Backpacking Algonquin’s Western Uplands

I did it! I finally went backpacking!

I have always dreamed about backpacking. It has been a long-term goal for me to set foot in a beautiful place, set up camp away from the noise of the world, and connect with the outdoors.

Now I do want to go backpacking for more than just one night in the future, but you have to start somewhere. So we decided to use my 24th birthday as the beginning of our backpacking trip. We completed a 32km backpacking trail in Algonquin Provincial Park.

This trail was a great way for us to get some backpacking experience under our belts. It wasn’t too difficult, but it certainly was not easy. We learned so much from this trip-mainly because we had 2 full days and 1 night of rain.

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Now this trail had many lakes we passed which was remarkable. But, they don’t dub them the Uplands for anything; there are plenty of elevation fluctuations.

We encountered many rivers to cross, hills to climb, sludge piles, you name it. The rain added a huge challenge to the entire trail. The first day was a light rain that passed by afternoon so it was very manageable (until we needed a fire, but I’ll get to that soon) but it rained overnight which resulted in our following day being unbelievably troublesome to complete.

I’ve been doing long hikes frequently the past few months so I felt capable of completing this trail. My fiancé wasn’t as prepared for the number of kilometres, however, after some Tylenol, he pulled himself together and powered through. I am very impressed by how well he did.

14 months ago I had a Pulmonary Embolism and have permanent lung damage in my right lung. This made me question if I was prepared enough for 32km in 2 days, but I did great!

To prepare for this hike, the majority of my birthday presents were backpacking gear- a backpack, a tent, pillows, sleeping mats, food, cookware, dishes, socks, toques and new hiking boots.

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When we got to our campground at Ramona Lake, we recognized that we were the first ones there so, therefore, had first say on which campsite we chose. We chose the furthest one which had the best view of the Lake, but all of the campsites were so clean and beautiful.

Since it had been raining all morning, our campsite grounds and wood were wet. As soon as we finished setting up our tent, we quickly got started on building a fire. Building a fire with wet wood and limited supplies is not for the faint of heart, but we did it and successfully cooked a wonderful meal of mashed potatoes and chicken over it! We even helped ourselves to some Earl Grey Tea.

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After our meal, we hung our bag of food high up in a tree to avoid any bear encounters. We then enjoyed the fire until it started to rain for the night. It rained from about 6 pm that day until noon the next day. It seems like the beginning of October is quite wet in Algonquin.

The rest of the night was spent talking, giggling, and enjoying the sound of rain hitting our tent. We had a peaceful night and a great sleep. I woke up to watch the sunrise, but it was just too foggy. There was a mist rising off of the lake in the morning which was very lovely nonetheless.

I always wake up before Brodi because I am naturally a morning person, so he slept in for 2 hours while I just sat and enjoyed nature. Once he got up, we enjoyed some oatmeal and coffee, took down our tent, and hit the trail once again.

We passed our favourite view about 5km from the very end of the trail. The fall colours, waterscape, and reflection made this view so breathtaking.

The rest of our walk back was exhausting as we reached the end. We walked 4 extra kilometres just from dodging puddles and mud piles from the rain. The trail was so flooded that there were warning signs for people starting the trail when we made it to the end.

I would do this trail again if it weren’t so wet, but for now, I think this was the only full rain backpacking trip I will knowingly do for a while.

Have any recommendations for where to backpack next? Leave a comment or connect with me on my socials!

Keep on trekking,

Kate

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video montage of our trip: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRwn7fsK/

If you end up checking out Algonquin, tag me in your photos! @yourmatiekatie #katieoutdoors

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