Day 1 - Launch from Johnnie Lake

Launching off, October 13th, ~12:00, from the hillside dock of the Johnnie Lake starting point, the portage expedition begun.

It hadn't been two hours before we got ourselves lost. Taken aback by the beauty of the park and trying to not capsize our canoe whilst bickering and passing the map, we had managed to take a left-turn when should've taken a right. That detour sent us to do an hour-roundabout, across from Ruth-Roy Lake (southwest bay of Johnnie Lake).

Paddling through Johnnie Lake, taking our northwest-bound hike leading to Clearsilver Lake, we began our first portage (ever). The hike to Clearsilver was a kneecapped us before we had to make our final push, and setup before dark, which finished the job and we were so tired, we couldn't even cook, only snack.

After our evening snacks, we made the critical mistake of not securing our bear-canister well-enough.

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Day 2: Part 1 - Strike of the Yogi!

Throughout the early morning hours from midnight until ~5am, sleep was far from trivial, the audible smacking-of-lips and crinkling-of-packaging brought despair to our minds as our food-pile dissolved into the mouth of a reportedly massive bear.

At one point during the night that I had to leave the tent for a specific reason. Since Yogi had been absent for a few minutes, I left, then scanned my light 12 o'clock down the treeline, revealing a pair of glowing eyes circling our tiny peninsula from about 60 yards out. It's accurate that I didn't lollygag.

It wasn't till dawn until we felt it was appropriate enough to check-on our site, it'd been over half an hour since we heard the beast. Approaching the aftermath of the previous night's experience, we both understood the plan had changed. We only had a container of honey-oat granola left, and our water filter.

Day 2: Part 2 - Summit and Back

The reactionary plan was to hike the 8km round trip up Silver Peak (500m alt.), then execute our 10km return route that day, the time was 09:00.

The summit to Silver Peak was brutal, although we had been graciously given some rations from fellow hikers, however, we had underloaded on water, creating an additional logistics headache during our long hike.

We had reached the summit of Silver Peak around 12:00, and the lack of water bit us on the way back down, educating us of a lesson in the form of cramps and fatigue, on the matter of strategically packing fluids on long treks.

After packing our site, we began our exit-route that led East to Bell Lake, then southbound till the exit-point/dock on the southern edge (our day-4 route, originally). It was a long journey at the time, and in-hindsight if we were 20 minutes slower, we'd have been paddling in the moonlight; not ideal.

On our exit-route, we thoroughly enjoyed paddling through David Creek, it was slightly concerning how prime the area was for moose (didn't see or hear anything), but the serenity of the creek was wholly-calming, and quite refreshing.

Special Thanks to Killarney Outfitters

If you're ever venturing into Killarney Provincial Park, be sure to look up Killarney Outfitters. They're incredibly friendly and knowledgeable and have every piece of equipment imaginable for the great outdoors.

We had finished our trip the night of thanksgiving, and the team at the outfitters invited us to their thanksgiving bonfire and gave us some snacks for the drive out. I've never felt such an incredibly warm customer experience from any business I've ever dealt with.