Frontenac Provincial Park
October 31st - November 1st, 2010
36 kms (22 miles)

This was a quick 2 day/1 night trip at the end of October in Frontenac Provincial Park here in Ontario, Canada. We covered about 36 km (22 miles) over the two days. My base weight was right at 10 pounds for this trip.

It snowed off an on for a good part of the Sunday, however with temperatures hovering right at freezing we had no accumulation. Monday was absolutely beautiful with the skies clearing through the day.

I was playing with some new kit on this trip and put the BPL UL240 Quilt to use. I was definitely pleased with its performance on this trip. I will post a quick mini review with my impressions of the quilt in a separate post.




At the trail head



This is one of the first lakes we came across.



The landscape was opening up.



Rock is definitely becoming the prominent feature in the south eastern part of the park. Small beaver lodge in the bottom center of the photo.



Heading that way.



My buddy Earl up ahead, carrying a more traditional weight.







A few small cairns lead the way through some of the less obvious sections.





Snow.





A damp lunch time view.



"Are you sure this is the trail?"





Looking down the lake.



Beautiful view out over the park.



Definitely appreciated the night time fire with temps below falling below freezing.



Above our campsite the following morning looking out over the lake.



Looking back toward the campsite.



The weather steadily improved through the day.



This part of the park was logged and mined in the late 1800's and early part of the 1900's. Many of the
trails in this section of the park are based on the old logging and mining roads. This old girl didn't make it back out.



Heading off trail we came across this sign.



Entrance to an old Mica mine. Closed down sometime in the early 1900's.



Old boiler above the mine. Would have been used to drive the winches to lift equipment and rock in and out of the mine.





Mica flakes near the entrance.







One of the last bits of color in the park this time of year.



Watching us closely as we leave the park.


Another great trip and already trying to figure out what the next one will be.

Edited by PhilipD on 11/17/2010 20:42:47 MST.

Phillip,

Thanks for sharing your part of the country with us.

Always nice to see what other countries have to offer.

Great job and love the variety of photos with your narration.

-Tony

Thanks Tony. I appreciate the comments. It was my first time at this particular park. Great little spot.

Definitely looks chilly--Shoulder Season
Great pictures- eey!

Familiar place and a familiar face! Looks like a great trip, thank you for sharing! That park is alot of fun. Tons of trails all over the place. I thought at first I saw the waterfall on the Slide Lake Loop but I haven't seen the mine remnants before. What route did you end up taking?

Steven,

We basically did the loop around the outside of the park, however we cut across the bottom of the Tetsmine lake loop up at the top. The old mine and boiler is on the trail between site 12 and 8 but it is definitely not obvious as you walk along. We had to do some off trail to find it. It's on the north side of the trail on the other side of a small ridge. There are a bunch of old mines marked on the map throughout the park...would be interesting to try and find them all during a trip or two.

I really enjoyed the park and the trail...beautiful area. The one thing I was disapointed in was that the sites are on top of each other at the designated spots. Whole darn lake and they put them all together. This time of year it didn't matter as we had the park to ourselves...but would definitely be a negative when the park is busier.

Jay,

Definitely took me a bit longer than normal to talk myself into getting up in the night for a quick nature break. I was relunctant to get out from under the quilt. We easily had enough wood for a warm up the next morning which was great start to the day.

The one thing I was disappointed in was that the sites are on top of each other at the designated spots. Whole darn lake and they put them all together.

I hear ya. I have only been to the park 3 or 4 times and always in the off season so i have never seen anyone else camping while I am there, but it is weird how they cluster them up like that. The ones at the north end that I have stayed at are literally almost one area with multiple tent pads. I guess it isn't a real issue, but if you were in the height of the busy season you wouldn't find any solitude.

Nice TR. Did you see many people? Thanks for sharing!

Steven,

Agreed...in my view off season is the only time to visit the park just because of the way they cluster the sites.

Tom,

We saw one pair of hikers coming off the trail on the first morning and then did not see another soul the rest of the trip. When we checked in that first morning we were the only ones scheduled to be in the park overnight at that point. It was perfect. We went in Sunday morning and came out on the Monday.