Silver Peak

As my last shift-work-weekend, I decided I needed to do something special. A cache that would challenge my ability physically, and push me to the extreme limits of my sanity. This one pushed me a little over that on both accounts, but I made it. After the sanity was broke, it didn't much care for the bodies complaints!

The first day was for driving. We set out around 11 after figuring out how to attach the canoe to my cousins Grand Cherokee, and set out for Parry sound, with the final days destination set on Sudbury. We visited a few sites of interest including various beaches and inlets in the area, and made our way to the Ghost Town of Depot Harbor. I had camped out here before, but turned back due to insect infestations. There were many hollowed out buildings, and the train turnstile was still standing as I remember it. Some old tractors, cars, and boats lay in the main street of this once Grande port town. I didn’t think the cache placed there did a great job of giving a tour of the area, but I wasn't willing to place another one, so it had to do. I probably knew this area better then they did anyway!


Depot Harbour

We visited some stops by the French river. I had passed out by this time. I had been up for about 30 hours, and it is amazing how refreshing 30 minutes of sleep can feel. Found some caches, some animal bones, and some neat buildings, then made our way up to Sudbury. By this time it was beginning to get dark, so we jumped into a hotel just in town and made sure we had a place to sleep. Then it was out for more caching, making sure that I got up to 999 for tomorrows Kilo-cache adventure.


Above the French River

The day started a little later then expected. We started at 11am which was about 5 hours later then I had planned. We dropped off the car, loaded the battle canoe, and went about looking for a free campsite on Bell Lake. Every campsite we came across was either taken or reserved (which is something Ontario parks told me I could not do), so I was just about angry enough at them to pitch tent in the middle of the bush and camp there. So that is what we did!


Killarney Park - alot of trees

A Battle Canoe? Why? Well this is the only canoe I had. The thing weighs close to 100 pounds, and is not something that is meant to be carried. Other portagers on the trail gloated about their canoes being only 20 pounds, but the likely drowned later that day as soon as they ran into their first rock.. hehehe suckers.


Battle Canoe

We found a small inlet, unloaded everything we didn’t need for the hike, pitched a tent, and hung the food off the ground, then loaded up the canoe again and started paddling. Greeting us at our first portage was a moose enjoying moose food in the shallow beaches of the lakes end. We didn’t get very close to this one, and it took off before we could get close enough for a photo. The first portage was awkward, and painful. It was approximately one kilometer over rocky and sometimes boarded mud terrain. We made it to the second lake, and I assured him that the next one wouldn't be anything near as bad as that one.


Moooooose

We paddled through this lake, unnamed on the map, and came across many beaver lodges and dams. At the entrance to the second portage there was another moose munching on moose food, and this one didn’t seem to care as much if we took it's picture, so we did. We sat and watched it for a while, and had a snack of our own - Doritos, Granola bars and water. Our second portage was much easier, and took almost no effort at all, especially compared with the other one.


Portag'n


We entered the third lake - David Lake - and it began to rain pretty hard. We canoed across the lake, and as we were pulling the canoe ashore the thunder and lightning broke out. My cousin had a rain suit, but I had to make due with a jean jacket. I had marked the trail earlier on my GPS and we decided we could have about 2 kilometers off the trip by bushwhacking about 200 meters. We walked right across the trail without even noticing, and ended up face to face with a river. We found a beaver dam that made short work of the river, and decided to try and find the trail on the other side of the river, according to a topo-map. Eventually we found it, and began the long hike up to the final summit.


Route to Silver Mountain

We made base camp twice along the way, stopping for food and water, but each time we did we nearly froze as the lack of activity mixed with our wet clothing, freezing rain, and biting winds. As we got closer to the top, the storm got more vicious as the trees began to give way to the bare quartzite rock that formed the peak of the mountain. The water was coming off the mountain down the trail in waterfalls at points, and our hands froze as we worked our way up the cold rocks. At the peak, the rain was coming in sideways from all directions, and at times, from below. The swirling clouds all around us, and the thunder and lightning made it quite clear that we were actually inside the thundercloud.

We stayed as low as possible, making sure there was always something taller then us at every step, at times on our hands and knees, working our way to the peak. We found the peak, and where the cache should have been, but it was not. The owner of the cache had contacted me earlier as he had a suspicion that the cache may be missing. I had a replacement which I left in position and filled back up with loose rocks in the area. My cousin was more then happy to leave at this point.


thunder mountain

We made our way down the slippery slope of the mountain, and through the forests, over the river, and through the hills to the next mountain, which gave us a beautiful view of Silver peak still covered in the thundercloud that had enveloped us. We made a dash for the canoe, and hurried to the first portage. I felt that instead of going to the path that we had originally taken here, we should try the other path! WHAT A STUPID IDEA! after an 900m portage detour we made it back to the trailhead, and picked the correct trail.

After canoeing the second lake, we arrived at the long portage and decided we best pull out the flashlights. The dark portage went surprisingly well considering that it was, well, dark. We found our campsite thanks to my handy GPS (we really couldn't see anything at all), and went straight to bed. The pain is what we felt the next morning.

fire ants

We packed our stuff into the canoe the next morning, and checked our bodies over for any missing limbs. We survived Silver mountain relatively unscathed, with only a few cuts and bruises. The Painful canoe back to the car was enough of a wakeup call to realize that the adventure ended here. No extreme geocaching today!


Killarney Shores

We did manage to hit a small one in the town of killarney when we hoped into town to dry off our clothes. It was on the south shore, outside of town, it had beautiful red-stone beaches, that looked amazingly like paintings by the Group of seven. Very scenic! We had some of the famous local fish and chips straight off the boat, got our clothes then headed for the campground. The canoe this time was left on the jeep, and we just decided to take it easy the rest of the day and let our muscles take a break.

We awoke the next morning to a war between the neighbors dog, and a band of rowdy squirrels. They seemed to be taunting the dog from the trees. This early morning alarm clock got us up and out of there on time, and we had a rather uneventful drive home!

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