- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Hi folks,
Its been awhile since I wrote and awhile since I did any outdoor activity due to the whole COVID situation. I'm blessed with a job that kept me on but also because of what I do it has been near impossible this year to take any time off. I finally managed a week for some fall camping and re-visited The Massausauga Park, a relatively tame, Ontario Provincial Park. Knowing it would be an easy route, I loaded up a full stack of photography gear and went to witness fall colours in all their splendour. I think this year I hit the week just perfectly.
The Massasauga Park is located just south of the town of Parry Sound about 2 h drive north of Toronto in the Muskoka region. The park is backcountry only and provides access via water to a number of small inland lakes as well as the Parry Sound embayment of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. My route was 26 km in distance with 12 portages that together totaled 4 km (lol 20 km of walking in when you factor I triple carried most of the ports).
This is also the first time in a few years that I took a solo canoe trip. Last year on my fall break I opted for a 90 km hike in Algonquin Park stepping along the Western Upland Trail. Solo canoe in the fall is a special thing and normally very dry although on this trip I had a lot of rain that fortunately tended to occur mainly in the nights as opposed to the days.
A few pics from the trip...
How many knife handles could Rick Marchand make from this big'ole burl???
Oyster mushrooms were plentiful on the ironwood and I harvested a few to eat feeling pretty confident in their i.d. (I used to grow oyster mushrooms from beach logs seeded out and felt very comfortable eating these guys; well I didn't get diarrhea and stomach cramps nor death so I think I was right
. This might be the only really bushcraft-like thing I did this trip.
Its been awhile since I wrote and awhile since I did any outdoor activity due to the whole COVID situation. I'm blessed with a job that kept me on but also because of what I do it has been near impossible this year to take any time off. I finally managed a week for some fall camping and re-visited The Massausauga Park, a relatively tame, Ontario Provincial Park. Knowing it would be an easy route, I loaded up a full stack of photography gear and went to witness fall colours in all their splendour. I think this year I hit the week just perfectly.
The Massasauga Park is located just south of the town of Parry Sound about 2 h drive north of Toronto in the Muskoka region. The park is backcountry only and provides access via water to a number of small inland lakes as well as the Parry Sound embayment of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. My route was 26 km in distance with 12 portages that together totaled 4 km (lol 20 km of walking in when you factor I triple carried most of the ports).
This is also the first time in a few years that I took a solo canoe trip. Last year on my fall break I opted for a 90 km hike in Algonquin Park stepping along the Western Upland Trail. Solo canoe in the fall is a special thing and normally very dry although on this trip I had a lot of rain that fortunately tended to occur mainly in the nights as opposed to the days.
A few pics from the trip...
How many knife handles could Rick Marchand make from this big'ole burl???
Oyster mushrooms were plentiful on the ironwood and I harvested a few to eat feeling pretty confident in their i.d. (I used to grow oyster mushrooms from beach logs seeded out and felt very comfortable eating these guys; well I didn't get diarrhea and stomach cramps nor death so I think I was right
. This might be the only really bushcraft-like thing I did this trip.
