Algonquin Provincial Park ... and More Bad Luck

As we left Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday the skies magically cleared, and the temperatures rose into the pleasant 70s, or above 22 degrees for those of you that speak in Celsius.  The terrain also changed and it became more pastoral and less rocky and mountainous.

Hay fields and pastures east of Sault Ste. Marie

I have previously mentioned the Group of Seven.  The Group of Seven, also sometimes known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters active from 1920 to 1933. Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature, the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.  Throughout most of our route on the Superior north shore we have been on the so-called "Group of Seven Route".

The Group of Seven

I'm not really a connoisseur of fine art, but I am fascinated by the art of this school of artists.  Following is a sampling of the work of the Group of Seven.

This was a leisurely day and the weather was great. We stopped at most rest areas.  Each was along the bank of a pretty river. Canada has nice waysides.

Rest stop #1

Rest stop #2 and lunch

Rest stop #3. Matilda says "Where did everyone go?"

After a drive of 332 miles we stopped for the night at the Walmart Supercentre in Huntsville ON.  There we pumped 101 gallons of diesel at $3.18/gal USD, by far the cheapest diesel we have seen in Canada. This fill-up will get us well into the US where we hope to find much lower diesel prices.

Camp Walmart Huntsville ON 

These were boats from the Canada Outward Bound School

Shortly after departing Huntsville we entered Algonquin Provincial Park.

Algonquin is a canoe Mecca, much like the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

We were a little anxious about getting a camp site in Algonquin.  Many campgrounds in the park had closed for the season. When we reviewed the on-line reservation system, it was not clear if or how many sites were available without reservations.  At the West Gate entrance station the ranger said no problem and recommended we stop at Mew Lake, however, when we arrived at Mew Lake CG, there were no sites suitable for our rig. DANG!  That ranger called to Lake of Two Rivers CG, just a few miles down the road and reported they had plenty of sites. Right.  We've heard that before.  However, it turns out they did have plenty of sites at Lake of Two Rivers. We took a ride through the loops and chose site 105 with 30/15 amp "hydro" (Canada-speak for electrical service).

Site 105 at Lake of Two Rivers

Lake of Two Rivers is a really nice campground.  The sites are HUGE!  Their web site showed many sites to be 30 meters wide and 40 meters long.  We are used to sites being characterized by the length of the driveway, usually something on the order of 30-50 feet, not the dimensions of the whole site.  However, on these sites there was no driveway per se.  You could park anywhere on the site you wished, the one restriction being not to park on a picnic table or any of the numerous 3' wide jack pine trees on the site.  All the sites were very open and covered by a nice carpet of pine needle duff.  Three years ago we visited Algonquin and stayed at Canisbay Lake CG, but I believe Lake of Two Rivers is much nicer.

Ferns behind our campsite

Faithful readers will remember that we have had a series of misadventures on this trip, and I am sorry to report that our bad luck is not over yet  When we arrived at our camp site I found that the tailpipe had separated from the muffler on the coach. OUCH!  I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but we didn't notice it when we left Huntsville 47 miles back.  Thankfully, between the clamp on the pipe and the flared end on the tip of the exhaust pipe, the tailpipe was not lost. As breakdowns go, this may not be the worst thing that could happen. The engine still runs, and we could move if necessary, but I would be concerned about the hot exhaust gasses scorching the paint on the side of the coach.  I'm not really sure what to do.  Can a truck repair shop weld it back together, or do I need a new muffler?  If I need a new muffler, I'm sure it's a special order item, and we are many miles from a qualified service shop and many days from receiving the part.  I did locate D&H Heavy Equipment Repair about 25 miles away, just outside the park. I called, but the guy was not encouraging. He said he would be away from his shop for the next 3 days, but that he would be driving through the park that evening and would stop by our camp and take a look.  COOL!  However, when I called him back later in the afternoon he said he was running behind and may not make it after all.  In the end he never showed.  DANG!

Tail pipe says goodbye to muffler

So here we are not sure what step to take next. So we'll sleep on it and figure something out. We always do.  In the meantime we will explore the park and try not to let this new problem ruin our stay.

We visited the Algonquin Outfitters store which has a Swift Canoe and Kayak factory store.  In Algonquin Swift Canoes are everywhere. We once owned a Swift Yukon, a 17 1/2 foot Royalex behemoth that we used for river camping trips.  Swift Canoes are not common in the South, and there are no dealers anywhere near home.  In 2001 I called the factory and spoke with Bill Swift Jr. directly, and he shipped the Yukon to my home in Winston Salem.

A tribute to Bill Swift Sr 

I want a USB port on my next Swiss army knife

A gaggle of Swifts

The Swift Keewaydin 16 Carbon Fusion Innegra is the most high tech canoe I have ever seen

In addition to a carbon fiber hull, it has a carbon fiber portage yoke

And carbon fiber seats

The boat weighs 33 pounds and costs $5500.  We liked it so much we each bought one.

Following is a photo of our Swift Yukon while camping on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas in 2004.

A blast from the past: Dorcas and Izaak by our old Yukon

Some boats have seen better days. This one looks a lot like our old Yukon

I don't know who makes this trailer, but it was way cool. It had a highly polished aluminum exterior and the entry door was on the front over the hitch.  Very unusual.

An alternate mode of transport

On Tuesday we paddled on the Lake of Two Rivers and its tributaries

Uh oh. Beaver dam ahead

Where there is a beaver dam, there is likely a beaver lodge

After sleeping on the tail pipe problem, or rather not sleeping and fretting all night, I decided to make the best temporary repair that I could with whatever materials I had on board.  I cut down a steel soup can and made a cradle for the tail pipe. I pop riveted the can to the muffler to support the inboard end of the pipe.  Then I took two wire coat hangers (the only 2 we had on board, thanks to a recent shopping spree at Goodwill; Dorcas likes fancy hangers) and wrapped the hangers around the pipe and a frame member just above the pipe to support the assembly.  The hangers were very difficult to work with. They were hard to bend, and were brittle and tended to break when I tried to twist the ends together.

Let this not be a judgment on my engineering skills

Then I several used 3" pieces of 1" x 1/4" wood furring strips around the body opening on the coach to stabilize the outer part of the pipe.  Don't ask me why I am carrying lumber all over the country in the motor home; I frankly could not explain it. However, they fit just right; it was a miracle.

It looks silly, but it seems to be stable 

This is far from an ideal solution.  There is not a complete seal between the muffler and the tailpipe, but it should pass most of the exhaust.   The wire hangers are brittle and may break.  The wood strips may scorch or even catch on fire. I tried to find out the temperature of diesel exhaust gasses. I learned that at the exhaust manifold it ranges from 800-1000 degrees F, but could find no data on the typical temperature at the exhaust tip.  The muffler and the tailpipe should get good airflow when the coach is underway, so I'll hope for the best and stop often to make sure we aren't scorching the coach paint or the Honda. At the first hardware store we come to I will buy some 16 gauge steel wire to replace the hangers.  Our goal is to limp home and make permanent repairs there.  Between the upcoming rally in Boston that starts in 3 days and the plethora of doctors appointments I have the following week when we get home, we really can't afford to stop for any length of time to make repairs. This is a developing story; more to follow.

Fall foliage

Today we leave Algonquin headed east. At Ottawa we will turn right and hopefully cross the border back into the US this afternoon.  We have our fingers crossed and are holding our breath.

The saga continues ....

Algonquin Provincial Park

We departed Ottawa on Monday morning and arrived at Canisbay CG in Algonquin Provincial Park in mid afternoon.  The only prior reservation I could get was for site 141, a non-electric site, for only 4 nights.   When we arrived we were able to switch to a non-reservable electric site.  We paid up for 6 nights on an electric (or hydro site as they say here) which included a clear view of the southern sky for DirecTV.  We enjoyed keeping up with all of Donald Trump's foot-in-mouth moments for the week.

Algonquin Provincial Park is a primer hiking and paddling destination.  Like the Boundary Waters, it is one of the last remaining bastions of the open canoe.  The back country paddling seems to be managed much like the Boundary Waters, although looking at the maps, it appears the portages are generally longer.  We didn't plan on any canoe camping, but hoped to do a few day trips.

We had no internet access in the campground, but when we left the campground and drove about 5 miles, we could acquire a decent 3G signal.  The signal was great at the cell tree (see below).

Our home

Canoes in the Cafe

View from the Visitor Centre

Lots of portaging going on around here

Mr. Canoe Hat is a common site in these parts

A walk in the woods

Canoes weren't the only boats on the pond

A view to the north at Canoe Lake

The Canadians recycle everything

Taking a precarious sip

Canoes galore at the Portage Store

At the trail head for the Whiskey Rapids Trail we noticed a small brown building with some obvious electronics and a generator.  It looked like the support hut for a cell tower, but there was no cell tower in site.  But wait!  About 15 feet away there was an odd looking pine tree, like no tree I had ever seen.  It was a camo cell tower!  Very cool!

Dorcas and Matilda under the cell tree

It was pretty tall

The cell tree is the pine on the right, standing above the canopy

The Oxtongue River above Whiskey Rapids

We attended a naturalist program on snapping turtles.  They are common in this area.

The snapping turtle guy

Remember these?  Or is it really an outhouse with a view?

We also attended the Algonquin Public Wolf Howl.  Wolf Howls are held on Thursdays in August and only when a pack has been located.  A Wolf Howl will only be held if wolves have responded to naturalist's howls for the 2 nights prior to the scheduled Howl.  The wolves will gather for a rendezvous near a meadow or bog in August, the month after the pups are born.  They will stay there for several days while adult pack members will hunt.  The first Howl was held in 1963.  There have been 117 Howls since then, but none in the past 2 years, due to lack of cooperation with the wolves.  The Wolf Howl is a big deal.  Generally 400-500 cars and over 1200 people attend.   There is an hour-long presentation about the Algonquin Wolf (generally a hybrid of the eastern wolf and the western coyote) prior to departing to the Howl site, which is kept secret until we depart for the Howl venue.  The logistics of moving that many cars from the amphitheater to the howl site are a nightmare.  Historically the success rate of hearing the wolves is 70%.  Our good luck for this trip must have run out.  The only howling we heard were the naturalists, who actually did a very good job.

Lots of folks out for the Howl

Wolves have not always been loved in Algonquin.  The Algonquin Park Act of 1893, which established the park, placed a bounty on "wolves, bears and other noxious or destructive animals ..."  The bounty also included loons because they ate the fish.

Many things in Algonquin are large, but the Post Office is rather minuscule.

We only paddled one day while in the park, that on Canoe Lake.  We found a memorial and totem dedicated to Tom Thomson.  Thomson was a prominent and influential artist who died on Canoe Lake in 1917, under suspicious circumstances.

Remember that milk in a bag we bought in Ottawa?  It has apparently been sold in Canada for over 30 years.  There is a small pitcher, sold in the milk cooler, designed to dispense the milk.  You simply set the bag in the pitcher, snip a corner off the bag and pour away.  We didn't buy the pitcher, but a blender carafe seemed to work just as well.  Dorcas didn't like my idea of running the blender to open the bottom of the bag.

Look Ma, no more spilt milk!

We finally found a wolf

Canada is legally bi-lingual. but the province of Ontario is legally uni-lingual.  While much of the signage in Ontario is bi-lingual, not all is.  Apparently Ontarions (?) either don't care if French Canadians bump their head, or think they are too short to be at risk.

We would love to spend more time in Algonquin.  We only got in one day of paddling, primarily due to unfavorable winds and chasing the internet (I do have an obligation to my faithful readers).  

Next we continue our way westward across the Canadian Shield north of the Great Lakes.  We need to cross back into the US and arrive at Ely MN on Monday August 15.