Alex and I went camping in Algonquin Park in May 2026
I woke up at 5:30 am. It was cold out, everything was calm slightly overcast. It had rained briefly last night. I lowered the food barrel and backpack from their respective tree lines, grabbed the coffee, and put water on for a boil. Breakfast is to be Pancakes. We'll see what time Alex wakes up. I have scanning radio stations and I have what sounds like a station from NZ @ 9700 khz (SW). It is still very cool out at 8:45 am. The wind had picked up and the lake is now very choppy glad not to be on it. I have seen a few canoes go by this morning while I have sat with my coffee. Alex is still sleeping... Which is good as it's less for me to do. I visited the vacant site to the west of us and collected firewood... And it looks to be remains of the old enclosed outhouse that occupied the area last year. There was also a couple of small grills there that I liberated to our site (and will remain here). I woke Alex up at 1030 and made him pancakes with the chocolate chip muffin mix (and Bisquick). He enjoyed them. I made oatmeal for myself. After cleaning we packed up the canoe with a few items and went for a paddle to go investigate the tombolo north of Achray. We stopped at the North Beach so Alex could use the washroom.
The tombolo is a sandbar that connects to an island. We stopped on the tombolo and walked to the island. A cottage was perched on the island up on a rocky cliff. This was the second cottage we saw north of Achray. After we were done investigating the area we can back to Achray to refill our water bottles and Alex grabbed an icecream and I bought some DEET that we of coarse forgot to bring... It has been so cold that the bugs haven't really been and issue. So far Alex has spotted a hummingbird, many tadpoles, a loon and a redwing black bird.
After we left Achray we started a fire to get embers to grill hotdogs. We are now watching these cook while we listen to Black Bear the Audiobook. We ate the hot dogs (8 pack with buns) then played 3 or 4 games of A Few Acres of Snow until it got darker. We then started a campfire and were determined to burn through our rather large pile of dead wood I had collected. Around 930 pm Alex wanted something to eat so I filled up a pot and put it over the fire on the grill to bring it to boil for Kraft dinner. I think we are going to stay up for a bit and listen to the new audiobook I had put on while we played A Few Acres of Snow. The book is by Ron McClarty and is called The Memory of Running. We stayed up until 12 then put out the fire and bedded down for the night. Monday May 18. Woke up at 730, rain. It had started rind just fter we went to bed nd continued through the night. It is cold this morning. Water leaked into th tent where the fly touched the tent. Need to water proof the fly again. I àm sitting in the bug shelter making coffee contemplating when to start packing up. Not fun packing in the rain but it is very light now.
