Killarney Provincial Park 02.03.

Early afternoon on this wonderful day we start off on a tour again. Our destination isn't an unknown but indeed one we often visited before. This trip leads us to Sudbury again where we are going to spend the night in order to start our actual tour to Killarney Provincial Park on Saturday morning. Beside Bine and me there are Andrei and Adrian from Waterloo.

We reach Sudbury after some uneventful hours with some sleep for my friends and some good music tapes for me. Vroni is already preparing some good meal and Rob put some beer into the fridge. In the course of the evening that we spend at Robs apartment Matt arrives there, too. We have a look at the pictures of our last trips and keep on talking right into the small hours of the night.

We get up early and only have a short breakfast, then we drive down to Killarney Park where we park the cars on the tiny ploughed spot of Johnnie Lake Access Road.

Here we take our backpacks and get going heading for Johnnie Lake. The Access Road is deeply covered with snow but it is pretty good packed on the snowmobile trail that runs along it and therefore passable without snowshoes. After 2.5 km we get to the dam that separates Mahzenazing Creek from Johnnie Lake. Here we put on our snowshoes and from now on we hike on frozen lakes. For the beginning we head northwards in bright sunshine on Johnnie Lake.

At one spot we see some cottages which are located at a narrow part of the lake. On the left shore there is open water, we have to be very careful. Although it wasn't warmer than -5°C in the last few month a flowing brook can cause open spots.

Few hundred meters later we get to the 830 meters long canoe portage that brings us to Clearsilver Lake. It was easy to walk on the lake but now we sometimes sink into the snow up to our hips although we are using our snowshoes. The heavy backpacks make it even more difficult to stay on the track. Finally we get onto Clearsilver Lake which we cross over to the next portage.

As we arrive there we recognize the spot as that one where we had our lunch shortly before we climbed Silver Peak in summer.

Now everything looks a bit cooler and the signs that refer to the canoe portage seem to be out of place somehow ;-))

From here on we follow the trail that leads us to Silver Peak. The snow isn't packed at all on this trail and so we struggle with making headway. We follow the trail for half an our then we decide to set up camp on the ending slopes of Silver Peak.

We distribute the tasks and get working. In order to put up the tents we remove the snow on a adequate area what means that we have to dig through 1,5 meters of snow. While Sabine, Adrian and Andrei take the snow shovels Matt, Rob, Vroni and I take care of the firewood we need.

We find dead trees all over the place which we chop down and cut into pieces. After 45 minutes we have a break and a snack, it's pretty tiring work.

After two hours the camp is set up, all three tents are pitched, firewood is readily piled up and we are glad it's done ;-))

We take all water bottles we brought along and get started with our snowshoes again in order to conquer Silver Peak for the second time.

The ascent is arduous particularly because the trail runs steep and the snow is deep. In addition the snow layer collapses and we have to fight our way up. Our water supply diminishes rapidly as we are sweating a lot. After two hours it is accomplished, the summit is reached. We have a bite to eat, warm us up with hot peppermint tea and enjoy the fogged up outlook ;-))

Our way back is much more relaxing, we have a lot of fun with long downhill slides and after only one hour we are back at the foot of the mountain. As we get back to the camp everything is ready for a warming camp fire. Supper - pasta with cheese sauce - is being made quickly and so we are soon sitting around the fire and tell stories.

For desert we have smors, the culinary enjoyment of Canadian outdoor cuisine. We are all pretty tired and go to sleep soon after.

Next morning has a surprise for us. About 10 cm new snow are fallen overnight and cover our camp.

We free our self-made benches of the snow and prepare a delicious breakfast (guess what - it's oatmeal with fresh fruits). We warm us up on the re-lighted fire before we break camp and pack our stuff.

For the way back we take the same route as yesterday only the weather isn't as nice as on our way up here. Wind is blowing hard into our faces and blows away the snow that we whirl up with our snowshoes.

The portage to Johnnie Lake turns out to be less exhausting as it is pretty well packed snow even after it was snowing again this night.

As we get to the narrow spot on Johnnie Lake it is getting kind of exciting. Bine , Vroni and I are a bit fallen back from the group and as I follow Vroni's tracks I suddenly break into the ice with my left snowshoe. Fortunately I can keep my balance and the ice underneath my right foot holds my whole weight. However - I can feel the adrenaline kick. Even though the water is only a few meters deep at that point and one wouldn't drown - backpack and snowshoes would probably be lost and oneself would run around in wet cloth facing temperatures around -10°C. But everything turns out pretty good and so the following group picture featuring everybody on this trip was taken:

As we hike on the sun is coming out and sweetens our further way. As we reach the dam again we munch the remaining sausages and muesli buns and enjoy some peppermint tea we prepared this morning.

Finally we hike back the remaining 2.5 km to the cars were we get to in the afternoon.

Back in Sudbury we have a feast at Pizza Hut, this time we even grabbed a shower beforehand ;-)) Well fed we head back to Waterloo where we reach the CLTs around 2am.

A weekend just ended that brought us a unique winter camping experience that is hard to match......

Bine

Rob

Vroni

Thomas