The Double-Solo

For the May 2-4 weekend, Mike and I went to Algonquin to do a double-solo. Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the term, we made it for lack of a better word. What it was was a quasi-solo trip where Mike and I spent some of the trip together and were separated at other parts, and if you don’t remember what Mike (or I) look like, here’s a picture of us at the beginning of the trail.

Well actually this was taking at the end of the trip, which kind of spoils this post as now you know that neither of us died on this trip, or at the very least lost any limbs. But I will nonetheless try to write an interesting post about our trip.

Here is the route we took on our trip:


We started at the 4 in the red diamond (on the map), and on the first day hiked about 9km (the orange path). It only took two hours, which is extremely short when you’re hiking in the forest with a 50 pound pack on your shoulders, but the terrain was almost completely flat since it use to be used for an old logging railway line. Here’s a picture of me walking in a very straight line.


After the two hour hike, Mike and I set up camp where the giant blue A is. We set up our tents and then went searching for wood to chop up for a fire. We had a lot more than we needed, and were able to sustain a comfortable fire which is pictured below.


It didn’t really help keep the bugs away that much, but it was very handy after our very brief swim. Actually, one of the main drives to submerge ourselves in the water was because it would keep our skin away from the bugs. Unfortunately, after only minutes, most of our bodies either felt numb or painful, so we didn’t stay in for long.

After an evening of talking by the fire, we went to sleep and then woke up early the next morning. We parted ways with me going along the yellow path, and Mike going around the other side of the loop. This hike was about 15km and took me about 5 hours to do (we were no longer on the old railroad). The hike was really relaxing; I took in the scenery, had thousands of thoughts pass through my head, and had many conversations with myself. Actually, I was surprised at how much I actually spoke, though I’m pretty sure I’m not crazy.

One notable experience on this hike was when I went down a hill and found myself in front of a fictitious lake (I say fictitious because it wasn’t on the map). Obviously the path was under the water, but it was hard to find the continuation on the other side. I probably spent half an hour looking, and getting very upset, until my eureka moment when I found the path.

When I finally got to my camp site (the letter B on the map, Mike was about 3km to the west), my non-waterproof boots were soaked, and the weather was getting cold. I set up my tent and then got to work on building a fire. It was quite exciting, and once it was made, I started drying my shoes and keeping myself warm.

You may be wondering what it’s like camping in the woods by yourself. Was it a spiritually awakening, or did I finally discover the meaning of life? Unfortunately, I was too busy being close to being cold to have such thoughts, and I spent the majority of the night by the fire. Every once and awhile I would go and try to find more fire wood. A few times I heard some pretty loud noises in the woods, got freaked out, and went back to my protective fire. Usually I would later discover a tree rubbing against another tree which was causing the noise, but it still was freaky as bears do roam Algonquin.

I stayed up until the sun had completely set so that I could see the amazingly beautiful night sky, and then I heading off to sleep. I slept next to my hatchet just for a little extra comfort.

The next morning I met up with Mike where he took this picture of my camp site:


We warned each other of the troubles of our respective paths and then went our separate ways around the loop (the first half of the black path), where we planned to meet up at the letter C to camp the night together. The hike to the letter C was about 15km, with this:


providing the biggest obstacle. This was part of the path (the bridge had washed away), and it was clear that me and my 50 pound bag were not going to make it. Mike had waterproof boots so he simply walked through the water the day before, but this was not an option for me. So I set to making a bridge. Luckily there were some recently killed trees that had fallen by the water, I had a hatchet with me, and I had gained experience building bridges across rivers when I went into the forest with Jordan (see the caber tossing post).

It took about half an hour, I got some injuries (while throwing one of the trees, the end didn’t clear my back and gave me a good wack), but I made a very post-worthy bridge. After making it, I thought it was a shame that so much effort was put into a bridge that was used by someone who was going to have soaked shoes by the end anyway, but I did run into some hikers and found out that they were going to have to cross my bridge. Actually, me telling them that I made a bridge and them noting that I was alone probably made me look like I was some impressive camper, which was an odd feeling.

When I finally met up with Mike, we exchanged out stories of our respective hikes. I left out that it had been snowing and hailing at random moments throughout the day, and the weather was remaining miserable. We decided to enjoy a little bit of a fire, cook some food, and then hike out rather than stay the last night. This meant that we had to hike another 9km (the second half of the black path), which was a total on about 24km in one day.

Here’s a picture of me getting some scraps to help out the fire. As you can see I’m not wearing my shoes as they were beside the fire trying to dry off. This picture shows that I like the pain of walking around in my bare feet more than the pain of being cold.


We hiked out, and I really had to push myself during the last few kilometres. When we got to the car, I felt like I was in some small part of heaven. Unfortunately, it then became hard to move when I later got out, and I required a few days to fully recover.

So that was our double-solo trip. I’m excited to say that I will be going camping again this weekend with Mel, Mike, and Trish. Actually, it’s a canoe trip, something I haven’t done since I was in OAC, so it should be an incredible time. However it turns out, expect to here about it soon on Cute Qubit where I’ll post many pictures.