Okay - Final List for my Solo Trip into Algonquin Provincial Park

Okay - this is the final list. I trust what is in my knapsack more than what is on this actual list. I should go to be - 7 hours and 26 minutes before I leave...

Take care and have a good week!

• Cooking Pot
• Kettle
• Nalgene bottle
• Mug
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Zip lock bags
• Powdered Milk
• Lemon Drink Crystals
• 2 sacks tuna,
• Pepperoni sausage
• Tabasco sauce
• Instant Mashed Potatoes
• Pasta side-dishes
• Flavoured Oatmeal
• Freeze-dried entrees
• Dried Mango slices
• Salt & Sugar
• Instant Coffee
• Beef Jerky
• Sugar
• Olive oil
• Kibble
• Chocolate
• Toilet paper
• Tooth-brush
• Glass Mirror (can be used for signalling)
• Camping Suds
• Insect Repellent
• Compass
• Ferrocerium rod (firestarting)
• Garbage Bag
• Small Forest Axe
• Headlamp and extra AAA batteries
• Tarp & Rope
• Stove & filled Fuel Bottle
• Mora knife X 2
• Wool Blanket
• Sleeping pad & 1 Repair kit
• Sleeping Bag in compression bag
• Tent
• Pillow case
• Legless Folding Chair
• Thermo-Lite Bivvy Bag
• Wool sweater
• Wool pants
• Wool hat
• Socks, Underwear
• Cotton T-Shirt
• Cotton pajama pants
• Bathing shorts
• First aid kit
• 2 Books
• Paper and Pencil
• Digital Camera & 2 batteries
• Knapsack
• Monty the Beagle (!)
  

Cheers,

Mungo

Adventure Medical Thermo-Lite II Bivvy Sack

It is mid-September and so I have prepared for the possible cold weather up in Algonquin Park. I have two wool blankets, and a sleeping bag rated to about -18° Celsius. I should be fine.

But to be certain, I am also bringing along my "Adventure Medical Thermo-Lite II Bivvy Sack". This mini sleeping bag / emergency sack weighs about 200 grams - less than half a pound. Dimensions are about a metre X 2 metres - (1 X 2 yards).

It packs into a cylindrical stuff sack about the size of a tall-boy can of beer. I bought it online last year for about $22 Canadian. You can buy it at Mountain Equipment Co-op for $32.


One evening I slept in it in the back yard, back in May. It was quite cold still then. I opened it up, crawled in and immediately began to feel warm. The aluminized, baffled fabric seemed to reflect back most of my heat. It seals with Velcro, and gaps between the two layers allow for humidity to blow away, preventing condensation.


This should be in everyone's car (if you live in Canada), at the very least. It is sturdy, warm, compact and easy to carry. It won't get soaked like a sleeping bag, so it will potentially save your life in case you tip over out of your canoe - of course, assuming that you keep it close at hand. It is small enough that you could loop it to your knapsack, or even to your belt.

That's all,

Mungo

Aboriginal Films and Fussing with my Kit

Today is a day for fussing about with my knapsack and kit, and trying to figure out how to reduce the weight. I've decided to bring my tent after all, and I'm sure I'll find a way to reduce the load in other ways though. I have one more wool blanket to roll up and affix to my knapsack, and I'm going to bring a backup mora knife. Redundancy is good.

I am bring John Le Carre's "Smiley's People", a Tom Clancy book and a book on wild edible plants. They should keep me occupied in the quiet hours.

I came across the following films on the National Film Board of Canada's web site. You have to see them, for the bushcraft, the hunting, the shelter building, and more that the Inuit of north eastern Canada engage in.

The Films
The Aboriginal Perspectives module contains 33 documentaries, a short fiction film, and 5 film clips. These productions do not represent the entirety of the films on Canada’s native peoples in the NFB collection, which comprises more than 700 such works. We did want it, however, to be a representative sample of the whole. The user will find films on many important aspects of Aboriginal culture and heritage, its diverse communities, and some of the major issues and significant moments in its history. These films, more than half of which were made by Aboriginal people, are the work of experienced filmmakers, such as Alanis Obomsawin and Gil Cardinal, and filmmakers in the early stages of their career, such as Elisapie Isaac and Bobby Kenuajuak.

The few that I have seen this morning, and recommend are:

• How to Build an Igloo
• Caribou Hunters
• Eskimo Arts and Crafts
• César's Bark Canoe/César et son Canot d'écorce
• Ojigkwanong - Encounter with an Algonquin Sage
• The Hunters (Asivaqtiin)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Cheers,

Mungo

Final Preparations for Algonquin Park Trip

I am in the final stretch - a couple of days to go. I've decided to bring my tent, and not just my tarp. If it means that my portage is that much slower - then so it goes. I have got to remember that I will not be in Toronto, rushing around, running up stairs, moving from meeting room to meeting room.

I can slow down.

Yesterday I rented the solo canoe. It is a Kevlar, solo canoe, and I will pick it up Sunday morning. I believe it is about 43 pounds - that's darned light.

We're having folks over at the house during the week that I'm away to keep Spring company, which I am very happy about.

Can't wait...

Cheers,

Mungo

In Memory of the Victims of the September 11th, 2001 Attacks

Seven years ago I worked at the same company that I work at now - a television broadcast company in Toronto, Canada. I remember driving into work and hearing what I thought was a dramatized radio report of a plane that had struck the World Trade Towers in Manhattan.

It sounded like a piece of radio storytelling like War of the Worlds, but it kept going on and on for most of my trip along the highway. I phoned my Mum to mention this to her, and ask her if something had indeed happened (as I knew she'd be listening to the CBC radio news at the same time as I would be). She said she'd heard something about a plane - might have been a Cessna, single-pilot-plane sort of thing, but she was tuning into the television to find out more.

Not until I pulled through the busy security gates at the complex, and entered the floor where my office was, did I see that every TV on the floor was tuned to live shots of the smoking buildings. I remember staring dumbstruck at a TV monitor as I saw the images of the first building collapsing. It was as if a whole era of the world had ended and a new one had started in a handful of seconds.

I sensed the ending of countless lives.

Over three thousand people died in the attacks, including the 19 hijackers. Many people were injured and traumatized. Each life was a world and a universe unto itself.

Citizens of more than 90 countries lost people that day in New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. 24 of those people were Canadian. 411 of the people who died were emergency workers responding to the attacks.

Each and every one of these lives was a world and a universe.

Lest we forget.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

Camping and Canoeing: Risk Mitigation - Fear & Loathing in Algonquin Park

In conversations about my upcoming camping trip, the input I have received from folks here at work has been invaluable. A couple of people think I'm nuts to go canoe camping by myself into an area where cell phones won't work. But then, we're all city-folks here in Toronto.

One colleague seems to have worked herself into tizzy, concerned that I will be eaten by a bear or fall into a pit and rot. It is at times like that that I recall Sigmund Freud's dictum "A fear is a disguised wish". She reports to me. One colleague wanted to simply to ensure that I had documented the big project I'm working on, in the event probably of being kidnapped by a band of otters. That's reasonable (the mitigation of the generally anticipated possibility of not returning, not the specified risk scenario).

One colleague believes that I am going to get my own TV show like Survivorman. Survivormungo. Hmmm - I'd like that.

Some think solo camping would be scary.

The first time I went camping by myself - about 15 years ago - I lapsed into a depressive state. Over and over the following words resonated in my head: "I am such a loser. I have no friends. I am all by myself in the woods. [Repeat Chorus]" Honestly. It was fairly miserable. It was probably made worse by the actual fact that I'd just broken up with a girlfriend and I was not in touch with any of my old friends at the time.

The second time I went solo camping the hopelessness and blackness receded. It was replaced by an electric, panicky, painful dread of the savage, terrifying and threatening unknown wilderness around me. I remember I took ages to fall asleep every night in my nylon tent, hearing sounds of what later turned out to have been bark-beetles chewing away on the trees around me. I was convinced that there was a wild creature out in the woods about to attack and tear me into bloody shreds. Somewhat seriously.

But the third time I went solo camping, the fear and the bad thoughts slipped away and vanished. They were replaced with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, of confidence and a sense of connection with the nature about me. This is what has remained to this day every time I go.

I now relish solo camping and find that it replenishes me.

There are - as I see it - three top risks that I can reasonably mitigate against:

1. Breaking an ankle while portaging, and subsequently rotting in pit.
   The actual portage route is - by the only account I could find about it - fairly level, and hazard-free. Since I am not significantly constrained by time, I can take my time and walk slowly and carefully. I can always drag myself through the bush if needed. I wear hiking shoes that have a metal shank down the length of the sole, to help stabilize my feet. I carry Band-Aids.
   
2. Falling into the water and drowning, yelling "saaaaaaavvvvve meeeeee (gurgle gurgle)".
   I always wear a life jacket. On a trip once, a friend of mine decided to take the canoe along the shore edge for a 5 minute exploration. He came back soaked to the bone, and looking a bit scared. He'd been close to the shore, and decided to grab an overhanging tree branch so that he could step onto a rock. He'd lost his balance, fallen out and missed striking his head by inches on the rock. No matter what - always wear a life jacket. I do. Plus I appreciate the extreme danger of hypothermia, having experienced it severely about 10 years ago. I know how to right a canoe, how to get back into a canoe, and that you should never leave a canoe that has tipped over in the water (unless it is headed directly for Niagara Falls).
   
3. Being attacked and then carefully eaten by a bear.
   I wear a bear bell while portaging. I sing while portaging (that would keep even the hungriest of bears away). Remember, 99.99% of bears are skittish around humans and do all they can to avoid them. I always look around while portaging, and do not listen to an iPod... I light a fire and keep it going at my camp site to let any potential intruders know that there is an annoying, unpredictable human at the camp site. I make noise. I have an early detection system called a beagle and his incredibly powerful sense of smell, and inherent (and very welcome) confidence albeit wariness while in the bush. I know never to play dead with a black bear and always to fight back. I respect their power and speed - Mike Tyson has nothing on a black bear in a bad mood. I carry a sheath-knife with me always. I know that this won't be the most effective defense against a bear. I took a negotiation seminar at work a few years ago.
   

And then there is the risk of death by blackflies, but luckily they're out of season at the moment (actual clipping from the New York Times... uhm, 101 years ago):

Well, time's a-tickin'... 5 days to go!

Cheers,

Mungo

Weight Reduction: Camping and Canoe Kit List for Algonquin Park

There are five and a half days remaining before I leave for my solo canoe and camping trip into Algonquin Park.


View Larger Map

I spent a couple of hours working on my kit and pack yesterday. I suspect that as soon as I turn my back while I'm organizing my kit, someone pushes small round lead pellets into the lining of my pack, thus adding additional pounds that I have not accounted for.

My food is dehydrated or freeze-dried food for the most part. Some beef jerky, oatmeal, lemon powder, instant coffee, dried milk powder, etc... How can that weigh so much? I am thinking to sacrifice my tent and bring along only my tarp. That will save 6.5 lbs right then and there. All I'll need to bring in its place would be a tarp footprint - I have a cheap blue tarp that I can cut to size.



The weather has been cooling down the last couple of days, and not having a tent might play into my only concern: mosquitoes, evil mosquitoes. The forecast so far is Medium Activity for the bloodsuckers. Maybe if I bring some mosquito coils to burn in the tarp that will help. I have DEET, and a bug jacket with hood.

My essentials kit, first-aid bag and such weighs hardly anything. I'm bringing the bare essentials there. I am trying to be as spare as possible because I want to portage (lug) my canoe and my knapsack in a single trip to the lake through the woods to reduce the amount of walking that Monty needs to do. Despite my exercising him and getting him strong for the trips, I am always aware of the fact that he had both of his legs' cruciate ligaments break a few years back. But then again, he went on a 19 km portage with me a couple of years ago and fared well.



Maybe it's just that I like the idea of taking it all in one go.

Strapped to the back of my knapsack I have a self-inflating Thermarest mattress, a sleeping bag, a tarp, a wool blanket and a folding camping chair (the kind without legs - just a back and seat).

I know there are probably a handful of items that I don't need to bring. I won't give up the axe though. Maybe I won't bring the saw.

Decisions, decisions.

There are still a handful of items I need to bring. Note to self: bring a couple of good novels, and my camera.

I'd have no concerns about the weight (it's about 41.5 lbs now for everything) of the knapsack if I decide to do 2 trips through the woods. This is something I will be meditating on for the remaining 5 and a half days, or until I make a decision.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

That's all,

Mungo

Useful Algonquin Park Links & More

In a week, two days, and a handful of hours, I will be in the car leaving the driveway, preparing to drive north to Algonquin Park. My backsack will be packed, Monty the beagle will be relaxed, sitting on a blanket and strapped in to the backseat of the car, and Spring will be waving from the front door.

Between then and now I have a major project to release at work - it has been a lot of effort, time, and engagement with the vendor and client group - and it is going well. Knock on wood, I'll be able to release the project smoothly and be able to focus on camping preparations on the weekend prior. The subsequent release phases can wait until I return.

I'm keeping my eyes on the bug report for Algonquin Park - Mosquitoes are apparently still high to medium, but the good news is that the season has ended for Black Flies, Horse Flies, Deer Flies, Stable Flies, and No-see-ums. Hopefully the temperature will drop over the next couple of weeks and reduce the number of mosquitoes. I'm bringing a bug shirt (with a fine mesh hood) and DEET repellent anyway.

The other thing I will look at shortly before departing is the Algonquin Provincial Park Weather Report & Forecast. I can deal with bad weather though. I'd rather clouds of rain than clouds of mosquitoes.

Here is a great resource - a High Quality JPG Algonquin Park Map (not a direct file link). It is broken up into small submaps on this page (again, not a direct file link).

When I return I will organize my photos using the latest release of Google Picasa.

But most importantly, today at lunch I need to reserve a canoe through Algonquin Outfitters - something that will be light for the portage.

That's it for now,

Cheers,

Mungo

A Leopard Earthball Mushroom

On Labour Day this past weekend, I went for a hike down into the valley behind the house. This valley forms part of the watershed of the East Don River, which branches into the main Don River - the central river around which the historical Fort York (which formed the beginnings of Toronto) was built.


It had been a couple of weeks since I had been down in the valley, and the balance and variety of plants appear to have shifted. This time, while making my way through the valley forest, along the way I paid very careful attention to the valley floor to see if I could see any new mushrooms and fungus.


Within a few minutes I was rewarded for my patience and curiosity. This round brown creature was a small as a grape - about 4 or 5 of them scattered on flat, bare, damp earth section of the forest floor.


They were fairly firmly attached to the soil, and I pried one up carefully to preserve the root or base structure. This helps with identification.


Referring to my Roger Philips Mushrooms guide, I found out later that this is a Leopard Earthball.

location: North America, Europe
edibility: Inedible
fungus colour: Yellow, Brown
normal size: Less than 5cm
cap type: Other
stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent
spore colour: Purplish to black
habitat: Grows on the ground

Scleroderma areolatum Ehr. syn. S. lycoperdoides Schwein. Netzbovist Leopard Earthball. Fruit body 1–3(4)cm across, subglobose, tapering into a thick rooting stalk which passes into a few strong mycelial strands, yellowish-brown covered in smooth very dark scales surrounded by a ring giving a dotted, reticulate pattern when the scales have been worn off, opening by an irregular slit or pore. Gleba deep purplish-brown. Spores dark brown, globose, 9–14m in diameter, covered in spines 1.5m long. Habitat damp places on bare ground or amongst sparse grass or moss. Season autumn. Occasional. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe.

I cut it open with my knife to find that the inside is full of spores. If you tap it on the intact ball, a puff of 'smoke' appears through a slit or a rip in the top of the mushroom.


You can see the dark spore powder in the palm of my hand above.


I'm not sure what this mushroom is. I suspect is is an immature polypore of some kind.


Here's a closer shot. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Mungo

A Walk in the Valley with Spiders & Jewelweed

I took Friday off and with yesterday being Labour Day, I had a 4 day weekend.


It was a fairly busy weekend, mounting a big mirror on the wall, putting up light-fixtures (they are tricky), sitting in the back garden, drinking beer, picking up relatives at the airport, you know - long weekends.


Yesterday, earlier in the day we picked up Spring's mum from the airport. Once we got home, I went for a hike down into the valley.


This spider was just hanging out.


They're quite perfect - spiders - when viewed close up.


I thought this out-of-focus picture of blue berries turned out really well, somehow. I can't figure out what these are, however.


This yellow and orange flower is an obvious one for me. It grows all over the valley among the moist, marshy field floors.


I looked it up in my Peterson Field Guides "Edible Wild Plants - Eastern/Central North America" text.


This is called Spotted Jewelweed or Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens capensis Meerb.) and is also known as Silverleaf - because water beads over the leaves, leaving a cast of silvery-air bubbles trapped beneath.


The leaves can be picked, crushed between the palms to squeeze out the slightly sticky juice, and rubbed on the skin to treat the contact dermatitis rash that develops from Poison Ivy and Nettles.


The flowers were used by Native Americans to make orange dyes. The young shoots can be cooked in water for boiled greens.

Well, that's it for now. Stayed tuned for mushroom pictures!

Cheers,

Mungo