Needles and Nature: Backcountry Camping with MS

When I was diagnosed with MS in 2021, a lot of questions raced through my mind: Will I be able to work? Will I be able to take care of my son? Will I lose my vision? Will I lose my ability to walk? Will I have to give up backcountry camping?

I’m sure that most people facing an MS diagnosis don’t immediately start fretting the possibility of leaving camping in the rearview mirror, but for me backcountry camping fills my bucket and the possibility of living without it was a truly worrying prospect. When my husband and I first met, we bonded over our shared love for the outdoors. Our relationship was forged paddling canoes, conquering rugged trails, and perfecting the art of toasting marshmallows over a campfire. We started taking our son backcountry camping when he was just 8 months old. Sharing our love of camping with our son is magical. Seeing his excitement as he catches frogs and seeing his pride upon contributing to chores (gathering firewood, carrying gear across a portage, setting up the tent) reminds me of why I fell in love with camping in the first place.

I have previously written about overcoming the fear of the unknown that MS brings into my day-to-day life in a blog post titled Getting Comfortable with being Uncomfortable. In it, I considered how changes to my risk profile have necessitated changes to my safety profile for backcountry camping. My parents generously gifted me a Garmin inReach Explorer+ for my 37th birthday. This critical piece of camping gear has made me feel much more comfortable with venturing out into the backcountry post-diagnosis. I am also fortunate to be taking a highly effective Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT), which has kept my MS quiet since my diagnosis in 2021. My most recent MRI on January 3, 2025, has come back with those wonderful words: “no new lesions”. Taking Kesimpta is a huge part of adapting my safety profile to manage my new risk profile.

On August 1, 2024, equipped with my Garmin inReach Explorer+, our family set out for a 12-day adventure through Algonquin Provincial Park. We launched from Canoe Lake early in the morning after spending the previous night at a frontcountry camping site on Tea Lake. The lake was smooth as glass as we set out. One of the adaptations that I made in order to manage my new risk profile was to build in at least one rest day after every travel day. This adaptation also made for a more fun trip.

Our first destination was Burnt Island Lake. This is a lake that holds great memories for me and my husband. It was the destination of our first backcountry camping trip together in the early days of our relationship. Josh likes to tell the story of how he “nearly killed me” on this trip. He had lugged out some juice and I took a great big gulp before realizing that it was a fruit punch with pineapple juice in the mix. I’m allergic to pineapple. I broke out in hives and had to bust out the first aid kit for some Claritin and hydrocortisone cream. I don’t have an anaphylactic reaction to pineapple. Consuming it merely results in an uncomfortable hives response. So Josh’s claim that he “nearly killed me” on this trip is a bit of an overstatement. Nonetheless, he never forgot about my pineapple allergy again. On our last long camping trip in Algonquin in 2017, we spent a memorable final night camping on this lake. We’ve also shared it with friends over the years on long weekend trips into the park. It was our son’s first visit to the lake and it was special getting to share the magic of this spot with him. As we paddled across Little Joe Lake on our way out to Burnt Island Lake, we found a large bull moose grazing at the eastern shoreline. Even with camping as much as we do, a bull moose is a rare sight. We paused for a while to watch the majestic creature. We spent two nights at our campsite on Burnt Island Lake. On the first night, after putting our son to bed, we headed down to the rocky point of our site to drink tea and take in the sunset. As we sat taking in the beauty of our surroundings, we saw an animal absolutely booting it across the lake in our direction. At first I thought that it must have been a loon, but as it got closer I realized that it definitely wasn’t a loon, but rather a beaver. The beaver climbed out at the beach on our campsite and spent the next 15-20 minutes foraging for mushrooms. We watched in awe as the beaver had its fill of mushrooms. Our dog, Piper, wasn’t too happy with the visitor on our site. We had to leash her to keep her from confronting the beaver. As the beaver went to leave, it dove down and grabbed a large stick off the bottom of the lake and brought it ashore placing it on the rocky point of our campsite. It seemed as if the beaver was marking the site. A moment later, the beaver was back in the water and gone. The whole incident was surreal and it will go down as one of our most memorable camping experiences. The following day was spent swimming and fishing. We also had a visit from a huge snapping turtle.

This intrepid little forager delighted us on our first night of the trip. I don’t think that I will ever get a more amazing picture of our canoe. Peak Canadiana right here.

Day 3 of our trip was a mammoth travel day. We packed down on Burnt Island Lake and canoed and portaged our way out to Big Trout Lake. We were on the water before 9:30am and didn’t reach our eventual site on Big Trout Lake until almost 7pm. We literally could not have bitten off a bigger day and still made it. On the second portage of the day, Josh took a hard fall with the canoe and sprained his ankle. This added to an already challenging day, as I had to pick up the slack and carry more gear across the 4 remaining portages in an effort to keep as much weight as possible off of Josh’s injured ankle, and Josh had to grin and bear it to carry forward. We weren’t going to make it without him still portaging a sizeable amount of gear and the canoe on his injured ankle. When I heard the canoe bang down, I thought that our trip might be over. I’m proud of Josh that he managed to keep going in the circumstances. We played I Spy and counted frogs to keep the paddling time fun for our, at the time, 4 year-old son. We made it to 104 frogs! We paddled past a cow moose as we travelled along Otterslide Creek. After a shallow section where we had to walk the canoe through an area full of “painted rocks” (the name given to rocks that have had canoes scrape over them, leaving paint behind), a leech found its way into the canoe. It had suctioned itself onto the wall near the bow. Iain was fascinated to see it. After our last portage of the day as we neared the entrance to Big Trout Lake we spotted a beaver swimming ahead of our canoe. Upon our late arrival at our campsite, we immediately got to work making a fire, setting up the tent, cooking dinner, and setting up a pulley to hang the food in a tree. We took a “lake bath” together as a family as the last of the daylight faded away with hues of pink and purple on the horizon. Our son thought that staying up late for night swimming was quite the novelty. Those minutes spent night swimming in Big Trout Lake may well be a core memory for the little dude. Day 4 was a much needed rest day on Big Trout Lake. While swimming in the morning, our son started freaking out that his Dad had been bitten by a leech. It turned out that he had convinced himself that his Dad’s belly button was a leech. He refused to swim anymore. We managed to coax him back into the water later in the day, but the fear of leeches persisted for the rest of the trip and we kept having to talk him into going for a swim. Josh and I stayed up late for a campfire and a wee nip of scotch.

Day 5 started with a wet pack down of camp after some rain overnight. We got a heavy rain on the first portage of the day, but this quickly cleared up into a grey and overcast morning as we paddled Longer Lake. Josh and I have fond memories of belting out Tragically Hip songs at the top of our lungs during our paddle down Longer Lake in the pouring rain during our 2017 Algonquin trip. It seemed fitting to arrive at the start of Longer Lake in rain. Josh managed to push our canoe through the rapids at each of the next two portages, saving us time. We paddled through the absolutely stunning Red Pine Bay on our way to the ultimate destination of our trip, Burntroot Lake. When we were last in Burntroot Lake during our 2017 Algonquin trip, we scored the coveted “Anchor Island” site. As we entered Burntroot Lake, the skies threatened a major rain. We initially thought that we might beat the rain to the campsite we desired, but the cell moved faster than we’d expected and we had to pull off the lake on the nearest campsite as it started to hail. Josh quickly put up a tarp and we huddled underneath trying to keep our son warm as a big storm blew through. Once the thunderstorm had cleared the area, we got back out onto the water, now steaming as the air had cooled, and beelined for the “Anchor Island” site. Unfortunately, we found it occupied. I later learned through the Algonquin Park Backcountry Campers Facebook group that that the site’s occupants had only beaten us there by about 30 minutes. Alas, we had to settle for the other site on “Anchor Island”, the one without the huge old Alligator Anchor for which the island is named. The sun poked out later in the afternoon and we were able to start the process of getting all of the gear that got wet dry again. Day 6 was our 8th wedding anniversary, and we were thrilled to get to spend it in one of our favourite places in the world. We enjoyed the first of two rest days on Burntroot Lake. We took a day trip down to see the Alligator ruins and farm ruins from Barnet Lumber Company’s old logging camp. Alligators were steam powered boats equipped with a winch which allowed them to travel over land between bodies of water. During our previous visit to Burntroot Lake, we had missed seeing the ruins. However, we did visit the Alligator ruins on Catfish Lake during our 2017 Algonquin trip. We spent the rest of the day fishing, catching frogs, swimming, reading, and playing pretend with our son. The long break from screen time had his imagination running wild. We stayed up for a campfire and toasted our wedding anniversary with some scotch. Late in the evening, we sat down by the water to take in the clear starry night. It was so beautiful that I decided to wake our son to show him. I was happy that I did, because two shooting stars streaked across the night sky to his delight. Perhaps another core memory. Day 7 was another leisurely rest day on Burntroot, spent swimming, frogging, and playing with our son.

A slow motion capture of our son enjoying some time spent frogging on Burntroot Lake.

Day 8 brought us into an area of the park that none of us had seen before. We paddled back through Big Trout Lake, this time turning West through the narrows out to White Trout Lake. Big Trout was very big and we encountered a lot of wind and waves, but we were rewarded with stellar views of the big cliff faces and some calmer water once we reached the narrows. We paddled past a few decent looking campsites along the East shore of White Trout Lake, but we decided to hold out to check on an island site a bit farther South. Were we ever happy that we held out. We were rewarded with the nicest site that I have ever seen in Algonquin. It was arguably better than the “Anchor Island” site that we had missed out on. The site had a gravel beach and stairs up from the lake (thanks Rangers!) to a campsite atop a huge rock face. Our son enjoyed “rock climbing” as he scrambled over the massive boulders and rock faces. The site also had a lovely fire pit area with lots of accessible firewood. Day 9 was a rest day at this fantastic campsite. We spent the day fishing, swimming, jumping into the lake from a big boulder, and more “rock climbing”. To our son’s delight, Josh caught a small garter snake in our pot and he was able to spend a few minutes watching it before letting it go.

Enjoying the sunshine and our good jumping rock on White Trout Lake.

Day 10 was our biggest day of portaging. Thankfully, Josh’s ankle was well on its way to healing from his ankle sprain on Day 3. We got an early start in anticipation of a long and hard day, and we were on the water by 8:30am. The paddling portion of the day was really beautiful. The McIntosh Marsh is incredible picturesque, and it’s always fun to paddle down a winding creek (particularly one without a bunch of beaver dams blocking the way). The four long portages between the McIntosh Marsh and Sunbeam Lake were about as challenging as we had expected, but we got through it without anyone getting hurt. We managed to score the “Waterfall” site on Sunbeam Lake. It was fun to get to collect water for filtering from the waterfall. The waterfall is small in August, but you can tell that it is larger in the spring. We spent a rainy rest day on Day 11 reading, playing the “Trails and Streams” game on our son’s camping pad (Mountain Equipment Co-op’s version of snakes and ladders), writing “The 12 Days of Camping” to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas, and building forts and enjoying the campfire during breaks in the rain.

Day 12 was bittersweet. It was time to go home. We had three portages, two long ones and a short one, to navigate before the very familiar trip back from Tom Thompson Lake. When we arrived back at the Canoe Lake Access Point, we went for ice cream, our first cold food in 12 days. We were able to pop in on our friends in Huntsville and their newborn baby on our way back home.

In total, we travelled over 100km, including 24 portages, one beaver dam pullover, and a few walks through low water (including skipping 5 potential portages). It was a pretty incredible adventure.

Getting ready for a 12-day backcountry camping trip is no small feat. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I meticulously planned and prepped our meals. You can’t keep food cold while backcountry camping in the summertime. You also have to carry all of the food that you’re bringing with you over each portage. The lack of cold storage and concern for keeping food weight as low as possible means that, practically speaking, everything needed to either be dehydrated or freeze dried. You can buy dehydrated backpacking meals from Backpacker’s Pantry, AlpineAire, Happy Yak, and Mountain House, to name a few, but these meals are usually expensive and extremely salty. I opt to make our own dehydrated meals so that I can control the cost and the nutritional content. We enjoyed dinners of turkey bolognese over spaghetti, mushroom risotto, a casserole of chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and pasta, turkey tacos, and “backcountry Thanksgiving” (turkey, mashed potatoes, stovetop stuffing, green beans, corn, craisins, and gravy), to name a few. Generally speaking ground turkey and chicken works better for dehydrated meals than other meats because of their low fat content. Fat doesn’t dehydrate well. I learned how to dehydrate eggs for this trip, and that’s a useful little camping trick to have up my sleeve. It feels pretty luxurious to be eating scrambled eggs on Day 11 of a backcountry trip.

One of the unique challenges of this trip was that I was due for my next dose of Kesimpta on August 5th. Kesimpta is the DMT that I take to manage my MS. I debated whether I should just take the dose early on August 1st before setting out on the trip, or bring it with me and maintain my usual schedule. I consulted my nurse through the Kesimpta Go Program (Canada’s version of the Kesimpta Alongside Program). She advised that this was really a matter of personal preference. Taking it a few days early wouldn’t hurt, and keeping it out of the fridge for a few days wouldn’t hurt either. I opted to bring it with me and maintain my usual schedule. According to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Kesimpta website, “If needed, Kesimpta may be stored for up to 7 days at room temperature, up to 86°F (30°C). If stored below 86°F (30°C), unused Kesimpta may be returned to the refrigerator and must be used within the next 7 days. If not used within those 7 days, discard the medicine.” Given that the first few days of August were quite hot and bordering on 30°C, I placed my Sensoready Pen into a sealed plastic bag, soaked a Buff in cool lake water and wrapped the Buff around the Sensoready Pen, and then placed this inside another sealed plastic bag inside our food barrel. I periodically took out the Buff to refresh it with cool lake water. Doing this, I was confident that the medicine never exceeded 30°C. On the morning of August 5th, I did my Kesimpta injection as we packed down our campsite at Big Trout Lake to venture onward to Burntroot Lake. My son helped me with sanitizing the injection site with an alcohol swab and placing a fun Spider-Man band-aid on my leg after the injection.

If facing the decision of whether to move my injection date or bring my medication along with me on a trip again, I would make the same choice. The injection went totally smoothly. I felt that I was able to keep the medication safe without too much effort for the five days leading up to my injection date. This is one of the reasons why I chose Kesimpta when making my decision regarding which of the DMTs offered by my neurologist I would take. It seemed like it was the option that was least disruptive to my life. With an infusion DMT, I would have to plan my life around my infusion schedule. Taking Kesimpta means that I can bring it with me on my adventures and plan my treatment around my life.

All this talk of camping has me craving May long weekend! Apparently, our son is craving camping too, because he’s been suggesting hot tent camping. My MS symptoms are aggravated by cold exposure, so I’m likely to opt out for any winter camping plans that he’d like to make, but he could probably convince Josh to take him hot tent winter camping.

I hope that this post will inspire others living with MS to pursue their passions, even if they seem impossible at first.