I know, I know, I’m 26 days late but I have finally gotten the pictures from our New Years trip to Algonquin Park into the gallery (click images to make them larger).
In case you didn’t read my first post about this, Rita and I decided to do something a little different for New Years this year. So, we packed our bags, put on our booties, and headed north. Our plan was to spend a couple of nights camping in a quinzee (like an igloo) in Algonquin Provincial Park.
We arrived in Huntsville (about 25 minutes outside the park) on the 30th of January and spent the night in a hotel to get some good rest before our journey. The next morning, we headed out around 9am, rented some snowshoes at a local outdoor shop and headed into the park.
After dealing with sled issues–stuff kept falling off the sides and tipping over–which were very frustrating, we finally started hiking into the interior around 11am. I expected it to be a fairly leisurely hike in, but with all the gear we had, minor snowshoe hiccups, and frequent stops it ended up taking us about 2 hours to get 1km into the forest. Once we were this far, we decided we better start making camp because the sun would be setting in about 4 hours. We went off the path about 50 metres and found a relatively clear area to build our quinzee.
The quinzee was quite a bit of work. We spent a good hour piling up enough snow to make a comfortable-sized fort and then took a break to eat lunch (skillet sensation–mmm!). Because wolves are present in the park, we did all of our cooking ~20 metres from where we slept. Anyway, after eating we went back to work on the quinzee–now we had to dig out the inside. This was probably the part that hurt us the most. Because it was only -2 degrees C outside and we had to get on the ground and inside the pile of snow to dig it out, our clothing got pretty wet. This would prove very difficult later on when it would turn to ice over night, especially when we didn’t have a fire.
Yep, you heard me correctly, we didn’t have a fire. Because we were so focused on making a shelter, by the time we were done it was too dark to collect firewood. With no fire, we ended up curling up in our sleeping bags inside the quinzee at about 6pm, lol. It really wasn’t that bad though, the quinzee ended up working really well, had great insulation, and was fun to sleep in! Rita was a bit cold and worried about wolves, but for the most part it was fine 
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We woke up the next morning and, without a fire, things were beginning to look pretty grim. Although the weather and scenery were beautiful, we had just made one too many mistakes to make it worth staying for another night. We packed up and started to hike back.
Overall, we both really enjoyed the experience. Sure we made some mistakes, but it was also our first time winter camping. Now we have lessons to bring with us next year 
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Lessons learned:
- Carry less stuff (packs only, no sled)
- Build a shelter that requires less work (another couple we saw in the parking lot said they just built two walls and covered themselves with a tarp)
- Carry less stuff
- Collect firewood early
- Don’t worry so much about wolves
- Those hand and feet warming packets work wonders—saved us, big time
- If you don’t try to find moose, you probably will (it seems like everyone saw one but us)
- Carry less stuff (I think this is the ultimate goal of every adventure)
See some more pictures here.
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5 Comments
My girlfriend and I go up to Algonquin Park a couple times a year. We go in the summer months and at night it gets very cold and she wants to go home. I can only imagine how cold it must have been in the winter. We enter the interior at Canisbay Lake and always find moose droppings but never a moose, as much as everyone else seems to see them. We saw a wolf though while toward Whitney for gas.
Yikes. I’d love to see a wolf… if I were in a car. Everyone says they’re pretty passive and avoid humans but I still wouldn’t want to be close to one in the wild. One has to draw the line somewhere, lol.
Theres something about the image of a wolf that makes me feel lonely
Hi Patrick,
I just read about your trip to Algonquin for New Years with Rita..I suggest you rent a yurt next time. As you may already know, Kim and I have gone up almost every winter for the past 6 of 7 years and you can have all of the fun of winter camping with the ease of a man-made shelter for the night…. I do admire you both for attempting to rough it though especially for building a quincy… I’ve been in one and found it far too claustrophic..
Love ya
Deb
I miss the snowof the NE. I used to live in Jesery and made trips into NY for snow weekends. I live in sunny CA now and it is nice but I miss trips like this into snowy lands.
Kevin