North Tea Lake, July 10-12, 2015

Intro

This was the first time I would take my beautiful girlfriend Jessica on a backcountry trip! I was pretty excited, and was hoping everything would run smoothly. The summer before, I did a loop in this area, and came across this lake pretty early on in the trip. This area is located in the North-West corner of Algonquin. North Tea is a pretty big lake that can take two hours to paddle from one end to the other. I particularly enjoyed camping on this lake the summer before because I took my work friends on a five day trip, and we camped on the nicest stretch of beach I've ever come across in the Algonquin backcountry. Beaches with fine sand are a dime a dozen in the park. Generally the shores are lined with granite rock, dirt, or a mixture of both. The odd times you come across a beach, they're usually very small, and have courser sand and small rocks. So, I was excited to bring Jess here, in hopes that the site wouldn't be taken. Aside from that campsite though, the lake and surrounding area was very beautiful.

The Island

Typically I like to be on the move a lot when canoe tripping. It's just the way that I was brought up when I used to do it with a summer camp for four summers. The general idea is that you paddle all day with a lunch break, and get to a campsite in the late afternoon. Then, the next morning we wake up, eat breakfast, pack up, and head out for another days paddle. You're able to cover a lot of ground like this, and can explore many more areas during your trip.

Since it was Jess' first trip though, we decided we would get to North Tea, and stay on a site there for two nights. This was a very easy route. We started at the access point on Lake Kawawaymog, meandered through the Amable du Find river, and out to the West Arm of North Tea Lake. Along the Amable du Fond there were two small portages (65m and 255m) where we had to get out of the canoe, and carry the gear and canoe over land. These portages are in place due to rapids and waterfalls. My heart sank when we were within eyesight to see that other campers had claimed the beach campsite I was hoping to show Jess, but she expressed that she felt safer if we stayed on an island. Lucky for her, we were approaching a decent sized island that held one single campsite. We docked the canoe up on the shore, and took a quick walk around the island to see what it was like. It was a pretty neat little island, that had the actual campsite elevated so you could see all directions on the lake, and the trees were thick enough that it offered a good amount of privacy.

One Big Pebble

I've been through trips where it rained everyday, all day, and it can suck. But my friends and I have fun with it, and don't let it ruin our trip. That being said, it does make the trip a lot better when the sun is out, and the wind is minimal. So for Jess' enjoyment, I was really hoping the weather would cooperate. It was a short trip, but we had sun everyday, and I don't think it ever rained. This was awesome because we were able to explore the area around us, and not be stuck in the tent! We canoed to a portage trail to the North of our island for a hike. You can see it on the map I added in! We took the 2km hike to Sisco Lake, coming across a beaver dam half a kilometer in, and one gigantic rock that we each climbed for fun!

No Firewood

As pleasant as our island site was, there was one problem with it. It was an island, and a fairly small one at that. There were trees, maybe a couple hundred, but there wasn't a lot of fallen branches for firewood. I think we may have collected every possible piece of usable firewood on that island, which only seemed to last 30 minutes to an hour. We knew we were going to want to have fires both nights, so we had to paddle to a much larger island East of us to collect firewood to bring back in the canoe. There was a small beach that we landed on, and we got right to it. Although it was tedious work, it was well worth it once we were sitting by the fire back on our island!

Serenity

The rest of the trip consisted of sun, the feeling of calmness, and serenity. It was a much needed weekend of relaxation, where we could just stare into the fire, or read a book, while feeling and listening to the soft winds blow across the lake, and through the trees on our island. Jess is a lover of all animals, and so she was quite ecstatic when a mouse made his presence known, and would pop up here and there. Sunsets were spent sitting on the rocks at the shore, watching the last bit of orange sun sinking below the tree line. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect trip, and introduction to backcountry camping for Jess.