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Killarney Boundary Loop, Day 2
This is part 3 of 13 in the series Killarney Boundary Loop, 2016

The next morning was sunny and beautiful, which was a relief after the gloomy rain the day before. I was in a bit of a hurry in the morning since I’d heard that the wind could be a problem on Johnnie and Carlyle Lakes. My worries proved unfounded – other than a stretch where Crooked Lake twists around we had the wind at our backs all morning.  We were heading straight for David Lake, rather than following the boundary of the park to the north east. While the latter route is more true to the ‘boundary’ it seems to me like the detour only serves to lengthen the trip since it leads away from the LaCloche hills that are the centrepiece of Killarney.

It didn’t take us long to see our first cottages as we skirted the edge of the park. We even passed a motorboat where a young couple were fishing, but other than that we only saw other canoes. Johnnie, Carlyle and Crooked lakes are really one large body of water that winds back and forth in the foothills of Silver Peak. There is a small lift-over where Carlyle pinches down to a creek and turns into Johnnie, but the dam is wide and easy to cross. Once we got to Crooked Lake we were rewarded with more of the scenery that Killarney is famous for. Silver Peak loomed in the distance and the shadows of the clouds above chased themselves across the green hills.

Setting Out

I was trying to navigate with the paper map and only use the GPSr for tracking and emergencies which is why I made the mistake. I had the canoe on my shoulders and had gone a significant distance down the portage to what I thought was Log Boom Lake when I realized that it was seeming a little long. It was only supposed to be 100m, and it felt like I’d already gone further. I checked the GPSr (with the canoe still over my head) and realized that we were on the portage to Clearsilver Lake.

This left us with a decision to make. Both portages would get us to David Lake, but the Clearsilver route required more carrying and less paddling. Then again we were already about 100 – 200m in, and it had been a bit of work to unload because the trail had a steep start. When Xander caught up with me we discussed it and decided to go back and try the easy way.

After paddling around the point and carrying the canoe over the much shorter portage that leads to a small pond I was taking a break before returning for our gear when I saw what looked like a large dog on the far side of the pond. There’s another portage on that side of the pond before we’d get to Log Boom Lake, and I started looking for the dogs owner. But there was nobody there, and the dog was moving in a decidedly undoglike manner. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t a dog, but a small bear.

Black bears aren’t particularly aggressive, but the two times they can be a problem is if you have a messy campsite, or when a mother is protecting her cubs. Even though the bear was on the far side of the pond I immediately began searching for the rest of the family. Fortunately for us this cub seemed to be out on his own. We made some noise before paddling across the pond to scare him off, and there was no sign of him by the time we got to the far side.

There’s an old logging trailer on the short portage from Log Boom Lake to get to the tip of Bell Lake, and then a longer 700m portage to travel up David Creek to where it becomes navigable. This is a pretty area and I really enjoyed the scenery as we got to the the navigable part of David Creek. The water winds around a bit at this point and it was fun trying to figure out where we were and which way to go using just the paper map. At the end of this section the takeout is an exposed rock face that leads past a small waterfall. It get’s a bit mucky at the end near David Lake, but there are boards on the trail to make it easier.

I’ve always been a bit hesitant about camping on David Lake because I know that there are several cottages there, but other than seeing the odd building between the trees it was quite peaceful. We did have to paddle a few kilometres before we found an available campsite, and it wasn’t as nice as some of the ones we passed on the way in, but it was still a fine place to spend the night.

If I was still wondering if we had too much food I got my confirmation that night. Not only was it hard to get dinner and lunch down once again, but I broke a branch hanging the bear bag. Setting up the hang is always one of the first things I do when we get to a site so I can see what I’m doing before it gets dark. The night before on Carlyle Lake I’d found a nice branch at the right height. It groaned under the weight, but it held. This time I couldn’t find anything strong enough for our food but not strong enough for a bear, so I strung a rope between two trees and set up a pulley to haul the food bag up.

It was late by the time we were done eating and when I heaved on the rope to pull the bag up there was a loud crack and a branch came crashing down. It was too dark and too late to set up another complicated hang. We searched around for a while in the dark looking for another good candidate, but in the end I just hoisted the bag up into one of the two trees that still held the rope I’d strung earlier. The bag was hanging right against the trunk of the tree, and I’m sure a bear would have been very pleased to find such a convenient treat. I went to bed feeling a bit discouraged, and worried about what might happen to a delinquent bear that found our bag.

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Killarney Boundary Loop, Day 1
This is part 2 of 13 in the series Killarney Boundary Loop, 2016

We set out from George Lake on a pretty grey day. There were a fair amount of people at the George Lake campground, many of them getting ready for canoe trips of their own, everything from day trips to those circumnavigating the entire park. Despite the gloomy weather it was pretty exciting to be setting out, so we kept our spirits up. We passed several other canoeists on George Lake, and then a few more on the short but pretty portage to Freeland Lake, but after that we were on our own until we got to Carlyle Lake.

George is a beautiful lake, and a great introduction to the park. Large white quartzite cliffs meet pink granite in an epic display of geology. Freeland, atypical of Killarney, is teeming with life, marshy, and devoid of spectacular rock forms. It’s still a very pretty lake, and it lead us to our first challenge of the trip.

At the far end of Freeland is a creek that winds it’s way to Kakakise Lake. When the water is low this creek isn’t navigable, so there’s a 1700m portage to bypass it. It had been a pretty dry summer so I checked with park staff before we headed out and was assured that the creek was passable. I’d never travelled this way before, so I didn’t know what to expect, and I was a bit worried that perhaps we’d been led astray. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but it also didn’t seem like anyone had come this way in a while. If we were going the wrong way turning around and heading back would be a lot of work. The creek is littered with small beaver dams. We were travelling against the current, so each one meant a lift over where we were hauling the canoe uphill. None of them were very tall, except perhaps the last one we encountered. This led us into a pretty little marsh that wound past a large rock on the left. After that our last lift-over was where the bridge for the Silhouette Trail crosses the creek.

Paddling across Kakakise was a bit of a relief after winding through the creek. I’ve hiked past Kakakise a few times, but I’ve never paddled it. I must admit I’ve never been particularly enchanted by the lake, but I’ve only seen one end. It is nicer as you proceed east.

It took us a little while to find the 860m portage to Carlyle Lake. This was our only portage of any significance of the day, and was our heaviest portage of the trip since we hadn’t eaten any food yet. It’s a bit steep at the takeout, but after that it’s pretty flat. There’s a fairly extensive boardwalk along part of the portage where it must get muddy at times. It had started to spit lightly while we were on Kakakise, but I had a canoe hat to keep me dry before the rain got heavy. By the time we were paddling on Carlyle Lake the rain had slowed down again.

There’s a very interesting looking campsite on the tiny ridge that separates Carlyle and Terry Lakes. A waterfall runs through it as Terry empties into Carlyle. Unfortunately this site was occupied so we took the one directly across the bay. I didn’t want to press on too far into Carlyle since it’s an access lake and I knew we’d start to see cottages if we continued. We could hear the waterfall at the other campsite gurgling away all night long.

The rain was off and on so we set our tarp up over the fire pit. This gave us a place to sit while we ate, and then after dinner we had a small fire under the tarp. The previous tenants had left us plenty of firewood so we didn’t have to go looking in the dark.

It was at dinner that I had the first hint that we may have brought to much food. Alex hadn’t eaten his ration of GORP and Cliff Bars yet, so he had to eat two meals at once, and it was obviously difficult getting them both down. I was hoping that it was only because we’d had such a large breakfast that morning. We had almost fifty pounds of food, and what we didn’t eat we’d have to carry on the long difficult portages in the middle of the trip.

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Killarney Boundary Loop
This is part 1 of 13 in the series Killarney Boundary Loop, 2016

I’ve wanted to attempt the Killarney Boundary Loop since I first read about it. In his guide book Kevin Callan calls it “the essence of Killarney” and “the ultimate Killarney trip”. He also warns that it’s an extremely difficult trip, not to be taken on by the novice. Perhaps I took his warning a little too seriously because I spent over five years slowly extending the length of my trips in Killarney before attempting the loop. But I finally got to where I thought I was ready for the longest and most difficult canoe trip that I’ve attempted.

Our camping trip last year didn’t fell through due to an unfortunate intrusion of the realities of the outside world. This year I was a bit worried that the same thing would happen again and didn’t set about booking until the last minute. (Booking a canoe trip in Killarney at the ‘last minute’ means five months to the minute before the first day of your trip. That’s the earliest that you’re allowed to book).  The first day I tried to book everything was already filled up. When booking a trip this long it’s usually easy after the first few days, but getting those first days sorted out you have to compete with all of the campers doing weekend trips. I waited for the next morning, woke up early and tried again. This time we managed to get every lake we wanted, even if starting on a Saturday meant I had to take an extra day off work to drive to Sudbury and it was a bit later in the season that I had hoped. Late season camping trips are great for not having any bugs, but it can be a bit cold, particularly when you sleep in a hammock.