I woke up at about 8:20 a.m. Heather and my mom were already up and making breakfast. 

It was a beautiful sunny morning. It was a bit chilly out but it wasn't raining. I knew that once we got moving with our back packs on that we would not be chilly for long. We may even welcome the slightly cooler temperature. 

The loons were singing out their calls to each other and a flock of geese flew by heading towards a warmer destination. 

A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was knocking away at a tree and trying to find her breakfast. 

As I made my way to the boom box, Heather and my mom told me to watch out for Peter's Cotton Tail that he had left behind. Sure enough, I came across a white fluffy thing that looked like a rabbit's tail. But I knew right away what it was. Someone has stepped on a yellow mushroom a day or two before and a white fuzzy fungus had grown over top of it. I was surprised at how fast the white fuzzy fungus had grown. It had literally grown over night because I remember the squished mushroom being there the night before with no fuzziness on it at that time. 

We packed up camp quite quickly and took one last look around to make sure that we didn't miss anything. I wished I could stay longer in this spot but the real world awaited so we had to go. I would definitely consider camping here again in a heart beat. It was a great campsite.

We had to travel just over 4 km  today to get back to the trail entrance. 

The way back was much easier going for the most part. With the exception of one particularly steep hill, the trail was relatively dry and the hills were not too large. Many of the hills that we had gone up on the way in were now down hills for us on the way back. 

With the leaves just starting to change colours there was a nice array of patterns, spots and  stripes that could be found. It made for some interesting natural pieces of art. 

There was one section where the green moss was so thick on either side of the trail that it looked like grass from a mowed lawn. 

There was another section with blue-green moss that looked like a pretty carpet amongst the trees.

Then I came across something I had never seen before. It was a slug hanging from a tree on a very, very long thread of slime. It was hanging right at about waist level and the slime string had to have been about 6 to 10 feet long! (I tried to get a clear picture of it but it only came out blurry). Circus slugs in the woods? Who knew! Actually, after I got home I looked it up and found out that hanging upside down from mucus strings is actually part of a slugs mating ritual.

After about a half an hour or so we passed by the trail that led to the lookout that Heather and I had gone to see the day before. Shortly after that we were passing by Starling Lake. It was interesting to see the lake from the different views; one from above and one from beside. Starling Lake looks much prettier from above than it does from below. 

Near the end of Starling Lake there is a boardwalk that we had to cross. It was very old and falling apart and I was worried that it would break beneath our weight. But it held up and we got to the other side without incident. 

There are some places on the trail where the park rangers were kind enough to cut out obstructions so that you can walk through without tripping over things. This was usually only along the really well used trail that leads too and from the water falls. You don't see this in the further reaches of the trail back on the other side of Provoking Lake. 

Then there are the places where the obstructions are just something you have to deal with. For example the fallen tree we had to crawl under. If you don't have a backpack on this is probably a breeze. But with a backpack on it is more like an Olympic sport. You can't see how low you have to go, so if you think you are low enough and you aren't then you get stuck or you get knocked right over and fall down. 

We helped each other through and aside from my mom's shoe now sitting on top of her backpack instead of hanging down from it there were no other signs that we had ever had a struggle with a tree. (For some reason Heather and I found the fact that my mom's shoe was in an odd position kind of funny at the time...not sure why; maybe we were just tired. Maybe you just had to be there). 

The waterway between Starling Lake and the waterfalls is quiet and peaceful. I was happy to see it because I knew when I saw it that we were getting close to the waterfalls which was about our half way mark. 

We arrived at the waterfalls around 10:30 a.m. This was where we were stopping for our long break and boiling some water to make our cup-o-soup. 

I went to sit by the water's edge to see if I could see another blue jay like I had seen the last time we were here. There were no other people here yet so I figured it might be quiet enough to see one. But I had no such luck. 

While I was sitting there I looked around and noticed the entrance to another trail. Since I was waiting for water to boil I figured I may as well go and check it out to see where it led. I assumed that it was a trail to a boom box or something. 

It was not. Instead it led me to a rickety old flight of stairs. 

I went a little further and found even more stairs. They were moss covered and still wet from the day before. The railing only came up to about my knees. I became more and more curious as to where these stairs led so I continued to climb them. 

You could tell that no one had been up here in a very long time. The stairs were so old that they were actually pretty dangerous really. They looked like they would be a great place to shoot a horror film or something. 

Finally I reached the top of the stairs and found an old unused trail . The path was strewn with fallen trees and the underbrush was very thick and tangled. 

The trail started to wind back in the direction of Provoking Lake. I did not want to spend more time going back in that direction since it was the opposite direction that we were trying to go in. Plus I was thinking that Heather and my mom may start to get worried if I was gone too long. So I headed back the way I had come without finding out exactly where this trail leads to. 

Of course this meant going down the rickety old steps again. At one point the I almost slipped and fell down the wet stairs. But I caught myself in time and made it safely back down to the bottom. 

When I got back to Heather and my mom I was just in time. The water was boiled and the soup was ready. 

I also pulled out my bag of Gorp to eat with my soup. As kids we were always thrilled to have Gorp on our hiking trips. My mom would put together a combination of raisins, peanuts, alphabet cereal and M&M's and we would have it as a snack along the way. As adults we still love the stuff. 

Beside the waterfalls is a small 50 meter portage so that canoers and kayakers can skirt around the waterfalls. 

A group of canoers came by and said hello and then continued on their way up the river. 

A group of about 8 backpackers came by as they headed towards Provoking Lake. Then a gentleman on a bike came by and stopped to chat. He had come up the bike trail which intersects with this trail and told us how he had seen a moose down by Pog Lake. He went on to talk about how in the spring time this waterfall actually looks more like a water fall because the water is much higher and covers all the bare rocks that we could see now. We talked about hiking and about bears. He told us that this trail had been closed about three weeks previous because there had been a bear and three cubs in the area. The park rangers had felt that the area was unsafe for people at the time so they had closed this section down. We told him that we hadn't seen any signs of bears while we were here but that we had seen quite a few when we were in Killarney a few weeks ago. Eventually the gentleman got on his bike and went back the way he came and we got ready to get on our way again too. 

Just as we were packing up again Heather turned to me and in an excited whisper said "Look over there!" I turned to where she pointed and at first I didn't see it. 

Then I saw a blur of movement as a long dark brown animal went running through the bushes at top speed trying desperately to avoid us. It ran from one side of the bush across the open trail and into the thick underbrush on the other side. It went way to fast to catch a picture of it but we got a pretty good look at it. It was a Fisher! It is very rare to see a Fisher. They are a member of the weasel family and live in coniferous habitats across much of Canada and the northern U.S. They are primarily nocturnal, avoid open areas, and usually spends its days sleeping in hollow trees or logs, but it will occasionally venture out in daylight. We felt very lucky to have been able to see one. 

​

When we got to the other side of the bridge we noticed that there was a campsite right by the bridge. This is an unofficial site but it looked like a fairly nice place to camp out as long as you didn't mind the amount of foot traffic that you would get from all the passers by. Especially since the trail to the boom box was right there and was the only one available to anyone who was at the waterfalls for the day. 

We were on our way again. It was about 11:30 a.m. by this time and the sun was getting warmer. 

It wasn't long before we came to the fork in the trail where you could go to Mew Lake and Two Rivers Lake or you could continue on to Hwy 60 which was where we were headed. I chuckled at the sign because it made me think of Pokemon hunters out looking for Mew Two. 

We came to one of the last hills that we would have to climb. It over looked Mew Lake and was a nice view. 

Through the trees you could make out one of the campsites from the Mew Lake campground. It looked teeny tiny from where we were. 

We passed by a boulder that was so round that it looked like the top of a giant bowling ball. 

Soon we saw the Exit sign and we knew we would be out in only just a few more minutes. 

We were making good time. It was taking us less time to hike out than it did to hike in. This is probably because much of it was downhill instead of uphill when going in this direction. 

We made it out of the bush at 12:20 p.m.  It had only taken us 3 hours if you didn't include the hour break at the waterfalls. 

We packed up the car and filled in the survey that they provide you with at the beginning of the hike. Some of our suggestions were to fix the signs and trail markers on the East end and to fix the broken boardwalks because they are becoming dangerous. Then we placed the survey and the expired permits in the box that they had at the trail head. 

We decided that on our way home we would stop at A&W's for a burger and fries. As we traveled down the highway we saw a sign and remembered that on our way into the park we had seen the same sign for the Algonquin Art Centre and had said that we had wanted to go in on the way back if it was open. Since it was open we pulled into the parking lot and stopped for a visit.

We groaned as we say how many stairs there were to get up to the Art Centre. Our legs were achey from all the hiking we had done the past few days and stairs were not something we wanted to see right now. But we climbed them anyways. 

At the top was a nice little gazebo area that was closed. There were signs to places like the frog pond and the gallery. There was a hand painted canoe to one side and in the middle of the lawn was a tree stump with a baby tree planted in the middle of it. 

Outside were various pieces of art on display that were for sale. There were little blurbs about the artwork and the artist posted beside each one. 

The building itself was a beautiful stone building with some stained glass in the windows. 

Inside was a shop with various pieces of art for sale as well as things like post cards, books, jewelry, nugs, etc. There was a whole bunch of gorgeous pottery work too. In another section was the actual gallery. You couldn't take pictures in there but if you are ever in the area and you like artwork then I highly suggest you take a trip to see the gallery. The are some fabulous pieces of art work in there all with wildlife themes. There are so many pieces I would love to one day have the money to buy. Simply gorgeous work by some truly talented artists. 

After out trip to the Art Gallery we made another stop at the Algonquin Outfitters. Heather had broken a piece off of her backpack and was looking for a replacement and we figured this would be the best place to get it. I was looking for a decently priced T-shirt. 

Inside we were met with a big hand carved wooden bear, 

The store was filled with two floors of everything imaginable for camping and canoeing. There were even novelty items like a little moose chair for kids and wooden pencils in the shape of marshmallows being roasted on a stick. 

Heather found the piece she was looking for and I found a nice Algonquin Park T-shirt for about $21 that would have cost me about $35 if I had bought it in the park. After shopping we had our burger and fries and then were home by 4:30 p.m.  We had a fantastic time on our backpacking trip and are already talking about which trails to do next year. There are so many trails just in Algonquin alone that we could do. So who knows where we will end up next year. 

I woke up at 8 a.m. to the sound of rain. I decided to wait for awhile in the tent to see if it would stop. Heather was already up and out of the tent but I was not anxious to go out and get soaked when I had a nice, warm, dry sleeping bag to curl up in. 

By 9 a.m. I gave up waiting for the rain to stop and I left the tent only to find out that it wasn't even raining after all. It was just left over rain water dripping from the trees and onto the tent. Heather laughed and said that she had thought the same thing when she woke up. 

My mom wasn't awake yet so Heather and I sat quietly watching the loons swimming near by for awhile. 

My mom got up around 9:30 a.m. and said that she hadn't slept well. The rain had run down a slope she was on and the water had completely soaked one section of her tent and bedding. It had rained all night long and our tent hadn't fared much better. Heather and I also had big sections of our tent and some small sections of our bedding that were also soaked. It wasn't raining anymore but the trees and leaves were still soaked in a silvery sheen of water.  

​We had to wear a poncho to go to the boom box because of all the water that was still falling off the leaves of the trees as you brushed by them. We were not looking forward to hiking in this. Luckily we didn't have to go far today.

We had breakfast and then packed everything up while it was still wet.In an effort to keep what was still dry from getting dripped on from the trees, I wrapped my clear plastic rain poncho around my backpack amd carried it like that. It didn't do much good though because  the condensation just started to build up under the plastic which defeated the purpose. So I had to take it off again. 

​As we were packing up a lady stopped to say hello on her way around the lake.She told us that the rain was expected to stop by 5 p.m. today and that the weather was supposed to be nice tomorrow. She also said that the site we were aiming for was only about 20 minutes up the trail. She was only day tripping and did not have a backpack on so we figured that 20 minutes her time probably meant 40 minutes to an hour at our pace. 

We left at about 11 a.m. and headed for the last site on the lake. We had the opportunity to see the site that was right next to us and we were glad we had chosen the one we had. Although ours had been only 15 feet off the trail at least ours had some trees for privacy. The one right next to us had the trail running directly though the middle of it with no privacy from hikers what so ever. It was probably one of the worst sites on the trail. 

The tree with the campsite sign on it had a huge bulge in it. Probably the result of some insect infestation or damage many years ago when the tree was only young. 

The trail in this section of the lake was surrounded by very dense bush and it was like there was a wall of trees all around you. The footing in this section was was not as nice as the rest of the trail either. 

Within only the few short days that we had been hiking we were already starting to see more and more of the trees changing colour. 

And more and more leaves were starting to fall to the ground. 

We did reach one campsite in 20 minutes like the lady had said, however, it was only the first campsite in the set of 4 and not the last campsite. We still had a little way to go yet but it wouldn't be too much longer. 

We stopped for a rest at the second last site before our destination. 

This site was a super nice site and was very large. If we couldn't get the very last site then we figured we would just come back to this one. 

This site was in two sections. There was the fire pit area by the rocks under the trees, and then you traveled down a short path to an open area by the water where there was more space to put up a tent. 

After a short rest we continued on our way. We were almost there. A little chipmunk came to greet us and show us the way. 

Our destination site was off the main trail and down a side trail. We almost missed the side trail because it was not well marked at all. For some reason the West end of the lake is much better marked than the East end. Heather led the way and we went up a hill and found what at first we thought was our new campsite. There was a fire pit in under a clearing of pine trees and plenty of space for a tent; but under further inspection we found that the trail went past this and continued on. This was probably just an over flow site of some sort. 

After another minute or two of following the side trail we finally made it to our new campsite. It was about 12:15 p.m. and it had taken us just over an hour to get here. We were very glad that we hadn't settled for any of the other ones that we had passed. This site was the best one on the whole lake. Other had come close but this was our favourite. 

The fire pit had nice benches around it. There was the perfect combination of sun and shade. The ground was mostly flat and clear of underbrush.

There were beautiful old cedar trees all around. It was well off the main hiking trail and the boom box was not too far away. 

One of the best parts about the site was the teeny tiny swimming area. The water was crystal clear; the bottom was not mucky; and there was a nice , clean shallow section before it went into a drop off and got deep. 

We had a little chuckle when we came across a tree that had many lengths of multi-coloured ropes hanging from it. You could tell that it was the tree that others had used to hang their food from so that the animals didn't get it. The branch they used was quite high up and as a result it appeared that the ropes had gotten stuck and had to be cut down. What we couldn't figure out was why people continued to use the branch when there was evidence of the tree not being the best one to use. There were other trees around that would make just as good of a food tree as this one. You would think that people would say "Oh 2 or 3 people previously used this tree and failed so I am going to use a different tree". But no....there were about 7 or 8 different lengths of rope hanging from this tree. Needless to say, we used a different tree. 

Someone had also left behind a clothes line and we quickly put it to good use. The sun was only shining intermittently but the wind was blowing enough that our things started to dry relatively quickly. 

​So many of our things needed to be dried out since our tents had leaked the night before; we had clothes and bedding and tent flies hanging all over the place.  

We put up the tent but we didn't put anything in it right away. We wanted it to dry out first. So we left the door open and allowed the wind to blow in. 

Once again our friends the loons came to greet us. 

Looking across the lake we could just about make out the campsite we had stayed at the very first night of our trip. You could also hear other day trippers calling out to each other way across the lake. But it wasn't noisy enough to be disturbing and the noise soon faded out in the distance. 

For lunch we cooked a bacon and egg wrap. The bacon we had bought pre-cooked from the dollar store before we came. My mom had been telling us how awful the dehydrated eggs taste once you re-hydrate them so we were expecting this meal to not taste very good at all. However, my mom had brought along some powdered cheese and some spices and she added those to the eggs. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the eggs actually tasted very good!

After lunch Heather and I still had some energy left so we decided to take a short hike (without out backpacks) up the trail to the look out. My mom stayed behind because she hadn't put her tent up yet and she just wanted to enjoy some time to herself for awhile. As Heather and I were walking along the side trail to get to the main trail we came across one tree that had an abundance of orange ribbon that had been used to mark the trail with. Since this side trail was not well marked at all, we decided to take the left over ribbon and fix the markers ourselves. So we proceeded to tie orange ribbons around various trees to lead the way for any future campers. 

Once we had finished fixing the trail markers Heather and I got started on our trip to the look out. For the most part the trail was not difficult but we did come across one steep hill that was particularly difficult to maneuver; especially when the ground was wet. But there was no rain and the walk was quite pleasant. 

We came across a side trail that was marked with a yellow portage marker. We didn't have a map so we did not know exactly where the side trail to the look out was located; we were going by memory. When we saw the portage sign we began to travel down the portage a few steps. But then I stopped and I turned to Heather and said "I think we are going the wrong way. It doesn't make sense that a portage is going down to a lake or body of water and a look out would be going up a very high hill. This can't be right."

​ So I took out my camera and scanned past all the most recent pictures that I had taken until I got to the one of the map. Sure enough, we would have been taking the wrong trail if we had followed the portage. So we backed up and continued down the main trail. It was another example of the trails not having proper signage at this end of the lake. 

Sure enough a few minutes later we came to another intersection and there was another metal box with a map in it that confirmed we were on the right trail. Apparently zombie survivalists had visited here before. 

At least there was a clear sign posted here.  We knew it was not much farther now. Only 250 meters more to go. 

It took us about 45 minutes to get from our campsite to the top of the look out and it was worth the extra hiking. 

The view was breath taking. Down below we could see all of the boggy looking Starling Lake. 

There are no railings or barriers of any sort here so if you were bringing little children up here you would have to be very careful. 

To the right you can see the bike trail which looks like a road, and some sections of land that looked like old fields with dead trees and new trees starting to grow in them. 

A little more to the right and you can see the west end of  Lake Of Two Rivers. 

We stayed for awhile enjoying the view and talking until we noticed that we could see the rain coming towards us in the distance like a moving wall. We knew we would get caught in the rain but we stayed and watched it until it was almost upon us anyways. It wasn't a downpour so it wasn't so bad. 
  On the way back down the hill we came across a cluster of ants eating at something. I couldn't tell what they were eating but it looked kind of like some pine gum or something. 

We managed to get back to camp faster than we had gotten to the look out. It only took us 30 minutes and it was about 4:15 p.m.  It was at this time that I noticed 3 loons that were exceptionally close to our campsite.

​ The campsite has some good areas of vegetation near the waters edge so the loons didn't see us right away but we could see them. 

We think that they had a nesting area right around the bend but we didn't know for sure. We watched them as they swam away until we couldn't see them any more. 

At 4:50 p.m. it started to rain. My mom was taking a nap and heather and I sat under our clear plastic ponchos and watched the rain drops on the lake and the grey clouds rolling by. I remembered what the lady had said earlier in the day about the rain stopping by 5 p.m. and I said to Heather "It's only allowed to rain for 10 more minutes. Then it will be 5 o'clock and it is not allowed to rain." 
   Sure enough, at 5 p.m. on the dot it stopped raining and the clouds broke and the sun came out and we could see blue sky. 

It never did get really sunny and hot again that day but it never did rain past 5 p.m. either. 
   We got a nice fire going for the evening and had Kraft Dinner  with Garlic bread Bannock for supper.  After supper we played cards for awhile and watched as the stars came out one by one. Tonight we would be able to sleep with the tent door open again. We went to bed at about 10:30 p.m. knowing that tomorrow would be another relatively long day. Tomorrow we were heading home. 

It had rained at about 4 a.m. and apparently there was a thunderstorm Heather tells me. But I slept through the storm though and didn't hear a thing.  One corner of my mom's tent got a bit wet. Ours was relatively dry with the exceptions of a couple places near the walls of the tent. By the time we woke up the rain had stopped but the lake was very foggy. 

There was still water dripping from the trees but it was not supposed to rain for the rest of the day. 

The American Tree Sparrows that were all over in the pine trees did not seem to mind the foggy weather at all. 

We packed up our camp and left our site at about 9 a.m. We had to skirt around the neighbours site in order to get back out to the main trail to continue on. We didn't see them but we could hear that the campers on the neighbouring site were also already awake and moving around.  

Today was going to be the longest leg of our hike and the weather was very humid. We were doing about 7 km today and heading to the campsites on the opposite end of the lake. We planned to take some longer breaks at each of the spots where the small loop joins up with the large loop of the trail plus any shorter breaks we nay need in between. We took a lot of water with us because there were no places that were close to the lake for us to replenish our water supply along the way. 

​ It was supposed to be about 39 degrees with the humidity today according to the weather reports. And I am sure it was. Today was like the bathroom after you have just gotten out of the shower and the mirrors are all fogging up; except you can't open the door or turn on a fan to clear the air. It was hours and hours of hiking through mugginess. 

In light of the humidity I thought it was fitting that I was seeing bunches and bunches of all different kinds of mushrooms and fungi everywhere. 

Somewhere near the beginning of our hike my mom and Heather were up ahead of me. The ground was pretty wet and slippery in places. I was watching my footing and looked down to my left to see an angry swarm of bees near my feet. They had built their nest just to the side of the trail and practically on the trail. I don't know if it was Heather or my mom who may have stepped on the nest or if someone had gone by earlier or if an animal broke it, but these bees were not happy that their was damage to their home. I quickly tried to jump to the right to get out of their way and in doing so I fell to the ground right beside them. My mom heard me fall but had not seen the bees and thought I had just slipped on a wet rock. She turned around and was heading back towards me and called out "Are you OK?"    "BEES!" I yelled.  She didn't quite hear me and was still coming back towards me. Again she asked " Are you OK? Do you need help?"  Again I shouted "BEES!" as I jumped up and started to make a mad dash forward so that I didn't get stung and so that she didn't either. 
   Fortunately none of us got stung and we got out of the area as fast as we could. My mom asked me if I was hurt. I had landed backwards on my palms but my butt hadn't even hit the ground so I wasn't hurt much at all. I replied "I am not hurt as much as I would have been if I had gotten stung by a bee". So that was a narrow escape. 

Eventually we made it to the intersection of the First Loop. Once again there was a a metal box with a map posted inside. We sat for a rest and took a look at the map to calculate how far we had come and how much further we had to go. It was still a long ways off yet. As we sat there taking a break we heard some people coming up behind us. It was two guys who were on their way up to the look out that was part way up the 33km trail. These two guys happened to be the campers that were our neighbours the night before. They had left their tents and gear on their site and intended to do the look out as just a day hike and then go back to camp over night at the same site tonight. We explained that we were headed in the opposite direction and were going to the other side of the lake.  They warned us that we could expect thunderstorms later on tonight and then they said good bye and went on their way. 

After our rest we continued on our way too. We knew it was 2.5 km to the next spot where the large and small trial loops intersected. We planned to stop and have lunch at that intersection. 

At about 11:30 we were pretty tired and the mosquitoes were bad. We hadn't made it to the intersection yet but we found an open area where there weren't many mosquitoes and decided to stop for lunch anyway. We took off our packs and had a good lunch and a long rest.

​ It was so humid that day that when Heather took off her glasses she found that she had a slug crawling around on the arm of her glasses. I wonder how long that little guy had been hitching a ride!  

After lunch we got our backpacks back on and started on our way again. We had ourselves a good laugh when we discovered that the intersection that we had been aiming for as our lunch destination was only about 100 meters away from where we had stopped for lunch. Once again there was a map posted here in a metal box. We checked the map again and figured we had about 4 more km to go until we reached our site. We were about half way for today's hike. 

By now the fog was lifting and the sun was starting to come out. We walked about a half a kilometer or less and met a man by himself heading to the intersection on a day trip to have lunch. We told him that we just passed it not long ago and that he didn't have too much farther to go. He thanked us and we carried on.

We hiked on for about another hour and were on our way up a particularly long and steep hill when we met a man and a woman near the top of it. They told us that we had about 2 or 3 more hills between us and the site we were headed to. So we started calculating distance in hills. "Only two more hills to go!" we said after we climbed the next hill. 

We finally made it to our new campsite at about 3:15 p.m. (5 hills later). It had taken us just over 6 hours to get there. We were hot and tired and very glad that we didn't have to go any further today. Before we even put up our tents we all went in for a swim to cool off.

The water was a bit cold but refreshing and it was clear with no mushy bottom. It was a great place to swim. Even the loons thought so too. 

After having our swim we were ready to set up camp. And what a nice campsite it was. This one was even better than the last two we were on. If you looked to the right you could see the other side of the lake in the distance and how far we had come.

If you looked to the left you could see the part of the lake we had just rounded. There were no other people camping at this end of the lake so it was so peaceful and beautiful. There were about 5 blue jays flying back and forth across the water and calling to each other. 

This site even had a huge flat rock that we could use as a table to play cards on at night. 

Someone had left a clothes line behind so we used it to dry out my mom's bedding that had gotten wet the night before and to hang our bathing suits on. 

There were only 3 small problems with this site. The first was that there was literally only 15 feet between our site and the trail. Buit it was well treed so we still had our privacy.
    The second was that the boom box was quite a ways away on the opposite side of the trail, way back in the thick dense bush. It's alright in the day but a little dicey at night due to there being not as much light and a high volume of rocks and roots to trip over.
    Then there was the third problem. When we first got to the site we had just plopped most of our stuff down on the ground in a little grassy area. After our swim we came back to find that everything that was in the grassy area was covered in a mass of flying ants. Apparently the grassy area was filled with multitudes of holes in the ground all of which were home to hundreds of flying ants. We quickly moved our stuff off of the grassy area and shooed the flying ants away. Once our stuff was off of the ants homes they calmed down and went back into their holes and didn't bother us the rest of the time we were there. 

It was at about this point that the battery on my camera went dead.As you can well imagine, I take hundreds of pictures on my trips and I rely heavily on my camera. I had predicted this might happen at some point and before our Killarney trip I had gone out and purchased a Power Bank from Mountain Warehouse. Luckily I had brought it along with me. It was not clear on the box or with the instructions whether this would act as a charger or as a portable external battery. I had even asked the staff at Mountain Warehouse how it worked exactly and they didn't know. They went online to look it up at the manufacturers website and it didn't say there either.  I was hoping it would be a charger since carrying around a portable battery and cord every time I wanted to take a picture could become cumbersome. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it could act as both. You can take pictures while it is hooked up and it had fully charged my camera after about a half hour. According to the booklet it has about 3 hours of charge in it so I could have recharged my camera or phone many times over. I had got it at half price so it was a great buy. I highly recommend it for anyone who is travelling. 

We set up our tent away from the grass and started getting ready for dinner.

For supper we had rehydrated a mixture of chicken, rice and grains. It tasted pretty good; especially the broth it was in. 

And for dessert we made chocolate pudding in a bag. That didn't turn out quite so well. It tasted fine but the pudding never thickened up the way it was supposed to so we ended up eating chocolate pudding soup. 

It had been a long day and we were all pretty tired so we did not end up staying up very late. Heather and my mom went to bed while I stayed up and tended to the fire for awhile. As I sat there I wondered to myself...what ever happened to the older gentleman we had passed earlier in the day who was going to the intersection for lunch and then turning around and coming back? We never did see him pass by us again. Perhaps he did while we were swimming. Or perhaps he went all the way around the lake. I guess we will never know.
     I sat in the twilight watching the fish jumping in the lake and listening to the crickets and the loons. There must be a flight path through here for planes though, because the low rumbling sounds of planes passing could be heard about every 15 to 20 minutes and it was a little disappointing.
​    Soon enough I headed for bed too. It was a hot and humid night but it was cloudy and overcast so there was to be no star gazing tonight. Since we were told to expect thunderstorms tonight we did not sleep with the tent door open. Tomorrow should be a good day because we do not have far to go tomorrow. 

The nice thing about being able to sleep with just the screen door closed  is that you can also wake up to as beautiful a view as the one you went to sleep to. The pink and blue sunrise is what I opened my eyes to on this morning. 

I awoke to the sounds of a woodpecker knocking on a nearby pine tree. 

I got up and sat by myself for awhile in the quiet solitude of the morning waiting for Heather and my mom to wake up. A solitary loon was also enjoying the peacefulness of the morning.

​Our plan for today was to leave our stuff here and hike the 15 or so minutes over to the next set of campsites and see how we liked them. If there was one there that we liked then we would come back here, pack up our stuff and move sites.

 According to the website reservation system that we checked there was going to be 4 other sets of people on these campsites. Since it is first come first serve, we wanted to get ahead of the game by getting first pick before anyone else showed up. 

By 10:15 a.m. we were on our way over to the next set of sites being careful not to step on the little brown toads that we frequently saw along the paths. 

When you aren't carrying backpacks you are able to travel faster so it didn't take us long to get there. There was no one on these sites yet and we had first pick. Once again there was a site that was no where near the lake and we discounted it right away. The next two were quite nice, but once again the third one was the best. 

The previous site was more open than this one but the ground was more dusty and there wasn't as much privacy like this one had. This one also had more deciduous trees so there was more shade to relax in. On the other site you had to travel through other people's campsites to get to the boom box. But this one had a boom box of it's own. We decided that we liked this site better than the one we were on and that we would move here. 

Besides, since we had to travel about 7 km the next day to the campsites on the other side of the lake then staying at this campsite would bring us just a little bit closer to tomorrow's destination.  So we hiked back to camp, packed up and moved camp over to the new site. 

Heather and I set up our tent in a nice open area with a decent amount of shade. 

My mom found a spot for her screen tent under the trees nearby. She set up her fly a little differently today. That is the nice thing about her type of tent. It is fairly flexible to accommodate different sorts of terrain. The downfall is that it needs trees. So if you are in an area that doesn't have good trees then you are out of luck.

After the tents were up we needed wood to get a fire going for coffee. So we went exploring our new surroundings to see what we could find. 

It was while we were exploring that my mom came across another campsite that we had completely missed. Apparently the one we had seen that was no where near the water was not an official campsite and was just one someone had created as a makeshift site. This hidden campsite my mom stumbled upon was one of the nicest we had seen yet. It was huge and the benches were hand made from logs and one even had a little table attached to it. We wondered if there was another hidden site in the area we were in yesterday. But we weren't about to go back again to look. And we weren't about to pack up camp to move to this one either. We were happy enough with the site we already had and we went back to enjoy our time there. 

We spent the rest of the day swimming, reading, napping and just relaxing in the sun. 

 Once again there were loons swimming close by the campsite. They were never far off.
​     Across the lake we could hear the people with the dogs from yesterday. They too had moved campsites and we could see them as teeny tiny ant like shapes right across from us.  The site they were now on, according to the map, was not one that was an official site on the map. We figured that they were on an unreservable one that was intended for canoers and that they probably had a canoe with them. 
​    Later in the evening we heard a couple of campers take up the camp site right next to us. They were quiet and we hardly even noticed that they were there. 

For supper we had noodles with beef and broccoli. And for dessert we decided to experiment with the bannock mix and try to make cinnamon rolls out of them. 

The cinnamon rolls turned out pretty good! It didn't take us long to eat most of them. We made way too many of them so some we put away until breakfast. 

In the evening we played Yahtzee and games of Hearts. The frogs started to come out and serenade us with their chorusing songs. There were plenty of fish jumping in the lake beside us.  Unfortunately at about the same time, the mosquitoes and the no-see-ums came out to bite us.

When it started to get dark, the moon started to rise. The campsites on the lake were much more busy than the previous night. From across the lake we could see the flashlights of other campers flitting across the lake. Instead of star gazing we were flashlight gazing. We made it a relatively early night since we knew that we had a long day of hiking ahead of us tomorrow and we wanted to be packed up and gone by 9 a.m. 
​  We were supposed to get rain tomorrow so we were not able to sleep with the tent door open this night. 

Our second ever attempt at backpacking was right on the heels of our Killarney backpacking trip only just a few weeks previous. This time our attempt was much more successful. We had learned our lessons and packed accordingly. This time our packs were only 27 - 29 lbs instead of 40 -45 lbs and it made a world of difference. My mother's pack was the heaviest at  35 lbs. Personally I thought even that was a bit too heavy, but she said that she was fine with it.  
   We were on our way to Algonquin Park to hike the smaller loop of the Highland Trail on Provoking Lake. We drove about 2 hours and arrived in Algonquin Park at the entrance just past Huntsville. Algonquin Park is a huge park with many campgrounds and many entrances and many hiking trails.

 We knew we were headed to the Mew Lake campground  but we stopped first at the Information Center about 30 km before Mew Lake. Here we were looking to pick up a map of the trail we were about to make our home for the next 4 nights and 5 days. When we got to the Information Center it was very busy with long line ups. We asked about a map and were told the one we found on the shelf was the only one available. We were also told that the registration office at Mew Lake would have one. So we decided to avoid the huge line up and just pick one up at Mew Lake. 

Inside the gatehouse at Mew Lake was a large satellite view map of the campground which I thought was very helpful for campers in choosing their sites. We had a much shorter line to wait in here and we looked at the brochures and the paper cranes hanging from the ceiling as we waited. We did not however, see any maps available. 

After giving a description of our tents and signing the page that said we were aware of, and would follow all the rules about not attracting bears and other wildlife, we were ready to get started on our adventure. We have encountered bears before on our Killarney trips so were were not overly concerned with another  encounter with a bear.

We had to get in the car and drive back about a half a kilometer or less to the trail head to begin. At the trail head was a large posted sign about the trail and some safety guidelines. Right away we were already breaking rule number one because we didn't have a map. But we weren't about to drive back 30 km to the information center to get one. 

I had already studied the map and had a fair memorization of where the campsites were and the distances between certain points. We intended to hike only the small 19 km loop and we planned to camp on the closest site for the first night. It was 1:35 pm by now and we expected to make it to our site by 6:00 p.m. 

Off to the side of the trail was a pile of walking sticks that previous hikers had left behind. My sister Heather and my mom both took one but I didn't notice them and I didn't end up taking one with me. There were some points on the trip where it would have come in handy, but I managed without one. 

So with walking sticks in hand and backpack straps all tightened up we got our hike under way. 

Right away I noticed a difference in the trails versus the Killarney trails. The Highland trail was much wider with more flat and easier to maneuver terrain. 

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of areas that were quite similar to the  Killarney trail, but for the most part it was not as rugged. The first hour or so of this hike is almost all up hill. So we began to realize why this trail was named the "Highland Trails".

We were surprised by how many other hikers we saw along the way, but the one thing we noticed above all was that everyone of them were happy and in good spirits. On the Killarney trail the people who were passing you were all tired and looking a little worse for wear. This made us feel hopeful about this hike being a good experience. We said hello and stopped to talk to just about every hiker we passed. Most of them gave us tips and helpful advice about what to watch out for and how much farther to certain points. 

The nice thing about this trail is that for the most part (at least on the west side) the trails are very well marked. We were feeling a little uneasy about not having that map with us, but the trail markers were helping to make us feel a little bit better about it. 

Our first goal was to make it to the "half way point" to our campsite. It was the scenic waterfalls that we were heading to. It was probably not exactly half way, but it was close enough. Here is where we would take a good long rest. After hiking for about an hour and a half we saw the bridge come into view. 

And it was none too soon because we were all getting pretty tired and were definitely ready for a rest by this point. 

When I saw the words "scenic waterfalls" on the map I had imagined something more like Niagra Falls or some very tall waterfalls that you see in Africa or something. Instead it was just some large rock formations with water about as deep as your ankles or maybe your shins running over them. 

But there was a nice little wooden bench to sit on. 

And there were trees and rock that made great make shift chairs that you could sit on to rest. It was good to have our packs off for a bit. We had some coffee and a bite to eat. 

While we were here a Blue Jay came to pay us a visit. 

On one side of the bridge was the start of a portage so that canoers and kayakers can go over the rocky "waterfalls" and get to the deeper waters on the other side. This spot was actually a fairly busy spot with all sorts of canoers, kayakers and hikers coming and going. Most of the hikers were just day hikers. 

​Some had arrived with the falls being their destination point and would eventually turn around and head back the way they came. But we were soon rested and fed and ready to continue on. We had been at the waterfalls for about 45 minutes and we were eager to get to our campsite. The trail now started to follow along the water ways for a short while. 

When you could see the water through the trees or when the path opened onto a clearing or two, the view was quite lovely. 

As is often the case when travelling over wet parts of a hiking trail, there were the occasional board walks to walk over. Some were not in very good condition and were starting to rot away, making them a bit dangerous. 

Others were well made and I was impressed with the time and effort someone had taken to make them,

The trail led us past a small, mostly boggy, lake called "Starling Lake" before turning right and heading up a steep hill. 

From the top of the hills you could sometimes see over long distances. 

Eventually we came to a very large fallen tree across our path. This tree would be quite simple to go under if  you were not wearing a very tall backpack on your back. As a result we had to do the something like the limbo to get under it. It was quite awkward but Heather and my mom had an easier time of it because they had their walking sticks to help them. Since I did not have a walking stick I had to have Heather and my mom help me get under it. 
     We all made it under just in time. Just up ahead were two ladies approaching us. I am sure they would have had a great laugh at us scrambling to get under the fallen tree had they have seen us at that point. 
We stopped to say hello and explained that were where headed to where the start of the first loop begins and then on to the first set of campsites on the west side. These ladies had spent the day hiking the whole lake and were now on their way back out. They just happened to have a map with them and they let us take a look at it to see how much farther we had to go. We were about half way between the campsites and the waterfalls and we figured we had only about another kilometer to go. So we thanked them and continued on our way. 

After about 20 minutes we reached the signs indicating that the first loop was just up ahead. The three of us let out a cheer not only because we made it this far, but because we knew that it wouldn't be too much longer now. We were starting to get tired. There had been a whole lot of up hills so far and our energy was starting to ebb. 

About 5 minutes later we came to the actual fork in the road where you could go east or west depending on what direction of the loop you wanted to go. We had reserved 2 nights in the west end and then 2 nights in the east end.  What made us happier still was that there was a little metal case hanging from the post. 

Inside that metal case was a map of the trail encased in plastic! We let out another cheer. We came up with the idea to take pictures of the map so that anytime we needed to we could just take out the camera and we would have the map at hand. How convenient!

The map was a bit smudged from all the previous hikers who had used it, but we could still see what we needed to see just fine. there were 3 sets of side trails with campsites on them.  Although we had reserved sites for all the nights we would be there it was not like reserving sites in a regular campground. We were not able to reserve any particular site, just a section. So basically, it was still first come first serve. We figured  that we wanted the first site if it looked good. According to the reservation site we should be the only ones on any of the sites on the west side tonight so we shouldn't have any competition for a site. However, you can only reserve 6 of the 7 sites on this side of the lake and 4 of the 6 sites on the east side, so that meant that at any point a canoer or unexpected hiker could still show up on a site near by. We were aiming for the first 3 sites and were hoping that they were nice ones. 

We hiked about another 15 minutes and then we saw the sign we were looking for: Side Trail. We let out another cheer! We were so close now! Just a 5 minute side trail hike and we would be there! 

We saw one of the bathrooms before we saw the sites. We were expecting to see a boom box and not an outhouse like building for a bathroom so we were pleasantly surprised by this. 

That is until we saw the condition of the seat. Anyone sitting on that would get slivers in their butt in no time!

Through the woods and up over a ridge and it came into view. The first of the 3 sites. This one was not on the waters edge so we discounted it right away. The second was by the water and was very nice. It was definitely in the running. But before making our final decision we wanted to see the third one. 

The third one was on the point and had water surrounding us on three sides. It was the most beautiful of the three sites. 

It had some interesting looking trees and rocks on it. We had a winner! ​It was 5:20 pm and we had made it to our campsite in just under 4 hours. 

So we began unpacking our backpacks.

It didn't take us long at all to get our tent set up. 

My mom got to set up her brand new tent that she got for her birthday. It was made entirely of mosquito netting with a simple fly above it in case it were to rain. 

One of our first visitors to the site was a loon swimming close by the point. 

After setting up our tents we took some time to survey our surroundings and explore the area. 

Soon we came across the sign pointing to the bathroom. 

This time we found a boom box that was in much better shape than the outhouse building we had passed by earlier. 

The next thing to do was to go and get water. I took the platypus down to where the rocks meet the water. There is not the best access tot he water here unless you climb over some rocks first. So I went rock climbing to where I thought an optimal spot was and held on to a large rock for support so that I wouldn't fall in. As I was getting the water I noticed a cool looking spider web on the side of the rock. Instead of being round it was in horizontal lines. It was filled with lots of tiny dead bugs. I said to myself "whatever spider lives here has got it made. This seems to be the perfect spot for a spider to catch dinner". And then I saw it.....a spider as big as half of my hand. I froze and held my breath to keep from yelling and fought my inner instincts to keep from running and toppling over the rocks in an effort to get away. I am normally fine with spiders as long as they aren't on me. I usually even go out of my way to catch them in a cup and throw them outside when I find them at home. But this one looked like something from out of a movie. I didn't even want to be close to it for fear of it jumping up and eating me in one gulp! So I held my breath and just kept saying to myself "It's OK...it's not on you. It's OK,...it's not on you". And I grabbed up the water container and moved away as quickly as I could with no sudden movements. Needless to say, the next time I needed to get water I chose a completely different place to get it. For the record, the spider did not even so much as flinch so I am sure it had no intentions of leaving it's comfy home to jump at me.... but I didn't want to find out. 

Soon enough it was time to get supper ready. On the menu was hot dogs wrapped in bannock with cheese.

We just made spiral slits in the hot dogs and then wrapped the slits up with the bannock dough and cooked them over the fire. 

After we had cleaned up from dinner and packed all our food away, we hung the bags of food in a tree for the night to keep bears and raccoons from getting it. My mom found a tree limb hanging over the water, right above the home of the giant spider. I told my mom that perhaps the raccoons and bears wouldn't get our food but it wouldn't surprise me if that giant spider were to make off with all our food! 

Evening began to come upon us and the sun started to set. I could hear the calls of a barred owl from across the lake. I could also hear the distant barking of dogs from another campsite on the east side of the lake. 

Heather and my mom were pretty wiped out by the time the sun went down so they headed for bed. I stayed up for awhile longer to watch the fire and make sure that it went out. I sat in the dark with the flashlight off just enjoying the peacefulness of the lake. 

As I sat in the dark by myself, I started to hear a noise close by . I thought it might be a raccoon so I grabbed my flashlight and turned it on and shone it all around looking for the source of the noise. I looked down to find that it was just a large toad hopping around under the cover of night. I named him Harvey after the toad my grandmother used to have visiting her in her yard every summer night. I chased Harvey around for awhile with my flashlight and camera trying to get a good picture of him. Not easy to do in the dark with an unwilling participant. He did not want to be in the light. For good reason too I suppose. If the owl I had just heard saw him he would be owl dinner.  

So I sat back down and turned off my flashlight and watched the moon come out. It was not long before I heard another noise coming from the shadows. Once again I grabbed my flashlight and went hunting down the source of the noise. This time it was a large frog hopping around the campsite. 

No sooner than I was leaving the frog to go back to my seat by the fireplace, I heard another noise. This time it was over by a tree where our cooking rack from dinner was leaning. I thought for sure this time it was a raccoon. I shone my flashlight hoping to catch the culprit and scare it away. Instead I was met with an adorable pair of eyes on a tiny, cute,  little mouse. It didn't take long to scurry away out of the beam of light I had shining on him. 

Once the fire went out it began to get a little chilly and I knew it was time for bed. It was still warm enough though to sleep with just the screen door closed. It was so nice be able to fall asleep with the moon and stars visible through our tent door. What a great way to end a great first day!