Chilling in Killarney - Part 1

Literally. It got COLD!

Though the incredible fall colours were worth it.

Many months ago, Tanker and I had volunteered to run one of the backcountry aid stations for the La Cloche Endurance Runs 50 & 100 Miler that was to be held on Killarney's La Cloche Silhouette Trail. When the event was cancelled, we decided we'd just go up there

After "running" the Sticks n'Stones 50k-ish (it's actually 53k, and can you call almost 7.5hrs for that distance running?) on Saturday, I took Sunday off to do whatever normal human beings that don't spend their lives running and camping do (at least I think; I don't have much experience at it), then Tanker and I spent Monday - Thanksgiving day - packing up. I did go for a short run, too, because I'm a sucker for punishment.

Tuesday morning we headed north for hours and hours under hot, blazing sun. Arriving at Killarney Provincial Park's George Lake campground, we just barely caught the park office open (their website and phone message say they're open 'til 6pm; they are in fact only open until 4:30pm in the low season) and grabbed a couple of bags of firewood without much hope of using them that evening. The weather forecast was no bueno; it was still 17 degrees when we arrived and the predicted low was only 14, but the rain would start before sunset and continue for...well...almost 2 days.

The view from the rock shoulder behind our campsite, and clouds already rolling in.

Looking back up toward our campsite - the damp rock might as well have been coated in teflon, but was very pretty.

We were armed with 2 tarps, a couple of tarp poles, and our 4-season tent. We figured we were solid, and after that it was supposed to come up...eeh...somewhat clearer.

We found campsite 42 after a bit of a false start, then quickly set about constructing a weather-resistant living space out of dozens of yards of nylon and polyester. While we had high hopes for our 4-season tent keeping us snug (as it had in the past), our confidence waned somewhat as we set it up and watched the seam tape disintegrate and snow out of the fly, whose inner coating had turned sticky in the few years of storage in our livingroom. Having only used it once before, dried it completely before packing it away, stored it in a climate-controlled environment, and it only being 4 years old, I was understandably torqued. Undaunted, we continued to set up the Tunnel of Love I'd envisioned with the minor modification that the tent would be almost completely covered by the larger tarp. 

On arrival

An hour or so later.

Home sweet home.

With the catenary cut tarp offering a dry place to prep and cook and the rectangular tarp sheltering both the tent and a "porch" big enough for both of our largest, plushest camp chairs, I got a fire going just as the first drops of rain began to fall.

Who doesn't love a good fire photo?

We kept it going for awhile as I made us steak and asparagus pasta for dinner, as I'd promised Tanker that he would get a steak dinner for agreeing to camp with me in the pissing rain...though he's generally agreeable to both of these things anyway. 

There's no excuse for eating poorly when camping, though I do eat from the pan to save on dishes.

The warmth of the fire was appreciated on damp, chilly fingers as the temperature dropped below 10c - we moved around camp in our rain jackets, but hung them on the back of our chairs to sit on the porch to keep things as dry as possible in our little weatherproof tunnel. Unfortunately the rain picked up as I walked to the nearby comfort station and my trousers got soaked; it was falling hard enough to overwhelm their water-resistant coating and wet through at the knees, so when we finally turned in for the night I left them hanging on my chair rather than bring them into the tent with our down sleeping bags.

Having tied up a "nightlight" - illooms (balloons lit by an internal tiny l.e.d.) are freakin' awesome!

We got at least 20-25mm of rain overnight; it started pounding down just after we went to bed, happy we had covered the tent with the tarp! We got a bit of leakage in the one exposed vestibule, but nothing inside the tent itself except condensation from our breath. It was still overcast when we woke Wednesday morning, and the forecast showed rain all day. This is exactly why we'd made a stop at the Bulk Barn in Barrie on our way up; if we were going to be hanging around camp in lousy weather for a lazy morning, I might as well take the time to make pancakes.

..and bacon, with a couple of pots of Tanker's amazing camp coffee.

I had also made us a morning fire to ward off the damp chill in the air, which was just enough to allow me to enjoy one of my favourite camping traditions.

No pants before coffee!
(wooly longjohns are not pants)

The rain mostly held off, with just little sprinkles from time to time, but it was definitely chilly. So, I  busted out a new bit of gear that Tanker had bought me just before this trip: a ThermaRest Honcho Poncho. I'd tested it by the campfire in the backyard, but this was its first real outing. I loved it so much that Tanker decided he had to try it, too!

SO WARM AND AWESOME

Eventually, we decided it was time to actually do something rather than sit around our campsite like sloths, so after dishes were done and everything was tidy we headed into the town of Killarney to hike the Lighthouse Trail behind Killarney Mountain Lodge. 

The lodge is under construction, so you start from a modified trailhead.

Two things that make my heart smile: a root well and a Tanker

Finding the best line to climb down a pink granite descent

I mean REALLY PINK

View out over Georgian Bay at the mouth of the Killarney Channel

These 2x6 boards keep you out of the marshy bit at Thebo Cove

You emerge to follow the shoreline of the cove itself

Classic Georgian Bay coastline on the point

The trail markings petered out near here, so we didn't end up going out to the lighthouse itself.
You can see our meandering route here.

Short on time to get back to buy more firewood before the park office closed, we headed back.

Tanker spotted this jawbone - likely from a raccoon - on our way out
Standard litre-size nalgene for scale

Back to camp armed with more wood, I started a fire just as the first rain showers began - we'd successfully managed to hike without getting wet! 

The colours at our campsite were spectacular, though you can see the leaves were swiftly falling

We had a bit of lunch by the fire in a gap between showers, then as the skies opened up once more we  donned our rain jackets and went for a walk down the sketchy path to the lake beside our campsite.

Tank on the dock, with the shoulder of rock behind our campsite in the background.

A beautiful sugar maple and absolute pissing rain

Back up to camp via the much more sure-footed doubletrack path toward the middle of the main beach, we settled ourselves in for an evening on our sheltered porch.

It was actually pretty cozy under there.

We kept the fire going, but only so we'd have a chance of a coal bed in the morning.
You can actually see the small river of water flowing to the right of the firepit.

It absolutely hammered down all night long, dropping 50+mm before finally easing off around 7am or so. Emerging from the tent into the chilly morning with the wind already starting to rise, I needed a fire and another layer under my insulated shirt in order to make NPBC (no pants before coffee) happen.

Make no mistake that it did, though.

 

The weather called for a distinct shift: the wind would turn to blow from the west, right over the lake toward the relatively thin cover of trees that separated it from our Tunnel of Love, and rise to 50+kph gusts. Not wanting to risk the destruction of our carefully assembled tarp pitches, I deployed some additional lengths of paracord and numerous additional stakes to build the Web of Lies.

Tanker thinking "Great - it'll hold up, but now there's no way to actually get under the damn thing without tripping"

The wind did assist in making breakfast, though - not only did it make it easier to start a fire and build up a solid bed of coals, it kept the coals on top of our cast iron Dutch oven good and hot while our sausage and biscuit bake turned a luscious golden brown!

I love campfire cooking!

Cleanup is so much easier when you line the oven with heavy-duty tinfoil

The eggs got a bit overdone, but the crust on the bottom was perfectly crisped.

Fairly early in the morning we heard a helicopter fly overhead, then back again, then back out. We worried that it was a rescue chopper running a search grid for someone in trouble in the backcountry; we'd seen groups coming in and heading out several times each day.

The yellow body seemed to indicate a rescue helicopter, too

While we didn't think they would fly in the current conditions - which were getting windier by the moment, with powerful and unpredictable gusts sending things clattering off our picnic table - for any reason other than danger to human life, we'd find out later they were actually booked months ahead to do park improvements that day. If you're out in the backcountry in Killarney in the near future and see a new thunderbox, a new picnic table, or evidence of a large fallen tree being removed, you have these brave souls to thank. They had 2 choppers flying all day long to try to accomplish everything in one day, and a couple of hardy parks employees even volunteered to stay out on a truly wild night then hike back out the next day to complete the projects that weren't possible to wrap up before nighfall.

Unrelated: Tanker managed to build a campfire symbol out of our campfire.
CAMPFIRECEPTION

I was perfectly content, sitting by the fire in my Honcho Poncho.
And yes, I really do have camping slippers.

The wind was a constant physical force by noon, but it did have one wonderful effect - it finally blew the clouds away (at least for awhile..), so we got a stunning view of George Lake's incredible autumnal beauty.

Yowza.

Just looking up was pretty spectacular, too.

We were not, however, content to merely hang around camp all day - there was so much more to see! So, we kitted ourselves out and hopped in the car to drive to the far end of the campground and the secondary beach.

No less gorgeous, but no less windy.

Grabbing trekking poles, wind jackets, snacks, water and a daypack, we then headed out to see the sights of the Cranberry Bog Trail. 

We picked up the interpretive guide from the park office before we headed out, and took our time to read them at each post

Neat fungus and real sunshine!

Proulx Marsh is jaw dropping in autumn

The prior 2 days of rain had turned portions of the trail into more of a creek

Arriving at the bog itself, before crossing the boardwalk below the huge beaver dam.

Cranberry Bog, which by virtue of having a slow-moving inlet flow, is actually a fen.

More granite and fall colours.

Enjoying a beautiful - if rather cold and windy - day!

The last section of the trail runs concurrent with the La Cloche Silhouette Trail. 

Amazing rock forms and interesting lichen growth

Up the tumble of roots and rocks flowing with rainwater runoff..

..to gorgeous A.Y. Jackson Lake

Incredible view of the quartzite La Cloche Mountains

Another sunny root well

This trail is considered "moderate difficulty"
You can see our route and elevation data here

Back to the car at George Lake, I quickly whipped up some lunch for us: corn tortillas with summer sausage, mustard and cheez, plus a small bar of chocolate to split. Then we drove right out past the park office and across the road to hit another trail: Granite Ridge.

Once again stopping to read along with the interpretive guide purchased from the park office

The rainy conditions had the park's mycological systems running full bore - fungus everywhere!

I have no idea who did this, but I loved it.

Remains of the first car in Killarney (which had no roads until the 60's) and the chassis of a truck

It was a teensy bit wet on the trail.
Yes, that is actual flowing water.

Refreshingly, this was not actually part of the trail.
It was, however, truly beautiful.

When a trail is named "Granite Ridge" you can expect to go up.

And up some more..

But the view out over Georgian Bay is worth it.
(Note the rain showers over the water blowing in toward us)

The colours of fall make the view of the La Cloche Mountains even more spectacular

Looking from a ridge of 1.5 billion year old pink granite toward the 2.1 billion year old quartzite

Happy punks, though we were about to get wet again on the trip back down.
You can see our journey here.

After another brief rain shower as we completed the lollipop-shaped trail, we returned to our campsite once more and were treated to the closest thing we'd seen to a sunset so far.

Can't complain about that.

The wind continued to blow and gust alarmingly, but using multiple guy-out points for our tarps kept them steady for us as night fell.

And kept us dry in the rain showers that continued to blow in and out all night.

An illoom nightlight, our l.e.d. lantern and a propane Coleman lantern kept our Tunnel of Love well-lit.

I made us dinner of chorizo pasta, having to use some of my heavy-duty tinfoil to make an additional windscreen for our propane stove in order to keep it functioning with any efficiency at all while the temperature plunged.

You do what you have to.

Especially when it results in this!

After some fairly strenuous hiking in cold conditions, plus a chilly night to come (expected to dip to 4c with windchill near the freezing mark), we needed to make sure we went to bed with full bellies. Thus, when the rain cleared off for awhile, I set to work making us some campfire treats. 

I couldn't trust a marshmallow to melt chocolate in the cold, windy conditions, so I made up packets of tinfoil and popped them into the coals of the fire for a few minutes while I toasted the 'mallows.

One seriously windblown fire!

Happy Tank with his s'more

The damp air and powerful wind was enough to send us to bed early - I was all layered up in a long wool baselayer, fleece pants and a fleece sweater, with my rain pants and rain jacket overtop to block the punishing, relentless gusts, but it just wasn't much fun sitting out by the fire.

I was only really comfortable when snuggled into my Honcho Poncho overtop of the whole business.

Though I did hang out as long as I could to try to dry out my wet boots.

We also wanted to get to bed early so we could be up and at 'em a little more speedily on Friday morning. We had big plans, but you'll have to wait to hear about those another day!