This one started on Saturday, July 31^st - yes indeed, the Troop's 60^th Anniversary, to the day - a blistering hot upper nineties day all the way up the East Coast and well into Canada. We were off at 7am, in four vans, all linked together with CB radios, heading north via the "Western" route. In the maroon van (Troop 111-C), we managed to kill the first three hours of the trip by signing and distributing all the Bear Fence Mountain, Little Sluice Mountain, and Powhatan photos, plus other orphan photos left over from various 1998 trips (including Rideau, which definitely brought some nostalgia in for Canadian waterways!) On to Breezewood, then northwest past Pittsburg, north through western Pennsylvania, then northeast to Buffalo, crossing the border at the Peace Bridge (with 2 dozen questions from Canadian Customs for Bob and Rich the International Terrorists.) Dan C. immediately challenged the younger Scouts to do SAE/metric conversions after we crossed the border, but the so-called "Doughnut Heads" never did figure them out.

On to Niagara Falls just in time for a pretty good thunderstorm and (finally!) a partial break from the heat. After an excellent buffet dinner at a local hotel (discovered by Dan C. during a non-Scouting visit two weeks before), we headed over in light rain for a trip on the "Maid of the Mist," those little boats that head right into the teeth of the falls. Everyone wearing disposable blue ponchos against the driving spray, and marvelling and the bright green color of the super-aerated Niagara River. An amazing trip, really showing the almost unimaginable power of the millions upon millions of gallons of water coming over both the American and Canadian falls. All the more impressive considering the fact that two thirds of the river is currently being diverted away from the falls for hydroelectric power generation. Three times as much water coming over the falls is something I'd love to see someday. After an involuntary tour of the quite cleverly located gift shop (the tour exits into the shop), we escaped into light rain, piled back into the vans, and headed up to Hamilton (near Toronto) for our first night, at a very dark EconoLodge. Unfortunately, the transformer serving the hotel had apparently been struck by lightning during the thunderstorm front (and an associated tornado), and the hotel was powerless and (still) very hot - so it was off to Toronto and "musical hotels," finally finding four rooms at a Holiday Inn at a pretty reasonable price. Who says a boxspring can't act as a mattress? Lucky thing we had Tim A. and his Holiday Inn Preferred Customer Card! A post-midnight bedtime for all, however, after the extra driving around, so we were all pretty beat.

Sunday morning, we were quickly off for Killarney Provincial Park - about 5 hours northwest of Toronto. The park is a really interesting and beautiful place - it's a designated wilderness area, with about 60 lakes tied together with portages (trails). Granite and quartzite foothills and mountains, with extensive stands of white pine and birch. Also some red pine. Many of the Birch trees, however, were obviously still suffering the ravages of acid rain. Much to our surprise, the lakes were quite warm, with many having water temps in the 70's - this due to the extensive sunshine during the summertime months (almost 20 hours of daylight at this latitude in late June/early July!) It is not pure wilderness in the American sense - there are designated campsites all around each lake, with each having a decent landing shoal, a rock firelay, an open-air pit latrine, and in some cases formal tent-sites. You just reserve the lake, not the campsite; it's first come/first serve for the sites after 12 noon each day. Nine people maximum per site per night, in order to minimize impact.

...but I digress! We pulled into Killarney Outfitters, a fairly new outfit that started giving sea kayaking tours on Georgian Bay three years ago, and recently moved up to canoe treks in the park. Dan Creedon discovered them via an advertisement (listing their website) in Outside Magazine. Jennifer, the proprietor, was well prepared for us, having been in months long email discussions with Dan, and later, myself. Al M. and a friend, R.J., were already in residence, having arrived late Saturday after a trip through the Adirondacks. After much groaning and stretching, we met our two guides (Scott (24) and Shannon (20), nice guys, each with a degree in "Eco-Tourism") and quickly got into some basic orientation on the park and canoeing. We also made ourselves a sandwich dinner, which everyone stashed away in their daypacks for later consumption. With that, we headed off to park headquarters for permits (and Killarney patches, and water for our canteens), and then to our debarkation point, on "Johnnie Lake." No rest for the weary! After a demonstration of the famous "T-Bone" maneuver for emptying a swamped canoe (courtesy of Luke B. and Neil S.), we loaded up and headed out for about an hour and a half of canoeing and kayaking to our first sites (12 canoes and 2 kayaks).

Beautiful scenery and calm waters under partly sunny, still hot skies. Saw our first loons - the true icons of the Canadian waterways - within 15 minutes of launching. This was soon followed by our first kayaking "wet exit" of the trip, by Stefan, nicely done despite the lack of practice. Because of the nine-person limit on each site, we eventually split into three groups, each camping on individual sites with about a half-mile separation between Groups A and B, and a quarter mile between Groups B and C. Our new Motorola FM radios paid quick dividends in getting this all organized and keeping the three groups in touch (and were also a big hit with Scott and Shannon, neither of whom had ever handled such a large group.) After our sandwich dinners, sunset was marvelous over the mountains and through the clouds, and we listened to the loons calling as night fell ever so slowly (still light at 10pm!) The Scouts in my group (B) quickly opted for their tents to avoid a sudden but mercifully brief outbreak of mosquitoes, but I slept out on this and each of the next 3 nights. Very fortunately, we had virtually no black flies - the usual plague in these areas. ...and nary a bear to be heard.

On Monday, after some morning swims by the group at C (and extended sleeping by the group at C!), we all rejoined at the Site B for breakfast, then headed off for Bell Lake and our first, minor portage, about 20 meters around an impressive beaver dam, followed quickly by a 280 meter portage (thankfully flat) into Bell. We mixed and matched on canoe partners all through the week, also allowing certain Scouts the sublime pleasure of using one of two crew kayaks. Bell Lake eventually turned into "Three Mile Lake," which was somewhat odd in that they (Bell and Three Mile) were actually two sections of the same lake joined at a sharp angle. At the end of Three Mile Lake, we made our perhaps most interesting portage - about 30 meters into Balsam Lake using a clever rail system (a car held the full canoe, which was then manually pulled over over 30 meters of railroad type rails.) Certainly the fastest and least strenuous portage of the entire trip. Balsam Lake was our reserved lake for the night, and we eventually settled on one campsite on the main shoreline and two others at opposite ends of a small island about a mile further down the lake - a hefty commute for the crew at Campsite A! The connecting channel was outlined by a number of beaver lodges, some of them impressively overbuilt. There was also a pretty good amount of canoe traffic on Balsam, so we were lucky to get such nice sites. All three crews enjoyed more swimming after camp set-up. Dinner was at Campsite C this night, with a little light rain dampening the area; a bit later, we had a killer double rainbow to the east - a great ending to our first full day in the park. Overnight was too cloudy for stargazing at site A, however, so only Bob the nut-case slept out again. Down at B, however, John C., Jay P. and Rich S. caught a few stars between the cloud bands, hanging out 'til 11pm or so.

Tuesday dawned mostly cloudy as we all reassembled at Campsite C for breakfast - plus our first moderate rain of the trip, with waves of showers coming through about every 20 - 30 minutes. Although not much of a problem in itself, the rain delayed our departure, and we left the site (in yet another growing shower) in a rather disorganized state, with everything more or less heaved willy-nilly into various canoes. Not that big a deal until we reached our first portage of the day - a killer 665 meter hike over a steep ridge (500 meters steep uphill, 100 meters of semi-level ground, and 65 meters steep downhill) with very limited debarkation space. A sudden very heavy downpour just as we arrived at the shoreline caught us unprepared, and this portage ended up being quite a struggle, with multiple (and many unnecessary) trips back and forth trying to get everything transferred. Everyone quickly gave up on trying to remain dry, and followed my lead in getting a free (albeit cold) shower. Scott and Shannon gave us all a lesson in what "in shape" means, and personally ran a lot of our gear over the ridge while the rest of us struggled with smaller loads. Every dark cloud has its silver lining, however, and this portage had one of the most interesting natural features of the trek - the granite "bald" on the top of the ridge showed dozens of deep, parallel score marks, ground in from the boulders imbedded in the glaciers of the last ice-age. Nothing like 50,000 kilograms per square meter of pressure to give a pretty good gouging!

Well, our travails (and pain) soon passed - as did the rain - and we entered David Lake, perhaps the most picturesque lake in the entire park, framed by the Silver Peak range to the south. Bright sunshine, a nice breeze, and loons everywhere. We could easily see down at least 10 feet into the amazingly clear water. Since we hit the lake just about noontime, we again managed to reserve three excellent sites, with A and B just 200 meters or so apart, separated by a vegetation clogged inlet, and C down the lake another half-mile, on the opposite end of the very large island where B was located. Campsite B served as "meal central" and "campfire central" for the next two days. After a partial camp setup, virtually everyone enjoyed a swim (while John C. started to learn how to Eskimo roll a kayak, with Scott's tutoring), and we all eventually reassembled at B for dinner and a campfire.

Dinner was marked by an incredible chorus from about a dozen loons, all congregated about 50 meters or so from B - an eerie and impressive sound, to be sure. I don't recall ever seeing such a congregation of loons during any of my many trips to the Thousand Islands or to Rideau last year - very strange! Shades of Alfred Hitchcock - "Night of the Living Loons," perhaps? Dinner cleanup took us to near dusk, at which point we hightailed it back to our respective campsites for the night. At C, the Scouts and I laid out on a quartzite "bald" just above the campsite and enjoyed the stars, 8 satellites and 6 meteors, before the mosquitoes chased the Scouts into their tents; I hid out in my mosquito netting. Down at A and B, everyone laid out in anchored canoes for the same show. Probably one of the clearest views of the Big Dipper and the Milky Way I have ever seen - even better than Philmont (and that's saying something!) A pleasant, breezy night.

On Wednesday, we reassembled at B for breakfast, decked out in hiking gear and daypacks, and quickly headed off for the hike to Silver Peak. We were the first to arrive at the trailhead, which certainly made stacking the canoes easier. Scott and Shannon were highly intrigued with our "caterpillar technique" for hiking/backpacking (which we had discussed with them the previous day), and we were soon into it, heading up the first ridgeline to the peak. Talk about two instant converts! This hike usually takes at least 4 hours - but Troop 111 pounded it out in just under two and a half, including two lengthy breaks (a nice viewpoint on the first ridgeline and a water source a little later), caterpillaring almost continuously through all the steep sections. Scott and Shannon both indicated we set a record time in their experience for a group.

The first rideline offered some great views, but the best were definitely reserved for the peak itself, some 1000 feet above David Lake, and six kilometers from the trailhead. Photo ops galore. You could see probably 100 miles to the horizon, maybe 150 for certain vectors. Notable on the distant horizon were the smokestacks at Sudbury - allegedly the tallest smokestakes in the world. We were the first visitors for the day on top, and spent over an hour collecting photos, exploring and eating lunch. Blazing skies overhead, with the slow buildup of some pretty impressive thunderheads giving us occasional shade. Only a few ravens for company for the first hour, then other small groups began arriving, starting with one young man carrying, oddly enough, just a canoe paddle (he claimed that his paddle was worth a lot more than his canoe - a highly dubious claim, in our collective opinion, since we were using about a dozen of the same type! - and that his canoe would be a lot harder to steal without a paddle at hand, which I suppose is true enough unless you had 4 extras, like we did.) Silver Peak is apparently the "Old Rag" of the Killarney Wilderness area, and is a very popular destination for local hikers as well as canoe and kayak trekkers. Within just a few minutes of our finishing lunch, we had about half a dozen other small groups join us, and it was obviously time for us to hit the trail again, immediately passing another very large group coming up from the Killarney Lodge.

As always, the initial steep downhill seemed much more difficult than ascending it an hour and a half before, but after gingerly picking our way down the steepest section, we knocked off the return in short order. Back in the canoes, we quickly returned to our respective camps, with the day's first thunderstorm a blue threat on the northern horizon, then reassembled down at B and C for more swimming, dinner and the start of a game of Diplomacy by Rich and many of the Scouts. Tim A. worked with Thomas S. on completing his Swimming Merit Badge requirements, while Scott continued with John C. on kayak rolls (with many wet exits!) We started catching a little rain from the southern edge of the next passing rain shower, nothing to worry about, but with a promise of more to come. The game of Diplomacy went right up to 9:40, while the rest of us finished cleanup and made an effort to consolidate most of our Troop gear in the extra Troop backpacks (to make the next day's multiple portages a little easier and more organized.) With that, everyone called it a night, with the Campsite A crew having to do a speed run back to camp in the fading light, under light rain. This was the first night that I elected for a tent, since there was a better chance for more rain versus a star-laden night-show; in fact, we did get light rain on and off through midnight.

Thursday dawned mostly clear and cool, and we were up and at `em early, since we had a long haul and - count `em - five separate portages. We reassembled at B one last time, loaded up all the gear, and headed back out to the eastern end of David Lake and our first portage of the day, about 200 meters into a small stream. Our organization of the previous night paid immediate dividends, and we handled this one far more efficiently versus our "less professional" efforts of Tuesday morning! We put it to the test again almost immediately with our longest portage of the trip, 745 meters back into Bell Lake. Al and R.J. impressed one and all by doing their entire portage in one Herculean trip (everyone else took two trips), while Rich was quite entertaining literally trotting up and down the trail with canoes, packs, and other gear, passing everyone en route. After a short stint in Bell, it was deja vu all over again with 190 meters into the quaintly named "Log Boom" Lake, followed by a 50 meter portage around another beaver dam and into a more narrow and swampy area of "Log Boom" Lake. This area had numerous beaver lodges and lily pads (with dozens of flowers), and turning a corner we were treated to the sight of a small female moose, grazing in the shallows. "Small" is a relative term here; she looked as large as a good sized mule or large burro, maybe 400 pounds. At Scott's frantic signalling, we all kept as quiet as a mouse, and she allowed us to within 50 feet before slowly walking up into the woods. I managed to shoot three pretty decent photos in the minute or so that she allowed us. Pretty cool!

After that, it was our final portage of the day, 110 meters back into Johnnie Lake, our starting lake for the trek. By this point, it was already past noon, under another bright, hot sun, and after another half hour of paddling we stopped close to our first night's campsites, but this time at a small private camp on the lake that Scott and Shannon had an easement to use. A pleasant stay, with a sandy beach for swimming and various Adirondack style chairs and picnic tables to eat at and relax. Bright, sunny skies and hot again, but with a pleasant breeze. John C. provided light entertainment by spending about 10 minutes (unsuccessfully) attempting to flip R.J. in the water; the irresistable force met his match in the immovable object.... We paid for our visit by doing a detailed cleanup of the entire camp, picking up plenty of bits of trash all over the grounds. With that, we were off again for the final push to the debarkation point; a "speed run" for the entire Troop, and we knocked it off in short order.

After emptying all the canoes, we took a few minutes with Scott and Shannon to do a group reflection on the trip, with everyone giving positive comments. Of note, Scott indicated that he had learned a lot from us, and also that our Scouts were the most well behaved youth group he had ever guided (and he seemed to mean it, too!) A quick van loading, and we were off to return to Killarney Outfitters. After a couple of group photos (and a pull up competition between John C. and all three W.'s, won by Eric W.), we went ahead and set up camp on the lawn of the Outfitters - certainly the flattest and softest campsites we had for the entire week! We also got to meet "Mark," our kayaking guide for the following day, and arranged a campfire that night with Scott, Shannon and Mark - Scott had his own guitar, so who could resist? With that, our guides headed home for a shower, while we finished our camp setup, including laying out all of our wet stuff for a drying out session, and then headed into town for fresh fish and chips. "Fresh" in this case means caught that day in Georgian Bay, cleaned right next door, and battered and fried up per our order - fantastic stuff! - and even better for being washed down with our first cokes in five days. Quite the feeding frenzy. Sitting down also gave us a chance to watch the scene at the Killarney mini-harbour; probably over a thousand people wandering around town, with dozens of boats moored all along the waterfront. The town only has about 300 actual residents, and it's doubtless pretty lonely through the long winter, but it was jumpin' while we were there. Once dinner was history, we headed over for ice cream, giving the single cashier a near heart attack when we told him we had 23 hungry customers - but he handled us pretty quickly, and wasn't even fazed by the next group of 10 more, right in line behind us. He definitely earned his pay that afternoon, that's a fact. We finally called it a dinner, and headed back to Killarney.

Rich ran a frisbee toss game in one of the fields, while some of the other Scouts either helped build the campfire or bought some memorabilia in the store. Nice and clear at this point, so it looked to be another great star-gazing night coming on. With that, we headed up for a campfire, soon joined by Scott, Shannon and Mark, plus two more of their friends; Scott turned out to be an excellent guitar player (much better than yours truly), but couldn't (or wouldn't) sing. His favorite artist is Neal Young, and we started off with a pretty good rendition of "Heart of Gold." Eric and Stefan kept after him to play all sorts of modern stuff, and he gave it a good shot, which kept them happy. Rich and I pounded through our usual repetoire of Troop classics (which we could sing to), which brought us up to near darkness and the sudden death of most of a quickly arising legion of mosquitoes. Most of the Troop headed off for their tents, but about a half-dozen of us stayed out for the view - again including satellites, meteors and various constellations (which only Rich could name.) We finally called it a night, too, put out the fire, and headed down to the camp, picking our way rather gingerly over the steep rocks. After another 15 minutes of star-gazing from the field (by this point the Milky Way was clearly visible), we all hit the hay, with just a few thin bands of clouds moving in from the west.

Friday - Well, those clouds turned out to be the leading edge of quite a storm, and we got hammered pretty hard from 2:45am to 6:15am, at which point it stopped as though cut off by a switch. Good thing, as we had a 6:30 reveille. Well, at least our laid out clothes got a decent pre-wash! Well, it was up and at `em for our final day at Killarney, and we all got dressed in swim gear, ate breakfast, and piled into the vans for a quick trip to the Killarney Lodge in town. Mark and Scott had arranged for practicing our kayaking "wet exits" in the Lodge's moderate sized pool - a heck of a lot nicer versus trying to learn it in Georgian Bay! The clean and chlorinated pool water was also a blessing for everyone who hadn't seen a shower in five days, too.... This wasn't just "show and tell" - everyone got to don the kayak skirt, get into a kayak, and do an intentional 180 degree roll, then properly escape. Pretty important, as righting a flipped kayak is quite a tricky move (just ask John C!), and being trapped and upside down is a recipe for disaster for the unprepared (in fact, our instructor Mark had nearly drowned during his first kayaking experience - because no-one had shown him the escape maneuver - so he was very meticulous about everyone getting it right.)

After everyone had finished (and I had personally thanked the Lodge Manager for his accommodation), we divided into two groups, with the first group heading directly off to kayak in Georgian Bay, and the second group headed back to camp to dry and pack up all the Troop gear and as much of our personal gear as we could. A nice bright sun and stiff breeze worked wonders on our wet tents, and within a few hours we were nearly completely packed, with just Group A's personal gear left to sort. Group B then headed off for another deeeelicious lunch at Timberjack's, then down to Chikanishing Creek (Great Name!) to trade off on the kayaks, around 1:15 or so. Group A came in about 15 minutes late, strangely quiet - turns out they had a great time, but they were all starving to death! Well, we spent about half an hour trading gear off, and we headed out into the Bay while they headed off at high speed to Timberjacks.

After some basic orientation in paddle strokes and "attack formation", we headed west along the shoreline of Georgian Bay. Fantastic landscape - grey granite balds covered with wind-blown pine trees; as Chris, Rick and I remarked, like certain sections of Philmont, plus water. Despite the breeze, the water was quite calm, with waves less than 6 inches max (a good thing when you're in a kayak!) We went out about an hour (maybe two kilometers), then got into some splash fights - ending with Rob B.'s first wet-exit of the day. This was soon followed by Rob's second wet-exit, proving he didn't get it quite perfect the first time. Matt G. also managed to do a one quarter roll, but was quickly righted by Tim A., with the only casualty being Matt's kayak's water pump (later recovered by Mark.) After a set of semi-staged photos, we headed back in, with everyone's upper arms aching pretty good (kayaking ain't canoeing, that's for sure!) We had the landing site all to ourselves, which made debarking a lot easier. John C. and Chris W. both spent about 15 extra minutes trying to complete the Eskimo Roll while we were taking the other kayaks out; both came close, but no cigar. After we loaded as much of the gear as possible (everything but the kayaks), we headed back to Killarney Outfitters.

While we were kayaking, Group A finished up their packing (as planned), so we were ready to roll. Dan C. and I settled up with the Outfitters (and gave our three guides very generous tips) while the Scouts wrestled with Scott and Mark, and most of the other Adults bought various memorabilia in the shop. After a rather extended series of goodbyes, we hit the road for the long ride home around 5:30. Our first stop was for dinner at the "French River Trading Post," great meals at very reasonable prices. Everyone spent some time in the associated gift shops, too, which had quite a varied collection of stuff - everything from cheap tourist trash to $500C wilderness outerwear. Dan started a trend by buying and sharing some fudge - a purchase which was quickly emulated by another half-dozen members of our group. Then it was back on the road again, heading back into Toronto for a stay at the original Holiday Inn that had taken us in a week before - but once again, we were disappointed to find that we had been bumped to another, more expensive Crowne Plaza by the time we arrived. Better hotel, but we were all beat again, and not in much of a mood to get back in the vans. Well, when you ain't got no choice, the choice is easy, right? As it turned out, Dan and Tim were able to negotiate back down to our original Holiday Inn price, so all we lost was another half hour. We were all (except Rich) quickly asleep tonight; Rich decided to take the opportunity to do an hour's worth of exploring of Toronto (it is, after all, pretty neat place!) and find the "best" route out of town the following morning - once a geographer, always a geographer....

On Saturday, we were gone by 7am, off for the long haul back to Arlington. After another tedious McDonalds stop (yep, they're just as slow in Canada), we crossed back into the U.S. of A. over the Peace Bridge, with only the most trivial questions from U.S. Customs ("What citizenship?" "Where have you been?" - That was it.) Lunch was at a gas station Deli (not bad) and a Dairy Queen (better) in Pennsylvania, and we decided to push it all the way home without dinner, pulling in at 6pm sharp. Taking a lesson learned from summer camp, we spent another half-hour cleaning and sorting all the Troop gear, then gave everyone their release. A great trip! Participants included: Christopher B., Luke B., John C., Matt G., Daniel H., Dan T., Tim H., Stefan N., Jay P., Thomas S., Neil S., Chris W., Eric W. Thanks to Tim A., Rob B., R.J. C., Dan C., Al M., Gordon P., Hugh S., Rich S. and Rick W. Thanks also to Jim and Kim S. for preparatory assistance, and Joy G. and Micki C. for information teletrees. And last but not least, Congratulations to Tim H., who ended his Scouting career in style - on the trail!

- Bob

Indian names in the Killarney Area:

Va-Sho-gim
Kenesagua
Huron
Iriquois
Ojibway
Algonquin
Magnetewan
Wanapitei
Manitoulin
Mahzenahzing
Chikanishing

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25 November 1999