July | 2009 | Pedal Powered Family

Food and Fishing

Posted by Heidi on July 18th, 2009 0 Comments

This is the last in a series of 5 posts about our family vacation to the wilderness of Algonquin from July 4-11, 2009.

One of my favourite things about camping is eating ‘camping food’ – getting those special treats and items for your time away from home. I remember as kid, my favourite camping treat was sugary cereal in those tiny boxes. We only got them when we were camping. Wilderness camping is a little different as you are lifting and carrying your food through each portage so you have to think a bit about the weight of your weekly food supply. There’s also no cooler with ice in it so you can’t take very many perishables. The other thing about wilderness camping is that you have to hang your food high in a tree so as not to attract bears and you don’t leave any food out of that food pack!

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New Friends & the Wildlife We Saw

Posted by Heidi on July 17th, 2009 0 Comments

This is the fourth in a series of 5 posts about our family vacation to the wilderness of Algonquin from July 4-11, 2009.

DSC 4899 150x150 New Friends & the Wildlife We Saw

In Algonquin, I was surprised by how peaceful and quiet it was. We rarely heard or saw anyone else around. We met a few youth camping groups and a Tim Horton’s camp at portages but, for the most part, were completely alone. We had set up camp on Misty Lake and it was a very windy day. We were playing by the entrance to our campsite when we saw quite a sight – a canoe with 2 large umbrellas swiftly cruising down the lake.

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In the Wilderness, pregnant and with a 2 year old

Posted by Heidi on July 16th, 2009 0 Comments

This is the third in a series of 5 posts about our family vacation to the wilderness of Algonquin from July 4-11, 2009.

Before we left on our trip, many people expressed disbelief that we would do such a thing with a two year old and being 25 weeks pregnant. We had no concerns about Eden. She had done so well adjusting to our bike camping trip that we knew she would do just fine in a canoe. We had some concerns about being pregnant, particularly since I can’t carry much weight.

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Traveling and Resting

Posted by Heidi on July 15th, 2009 0 Comments

This is the second in a series of 5 posts about our family vacation to the wilderness of Algonquin from July 4-11, 2009.

During our trip we had 6 travel days and two full rest days.

Travel Days:

On our travel days, we would usually try to have a quicker breakfast, pack up camp and be on the water by 9:30am. Sometimes we didn’t make it on the water until 10:30 or so like the day we decided to try to make pancakes over the fire!

The first day of travel, Eden walked all three portages – what a trooper! But as her sleep schedule shifted to less sleep at night and two naps during the day, she would usually be tired by the time we arrived at our first portage. Good thing we brought along the Ellaroo carrier. I would carry her on my back with a small pack on my front and I used the paddles as trekking poles. Eden would fall asleep within minutes and then I’d keep her on my back until Reuben was done portaging – it became her regular morning nap.

Reuben has carried a lot of weight on his back before but he had never carried a canoe. For the portages, he had thought it would be possible for him to carry the food pack (about 30-40 lbs) and the canoe (about 50 lbs) in one go. He realized the second day that that was not possible and he made THREE trips for every portage – gear, food and canoe. That’s a lot of walking and a lot of weight to carry. By the end, when the food pack was considerably lighter, he was able to make it in two trips!

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Our first family wilderness canoeing journey

Posted by Heidi on July 14th, 2009 1 Comment

This is the first in a series of 5 posts about our family vacation to the wilderness of Algonquin from July 4-11, 2009.

This trip is a first for us: canoe camping in Ontario’s Algonquin park! We were all really excited for the change from biking, our usual form of camping transportation, but we weren’t really quite sure how to prepare for this trip, especially since Heidi was six months pregnant with our second child. The equipment required (besides the canoe, which we would be renting) is remarkably similar to that which we already had for biking and backpacking, so beyond picking up a few drybags for keeping our gear from getting wet, our pre-trip prep was mainly reading about canoeing and portaging techniques, as well as trying to imagine just how difficult carrying a canoe over a portage would be!

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