious...thank god we all had bug shirts and dope. Paddled across Proulx and up the Crow river. Terrific weather and scenery. A cow moose decided to trot along parallel to us through the swamp for a while. Made for some nice pics. We got to Big Crow and were disappointed to find the beach site at the entrance to the next section of the crow river occupied, but managed to score a good beach site 2 sites to the west. I have to say that my better half's chicken/vegetable stir fry in Pita wraps for supper were nummy.
June 28:
Piddled a little bit last night, but my ultra-hi-end $30 Canadian Tire tent held up well. Weather was humid and light showers....the mosquitoes were having a great time. We paddled down the Crow River heading for the hiking trail to see the white pines. Holy Moose! DOZENS of MOOSE! It was like being in a scripted theme park. Every time you turned the corner, another 3 or 4 would be standing there waiting to have their pics taken. My better half got some fantastic photos of a cow and calf pair, and an old bull moose further down the river. Hiked to the pines...they were impressive, but at first it was somewhat difficult to decide if we'd found them or not. You walk for about 40 minutes, and then the odd giant tree pops up along the trail...for some reason I had this preconceived notion of walking into a grove of humongous trees.
June 29
And God was PISSED. Wow...I thought the tent was going to blow away...that was one heck of a storm last night. My ultra-hi-end $30 Canadian Tire tent still held up quite well. Had a little water on the floor come morning, inspected the tent and found some small worn spots where water came through...time for a replacement I guess...5 years wasn't bad tho
. We headed over to the ranger cabin and climbed up to the cliff top. Thank the lord again for bug jackets. Got to the ranger tower and wandered over to the cliff edge just in time for the sun to come out. Fantastic view...we just sat there for an hour soaking it in. It was still early, so we decided to head down the crow river and take some pics of the rapids near the hiking trail to the pines. Had some fun shots while posing on the log jam. Headed back to camp, got a fire going (damn tough after that rain boy) and chowed down on some egg drop soup. In spite of needing to start early tomorrow we all sat around the embers late...no one was looking forward to leaving.
June 30
Woke up, packed up, wolfed down some food...it was time to boogey. A 2:30 taxi sounded like lots of time, but the winds were howling and there were white caps everywhere to contend with. Took about 45 minutes to get to the section of crow river that connects Big Crow with Proulx. The winds, which caused some difficulties on the lake, turned helper as it funneled south through the valley, blowing us down the river to Proulx. I barely had to paddle. Arriving at Proulx with some time to spare, we cooked up lunch at a site over near the portage. Crossed the portage and taxi-ed back to the access point. Delayed going home a bit…who can resist a hot shower and a trip to that visitor’s center?
