The first canoe trip of the season always shakes things loose — muscles and joints shocked awake from winter’s slumber, rusty camping skills jogged from the recesses of the basement along with the gear– but the rewards of spring awakening soon enough delight the senses, enlivening body and soul. Spring 2023 was no different, bringing requisite frustration and fulfillment. Mostly beauty.
Beauty everywhere.
This trip would be a 13-night trip, beginning on May 8, about 2 weeks after ice out– and 10 days after our youngest grandson was born. We had waited eagerly for both to arrive. The season preceding our arrival had been a wet one, heavy spring rains following on the heels of snow melt making the water high and the portages messy.
We would enter the park on Cache Lake and make our way south through to Louisa then west through a series of small lakes before turning north again to loop through Bonnechere on our way out. Along the way we would see trailsides laden with spring wildflowers, waterfalls roaring with spring melt; experience bitter cold nights dropping into the 20’s, and sundrenched vistas atop granite ledges surrounded by blossoming shadbush. We would repeat a few portages too many times and get lost on another.
It was wonderful.
A taste of the trip to come – tag along if you like
an algonquin affair 