The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. Robert Burns hit it on the head with that one. I’d add that often the longer you’ve been making those plans the further astray they seem to go. My family planned a three-week canoe trip for over a year and it didn’t quite turn out the way we thought.
Two things affected our trip. Ultra dry conditions before to our departure led to a fire ban. But on the day we started, Mother Nature made up for the dry spell by opening up the skies and then forgetting to close them again. The conditions for the park to lift the ban weren’t met until the eleventh day of our trip. It made for a crazy situation of wet and cold and little chance to remedy it.
Thank goodness for our stockpile of amazing gear. Without fires we had to cook every meal with a camp stove, so we brought along old faithful, our tested and true MSR Whisperlite International. She worked like a charm. In big winds and pouring rain, we had hot meals and drinks to meet our need for some warmth.
Our first task when we arrived at a campsite was to pull out our MEC Silicone Guide’s Tarp. Regardless of how wet it was when we packed it up, it kept us sheltered in torrential downpours. Big winds pushed and pulled it in every direction causing loud snaps and cracks. I honestly don’t know how it didn’t tear. I marvel that all the attachment points are just as strongly secured as the day we brought it home. It was big enough to cover our cooking and seating area with room to spare, yet still packed up small and light.
The second task was to pull out our MEC Volt 3 tent (the wet fly, we packed separately from the dry body) and set it up under the tarp, then scoot it out into its own little spot to be pegged down. We kept waiting for the saturated fly to finally give up keeping us dry, but it never did. Day after day of rain, it never let even the tiniest drop of water in. It was our sanctuary. We hid in it for hours, playing cards, reading and rough-housing. We trust in it completely. An added bonus is that it was easy enough for our eight year old to set up leaving us free to do other tasks.
Every morning we’d leave our cozy camp and head out onto the lakes. We packed our gear into our MEC Slogg Dry Pack and our barrel knowing that they were safe from the rain. Fortunately, the Slogg’s shoulder straps and waistbelt are super-comfy on portages, which was important, as we did over 60km of them. I especially appreciated the handles on the front and sides when placing it in or hauling it out of the canoe. And the straps over the top were a perfect place to tuck our rain jackets in the moments when we weren’t actually wearing them.
Every trip is different. Some things you have control over and some things are simply a matter of chance. It was not by design that we entered the park and spent the first 11 days under a fire ban – while getting rained on. What we did have control over was how we were going to deal with those conditions. Have you ever heard the saying, “there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear”? Well I can tell you it’s true. The trip wasn’t what we had planned, but it turned into a bigger adventure with even better stories. The right clothing and gear made it all possible and gorgeous Algonquin Park made it worth the while.
Filed under: Activities, Kids, Watersports
