HIGH FALLS, ALGONQUIN PARK - AUGUST 2017

The last of our two visits to the cottage this summer was without Rudi, who had a one week session at Camp Oochageas near Huntsville.  We left Tavistock before lunch on Sunday, driving across country via Arthur and Creemore to arrive at the camp for the three pm drop off time, then drove to the cottage via Highway 60, the West and East gates of the park Park, and Whitney and Madawaska, arriving in time for dinner with John and Susan.

I had decided sometime during our week at the cottage to take Alexander on a day trip into Algonquin, and rather than the Barron Canyon, which is always spectacular, I felt that finding High Falls would be a great in and out trip for an enjoyable day.  Two summers earlier, Rudi and I along with uncle John and his friend Chris did an overnight into Achray and Barron, and on the second day we went upstream on the Barron river, eventually seeing a series of waterfalls draining into High Falls lake, but only on returning home and checking maps did I determine we did not find High Falls themselves, but an imposter on an adjacent arm of the river.

So later in the week, with the canoe already topped on the van the night before, Alexander and I left the cottage bright and early at 7:30, arrived at Sand Lake Access at 8:45, and after buying out permit, driving to the small lot at Brigham Lake, were on the water before 9:30 AM.

Canoeing up "The Cascades", a series of small lakes separated by short stretches of the Barron River with low cascades and rapids and small waterfalls... There are four portages from the Brigham Lake put in to High Falls Lake

Looking west along the north shore of High Falls Lake, it appears a small swath of the forest ahead of the bow is suffering from disease, likely a bark borer.

The river inlet into High Falls Lake.  This is the easiest to locate, as it is very open and plain to see, and near the take out for the portage to St. Andrews Lake.  About three hundred metres to the right of the canoe, however, is a second inlet, that drains Stratton Lake via High Falls.

After leaving the canoe near the put in, we located the unmarked and unofficial trail that leads along this second river (that drains Stratton Lake) and to High Falls, pictured above... Well it probably is one of three decent waterfalls that could be called High Falls.

Another view of what is likely High Falls, the lower of three waterfalls on the Barron River draining Stratton Lake into High Falls Lake.

A small water slide that drains a small amount of the flow of the one arm of the Barron River from St. Andrews Lake into the other arm from Stratton Lake. Alexander jumped in to provide some scale, the slide was about twenty feet in height.

These are not High Falls, but are one of the falls on the Barron River draining St. Andrews Lake into High Falls lake. My bowman Alex for scale, this step of the staircase is about fifteen feet tall.

A CHANGE OF PLANS, IN A FASHION...

So we arrived at the cottage on Canada Day with two canoes (of the four I purchased from Jeff), the absolutely stunning boundary 17-6, and the well built ugly duckling Bob Special 15, one of the 'cosmetic defects' that were the three other boats.

Jeff had re-applied gel coat, and mostly sanded the one side, leaving me the other side to sand, with work progressing as depicted in the pictures above. I had just about got it good enough to go on our scheduled four day paddle into Algonquin Park, everything arranged and looking good, when our little world changed...

After two visits to the hospital in Barry's Bay about a week apart, Rudi was diagnosed with a collapsed lung, but more serious was the swollen lymph system evidently causing it. An ORNGE helicopter flight to Ottawa, and two days of tests while in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at CHEO, we learned the diagnosis... T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

A week in Ottawa starting in ICU, and then the Children's Oncology Unit, treatment having actually begun the morning after his arrival, a full day before his actual diagnosis, followed by a Medivac plane flight to London where he spent most of the summer. Katherine flew with and stayed with him, while I headed back to the cottage to complete the minor bathroom renovation, and store the Boundary in its cradly in the basement...

Until next year, when we should try once again for our first four or five day trip into the park...

ALL LOADED UP...

I owed Jeff a favour, so talked to him a week or so before we headed to the cottage. It turns out he had two H20 Canoes that were special ordered, and needed to be delivered to Frontenac Outfitters, along with a kayak that had been sent to him for repair. Timing worked out quite well, the boats were loaded on the van the night before, just after we had the van packed for our two weeks or so at the cottage (along with a washing machine, and a wheelbarrow). Here is the van at about six the next morning, just before I headed out for Kingston. Katherine and the boys would head out later in the little car, and meet me later that day.