So my wife has agreed to go on a trip with just the two of us. She even choose the six hour route to Big Bob vs the 2 hour trip to Chibiabos. She went on some canoe trips at camp as a preteen so is no stranger to the outdoors.

Any tips to make sure she wants to come back? We're going July 16 so I don't think the bugs will be too bad. We'll double portage everything and take our time.

Do most of the work and don't be too critical. If she draws left instead of right, no big deal. Make it her trip, since it will be all new to her. Tripping with your spouse can be a great bonding experience, as long as you don't kill each other in the process

Good stuff Guncho, make it as pleasant as possible for her and she will want to go back. As for bugs, mosquitoes can be a problem, so you should bring some sort of a repellent...one that smells nice.

Hire a mariachi band and portage them secretly to your site then, while she's finishing her dessert and picking up her wine, have them chime in from the background.

Seriously, I just take the time to carry a few extra items to make sure they're pampered to some degree...whether that's a fold-up chair, hammock, etc. And also do the lion's share of the work in collecting firewood, cooking and cleaning.

Bring some babybell cheese. Make candles for a romantic dinner. Such a simple gesture, yet guaranteed to pluck her hearstrings. You'll need some kind of wick, if you smoke you can use the cig deck.

Bathe at least once a day.

Water taxi... my girlfriend saw the water taxi go by on Opeongo and said the people "cheaters". When we were coming back from the interior and saw the taxi dropping some people off I had to get him to take us out...

The only other thing I would suggest is getting some really good air mattresses so she had a good sleep. MEC carries some summer ones that aren't self inflating but they really thick.

Forget being nice to her - make her to do all the work!!!
Or better yet, you could always make her feel at home and do the cooking and cleaning!

Bring a bear costume and scare the crap out of her.

Ha ha - obviously my advice would lead to a divorce or several rocks thrown at you.

Someone had to say it though!

Hope you and the wifey have a great trip.

Take care,
Aaron

PaPaddler's choice of terms got me to thinking. I know the "lion's share" means most of something, since a lion can scare most other carnivores away from a kill and take what it wants. But Guncho, don't imitate a male lion too closely. They pretty much just mate, fight with other males, and eat what the females work hard to bring down. I doubt the wife would appreciate some of those things.

I have a self inflating MEC Apogee I was going to let her use and I have Thermarest Z rest I was going to use.

Will the bugs still be bad mid July?

Great topic! I would likely try to talk her back into the shorter trip as six hours tripping is long for anyone. However, if she is already decided, roll with it but be prepared to stop sooner if necessary.

Must haves:

A chair or hammock of somekind. Mine prefers the hammock but the chair has a drink holder.
A real towel (not a chamois)
A special treat bag from her fave store like Body Shop or a small selection of beauty products like hand/face creams, masks, hot oil treatments, etc. Pamper-stuff that she might not have time to do at home but will have time for at camp, including nail care items. My wife always does this in camp and really enjoys her time doing it. She rarely has time otherwise.
An extra piece of clothing or two (new if possible) you can pull out if she's cold.
Her own pair of camp gloves (you can buy pink gardening gloves, my wife loves them and they come everytime) which she can use around camp or for paddling to avoid blisters and protect the fresh manicure.
A couple of magazines.
The best sleeping pad you can afford. I got her the Thermarest base camp. She loves it.
An awesome sleeping bag, don't let her feel cold.
Decent rain gear.
A bug net for her head.
A small brush to sweep out the tent and keep it tidy.
A real wine glass if she likes wine or cup/saucer for tea or coffee. My wife really liked it when I brought a thermos cup for her as it kept her tea/coffee hot much longer while she was reading. Nice specialty flavours of both those bevvies if she's inclined.
A small mirror, not the emergency silver card used for attracting help.
A thank you card wherein you write how much it means to you for her to make the effort to accopmany you and an acknowledgment of her courage for coming along.

Nice to haves:
A bug tent
One of those black bagged hanging showers that get warm in the sun(rig a tarp for a private shower stall)fill it about 2/3rds and let it warm up and heat the rest of the water over the stove, bring a funnel and top it off with hot water. She will LOVE a nice warm shower. Who doesn't?
A 6 X 6 tarp you can put on the ground so she can put her sleeping pad on it and relax (nap) outside of the tent during the day without lying in the dirt.
"Algonquin Voices" by Roy McGregor, stories of women in the park's early years for her to peruse or for you to read aloud to her around the fire.

I don't mean to suggest anything less than flattering about the female trippers here, just sharing my experience from 20 years of marriage (and still tripping together). I actually love tripping with my wife because she has a completely different perspective on the daily challenges confronted and ways to solve them. She's my favourite tripping partner!

1- sacrifice a blue closed cell foam sleeping pad and cut out a donut shaped piece to put around the seat on the thunder box, women hate sitting on the damp wood.
2- as mentioned earlier, you absolutely have to take a solar shower bag-she'll love you for it. (I find if I put mine in the bottom of my canoe on a sunny day, it heats up much faster than if it is hung up)
3- do all the cooking
PS. stay away from the scented skin care products as suggested in another post, the skeeters will chase her out of the park, and she'll never come back.

Knots-formerly Skeeter, but someone else already has that name

Take a fry pan and make her these...


http://www.wildernesscooking.com/frybrownies.htm

Laurie
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
www.outdooradventurecanada.com
www.wildernesscooking.com

The 'Thank You' card is a great idea Fred!

I let my wife read this and now she wants to go with Fred instead of me.

hahah

Want pictures when you get back.

Now that really did make me laugh out loud!! My wife laughed more.. thx for the smile.

My experience was a Venus and Mars thing: my girlfriend (who was very fit) years ago wanted to enjoy a slightly adventurous camping trip and I wanted to do the usual AP thing although at a less aggressive pace. We didn't speak to each for 2 weeks after, fought the whole way back out of the park.

My suggestion, look at Jeffrey M's map and I expect you will see where you can drive along the logging road legally to the AP gate 1.5 km from Indian Pipe (not marked as an access point but legal nonetheless). There's room to park there and you're on Indian Pipe in 20 minutes walking along the logging road. While your wife may be courageous, she'll appreciate getting to nice camping with little grief.

Are you allowed to do that?

Do you really think #2 to Big Bob is ambitious? It's only four portages under 1k.

As long as you're not driving in the park no park rules are being broken...


Jeff

--

Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry - abrweb.ca

My Algonquin Park Map - Accurate, Detailed, Free - Version 2.0!

I found the trip from Tim Lake access point to Indian Pipe to be not very difficult at all. The most pleasant part of the trip, in fact.

It was from Indian Pipe to Big Bob that got frustrating.

The 820m that takes you from Indian Pipe to West Koko Pond is the longest one, and you get to paddle for all of 3 minutes across West Koko before you have to stop, unload it all again, and traverse the 790m to Big Bob, re-pack the canoe for the 5 minute trip to whichever campsite you choose.

None of that can be avoided by parking at the logging road entrance, and personally...I didn't like walking along that road. Very hot, with little shade.

And you would still need to have a camping permit on the dash of your vehicle.

I don't see the advantage to starting the trip from other than at the access point.



Barbara

As I recall as well, the paddle along the Tim River was really nice.

Trip was a resounding success! Wife had a great time. She was freaked out a bit at night by the thought of bears ripping into our tent but I think that's pretty normal for a first timer. (My first trip I slept with a hunting knife beside my pillow!) I let her sleep, relax, read a book as my much as she wanted while I puttered around making the campsite better, filtering water, cooking etc.

Highlights
- We didn't see any other people the whole trip
- Saw a group of four otters in the Tim River
- Kept steaks underwater to keep cool
- Had to get under the canoe in a heavy downpour on a portage
- Carried the canoe over every portage myself with no breaks. Yeah quitting smoking!
- Found moose antlers

Low points
- At the Algonquin Store in Kearney, I asked if I could rent a Thermarest when we rented a canoe. (I have one and a Ridgerest but thought two inflating ones would be better) She handing me a foamie and I said, "No a self inflating one." She handing me a blue, kinda shiny rolled up thing and assured me it was not an air mattress. Worst mistake ever! We get to the site and it's this crappy World Famous, thermarest/air mattress type thing that didn't even work. Oh well I made the best of it.

Tim River to Big Bob is a cool trip but it's a lot of portaging and not a lot of paddling.

Great to hear you had such a good time, Guncho! Sounds like you applied everyone's advice perfectly. Your last statement could be categorized as "Algonquin Wisdom": It seems that the more you portage, the fewer people you'll see. Makes sense when you think about it, and I know it's in literature all over the place. Those routes with small lakes and many portages really discourage the masses. That seems to be the key to a private interior trip.