And The Frogs Laughed

Woke up to another gorgeous morning. I had woken up off and on during the night because it was cold. Only because I couldn't get my sleeping bag to zipper up right though. So, I welcomed the warmth of the morning sun. I looked around for my rescued dragonfly but, of course, it was gone. Hopefully it flew off on it's own accord and did not become a meal for something during the night. 

I saw a little black mouse in the bushes but it was too quick for me to get a picture. We packed up and left our site (with reluctance) at about 10:30 a.m. We are off to Brown lake today. Heather told me that the sites at Brown Lake were not very good. So I wanted to stay at Gervais Lake even more. But that wasn't to be, so, off we went. There were plenty of creeks and streams along the way. 

 But these places were not nearly as wet as the places to come. At least, here we had stepping stones to get to the other side.

From the very beginning of the trip both Heather and I had wanted to see a moose. Algonquin Park is known for its moose so we figured we had a better chance here than anywhere else to see one. Before each trip I go on I say a prayer, asking God if I could see a particular animal or bird. This trip I prayed to see a moose. Each site we would come to Heather and I would say "That spot over there looks like a good place to see a moose if we get up early enough in the morning". Of course we never get up early in the morning though so we knew that probably was never going to happen. We had spotted moose droppings from time to time on this trail, but today we came across moose tracks in the mud. We had only seen one other hiker go past us and these tracks were right on top of his tracks so we know that the moose had come through here sometime after the hiker had gone by. It was a much nicer way to see a sign of a moose than droppings were. So we were happy to find relatively fresh tracks travelling in the same direction that we were. Maybe, just maybe, we would see one in the bush as we hiked. 

Our trail to Brown lake would take us over 6 km. We would go both near and through some marshy areas as well as some hilly areas. There are only two sites on Brown Lake (plus one canoe site).  We wanted to get there first so that we could have first pick of the sites. We had a late start in the day, but we were still hopeful that we would get there before other hikers did. 

We stopped to rest about half way to our destination at a portage. This is also where the trail splits and heads towards East End Lake, Loft Lake and Rainbow Lake. We were surprised to find yellow caution tape blocking that section of the trail. 

There was a sign on a tree indicating that the trail to Rainbow Lake would no longer be maintained.  We were curious as to why they closed that trail off. Perhaps it was over used and needed a rest from people. Perhaps it was under used and was too much effort to maintain for no reason. Perhaps neither and for some other reason all together.  We never did find out why. 

​Luckily, that was not the part of the trail that we needed to go down. However, Heather was disappointed because she had been considering backpacking down that section of the trail next year. Now she won't be able to. 

After resting at the portage we continued on towards Brown Lake. We climbed up a particularly large hill and then back down the other side. At the bottom of this hill was a large pond full of dirty brown water. Surely this wasn't Brown Lake? I mean it certainly looked the part, but we hadn't traveled nearly far enough yet. 

As we walked around the edge of the pond we could see that beavers had been hard at work creating this structure. We were now walking below the water line and we were looking up to the top of the dam where the water surface was on the other side above our heads. It was a bit of a strange feeling. 

When we got to the other side and started to go back up hill again, I turned around to see where we had come from. I thought it was amazing how round the edges of the pond were. Hard to believe that beavers had made this. 

Not all of the trail was hills and bogs. Some was leaf strewn paths lined with trees and a green carpet of seedlings. 

And here too, the trees and rocks intertwined in a seemingly symbiotic relationship.

This part of the trail had many wooden foot bridges that crossed marshes and ponds. At first glance, it may seem that one may look the same as the last one and you could get the feeling of "if you've seen one then you've seen them all". But if you let yourself think that way then you could easily miss out on the beauty of the things hidden among the tall grasses and murky waters. 

It is here, in the far away parts of the park, that we found more of the rare, purple coloured, Gentian flowers that were just beginning to open. 

One bridge in particular was a lovely spot. It was more than just a couple of boards across the edges of a marsh. It was a full fledged boardwalk that had a bench built right onto it. I didn't chance sitting on the bench though because it didn't have a back rest and I pictured myself sitting down with my back pack on and falling over backwards into the water. But I did spend a good while just standing there drinking in the quiet serenity of the place. (​The hill on the other side of that quiet, serene, boardwalk was killer though! ) 

I spent so much time at the boardwalk that Heather had gotten quite far ahead of me. She wanted to get there fast to claim a site for us. So, I was by myself when I got to the last foot bridge.  I stepped onto it and walked across the first board with full, unwavering, confidence. Everything was going well until I got to the second board. Without notice, this unassuming footbridge turned into a sinking ship as the second board went right under the water under the weight of my feet! Had I not been so far behind Heather the board would have still been wet and I would have had a clue that it could sink. Instead, it was already dry by the time I got there so it took me by complete surprise. 

​ I jumped back to the dry safety of the first board. I looked down and checked my boots to see how wet they were. Just a little around the edges, No water got inside. All good.  

I looked over at a frog sitting on the wet board. I imagined that the frog was probably laughing at me thinking what a silly "huge-ling" I was.  Now I had to find a way to get across that sinking board.  I decided to just make a run and a hop and hope for the best. 

I made it across and continued cautiously to the next board. However, that one was already partially under water (no surprises there) so I knew that it would sink even further when I crossed it. No choice though. There was water on all sides so straight across was the best option. I did another fast run and hop combo and again hoped for the best. 

I stopped again to see how my feet fared in this attempt. Not too bad. My right foot got more wet than the left. But my hiking boots are very good boots and my feet inside were still dry. 

And the frogs laughed. 

Then I came to the end of the foot bridge..... Oh come on now!!  The bridge may have ended but the water did not. Not even close. Someone was kind enough to lay down a branch across the water, but it was far from adequate. There was nothing to hold on to and with the weight of my pack, I was absolutely sure I would not be able to keep my balance on the tooth pick of a stick in front of me. Well played Mario! Well played! 

I mean, no word of a lie....there were minnows swimming around the tooth pick of a stick! That's how deep the water was. Minnows!!

And the frogs laughed. 

Well, there was nothing to be done but to cross. So I went as fast as I could, splashing all the way. When I got to dry land (well, sort of dry land) my boots were completely soaked, and there was a little bit of water getting in. Still not as bad as it could have been if I had been wearing any other pair of shoes I own other than the ones I had on. 

I looked back at the tooth pick I just crossed and thought to myself. Surely I can find something better for the next person who has to cross. So I began to look around for some other logs or rocks or something to help bridge the watery gap. 

However, after looking around, I figured out why there was only a tooth pick for a bridge. There really wasn't much else around to use as a bridge. I had to walk a little ways to find anything remotely usable. I managed to drag a few somewhat usable dead fall. But anything else was too heavy to carry alone. And considering I had thrown out my back a couple days previous I didn't want to chance anything more than that. Oh well, I guess something is better than nothing. I figured if other people added to what was there, then maybe, eventually, there would be enough dead fall there to walk across and make it to the end with relatively dry feet. It was too late for me and Heather but at least there was hope for the next people coming through. It was a start. 

It was only a short walk from there to the campsite. I was happy to see the orange site marker on the tree. I arrived there at about 1:30 pm. 

When I got to the site Heather already had the tent set up and the water filter going and the coffee water boiling. 

Heather told me that when she got to the sinking foot bridge she just went through it non-stop and that her boots were fairly wet but not too bad. She also told me that when she got here she continued on to see what the second site was like. She got half way there when she met a couple who were also camping on Brown Lake and were coming to see what our site was like. They had talked for a bit and Heather let them have first choice of the two sites. They chose the farther one so we ended up with the first one. 

The site was actually not bad, aside from the fact that the trail runs right through it. But we have camped on sites with the trail running through it before. At least this one had some logs as a dividing line. The campsite was on the right side of the logs and the trail was on the left side of the logs. 

Heather had said earlier that the sites on Brown Lake were no good. But that was because she had thought that there wasn't any good access to the lake. However, she found a hidden path to a rock that opened up to a great place for swimming. So it turns out that the campsite was actually quite nice after all. 

I looked out across the lake from the swimming rock and saw that there was a camper at the canoe site across the lake. I thought how nice it would be to take a canoe out on this lake. 

I went in swimming. The water was warm and the rock was a great place for swimming. No mucky spots under your feet. 

There were a whole bunch of minnows swimming at the rock with me. When I sat in the water on the rock, they all came up to me and started nibbling at me. It tickled. Heather chuckled and said "You know, people pay good money to sit in a tank of water and have little fish clean them. Here you can do it for free!" 

Seems that the butterfly that landed on me earlier is stalking me. It has been hanging out at the campsite for hours flitting from tree to rock and all over the place for hours. (Ok, so it's probably not the same one, but it  looks very similar). Heather and I decided that it is our new mascot for the campsite. 

There was a nice breeze coming from the lake and the sun was out so all our wet clothes and boots dried out really fast. We had lunch and a just sat and relaxed for awhile. 

    At about 4 pm we heard yelling and what I figured was laughing coming from the direction of the next campsite over. It was fairly faint so we weren't sure. Heather didn't think it was people. She thought it might be animals, like foxes or wolf pups or something, The noises continued for about 20 minutes. We wondered if we should go check on the neighbours since Heather said they don't  have kids with them and it was too late in the day for new hikers to go by. So we put our food up in the tree and put our brave on and went to check it out. 
    As it turns out, the neighbours did have some kids after all and the noise was just them swimming and yelling and having fun. Can't lie, we were kinda hoping that it was foxes or something. However, on the way back to the campsite we did see some more moose tracks in the mud (headed towards the neighbours campsite). We didn't see a moose but we knew there was one in the area. 

We also saw other tracks in the mud. 

But the owner of those tracks was much easier to find than the moose was. 

So, we got back to camp and made supper and watched the loons swimming on the lake. 

As the sun started to sink and dusk settled around us, a lone duck could be seen in the distance. 

We got our first decent sunset of the trip that evening. The peach and pink colours of the sky reflected beautifully on the surface of the lake.

As we sat there watching the sunset, I spotted a black form swimming straight towards us in the water. 

It was a beaver. It was swimming pretty quickly and in such a straight line towards us that I though it might come right out of the water and up into our campsite. But at the last minute he turned and kept following the shore line to some place further down the lake. 

When it was getting dark we started a small fire and sat and looked at the stars for awhile. When the fire burnt down and we were getting chilly we decided to pack it in and head to bed. I went to stand up and stumbled and fell out of my chair and onto the ground. I laughed, and Heather laughed, and the frogs laughed.