Last Updated: 2025-05-23

5 Friend and I hiked through 40ish km of the Western Uplands hike in August of 2024! This was my first time planning a hiking trip and I wanted to document my experience.

Route

We stayed at the following campsites:

• Islet 2
• Tern 2
• Ishkuday 1

Overall, the route was good! Most of the campsites were fine, but I wouldn’t recommend Ishkuday 1. The other campsites had easy water access but at Ishkuday, it was past a bog. There were some planks to stand on but its not very secure and I fell in! Eventually, I just stripped and then made many trips in and out of the bog. As funny as a story as it was, I wouldn’t stay at that one again.

Mileage

Here is how our mileage looked over the trip. The time includes lunch and snack breaks, so though we probably walked quicker, stops needed to be factored in.

Day	Leg	Distance (Km)	Total Time (Hrs)	Speed (Km/Hr)
1	Rain Lake (start) - Islet	11.7	4.5	2.6
2	Islet - Tern	12.9	5.41	2.38
3	Tern - Ishkuday	13	6	2.17
4	Ishkuday - Rain Lake (end)	11.7	4.3	2.72
-	Total	49.3

I like this route! Since we had a few new backpackers on the trip, I didn’t want to overdo it with the daily mileage so we were able to hike for 3-4 hour with plenty of breaks in between and still make it to camp well before sunset. This hike has an additional 30 kilometers so I definitely want to try the full 70 at some point.

Gear

This is the gear I packed:

• Clothes
  • Shorts
  • Shirts
  • Underwear
  • Socks
  • Sweater
  • Rain Jacket
  • Rain Pants
  • Hiking Boots
  • Hat
  • Sunglasses
• Hygiene - (I don’t think specifics are necessary for these)
  • Toothbrush/Toothpaste
  • Deodorant
  • Hand Sanitizer
  • Sunscreen
  • Toilet Paper
  • Wet wipes
  • Bug spray
• Equipment
  • Tent
  • Sleeping Bag
  • Sleeping Pad
  • Headlamp
  • Stove
  • Fuel
  • Spork
  • Camp soap
  • Rope
  • Dry Bag
  • Compression Sack
  • First Aid Kit
  • Water filter
  • Water bottles
  • Multitool
    • Electronics (battery bank, phone, etc)

Someone else in our group had the Garmin inReach Mini 2 so we had a satalite GPS as well, which I recommend if you can borrow/get one. Between the 5 of us, we carried 2 stoves (I carried one of them) and 2 tents, 1 two-person and 1 three-person. I split the three-person one between 3 of us! We all carried our own food, water and garbage.

I liked the gear I brought, I felt like I used everything I had, or it was good to have in case (ie. the first aid kit).

Food

Food meal plan:

• Breakfast
  • Instant coffee + oatmeal
• Lunch
  • Tortilla + canned tuna + baby carrots
  • Tortilla + cured meats + baby carrots
• Dinner
  • Knorr’s sidekicks
  • Shin ramen
• Snacks
  • Sour patch kids
  • Trail mix
  • Dried mangos
  • Electrolyte packs

This is basically my staples for camping trips. I don’t have a dehydrater nor do I like buying those freeze dried meals so these are my budget camping options! I think future trips will have a similar plan.

Pictures

Day 1

We got to the parking lot around insert time. We decided to eat our lunches early, so after eating and using the bathroom we were off! Nothing unsual or just standard (and awesome) Algonquin park.

Day 2

Day 2 was good. Algonquin is mostly flat with one or two steep hills. Not a problem if you take it slow. Got to campsite 2 without a hitch.

Day 3

Day 3 was interesting! A lot mixed terrain from forests to lakes and marshes. We had to travese some deep mud spots using some makeshift bridges that were laid out for us. Like I mentioned above, this campsite (Ishkuday 1) was large, but water access wasn’t optimal. You can even see my clothes hanging on the tree after I fell in to the bog in one of the pictures.

Day 4

Final day! This was basically the reverse of day 1 so a lot of familiar sights! Since everyone was excited to make it back to the cars, the motivation was high to move quickly.