This trip to Sunbeam Lake was supposed to be with another couple. At the last minute they backed out, apparently because she was not keen about sleeping in the woods. It turned out to be a great time just for the two us us.
Wilderness camping wasn't an altogether new thing for my wife. Twenty-three years earlier she accompanied my family on a very remote wilderness trip to Red Lake. This trip was to be mild in comparison.
Kermit Wilderness Adventures
SITE NAVIGATION
We had a series of thunderstorms pass overhead during the night keeping us awake most of the time. The tent was borrowed from my son who had never used it and had not sealed the seams in the fly. I was forced to pull the dining fly down and throw it over the tent between thunder storms. The lightning strikes all around us was a bit distressing so I held my wife's hand with the assuring words, "We always said we wanted to die together."
It was a beautiful morning as we broke camp and paddled up Bluejay Lake. We stopped to eat lunch and watch a moose feeding just a short distance away. Our next stop was the 405 meter portage in to a winding creek that led to Vanishing Pond.
After a short portage from Vanishing Pond we found a very suitable campsite on the picturesque Sunbeam Lake.
Sunbeam Lake Map
Click on map to enlarge.
It was mid July when we entered the park on Route 60 from Whitney. Shortly thereafter we saw a juvenile Moose feeding along the roadside. This trip would prove to be great for seeing wild life. Click on the map to the left to see our proposed route from Accces Point 5 on Canoe Lake to Sunbeam Lake, returning via Tom Thompson Lake..
After obtaining our camping permit we launched onto Canoe Lake. We passed the Tom Thompson Memorial and took the 295 meter portage into Joe Lake. We saw several private camps on our way to Little Doe Lake where we camped for the first night.
Canoe Lake
Juvenile Moose along Route 60
Moose on Bluejay Lake
Teepee Lake
Morning light on Sunbeam Lake
The suns sets on Sunbeam Lake
Moose feeding by our campsite on TeePee Lake
Here I am swimming by TeePee Lake after the Moose left.
We took the curling iron along just to demonstrate to our friends all the amenities in the park. Notice how it conveniently plugs into the tree bark.
Sue demonstrates the mosquito net.
After dinner we paddled back to the entrance of Tom Thompson Lake to look for Moose and we were to be not disappointed. On the way we watched a beaver swimming along side the canoe
A few minutes after pulling out onto Route 60 we saw cars pulling off the road. I said that I saw enough moose and wasn't going to stop, omly it wasn't a moose this time.
.gif){kind=small}
