I fastpacked… at least by my definition I did.
A few years ago I heard about this term called fastpacking. I was immediately entranced and read all the buzzword filled internet articles I could find on the subject. It has taken me a few years, but I’ve finally tried it. And it’s fun.
Everyone has a slightly different definition, here is the one I’m identifying with; Fastpacking is running into the outdoors with all your (lightest) gear and sustenance on your back, camping overnight(s), and then running out.
I have a reasonably strong walk-before-run personality, so I was hoping to do a test fastpack in a low risk, low commitment sort of way. For my first go, here was my ideal:
- within 1 hour drive of ottawa
- beautiful, marked trails (ie not bushwhacking)
- 1 overnight backcountry, guaranteed campsite (ie not near a car park, reservable)
- drinking water source within 1km of camp (stream is fine)
- outhouse or similar within 1km of camp
- 20–50km in, 20–40km out, ideally in a loop
Based on the research my very resourceful friends have done, as well as the modest amount of research I’ve done, nothing meets this list in the Ottawa region (if you disagree, PLEASE educate me!). We of course have the epic Gatineau park, but it has no backcountry camping. The closest thing in Gatineau is La Peche campsites, and they’re canoe in, from a carpark. There is La Verendrye park which at first glance looks amazing due to its vast wilderness, but it doesn’t seem to have the many kms of marked trails needed. The Rideau Trail is close and long, but it looks a bit too road-y, and not enough great outdoors to entice.
After discussing with a few folks including the helpful folks at the Gatineau Park visitor centre, I decided I was going to make my best effort and do a single night, Gatineau Park fastback. Besides the La Peche campsites, the Lac Taylor sites are the next closest to being remote, and one corner of those sites is accessed by a trail. They’re reservable, and my hope is reserving a site on a monday night would mean for less raucous from neighbours. So a few weeks ago I reserved T28 for August 25th, and started planning!
Route
Given this was a trial run and I have lingering physical issues, I designed my route and the plan to be relatively easy. Lac Taylor was the destination, and there were many places I could start from, and some variety of loops and trails to get me there. For instance, I could start from home! I would have LOVED to do this, and avoid cars all together, but the 42km in is more than I can bite off right now. I was hoping for a 20–30km. Sleuthing out the route, I found good old P11, the O’Brien beach parking lot to be a perfect distance to Lac Taylor, 21.1km according to google, all along the low elevation gain trails of 36 and 50. If I’m feeling limber when I get to Lac Philippe I can do some longer loops by including trails 54 or 55 on the way in, but likely will just take shortest distance on the way back. P11 is a paid parking lot, but I have a seasons parking pass and am happy to put it to good use.
Gear
Having recently trained for and participated in an epic 3 day semi-supported stage race, the Bad Beaver Ultra (started, not finished — THAT story is here), I already had a great gear list to start. I needed to update it to greatly reduce the high calorie food, include dinner+full breakfast, increase the water storage, include a shelter, and a stove, and other comforts. Complete list included at the end, but suffice to say it was a hefty 7kg or so before water.
Water
The Gatineau Park website states clearly that there is drinking water nearby all campsites (UPDATE: it no longer says this! It now says services vary by sector). This filled me with some confidence, but after looking at the map and not seeing a water spout symbol on a map I needed to know more. I tried calling the park, and couldn’t reach anyone that could answer my question— the reservations folks were plentiful and helpful, but didn’t have the answer. They’d transfer me to “park staff”, but the 3 times I tried that I just got a long ring followed by an answering machine. The machine suggested to leave a message, which I did, but never heard back. Only upon careful scrutiny of my reservation confirmation email did I notice these lines:
Water:
There is no potable water at Taylor Lake or La Pêche Lake campgrounds, nor Brown Lake Cabin. Bottled water may be purchased at the Philippe Lake general store and at the La Pêche Lake boat rental office during opening hours.
In Philippe Lake campground, potable water is available at the comfort stations and at several water taps near campsites.
Ok, so water is far. That changes things! My gear consisted of capacity for 2.7L which isn’t bad, but for the entire evening and morning I knew I wanted to drink lots of water (1L), have one freeze dried meal (500ml), breakfast (340ml), and coffee (500ml). I knew my 600ml bottles would be stained for some time with the unmistakable taste of orange from skratch (the calorie+electrolyte drink I’m using right now), so I needed more capacity. Another MEC purchase, a 2L rollup platypus water sac.
Registration
Further reading of the confirmation email informs me of the need to register at the Lac Philippe park entrance — which is actually quite far from Lac Taylor, 5km or so! I made the plan to stop at the Gatineau Park visitor centre on my way in to see if they can do the registration for me. Worst case if I had to go there, it would mean a roughly 30km first day, which was fine.
Prep was now done. Fastpack day finally arrived.
Day 1
Having gotten everything planned and packed up, I hauled my bag and supplies into my car, and set off for P11 around 13:30. Stopping at the Gatineau Park visitor centre, they ok-ed my plan, but told me I still needed to hit the visitor centre. They also couldn’t tell me exactly where the water was — for both of these, they suggested I call and gave me the direct number to the place I was calling before… whose calls at that time were not surprisingly, not answered.
They did suggest I leave a note in my car indicating that I was staying over at Lac Taylor. This is to ensure rangers don’t assume someone is lost in the park and go looking for them.
I got strapped up, and was off!
The first bit of the run was a beauty. I was feeling strong, weather was perfect, and the trails were sparsely occupied. I made it to Lac Philippe ahead of schedule, and just plowed all the way to the registration desk. There I got registered, and learned that the closest drinking water to Lac Taylor was in fact the spout near Lac Renaud, a little less than 3km from my site at Lac Taylor. Water is heavy, so my updated plan would be to enter Lac Taylor from the back, unload, and then go fill my water coffers. It makes for an additional trip, but I was excited by the route, and felt an additional 6km run with a light load was very doable.
Shortly after I started the climb up trail 55 my knee started bugging. Kind of like clockwork at the 24km mark, within 200m of onset I was walking. I was bummed it hit so fast, but glad I made it as far as I did pain free. Trail 55 was a beauty, and eventually I rounded a curve and was sprinkled amongst campers and the lake. It was still another good 1–2km to my site, and I hiked the remainder.
I found my site easily, and it was quite nice, but right next to a pretty large group of young adults (I’m guessing very early 20s, or perhaps even late teens). I met them quick as they wanted to swap their second site with me, which I gladly did. My new site had a bit more privacy, and had a better view of the lake. And those young adults turned out to be incredibly pleasant, quiet, and good animal repellent so all was good.
I set up my tent and got unloaded, and prepped for the water run. I walked most of this part as my knee was still in a lot of pain during running. The water source turned out to be delicious, cold water, and I cleaned my face and arms of sweat at the same time as filling my bottles, and chatting to a couple of my neighbours who had done the hike to fill their crew’s nalgene bottles. A hike back, and I settled in for the night.
My evening meal consisted of a Backpackers Pantry’s Santa Fe Rice and Beans, and a Collective Arts Ransack the Universe. I was thinking a citrusy IPA would make for a decent warm beer, and I wasn’t disappointed. I tried to cool it by leaving it in the lake during my water run, but I’m not sure how much it helped… no matter though, I was SO happy I dragged it’s 500g the whole way, it was delightful. Dinner was super tasty too, I barely stopped to breathe or drink while inhaling its 660 calories.
It was my first production use of my MSR stove, and I’m quite happy with it. It boils water super fast, is stable, compact and light, and simple to use. The addition of the plastic canister for mixing or drinking is a huge bonus as well, as I planned to drink coffee out of it in the morning.
There was unfortunately no protected garbage facilities next to my site, the animal proof bins were at the entrance to Lac Taylor, about 500m or so from my site. So shortly before bed, I took a 15 minute walk there and back to deposit my garbage, which consisted of the dinner bag (plus its lid and oxygen absorber), and my empty can of beer, for which I was pleased to place it in an appropriate recycling container.
The stars were spectacular. The weather was cool, and it felt like it might be perfect for sleeping. I crawled into my sleeping bag, and quickly drifted off to sleep dreaming of my morning coffee and oatmeal by the water.
Day 2
I woke once in the night to use the facilities, but other than that I had a completely undisturbed and restful sleep. I hung out in bed until late morning, not actually cracking the tent until almost 09:00! It was really nice to take my time and be in zero rush with my only constraint being needing to vacate the site by 11:00.
I brought a super lightweight 1 cup pour over filter, which worked fantastic to make my first cup of coffee. I lazily sipped it and admired the view while I boiled more water for the oatmeal, which was plain, but quite nourishing. In hindsight I wish I had followed some sage advice recently learned, adding those very sweet maple xact nutrition bars to oatmeal is apparently out of this world delicious!
After another coffee and a lot of bumming around I eventually knew I needed to get moving. I packed up my tent, bundled my new additional garbage, drank and dumped any excess water, and had my pack all ready to go right before 11:00.
The tour back was slow and uneventful. My knee was definitely still aggravated, so I mostly walked and enjoyed nature. I spent my excess energy keeping my eyes peeled on the trail, picking up any colourful bits of garbage I could find and fit into my pockets (leave it better than you found it!). Trail 36 seems to attract a lot of… garbage.
Conclusion
All in all this was a fabulous experience, one that I definitely want to repeat. Not surprisingly the things I’ll change in future will ideally be:
- more remote camp sites / ie no car access
- water access (be it potable or just a creek)
- a lighter shelter, currently eyeing this one
- addition of fastpacking friends!
Links
Strava routes:
Day 1, the run in
Day 1, water run
Day 2, the run out
Complete gear list:
- Pack (Raidlight Revolutiv Vest 24L)
- Hydration pack (1.5L), 2 Raidlight quick sip bottles (600ml each)
- Platypus 2L rollable water jug
- Lightweight sleeping bag (Thermarest space cowboy, +6C, long)
- Sleeping pad (Thermarest uberlight, long)
- Shelter (borrowed my friends REI 1 person tent, about 2kg)
- Trail shoes
- Technical socks (2 pairs of smart wool, one long, one short)
- Shorts, with liner
- Full-length thermal underwear (icebreaker)
- Long-sleeve thermal top for at night (icebreaker)
- One pair of comfy undies (icebreaker)
- Rain/wind shell (patagonia)
- Hat (Ciele, OCRC variety ;))
- Sunglasses (district vision)
- Emergency blanket
- Whistle
- Headlamp with spare batteries (black diamond)
- First-aid kit (includes general medical, foot specific, nipple covers)
- Breakfast (backpacker pantry, oatmeal)
- Dinner (backpacker pantry, santa fe rice and beans)
- Electrolyes/salts for running (8 servings of skratch total, 3 xact bars per day, 1 honey stinger wafer per day)
- Coffee, enough for about 500ml, 42g ground
- Coffee filter
- MSR stove, fuel, lighter
- Leatherman
