The morning of day two dawned in a very sunny fashion. Although the weather was forecast to change, that change had not yet arrived, and the nice conditions from the night before were still in effect.
We took our time getting up and getting ready; by the time we had finished breakfast and were ready to paddle out, it was nearly 10:30 a.m. By now a slight wind had cropped up and a high haze was beginning to take hold. The precursor of the changes to come, no doubt.
courtesy NHyndman
Arn had another island campsite in mind for tonight - an island located in another fairly large body of water, called Clydegale Lake. Clydegale Lake was located some distance to the southwest, and was reachable by paddling along long and narrow sections of Galeairy Lake, Rock Lake, and Pen Lake, with only minimal portaging between them.
courtesy JInnes
Approaching another nice site
Our paddle route along this chain of lakes formed a large left-hand dogleg: more or less straight west for 7 or so kilometres, and another 10 or so the south. A fair amount of paddling.
Less than an hour of fairly easy paddling brought us to the western end of Galeairy (Aubrey section) Lake, where the wide, low Rock Lake Dam prevented any further travel. A short 100m portage got us around the dam and onto Rock Lake. We continued west along the southern shores of Rock Lake, noting numerous cabins and cottages on the lake's shores and islands. Rock Lake has a vehicle-accessible put-in point, and motorized access to these vacation homes is therefore possible.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
We noticed a fair amount of other people out on the lakes so far on this trip - much more than the other May canoe outings we had done so far. We attributed this to the ease of access of the area, being so close to the highway 60 corridor and sporting many easy put-in points. We were glad we were here early in the season; likely this area would be very busy during the height of summer.
courtesy JInnes
The high overcast continued to solidify. By the time we rounded the sharp point and entered the southern arm of Rock Lake, we could see a line of lower clouds marching towards us from the horizon. The forecast was proceeding exactly as predicted, and if that continued, we knew that at some point we'd be getting some rain. We hoped that we'd get to our campsite before then.
Approaching portage point
A slight south wind made our paddle down Rock Lake a little bit more strenuous, but in fairly short order we reached the southernmost tip, where the South Madawaska river empties into the lake. A portage on the right led uphill for 375m to Pen Lake.
At the far end of the portage, a strange thing: a solidly-constructed dock, a rarity on canoe portages in Algonquin Park.
Increasingly Dramatic Skies
The skies continued to gloomify as we set out south down the long and narrow body of water known as Pen Lake. At first, the wind and the lake's surface were both only mildly unsettled. However, after passing between a peninsula and a small island (and through what appeared to be a crude breakwater), all of which had been providing shelter, the conditions became more challenging. A fairly strong wind (I'd estimate 10-15 knots) blew straight up along Pen Lake's south-north orientation, and the waters now had some noticeable chop, even a little whitecap or two. Our speed slowed considerably, and we had to pay much closer attention to steering, lest we be diverted way off course.
Approaching breakwater
Arn and Gosia used the trick of staying quite close to the shore, where the wind and water were more calm, while I chose a theoretically shorter but more direct route. Despite the shorter course, our velocity made good ended up being slower.
The first wave of showers hit us just as we neared the southern end of Pen Lake. We did not dally long at the Pen Lake - Glydgale Lake portage, where a bunch of people were fishing at the mouth of the South Madawaska River (which flowed into Pen Lake here from Glydgale Lake).
Quickly completing the 275m portage into Clydegale Lake, we continued south. The shape of Clydgale was less conducive to a strong south wind, so the going was less strenuous. Nevertheless, the periodic showers and headwinds weren't inspiring us to explore the lake for the best possible campsite. Instead of looking for the promised second island campsite, we resolved to stop at the first one that looked halfway decent.
