Be sure to read Part 1 of the account of this canoe and hiking trip I made with my father on July 16 to explore an alternate route into Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario.
After our sandwich lunch, my father and I set out to explore the portage, nearly 3 km (1.9 miles) long, from Kimball Lake to Rockaway Lake. The first half treks through pleasant woodland. The trail is clear, straight and even. It follows a stream course, and occasionally we heard water gurgling somewhere to our right.
Every few strides, a chipmunk would dash away chittering. I stopped to photograph an elegant damselfly, a female ebony jewelwing. A female black-throated blue warbler (Note: she is much more nondescript than the gorgeous male depicted at this web link) came down and fluttered querulously about our heads—we must have passed near her ground-based nest.
A change in geographyAfter half an hour the trail curved suddenly left, but an alternate route led straight ahead, crossing the watercourse. We went out onto the rough but sturdy cedar bridge spanning the stream bed and luxuriated in sunshine rich with leafy fragrances. A large dragonfly, probably an Aeshna darner, patrolled the channel for prey. According to our map, this bend in the stream seemed to indicate we were nearing our goal. I was surprised we hadn't encountered the steep grade shown on topographic charts.
"Maybe the trail goes around the hill rather than over it," I suggested to Dad.
We returned to the shady trail, not realizing we still had the biggest challenge ahead of us. A little further and we had to start ascending steeply, pushing ourselves to the limit of our endurance though we carried little gear.
Ascending the StaircaseThis segment of the trail has been designated by some creative traveller "the Golden Staircase." Indeed, it was worth our effort. Our ascent still climbed alongside the stream course, which plummeted down a narrow, rocky gulley. The water has chiselled a small cascade through the Precambrian granite. The whole ravine is densely shaded by red oak, sugar maple and Eastern hemlock. The pleasant rush of water over stone added a kind of torture to our parched exertion. Deep in the verdant gloom, alongside the gushing stream, an emerald tapestry of diverse mosses and ferns spread across the ancient stone. It reminded me of photographs I have seen of Kokadera, the sacred Moss Temple in Kyoto, Japan (there is another image at this website on Japanese gardens, and you can read more about and see some remarkable photos from Kokadera in Elizabeth Murray's wonderful book, Cultivating Sacred Space). There were several species of leafy mosses (Mnium species and their allies, difficult to distinguish), the delicate common fern moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis) and various others.
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