Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail (Stratton Lake - Site 1)

Let me start this post by saying, WE DID IT!!! And we are SO HAPPY that we did. Now, that being said, our first experience of overnight hiking or backcountry camping was not without its challenges.

I had booked this trip about 8 weeks in advance so had tons of time to research and strategize how we would pull this off. We are experienced car campers who aren't afraid of a good challenge, so this was a natural progression in our adventuring.

First, I did a quick analysis of our gear and determined what changes we would need to make the experience enjoyable and successful.  Some of the changes we decided on included:

• Swapping our usual 6-person or 8-person tent for a lightweight 4-person tent (purchased on clearance from SAIL.ca)
• Swapping our two-burner Coleman stove with a full size propane for a tiny one-burner that screws into a small propane tank (MEC.ca)
• Meal planning without the use of a cooler
• Water treatment system (purchased a Steripen from MEC.ca)
• Backpacks (borrowed from family)
• Transport for Ethan (TrailMagik.com)

Historically we have never camped at this time of year either. For a number of years we lived in the forest and battled the clouds of black flies that descended every spring. We have zero interest in dealing with that during our holidays. ZERO.  We live in a place where we can camp in any season, EXCEPT bug season. SO, fast forward to the day - we are armed with multiple bottles of bug spray, mosquito nets, and a thermacell and hoping to encounter minimal bugs.

The Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail is one of several Backpacking Trails in Algonquin Park. The whole loop is about 17km with a stop at High Falls for what is supposed to be the best swimming in Algonquin. We did not have any aspirations of making it to High Falls on this trip, only to the camp spot and back out.

Once we got into the trails, the kids were excited to find little bridges to cross and the terrain is fairly uneven in a lot of places as the trail is full of rocks so it made for lots of fun hopping from rock to rock. For the older kids it was not a problem, but Ethan's little 3-year old legs are still slightly uncoordinated. The forest is peaceful and beautiful and the trail follows Johnston Lake for the full length. Then the trail veers up and over a small mountain that has a surprisingly steep incline at one point. It was at around this part in our hike that we were realizing something wasn't adding up in my initial distance projections. We had anticipated that the campsite would be 3 km into the hike. We have since determined that you shouldn't assume what unit type the map is displayed in... The maps I looked at were in miles. Not kilometres. Miles. It was 3 miles to the camp spot, which is actually 5km. face-palm

We'd been encouraging the kids to look for the classic Ontario Parks orange sign with a picture of a tent on it to mark where the camp site side trail is. I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear those shouts of excitement from up the trail!

The trail to the camp spots was in need of some love, lots of dead fall, etc. But we picked our way down to the camp and I pointed us in the direction of our camp spot.

I'm sure the feeling of relief is the same for everyone when you finally lay your pack down with zero intentions of putting it back on until at least the next day. Pure BLISSSSSS!

Camp Spot Review:

This camp was spacious with multiple spots to place tents, and plenty of good hammock tent spots as well. The sites seem well spaced out - the site we chose is the closest one to the trail on the the right as you come to the camp sites. There is one canoe-camp site that could be used by backpackers too if the other spots are all full. It is easily accessible just past site #1 on the Backpacking loop.

The spot is equipped with a bear hang (you need to bring your own bag and rope) and a thunderbox for doing your business.

The campfire is partially sheltered by the trees but there is a nice breeze that comes in off the lake to help blow the mosquitoes away. There are rocks scattered around camp, if you, like us, decided against bringing chairs. We have identified this as a key error in our planning. Having a place to park your butt after a good stretch on the trail is important. Rocks and pine needle beds just don't cut it for us. The kids, sure, but the parents will certainly be carrying their chairs from now on. I purchased a set of MEC Ultra Light chairs just after we returned from the trip. Look for future reviews!

There was a rocky shallow bottom as you entered the lake for a refreshing dip after the hike. We carried our kids floaties in case they wanted to swim but they ended up just being happy standing on the rocks with their water shoes.  The water got gradually deeper and then you could swim beyond a couple of lilypads.

Hot tip: Bring the water shoes & the floaties for the little kids. Unless your certain the bottom of the lake is beachy or smooth stones, your kids will be happier if they aren't worried about slippery or slimy bottoms.

We could easily fill up our water bottles from the lake. Our SteriPen came with a filter that screws to the top of the Nalgene bottles to keep sediment and foliage out of the bottle and then you treat the water using the UV light, following the instructions provided.  The kids thought it was cool to see the light work its magic and took turns treating their own bottles.

We set up camp to the right of the firepit and truly lucked out on the weather so were able to sleep without the tent fly. We weren't concerned about privacy as there was no one at any of the other backcountry sites where we were. A canoe did set up in the site I mentioned earlier after the kids went to bed. After a quick arrival they became very quiet neighbours. The kids commented that they liked waking up in the night and being able to see the stars. With my terrible eyesight i can't see my hand in front of my face in the dark, but i'll take their word for it.

Camp Life

We are the kind of campers that like to get established when we get to our destination. We don't wait til bedtime to set up the beds, we have everything ready to go in case the kids wear themselves out earlier than expected.

We work as a team and get the tent set up and beds made. Frank is an arborist by trade so he is in charge of getting firewood for our camp fires, along with 3 trustee stick gatherers. Frank carries one of his saws from work, a silky, in a protective holster clipped to his backpack.

Once we had eaten our lunch of wrap sammies (prepared in advance at home) and our camp was established we took a nice dip in Stratton Lake. It was cool and refreshing and everything we were looking for on a hot, muggy day. The kids milled around the camp, coming up with various imaginative play games to keep themselves entertained.

We set up our Backpackers Thermacell in the middle of camp and it seemed to do a great job of keeping the mosquitoes out of our "living" space. It is lightweight, seemed effective, and super easy to use. One review i had read before purchasing it had mentioned to use caution when handling the fresh strips for the Thermacell as the oil was hard to remove from your hands in the backcountry. I used caution and did not have any issues.

Meal Planning

Prior to making our food plan, I read some blogs, followed some influencers in this genre and educated myself on the food options other families with small kids use. For this trip i wanted simple, yummy and kid friendly.

For snacks we stocked up on Clif bars, granola bars, trail mix (I'll share our "recipe" later), goldfish and 2 pieces of fresh fruit each. Ultimately I over-packed on snacks. Next time I'll ration a little better and reduce the amount of extra weight we were carrying.

Dinner was multiple packs of a dehydrated spaghetti and meat sauce meal (purchased from MEC.ca) and was absolutely delightful. Were we tired? Yes. Were we hungry? Yes. Would anything have tasted good? Maybe? You know how food always just tastes better when your camping? It may just be that too. But anyways, we decided we probably could have gotten away with only cooking 3 pouches for the five of us. Again, this is another way we can reduce our pack weight in the future.

Breakfast the following morning was instant oatmeal packets for the kids and the same selection of items from the day before. The rest of the fruit was consumed and the trail mix continued to be a hit. Frank and I had coffee and protein bars before hitting the trail.

COFFEE! This is something we definitely have put thought into over the years. We like coffee. Good, strong coffee. For this trip we brought instant coffee - but like the gourmet ones (what am I even saying right now?!). And then we mixed in a packet of Sweet & Creamy that is an instant coffee powder in the instant coffee section as well. It covers off the cream and sugar requirements.

Evening Experience

Loons and bullfrogs sing as the fire crackles and the breeze off the lake settles. We didn't make it to nightfall, but the golden hour and the twilight were beautiful! With our lack of comfortable seating options we decided to join the kids in the tent earlier than usual, but that worked out for us all anyways.

Goose sleeps with us in the tent. He has an assigned spot in the Tetris-like layout that is the inside of the tent. We are strategic about where everyone sleeps in the tent and have switched to a simpler sleeping bag/person arrangement instead of the family-style beds we were making before. We all have our own Thermarest pads with the exception of Frank who has like pad/mattress hybrid. I plan to create a post about a gear in the future! When we car camp our senior dog, Monte,  also comes along - as long as its not too rugged. He sat this trip out as the hike would have been too much for him to do comfortably.

Packing Up and Heading Out

When it comes to breaking camp we have developed a system that has Frank slinging breakfast for the kids while I go about shoving all the beds back into their traveling compartments and taking down the tent.

With everything re-attached and stowed in its travelling compartment we did one last round of bathroom stops, dosed in DEET, put up the hoods on the sunshirts, 4/5 of us opted for bug nets and we headed back up the trail to head back towards the truck, parked at the Achray Campground. The hike out was just as buggy as the way in, so we silently agreed that there would be no stopping, this would be a challenge for the kids, but leave them happier in the end.

About 2km into the hike out, our oldest E was driven to tears by the itchiness of a bug bite on the bottom of her foot. We tried all the distractionary tactics in the world and she was having NONE OF IT. As soon as that sign came in to view that the parking lot was just another 50m away I never heard another peep about that bug bite.

As I said, we had our challenges!! But this was such a fun adventure for the kids. They LOVED it. When we got back to the truck they were game to go again. We've got a list of things we'll change the next time around. Which, as it turns out, will be a little earlier than originally planned!

Until next time, the Belcourt family continues to live life outside!

-Kyla