Long weekend canoe trip

Mentor

Mentor

Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
3,124
Hi All,

I was lucky enough to be able to spend last weekend in Gatineau Park, canoeing and camping on Lac La Pêche. The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed three days of paddling. I was a bit skeptical at first, as the lake is only 40 minutes from Ottawa and I was anticipating it being packed with weekend tourists, but as it turned out, we rarely bumped into other paddlers. It's a pretty big lake!

I brought my JK ACEK and Koyote PSK companion along for the trip. This combo has been working great for me lately.

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Views from the camp:

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A few shots taken from the back of the canoe:

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Some local fauna:

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We had a terrific time. My girlfriend made her first set of chopsticks with her new belt knife (a little kephart-style that I made), and we switched up fire-starting methods over the weekend in order to practice different techniques.

I was a bit puzzled to see that the folks who maintain the park had opted to install metal poles in the campsites to use for 'treeing' food. I'm used to wandering a fair distance away from camp in order to tree my food - this pole must have been 15 ft. away from my tent. This seems like it is intended to increase the likelihood of an interaction between a curious black bear and a sleepy camper. We didn't encounter any bears. Just a very determined racoon.

Thanks for looking, and all the best,

- Mike

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Wow! That looks like a great trip. I really like your photo's - you have a great eye for composition. I'm going through a tough time with sudden knee pain and it's made me realise that my outdoor days may be over, so I really appreciate your sharing these with the forum. Brings back memories of my own.
 
That's the kind of trip I need to take ... the scenery is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Lazydog1 said:
Wow! That looks like a great trip. I really like your photo's - you have a great eye for composition. I'm going through a tough time with sudden knee pain and it's made me realise that my outdoor days may be over, so I really appreciate your sharing these with the forum. Brings back memories of my own.
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Shoot, sorry to hear that. I hope that the pain subsides soon. In the meantime, I'm glad to provide a bit of vicarious wilderness experience!

All the best,

- Mike
 
The last time I went to a park that allows camping the people kept all their food in their tent. I remember seeing raccoons all over sniffing around right before the sun set. Crazy people...

Good pics :thumbup:
 
Very nice Mentor. :thumbup: That looks like a sweet spot in the world.

Jeff
 
dipbait said:
Beautiful camping spot. did you get any fishing in?
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No. I hope to get some more in next weekend, when I'm up in the same area (I'm done teaching for the semester and have no fixed schedule until Sept. Woo!).

The lake was full of sunfish and the loons were feasting. I saw a few larger fish jump. The lake is stocked, and we have seen people hauling up some decent largemouth there before. Quebec fishing licenses are a tad confusing, though. Apparently I need to get a 'Zone 10' licence to fish there, but the gov't website doesn't tell me what that costs or where I can get one. Contrast that with Ontario where one can easily get either a Conservation or Sporting license at most outfitters or gov't info centres.

There were plenty of folks fishing from canoes when we were there. I kept a respectful distance as we paddled by, but couldn't help but notice that most people were using small lures or baited hooks with bobbers. This seemed to translate into fairly regular hits, but only sunfish. Which I suppose was great for the folks who were out to introduce their kids to fishing. Personally, I would have used a larger and more aggressive lure, and gone for the good eatin' fish. ;)

Best,

- Mike
 
Very nice pics, love the last photo!!!!
Taking my canoe out tomorrow.
Me and my daughter are doing some fishing Saturday, supposed to be a beautiful day.
 
Damn, if that isn't a ridiculously lovely place to camp/fish then nothing is.
 
Great stuff Mike, love that frog pic buddy !:thumbup:

That JK ACEK really seems to be working out for ya buddy eh, do ya think that might be your GRAIL KNIFE ???:D
 
pitdog said:
Great stuff Mike, love that frog pic buddy !:thumbup:

That JK ACEK really seems to be working out for ya buddy eh, do ya think that might be your GRAIL KNIFE ???:D
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Thanks, pit. Yeah, it's pretty close to a grail knife. Nowadays, when I think about features for a perfect knife, I tend to come up with minor tweaks on this design. The handle shape is perfect for me, and I re-ground the scandi portion so that it is a 'true' single-bevel scandi. The real test will be to see how it survives a full snowshoe season, but I think it will manage fine.

All the best,

- Mike

PS The frog photo was a bit of a fluke. I was just putting the canoe into shore after a day of paddling on Saturday. I ran it aground and my girlfriend hopped out the front. As I was preparing to hop out, I looked to my right and there was a frog sitting directly beside the canoe, looking at me. I was able to put my camera right in front of it and click away.

Just glad that I didn't run it over.
 
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