Cloud Lake Tenting Adventure

Headed out on October8, 2010 on a windy afternoon.

The fire road from was in fair shape and arrived at the west access point to find a military vehicle loading  canoes on a trailer.   Apparently they had a race that day that involved a canoe and bike orienteering challenge.   Judging by the winds when we got there,  it must have been a challenging  challenge!

We quickly unloaded our supplies and loaded them in our canoe and kayak.    In a short time we arrived at a new home on a small island.  We selected this location based on the expected winds for that night.   When we arrived the winds were quite strong  from the south west and  they were expected to veer during the night.  With veering  winds would come clearing skies and dropping temperatures.

We setup camp and quickly put up a tarp because of dark looking clouds that were heading  our way.  As it turns out we only received a short sprinkle.    We proceeded to gather enough firewood for the night .    With the fire came the welcome source of heat even if it came with a regular blast of searing smoke that brought tears to your eyes.

Hit the sack around 10:00.   It was quiet night with the occasional sound of the loons off in distance.  The wind appeared to drop after we got into the tents.   All had a good sleep and woke about 9:00.   Breakfast was hot chocolate followed by a feed of blueberry pancakes made by Phil and  scrambled eggs made by Sarah.

Observations of the trip.  we noticed that the fall colours were very muted as compared with other years.  Not sure why this was.  Perhaps it the colours will just take a little longer to come out this year.

Also, we noticed the lake was very clear.    For example,  during the summer months you could see about 3 ft to the bottom of the lake.  On this trip we could see as far a 6 ft!   This was very noticeable as you could now  see and rocks that were just below the surface, while in the summer time you noticed them when you hit them !

The morning was clear skies which turned into partly cloudy.  All in all it was great day once you were able to get out of the wind.      Traveled to shangri la, a    cove on the East side of the lake.  This is very sheltered cove with a very small island located in the middle.   A great place to camp if winds are strong.   I did camp there once in November 2004. It snowed that night.   Also it may be of interest to some of the location of the finest washroom facility on the lake. it can be found here.

Headed back just after 3:00 on Saturday.   The wind had picked up again and padding was moderately difficult.  

All in all a great Fall trip.