North Tea Lake, July 10-12, 2015
Intro
This was the first time I would take my beautiful girlfriend Jessica on a backcountry trip! I was pretty excited, and was hoping everything would run smoothly. The summer before, I did a loop in this area, and came across this lake pretty early on in the trip. This area is located in the North-West corner of Algonquin. North Tea is a pretty big lake that can take two hours to paddle from one end to the other. I particularly enjoyed camping on this lake the summer before because I took my work friends on a five day trip, and we camped on the nicest stretch of beach I've ever come across in the Algonquin backcountry. Beaches with fine sand are a dime a dozen in the park. Generally the shores are lined with granite rock, dirt, or a mixture of both. The odd times you come across a beach, they're usually very small, and have courser sand and small rocks. So, I was excited to bring Jess here, in hopes that the site wouldn't be taken. Aside from that campsite though, the lake and surrounding area was very beautiful.
The Island
Typically I like to be on the move a lot when canoe tripping. It's just the way that I was brought up when I used to do it with a summer camp for four summers. The general idea is that you paddle all day with a lunch break, and get to a campsite in the late afternoon. Then, the next morning we wake up, eat breakfast, pack up, and head out for another days paddle. You're able to cover a lot of ground like this, and can explore many more areas during your trip.
Since it was Jess' first trip though, we decided we would get to North Tea, and stay on a site there for two nights. This was a very easy route. We started at the access point on Lake Kawawaymog, meandered through the Amable du Find river, and out to the West Arm of North Tea Lake. Along the Amable du Fond there were two small portages (65m and 255m) where we had to get out of the canoe, and carry the gear and canoe over land. These portages are in place due to rapids and waterfalls. My heart sank when we were within eyesight to see that other campers had claimed the beach campsite I was hoping to show Jess, but she expressed that she felt safer if we stayed on an island. Lucky for her, we were approaching a decent sized island that held one single campsite. We docked the canoe up on the shore, and took a quick walk around the island to see what it was like. It was a pretty neat little island, that had the actual campsite elevated so you could see all directions on the lake, and the trees were thick enough that it offered a good amount of privacy.
One Big Pebble
I've been through trips where it rained everyday, all day, and it can suck. But my friends and I have fun with it, and don't let it ruin our trip. That being said, it does make the trip a lot better when the sun is out, and the wind is minimal. So for Jess' enjoyment, I was really hoping the weather would cooperate. It was a short trip, but we had sun everyday, and I don't think it ever rained. This was awesome because we were able to explore the area around us, and not be stuck in the tent! We canoed to a portage trail to the North of our island for a hike. You can see it on the map I added in! We took the 2km hike to Sisco Lake, coming across a beaver dam half a kilometer in, and one gigantic rock that we each climbed for fun!
No Firewood
As pleasant as our island site was, there was one problem with it. It was an island, and a fairly small one at that. There were trees, maybe a couple hundred, but there wasn't a lot of fallen branches for firewood. I think we may have collected every possible piece of usable firewood on that island, which only seemed to last 30 minutes to an hour. We knew we were going to want to have fires both nights, so we had to paddle to a much larger island East of us to collect firewood to bring back in the canoe. There was a small beach that we landed on, and we got right to it. Although it was tedious work, it was well worth it once we were sitting by the fire back on our island!
Serenity
The rest of the trip consisted of sun, the feeling of calmness, and serenity. It was a much needed weekend of relaxation, where we could just stare into the fire, or read a book, while feeling and listening to the soft winds blow across the lake, and through the trees on our island. Jess is a lover of all animals, and so she was quite ecstatic when a mouse made his presence known, and would pop up here and there. Sunsets were spent sitting on the rocks at the shore, watching the last bit of orange sun sinking below the tree line. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect trip, and introduction to backcountry camping for Jess. 
Awwww very nice post! So glad you introduced your girlfriend to the wildernous!! It looks SO peaceful! Camping isolated on an island sounds like something I’d like too! 😊👍
We should all go sometime :) easy trip
😁😁😁
Good times.
World of Photography Beta V1.0
>Learn more here<
Thank you for participating in #landscapephotography, the weekly selection will be released on Wednesday.
You have earned 5.35 XP for sharing your photo!
Daily photos: 1/2
Daily comments: 0/5
Multiplier: 1.07
Server time: 00:19:01
Total XP: 34.70/100.00
Total Photos: 3
Total comments: 19
Total contest wins: 0
Follow: @photocontests
Join the Discord channel: click!
Play and win SBD: @fairlotto
Learn how to program Steem-Python applications: @steempytutorials
Developed and sponsored by: @juliank
Awesome , Great blog ! So these campsites on the Island , do we need to to reserve it . Are these back country camp sites managed by parks canada ? i would love to do one such trip. But with a 4 year old it may get a bit difficult. May be do a 2 nights camp first. Are there bears ? :)
This trip would be great for a youngin' :) Over the years, I've seen quite a few familys out there with young kids. The travel time from start to the island was maybe... 3 hours? give or take. And it's through ontario parks, since algonquin is actually a provincial park. So in the backcountry, you reserve the lake. If there are say 10 spots on the lake, you can go to any one. It's just a way to prevent 20 people trying to camp on a lake with 10 sites. Unless on a May 24 weekend or something like that, I rarely see a lake full. Thanks for reading :)
and haha yes there are bears, although they keep to themselves.. I have never come seen a bear in the 12 or so trips that I've done in the park, but have come across fresh looking tracks. The threat of bears was why my girlfriend wanted to stay on an island haha. They can swim, but this island was pretty far from land.
Thanks for all those info. I have been to Algonquin couple of times , but not to back country. But definitely want to go backcountry. May be for a start , I would like to try a one hour paddle to camp site if there is such an option and stay for a night or two. This will give me an idea on what to expect , how my kido will adapt. And next trip can be a longer one based on that. May be you could help me plan it out for coming summer. Are you on steemit.chat ? Bears- After seeing the movie backcountry its kind of scary :) , but I am not backing out. Also have you done any camping in winter in any of Algonquin parks backcountry/frontcountry ?
Oh yes there are plenty of easy trips like that. You have many options. You could stay on the same lake that you would depart from. It would be safer because if anything went wrong, you are very close to the Ontario Parks staff who work at the permit offices. I am not on chat, but have been meaning too. I’d be more than happy to help you :) Yes the movie backcountry is scary haha. But if you’re doing an easy trip and not going deep into the park, you will be around other campers on different parts of the lake which makes you feel safer. And no I have not winter camped before. I want too. But all of my gear is for the summer. I would need a different tent, sleeping bag, a sled to pull my gear, etc. one day I will do it when I have enough money ha ha !!
I see , thank you. I also have only summer gears, but I badly want to do a winter camping !
Beautiful! What a great adventure! Followed and upvoted.
Is this in great lakes area? That boulder could be a glacial erratic left over from the Laurentide ice sheet. Cool piece man!!!
I’m most sure it was deposited by an ice sheet a long time ago!! Thank you :) and it’s in Algonquin Park. The part of the park is a 5 hour drive North from Lake Ontario (Whitby, ON).