The next morning - Sunday morning - dawned clear. Today was a "slush" day. We had no particular destination; only the intention to wander about the vicinity of Catfish Lake. As a result, we slept in a bit, enough that the strong rays of the morning sun created a stifling heat in the tents. The pictures may not show it, but outside the temperatures were quite cool - just a few degrees above freezing.
Catfish Lake, Cool and Calm
Standard Algonquin Campsite Marker
Endless source of interest
We took our time getting up and breakfasted; Kai happened upon a particularly climbable fir tree, and that soon became the most popular plaything of the morning.
I mentioned earlier that the temperatures were very much on the cool side, especially so for the end of May. You didn't hear us complain too much about this, though, because we were enjoying an unexpected and very precious benefit as a result: bugs. As in, none of them. We had seen or encountered very few to no mosquitoes or black flies. This was nearly unheard of for Algonquin at the end of May, which is typically the prime time for clouds of the tormenting, buzzing things. Jenn had bought us heavy-duty bug nets and screens to wear over our bodies and heads, but so far we had not touched them. Wonderful.
The Official Eveline Backcountry Camping Shot
Following breakfast the kids were suddenly interested in getting paddling lessons, and for the next hour or so Dave, Arn and Eveline took turns being ferried about the waters of the little bay in front of our camp, giving out tips and monitoring progress.
After a long and lazy morning, we finally headed out onto the lake at about noon. Sophie wanted to try her hand at paddling again (she had tried briefly the day before, but hadn't lasted long), and so she assumed position at the front of the canoe. It was immediately clear that with her time under Dave's tutelage, she had a much better idea of how to form a proper paddling stroke.
We generally headed southwards, to the parts of Catfish Lake that we had not yet explored. We wandered about, looking for the orange signs denoting campsites. In the interest of understanding what might be a good destination for a future trip, we stopped and inspected several of them.
courtesy JInnes
Harry Potter Ketchup Scar
One campsite turned out to be especially nice. Situated on a fair-sized island in the middle of the lake, the island was essentially a big hilltop of solid bedrock, with a healthy forest atop its crown. On several sides, tall cliffs fell away into the water. On other sides the bedrock sloped more gently, but still moderately steeply, down to lake level. A large fir tree arched scenically out over the water, and marked the landing spot for the island's campsite.
Approaching Shangri-La
Arn and Gosia had heard about this campsite in advance. They said it was called "Shangri-La" - so-called because it was supposedly the most perfect campsite of all. We stopped to have a look.
Scouting out Shangri-La
It was indeed an excellent spot. An open slope led up from the western shore of the island to its forested crown. Here, amidst stately and tall fir and pine trees, were large stretches of flat and grassy ground. More than enough to fit all of our tents - in fact, even eight tents could fit up there easily. A couple of faint paths led off into the woods, one likely to the privy; the others propably led to the tops of cliffs (we didn't check), and were probably propular with those were into diving into the lake's waters during the hot summer months. A private island, all to oneself.
Shangri-La Group Shot
We briefly debated whether or not to transfer from our existing campsite to this one. We teetered on the edge of this choice for several minutes, but ultimately laziness won out, and we decided not to go through the rigamarole of tearing down and then re-setting up our camp. Plus, we wanted to continue to explore Catfish Lake.
So, after a group shot near Shangri-La's weirdly-angled fir tree, we headed back out onto the lake.
