Algonquin Provincial Park Access Points Map

I came across an Algonquin Provincial Park Access Points map created by Algonquin Outfitters. You can read details posted by Randy on their blog, and here is the map below. This is a terrific resource, folks!


View Algonquin Provincial Park Access Points in a larger map

Cheers,

Mungo

Are you subscribed to the Mungo Says Bah! RSS feed yet? If not - you know what to do...

You can also follow my tweets at @MungoBah

Matt's Solo Canoe Trip In Progress, Using a SPOT Satellite Messenger

My friend Matt is currently on a 10 day solo camping and canoeing trip in Algonquin Provincial Park, in Ontario.


Last year prior to a two week solo trip he too, we had been chatting about what he might do in case he got in trouble. Since there isn't phone service in the vast majority of the Algonquin region, he ended up buying a SPOT Satellite Messenger.



There are 4 buttons on this satellite device (which is about the size of a BlackBerry device):

1. An OK Button.
   When you press the OK button, SPOT acquires your location from the GPS network and routes it through the SPOT satellite network. Your contacts receive either an SMS text message on their mobile phone with your message and coordinates, or an email with your message and a link to Google Maps™ showing your location.
   
2. A HELP Button.
   Once activated, SPOT acquires your location from the GPS network and routes it along with the HELP message through the SPOT satellite network every five minutes for one hour or until canceled. Your contacts will receive an SMS text message including coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps™ showing your location.
   I guess this is one step up from 'I'm okay' but not severe enough to alert the emergency and Search and Rescue groups as described next. They say it is for a non-life-threatening incident like 'Ran out of gas' or 'Bicycle tire punctured' or 'Snowmobile stuck'.
   
3. A Track Progress Button
   Matt didn't spend the extra for this option, but it would allow the user to send out 'cookie-crumb' messages every 10 minutes, so that friends and family could track the person's progress live via Google Maps. This would be great so you could do a trip log later. But even still, you can simply hit the 'OK' button every so often (unlimited allowance) and this would do the same thing. It just means you'd need to manually put together all the GPS locations later.
   
4. A 911 Button.
   Once activated, SPOT will acquire its exact coordinates from the GPS network, and send that location along with a distress message to a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until cancelled. The Emergency Response Center notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information – which may include local police, highway patrol, the Coast Guard, the Canadian consulate, or other emergency response or search and rescue teams – as well as notifying your emergency contact person(s) about the receipt of a distress signal. Note: not to be pressed for fun, or if you are bored and lonely in the middle of the wilderness and just want to hear the sound of someone else's voice.

Coverage is nearly world-wide:

"SPOT works around the world, including virtually all of the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia, portions of South America, Northern Africa, and North-Eastern Asia and hundreds or thousands of miles offshore of these areas."

He is taking it a little easier this go around. Last year he changed campsites virtually every or every other night. I think this time he's making camp at three sites, and using them as bases for day trips. He's up in the north east section - in North Tea Lake, Manitou Lake and thereabouts.

I'm a little bit jealous... I'll bet he's having an amazing time!

Cheers,

Mungo

Are you subscribed to the Mungo Says Bah! RSS feed yet? If not - you know what to do...
You can also follow my tweets at @MungoBah

SPOT Satellite Messenger and Request for Cold Beer

My friend Yoyar is currently on his way to a 14 day solo camping and canoeing trip in Algonquin Provincial Park, in Ontario. We were talking about what he might do in case he got in trouble (sprained ankle, broken wrist, torso three-quarters devoured by a pack of wolves and then having the remaining one-quarter predated upon by a family of black bears, etc...). We thought first of all that he could send an SMS (phone text message) daily to say all is well, or to send a 'help' message. But there isn't phone service in the vast majority of the Algonquin region, so I suggested that he look into the SPOT Satellite Messenger.


So he went and bought one - about $200 from BestBuy and a basic $10 monthly service plan.

There are 4 buttons on this satellite device (which is about the size of a BlackBerry device):

1. An OK Button.
   When you press the OK button, SPOT acquires your location from the GPS network and routes it through the SPOT satellite network. Your contacts receive either an SMS text message on their mobile phone with your message and coordinates, or an email with your message and a link to Google Maps™ showing your location.
   
   
2. A HELP Button.
   Once activated, SPOT acquires your location from the GPS network and routes it along with the HELP message through the SPOT satellite network every five minutes for one hour or until cancelled. Your contacts will receive an SMS text message including coordinates, or an email with a link to Google Maps™ showing your location.
   I guess this is one step up from 'I'm okay' but not severe enough to alert the emergency and Search and Rescue groups as described next. They say it is for a non-life-threatening incident. I can't imagine what help would be required. Cold beer? More beef jerky? More mosquito repellent? Maybe more like 'Ran out of gas' or 'Bicycle tire punctured' or 'Snowmobile stuck'.
   
   
3. A Track Progress Button
   Yoyar didn't spend the extra for this option, but it would allow the user to send out 'cookie-crumb' messages every 10 minutes, so that friends and family could track the person's progress live via Google Maps. This would be great so you could do a trip log later. But even still, you can simply hit the 'OK' button every so often (unlimited allowance) and this would do the same thing. It just means you'd need to manually put together all the GPS locations later. Big deal.
   
   
4. A 911 Button.
   Once activated, SPOT will acquire its exact coordinates from the GPS network, and send that location along with a distress message to a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until cancelled. The Emergency Response Center notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information – which may include local police, highway patrol, the Coast Guard, the Canadian consulate, or other emergency response or search and rescue teams – as well as notifying your emergency contact person(s) about the receipt of a distress signal. Note: not to be pressed for fun, or if you are bored and lonely in the middle of the wilderness and just want to hear the sound of someone else's voice.
   

Coverage is a lot better than my cell phone service provider's coverage.

"SPOT works around the world, including virtually all of the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia, portions of South America, Northern Africa, and North-Eastern Asia and hundreds or thousands of miles offshore of these areas."

Les Stroud does a promo for the device - see below.



Cool, huh?

Mungo

Knife & Fire On Your Person

My friend Yoyar is preparing to leave for a 14 day solo canoeing trip through the north west area of Algonquin Park. Lucky devil.

He was watching a Ray Mears video yesterday (Canoe Journey), where he proclaims the importance of having your 'knife and fire kit on your person at all times'. Mungo agrees with this. Cleverly, Yoyar believes this applies to him and writes that it will be

"...useful if those giant eagles come down from Middle Earth and make off with my pack. (I always worry about that happening)."

Cough. Eh-hem. Anyway... He has a new Frosts Mora knife and sheath and has attached it all together thusly:


He used the Figure Eight Follow Through to secure the line. He also added a half hitch on the free end to add a tiny bit of extra security.

The gold caribiner attaches to the belt loop on the knife sheath. The red caribiner will attach to his belt. This keeps the knife close to his hip but dangling somewhat below so that it doesn't bind against his hip when he bends. Smart thinking, I think. I neck-carry my knife, for a number of reasons. One reason is that hip-carrying is uncomfortable for times when I kneel down and the sheath bites into my hip. The dangler is a great idea. It won't get in the way of the pack either while it is on his back. The fire steel and striker hang from the cord and go in his pocket.


Cheers,

Mungo

Chipmunks and Charcloth

While camping in Algonquin Provincial Park recently, I needed to make some charcloth. Charcloth is what I use to catch sparks from my steel fire striker.


Prior to the trip, I cut up an old cotton work shirt into small 1-inch squares, and placed them in an empty zinc oxide ointment tin (used for the baby). After the campfire had burned low, leaving just embers, I poked a hole in the lid of the tin with my knife. Then I closed the lid, and placed the tin onto the glowing embers. White smoke began to pour from the hole in a hypnotic laminar flow.


Within a few minutes, the white smoke began to appear more transparent, as the water content of the cotton and pyrolosis began to take place. As soon as the smoke cleared, I took the tin off of the embers, and poked a twig into the hole to seal it off.


Sealing it off prevents oxygen from entering the tin, stopping the charcloth from smouldering and ensuring that carbon compounds remain within the fabric matrix.


Making charcloth is very satisfying.


As this took place, an Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) made an appearance.


Tamias is Greek for one who stores, striatus for striped.


We had scattered little pieces of granola bar on the ground for him to eat.


He stuffed the pieces in his cheek and then ran off quickly in various directions, hoarding and storing the food in small caches.


This little fellow thought he could stealthily sneak up and take pieces of granola bar we had scattered on the ground for him, without being noticed.


We noticed him.

Cheers,

Mungo

Details of Backcountry Camping Trip into Pinetree Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park

I am back from portaging, canoeing and camping at Pinetree Lake in Algonquin Park. I took lots of pictures of flora, but wasn't able to take many of the limited fauna that I saw.

I didn't really see many animals other than birds - although we made a lot of noise to keep the lions and tigers and bears away. I saw frogs and toads. I saw evidence of otters and beavers. To spare you, dear reader, from scatological visions, I will only write about the poop I saw. I saw the scat of white-tailed deer, moose, bear, wolf, fox, and raccoon. The coolest (if I can characterize it as such) of all the scat was that of a wolf - it was chock-full of deer hair.

Birds seen included Merganzer ducks, Common Loons, Big Noisy Seagulls, Ravens, an Eagle, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and a Grey Heron.


We kept a fire going on and off, and the smoke helped keep the blackflies away. We reignited it as needed from the glowing embers hidden under the insulating wood ashes, sometimes simply by laying some birchbark or fine twigs on the coals after clearing away some ashes, and waiting for a minute until the heat built up and set flame to it all.


Decado kept the bugs at bay with his bug hat.


Yoyar wore his Tilley hat, and shared stories of Tilley hats being eaten by elephants.


While it may appear that we are storing our peg legs by the fire, this is not the case. Accidental dunking in the lake meant that shoes and boots needed to be dried out. I just let my shoes dry on my feet, my wool socks dried really easily.


My tent sits on a rise on the camp site. Last year I was in a lower section, and the rain pooled and got me wet. We had just arrived, and I had emptied the bags to see what food we had, and so that could organize my kit. In the background you can see Yoyar's tarp. In the foreground you can see a couple of wet bags I bought from a police auction for $5. Red is the equipment bag. Yellow is the food bag.


After literally hours of fishing I caught a nap on the rocks down by the water. I woke up when it was dark. The next day I discovered black flies had feasted on my exposed ankles and crawled up my pant legs to devour my lower legs. I had not tucked my pants into my socks before passing out from the sun.


Yoyar explored the lake.


Dusk's golden rays glowed on the rocky shores and on the pine woods. Say that 10 times fast. They really did, but I wish I could compose a better sentence to describe it. Heck, just look at the picture.


We cooked over the fire, and always kept a kettle brewing filled from the lake. We ate freeze-dried entrees, and pasta, and curried rice and more. We combined Bisquick biscuit mix with water, kneaded and then wound it around a thick maple branch with the bark removed.


We toasted the wood over the fire first to help cook the inside of the dough before baking the dough over the fire for a few minutes. It was tasty, but next time I would add raisins and sugar.


Yoyar came up with the idea of making a minnow trap with a bug hat as shown above (look under the water). As cleverly conceived and executed as it was, it was a minnow trap that never trapped any minnows, despite containing a juicy chunk of pepperoni.


Decado sawed wood.


Yoyar sawed more wood that week than he had sawed in a lifetime. Note that no forests were harmed in the course of this exercise.


This is a buck saw made of with a wooden frame. This ingenious device is a useful bushcraft tool - you can store the blade in your belt, and construct a saw whenever you need it, using only 3 penny nails and a length of cord for tension at top.


Our fire was good. I fell asleep next to the fire twice - there is nothing like falling asleep by a camp fire.


I will make sure to bring tea bags next time I go. It is utterly uncivilized to go into the woods without good English tea. Uncivilized, I tell you.


I came across a blob of green alien slime or frog spawn. It was one or the other.


A suspicious looking frog was seen near the alien slime.


Fallen, waterlogged trees provide habitats for birds, amphibians, fish and plants.


Behind the peninsula where the camp site was situated, lies a swampy area. Crossing it leads you into the hills behind, covered with miles and miles of forest.


Yoyar went down to inspect his minnow trap. A moment after this photo, his foot slipped from the rock and he got quite wet. I didn't manage to capture that exquisite moment.


Monty had a terrific time. Between his perimeter checks and snuffling about the site, he retreated to the tent to snooze, and to avoid the bugs. He explored the woods. He shared in our meals. He drank from the lake. He peed in the woods.


I went for a paddle and explored the lake edge.


The 40 pound carbon fusion Kipawa canoe, rented from Algonquin Outfitters, was a pleasure to paddle. I would buy this canoe if I won the lottery.


The loons laughed up and down the lake and kept busy fishing throughout the week.


Lily pads covered only a few areas of the shoreline - the water was mostly too deep around the edges.


There were several beaver homes on the lake.


We raided a beaver home for a bit of dry firewood, and took only a little bit. No beavers were harmed during the course of this raid.


An empty mussel shell: the discarded remnants of an otter's meal, I believe.


The remains of an otter's feast.


Beavers take down small trees and large - you can see a thick birch tree that has fallen above.


A seagull defending its nest.


The seagull's nest - I could not see any eggs or chicks in it. It might be that an eagle or a raven took them, I had witnessed the parents mobbing a raven the day before.


I paddled and paddled.


And passed by the camp site.


While we know there were lots of fish in the lake, and certainly tons of minnows in the shallows, we didn't catch a single fish. I did have one on my hook at one point, but it escaped as I reeled it in.


The sunken logs you see in the water above are great fish habitat.


Big sheets of birch bark found on the forest floor.


The sunsets were brilliant - the weather was great all week. It rained on the first day, and it was a welcome cooling shower after our portage in.


Good weather and a good time.


Cheers,

Mungo