#microblog Spent a beautiful three nights this past weekend in Algonquin Park. It was the latest into the fall I've ever canoe camped and was it ever lovely. There were six of us, including myself. So, three canoes, 11 litres of wine, and what amounted to an approximately 80 pound food barrel. It was an out and back trip from Wendigo Lake to Radiant Lake. On the first night, on Allan Lake, I saw the stars more brightly than I'd ever seen them before. I was able to see the glow of the Milky Way, which I've always wanted to. The sky looked like it had been splattered with the glow-in-the-dark paint you'd see in indoor mini putt. Our second day was pretty grey and a bit drizzly. We had five portages that day - the longest being 770 metres. Even through some surprise beaver dam crossings, I managed to keep my feet dry the whole day, thanks to a new friend Alex's self-sacrifice at many points. We were exhausted when we arrived to our site on Radiant Lake and proceeded to have a delicious dinner of magically shelf-stable pulled pork, grilled veggies, and refried pinto beans. These refried beans were a mega unlock. I will definitely be purchasing them for future camping trips. We also tried baking a vegan chocolate cake in a double boiler over the Jetboil for about two hours, then stir fried it in a cast iron pan after that failed. It never because more fluffy than a Play-Doh texture. Enjoyable and hilarious nonetheless. In the morning, we couldn't see across Radiant Lake. It was super misty as we were making breakfast, but it started to burn off as we packed up our tents to head back to North Depot Lake. We had our first properly sunny day of the trip and it was glorious. Our dam crossings and portages were a breeze this time around. We were having a blast. And I finally chose to just embrace the chaos and soak my boots. This made things a lot easier. This third afternoon of paddling had be reflecting on what it is I find enjoyable about canoe camping. What was standing out to me was the pleasance of the various states of focus you find yourself in on a trip like this. Paddling a canoe, mentally, to me, is a lot like taking a casual stroll, except you're on a lake with so much beautiful scenery to take in. A portage requires focus a bit like bouldering or hiking, where you're being seriously mindful of where you're placing each foot so as not to lose balance of the canoe on your shoulders. Setting up camp is a relaxed form of teamwork with periods of individual work an eventual collective coming together for a maple whisky hot chocolate around the fire. Maybe I'm over analyzing here, but what I'm trying to highlight is the variety of flow states and grooves you and your friends get into individually and together on a canoe camping trip. Our last campsite, on North Depot lake, was a primo site to say the least. It was an island site with a beach and beautiful pine trees. We swam and read our books and fished and built a huge fire with the incredible amount of firewood we chopped on arrival - a bit more of a delirious flow state than those described previously. This island site reminded me of how much I love the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and over the lakes in Algonquin Park. And how beautiful the different trees, especially the red pines, look in the sunlight throughout the day. Lately I'm realizing how for granted I've taken Canada's forests and lakes. I want to keep exploring this place. I remember on one of my first canoe camping trips with my dad, when I was a teenager worried about bears at night, he reminded me that we're just guests in the park. I am privileged to have access to these lands, cognizant that they are the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples who were marginalized and displaced from their home by settlers. I feel like I'm at the very beginning of learning what reconciliation really means, but for now, I want to be a better guest. I feel so much gratitude for this place that was stewarded so well for generations before I ever set foot here. I hope to keep creating memories on these lands while learning from the memories and stories of those who came before. ![[IMG_5432.jpg]]