For those about to Freeze (Camping)

[MJL]

About 4-5 yrs ago my friends from high-school wanted to do a camping trip in Algonquin park right after the May long weekend. They have been camping only once before in summer. None of them were (still aren't) really outdoors type of people. Their plan was to do the Canoe Lake -> Big Trout Lake -> Burnt Lake route (Or something along those lines). I was up for it. None of them are really strong paddlers either and none of them really had proper rain gear (Still don't). They also never planned on the weather to be -10 degrees at night.

 

The weather was horrible the first day with heavy rain and ultra high winds. 2 of them in one canoe also didn't know how to paddle straight. I was comfortable in my Gore-tex gear, waterproof socks/shoes, waterproof gloves, etc...They obviously weren't. At night it dropped to -10 or so and I was relatively warm with a few layers of fleece and wool...They definitely weren't. We spent one more night at the same lake (they didn't even want to portage/paddle any further) and they had just about enough of it. We ended up going to Orillia and they went to Casino Rama while I fished Couchaching near the narrows for panfish in my canoe. We stayed at the Days Inn across the casino for a couple nights - The 2 most desperate ones of the group took the bill for the hotel.

[Hookset]

Ahhh heck....it wasn't that bad .

 

Walleye fishing all weekend here and we had the following :

 

Rain

Rain and snow

Rain and sleet

Rain and Sun ???

Snow and Sun ???

Snow

Sleet

Black Flies.

 

oh ya and WIND.

 

But hey, we caught some nice 'Eyes.

And the weather just made the fillets taste that much better.

 

I knew it was cold when I got a minnow outta the bucket and my hand actually warmed up.

 

The May two four weekend - it'll put hair on ya in places you never expected.

 

 

Hookset.

[banger]

Were ya fishin on 'Lake X'? How did the trailer hold up?

 

 

 

I did'nt know what Lake it was till the last minute. LOL

 

Lake ONT! the fishing was great! ( for the amount of time spent on the water) I was near and around Picton/Bellvile.

 

I did'nt take the pop up.It's not ready for a road trip yet. We ruff'd er.