Posted on

Algonquin Park Lookout Trail

Mike and I were in the park for a day hike on the Mizzy Lake Trail, and I lobbied to hike the Lookout Trail as a warmup for two reasons. First, the Mizzy Lake trail is a decent length, but it’s kind of flat. The Lookout Trail looked like it would give us a bit of wow factor without taking too long. The second reason is there’s no geocache on the Mizzy Lake trail.

When we got our permit they informed us that the parking for Lookout wasn’t plowed, so we’d have to park at the Big Pines parking lot. This meant we had to climb a bit of the hill, but it was still a far cry from having to climb all the way up from the bottom. There was an outfitter setting up four teams of sled dogs in the parking lot, and as we pulled in they all started to howl. Pretty cool.

It was a short but uninspiring walk along the highway and up the hill to the Lookout trailhead, and then we had a much nicer walk on the trails in the bush. It isn’t really a difficult trail, but I was soon breathing hard and had to pull off a layer before we got to the top. The view was as spectacular as expected, and because it was such a clear day we could see for a long way. We sat on the bench taking it in for a while before proceeding along the edge to the geocache.

I found the cache rather quickly which was a bit of a relief because there was still enough snow that finding the cache was a bit dicey. I think the only time I put my gloves on the whole day was while I was brushing snow off of cache hiding spots.

I must admit that while they both have their charms I preferred this trail to the Mizzy Lake trail. Not just because of the rewards of the view and the geocache, it’s just a nicer hike. Despite being shorter it’s a rugged trail, whereas most of the Mizzy Lake trail is just an abandoned railway.

Posted on

Mizzy Lake Trail

Story

Located just down the highway from the Canoe Lake access point and heading into the bush in the general direction of the Arrowhon Pines Resort, the Mizzy Lake trail isn’t in the most remote part of Algonquin Park. On the other hand, at twelve kilometres in length it’s one of the longer trails accessible from the highway 60 corridor, and the theme of the interpretative guide is wildlife viewing so it makes a good day hike destination.

The trail typically takes four to five hours to complete, so we left Stouffville at six AM. The weather forecast was calling for clear blue skies, but the sudden change in the temperature had blocked the sky as the snow sublimated to fog. The fog hung in for most of the two and half hour drive before it burned off quite suddenly just as we entered the park. We were greeted to some spectacular views of the last tendrils of mist clinging to the hills around the lakes.

There were some delays stopping at Algonquin Outfitters to get some snowshoes and picking up our permit at the park gate, and then we had a warm up hike on the short but scenic lookout trail, so we didn’t get onto the Mizzy Lake Trail until a little after one.

Mizzy Lake Section

The first section of trail is in moderately easy terrain but rugged. The rolling hills of Algonquin provide a nice backdrop to the many small lakes, ponds and marshes that the trail cuts through. There are boardwalks and bridges wherever the trail crosses the water, and these are more than adequate for keeping feet dry in the winter, but I’ve heard that some sections can be muddy in the spring and summer. The trail had seen enough recent traffic that the snow was well packed down. Snowshoes weren’t mandatory but they did help with traction in several places.

I had been wondering if the ‘wilderness’ aspect of the trail was just a theme for the trail guide, or if we’d actually get a chance to encounter some wildlife. After all we were bounded by the highway to the south, Arrowhon road to the west, the rail trail to the east and Arrowhon Pines itself was to the north.

We didn’t encounter any large animals, but not long after we passed Mizzy Lake we did make an interesting discovery. I was looking at the ground in front of me when I realized that some of the tracks weren’t human. Deer tracks are quite common near trails, but a brief inspection revealed that these belonged to a moose that had followed the trail quite recently. We had missed where the moose got onto the trail, but after following the tracks for a few hundred meters we saw where it left. This was the first of several sets of moose tracks we encountered and at once point we saw some coarse black hair that had been shed.

Rail Trail Section

Not long after Mizzy Lake the trail merges with the bed of an old rail line. Rail trails can be notoriously dull, but this one is fairly nice even if the terrain isn’t particularly rugged. The rail line cuts right across several small ponds on earthen dikes. While the intrusion of the trail on the ponds is a bit unsightly it did give us some great opportunities to see animal tracks on the ice. There were a surprising number of tracks considering how close we were to such a heavily trafficked trail, and we spent some time discussing the various creatures that must have made them.

It was on the rail trail section that we had our most interesting encounter. A pair of very bold and plump grey jays landed in a tree nearby and started chattering at us. We were quite surprised by how close they approached, and while snapping some photos Mike noticed that they had both been tagged with several rings around their ankles. I didn’t realize that grey jays had such a reputation for boldness and figured that the birds were used to human contact because of the tagging.

We left the birds behind, but they caught up to us again on Wolf Howl Pond while we were having a snack. The birds were nattering at me so I held out a handful of trail mix and was quite surprised when one of the jays flew over and landed on my fingers to sample my GORP. Far from being ‘wild’ the birds were quite tame! If only the moose had been so forthcoming.

We took several pictures of the birds landing on our hands before we pressed on, and they followed us to the next section of trail before they realized we weren’t giving out any more handouts.

Bear Nests

There’s a side trail that heads into a beech tree grove where bears frequently climb the trees to get at the beech nuts. As the bears climb they break small branches causing them to be packed together and form ‘nests’. Unfortunately when we got to the side trail there was a note posted by park staff explaining that there were currently no bear nests so we decided to forego the side excursion and keep to the main trail.

Return Section

After Wolf Howl Pond the trail leaves the rail bed and returns to the bush.  This section of trail is much more close and interesting and slightly more challenging than the Mizzy Lake section. The scenery is classic Canadian Shield, lots of rocks and trees interspersed by small ponds and lakes. This is the longest section of trail, and the most interesting and scenic, but there’s not much to say about our return hike through this pleasant area.

The sun was starting to set by the time we got to Dizzy Lake, and we had just enough light to make it back to the parking lot before dusk.

Tips

  • You’ll need to obtain a permit at the park gate in order to park at the trailhead.
  • Snowshoes can be rented from Algonquin Outfitters on Oxtongue Lake.
  • The trail is long enough that you have to ensure you have time to complete it before the end of the day.
  • The trail is fairly busy. We met three other hikers on our walk. In the winter this increases the chances that the snow is packed down, but it probably also reduces the chances of seeing wildlife.
  • Some sections of the trail are reportedly muddy in the warmer seasons.
Posted on

Barron Canyon

I’ve heard it said that Algonquin Park has a subtle beauty. I’m more accustomed to the dramatic shores of Georgian Bay, so for my first visit to Algonquin I opted to visit the Barron Canyon. The Barron Canyon was formed at the end of the last ice age as glacial Lake Aggasiz drained through the Barron River. During a period of just a few hundred years a volume of water reportedly greater than 1,000 Niagra Falls roared down the river and enlarged an ancient fault into the 100m deep canyon we see today.

I decided to follow the loop described by Kevin Callan in “A Paddler’s Guide To Ontario”. Kevin’s enthusiastic description described a spectacular place to visit, and his trip advice made it seem like an easy trip to take with the family, especially since we’d have some novice paddler’s with us.

After some feedback based on last years trip I was planning to make camp once and visit the canyon as a day trip rather than breaking camp each night. I was a bit late in booking the trip (only three months in advance) which meant I didn’t get the site that I wanted on Opalescent Lake, and we were only able to get two nights on High Falls Lake. While the trip is possible in three days I had hoped to stretch it out to give us some time to relax.

Saturday

It was a long hot drive to the park on Saturday. We were drenched in sweat by the time we picked up our second canoe from the outfitters, and we didn’t enter the park until after the Sand Lake Gate had closed. Fortunately we were able to purchase a permit at the Achray campground the next morning without having to drive all the way back out of the park.

We spent Saturday night in a jump off site at Achray. I’d heard that the jump off sites were pretty dismal, so I was pleasantly surprised by what we found. While not nearly as nice as a backcountry site it was more than adequate for our purposes. When I stepped out of the car I was startled to notice that a deer was watching me from just a few meters away. She bolted back into the trees the moment I spoke.

Sunday

As predicted the weather on Sunday was less than ideal for starting a canoe trip. The sky was grey, and there was a very strong wind on Grand Lake. Despite having camped nearby we were off to a late start, and fighting the wind turned the 1.7 Km paddle across Grand Lake into an hour long ordeal. On the way back in much calmer conditions it only took us 25 minutes.

We meandered back and forth in the lead canoe as we debated how to best handle the strong winds. After a brief management crisis (one canoe, two captains) we turned broadside to attack the winds closer to shore. Once done there was no turning back — the wind was so strong we couldn’t push the bow back into the wind until we had reached the beach on the far side of the bay.

The wind died immediately once we turned the corner and entered the channel to Stratton Lake, but a light rain started as we unloaded for the short portage around the dam. Algonquin had just suffered three weeks of drought, and water levels were low, so we had to navigate the channel from the dam to Stratton Lake carefully to avoid rocks.

Stratton is a long narrow lake known for high winds, but fortunately for us it was relatively calm, and by the time we reached the other side the rain had stopped. We had some difficulty locating the portage from Stratton to St Andrews Lake because it is accessed from a short marsh and the sign isn’t visible from the main body of water. By trusting the map and the GPS we zeroed in on the right spot.

The stream through the marsh was easy to navigate, but a line of rocks and submerged logs near the portage blocked our passage and we had to get out of our canoes to lift them over the obstacles. Some careful footwork was required to avoid falling into the muck that lines the shore.

St Andrews is a small, but very pretty lake, flanked by tall cliffs. The portage to St Andrews Lake is very short, but by the time we’d crossed and stopped for a snack the sun was out and we saw some people enjoying the change in the weather, fishing and paddling about.

Kevin Callan recommends making a base camp on St Andrews Lake and then doing the trip to the canyon as a day trip. While the portage from St Andrews to High Falls isn’t long by Algonquin standards, avoiding having to carry all of our gear one more lake was certainly appealing. Still I wanted to reduce the distance to travel the second day so we had booked a site on High Falls Lake.

It was getting late in the day, and we did most of the portage as a single carry. The 550m trail is mostly flat, but near the end it gets steep and rocky, and then the last few meters drop almost vertically down to the water. I put down the canoe where the trail got nasty and carried the pack separately for the last 100m.

There are only two active sites on High Falls Lake, and one was already taken, so it didn’t take us long at all to decided where to settle in. The site that was left is quite large and open, and afforded us an excellent view of the small chain of islands in the middle of the lake. The only downside to the site was the lack of good swimming opportunities.

Monday

None of us are morning people, and so despite planning a quick breakfast of oatmeal we were slow to get moving for our day trip to the canyon on Monday — we didn’t hit the water until almost noon. It was a beautiful sunny day, which I had hoped would highlight the scenery at our destination.

We decided to do the full loop as recommended by the guidebook since it seemed like it might be easier to follow the west trail out of High Falls Lake and the east trail back in. Perhaps it was, but combined with our late start it proved the undoing of our trip for the day.

None of the several short portages on the west trail was particularly difficult, but the low water levels slowed us down at each put-in/take-out point, and we made rather slow progress. It didn’t help that the printed topo map, the GPS topo map and The Official Canoe Routes Map of Algonquin Park couldn’t seem to agree on the location or even number of the portages we would encounter.

We did make it to the north end of the section of the Barron River referred to as “The Cascades” on the maps, but we had a silly error in communication on the Brigham Lake portage. I arrived at the end of the portage first, and after catching my breath realized that the other canoe hadn’t shown up yet. There was a fork in the trail at the halfway point, with two signs. One path led along the canyon floor, while the other headed up the hill to the parking lot. I had stopped with the canoe on my head to read them both carefully before proceeding, and they were a bit confusing so I was worried that perhaps Alex had taken the other canoe up the hill.

I ran back and there was nobody near the fork, but when I called out there was an answering yell from up above. Alex was about half way up the steep hill to the parking lot. At his mother’s urging he had taken the wrong trail and gone up the hill.

After the confusion at the portage we were able to enjoy a nice paddle downriver flanked by the foothills of the Barron Canyon. There was a small lift over at the end of Brigham Lake, and then a short 100m portage before the last carry that would take us to the canyon proper. But as we stood at the head of the last 440m portage I realized that it had taken us far longer to get there than anticipated. It was already 4:30 and it had taken us almost five hours to get that far. If we didn’t head back very soon we wouldn’t be able to make our campsite before dusk, and none of the portages were the kind of trip that were advisable in the dark.

I was torn, since the canyon had been the destination for the whole trip, and here I was contemplating turning back while less than a half kilometre away. We held a vote, and while nobody was very enthusiastic we decided to turn back to Brigham Lake and take the eastern chain of shorter portages back to our campsite. It took us almost three hours to complete the trip, and we arrived at camp at 7:30 with just an hour of daylight left to make dinner and complete our chores.

The portage from Brigham to Opalescent Lake was the longest of the trip at 750m, but wasn’t as hard as I feared. It starts with a slow but steady rise, but after a quick drop it was pretty easy going. Opalescent Lake is quite pretty and we saw a beaver as we pumped water to sustain us for the last leg. The 640m portage from Opalescent to Ooze was a bit tougher. While there isn’t a lot of elevation change it’s littered with large rocks that make walking difficult, particularly with a canoe on your shoulders.

Ooze Lake lived up to it’s name, and two of us got slimy soakers when our feet sank deep into the black muck as we tried to manoeuvre our canoes away from shore.

The last portage of the day was anticlimactic, even though the trail kept skirting the edge of the lake tantalizingly without seeming to get to the water. We finally found ourselves at the same trailhead we had started from that morning, and after a short paddle were back at our campsite. We eased the pain (and the sorrow) of the day with copious amounts of rum.

Tuesday

The last day of our trip saw us up late, as usual. The sky was grey and it kept raining on and off. We huddled under our tarp while we prepared a pancake breakfast before breaking camp and heading out. The rain stopped before we broke camp, and the sun even peeked out briefly. We saw several groups of paddlers pass through our little lake on their way to their destinations while we ate.

Before leaving we took the opportunity to explore. High Falls Lake is named for High Falls, a popular swimming spot with a natural water slide. I had assumed that High Falls was the small chute next to the portage into the lake that we could hear running all night. Like all of the other water courses we encountered it was significantly diminished, but there was no sign of a water slide. It turns out that there are two channels that feed High Falls Lake, and the eponymous falls are located on the one that we didn’t explore.

It was surprisingly late when we finished taking pictures of the falls, and when we returned to our canoe there were very dark thunderheads to the north. Despite the fact that we had to hurry to avoid the weather we did the portage as a double carry this time, partly because we were exhausted, and partly because one of our packs had a broken strap.

We had just arrived at St Andrews Lake when the skies opened up and it began to rain quite heavily. After a few minutes of standing under a tree we decided to set up the tarp which seemed quite effective at promptly putting an end to the rain.

The cool air had left the warm lake steaming, and we had a lovely paddle across St Andrews Lake in the mist. We were quite surprised when a bush plane, complete with canoe strapped to a float, took off from nearby Stratton Lake and flew almost directly overhead as we neared the portage.

When we reached the end of the portage the sky had turned grey again and we could hear some ominous rumblings from the clouds. The rain started again and so once more we set up the tarp. We started counting the time between rumbles hoping that it would soon be safe enough to go on the water. We held another vote on whether or not we should proceed, and this time I insisted that we have a consensus before we left.

After over an hour of waiting we decided to chance it. We downed the last of the rum straight up for courage and loaded the canoes again. No sooner had we put the canoes in the water, and cleared the rocks and logs that obstructed the channel, than we saw a huge fork of lightning light up the whole sky in front of us.

We decided to press on to the end of the marsh and take shelter at the campsite at the southeast end of the lake near the mouth of the channel, hoping that it was unoccupied. We saw several more lightning bolts before we covered the short distance to the lake, and the bush plane buzzed us once more.

When we reached the wide open expanse of Stratton Lake we could see the dark clouds coming our way. The campsite was occupied, and we asked the couple who were camped there if they knew of a place we could weather out the storm, hoping that they’d get the hint. At first they played dumb and tried to convince us that we’d be fine, but when another huge fork of lightning lit up the sky behind where we were floating just off their beach they invited us ashore and offered to let us stay the night and have some of their food if necessary.

We just pulled the canoes on shore at first, but we could soon see sheets of rain obscuring the far end of the lake. We quickly pulled our gear under their tarp and flipped the canoes over just minutes before a deluge of biblical proportions swept over the beach.

It took about twenty minutes for the rain to run out, but when it did the clouds parted and we saw a beautiful sunset through the gap. We decided to continue back to the campground rather than camp out for another night on Stratton Lake even though it was 9PM. The last portage would be easy to cross in the dark and as long as the weather held we would be fine.

The dusk continued to fade as we paddled across the long lake until it was completely dark save for the light of the stars above. There were clouds on the horizon, but the sky overhead was completely clear. The lake was utterly calm, and paddling the canoe across the still water was like gliding across a black mirror. Occasionally we spotted flashlights from the campsites on shore, and at one point we were surrounded by a family of loons calling to each other. A beaver swam with us for a while. We could barely see him, but every few minutes we’d hear him slap his tail loudly on the water as he dove. We saw several shooting stars, including one that was large enough that we could see the ragged shape of the fireball and the edges of the yellow flame were tinged with red.

It was so black that we had to rely on the GPSr to navigate. At one point we realized that we were following the wrong shore of the lake and had to switch sides. We could spot rocks and logs jutting above the surface, but Stratton is littered with rocks and deadheads just below the waterline, and we grounded out on a few of those. When we got to the rocky channel to Grand Lake we pulled out the flashlights to scan the bottom and used the GPSr to retrace our path from the previous day.

The portage around the dam was accomplished quite easily with flashlights, and then we turned them all off for a few minutes to look at the stars and the milky way. We navigated the last channel in the dark with only a few errors, and then we could see the distant lights of Achray to guide us back. There were some ominous flashes on the horizon from distant lightning, but the sky overhead was clear and the flashes we saw were so far away that we couldn’t even hear the thunder so we pressed on.

Conclusion

Once we reached the beach we had to pack the car, change our wet clothes, and tie both canoes on the roof. It was after 1AM when we made it to the outfitters where we returned the canoe by lowering it over the fence with a rope. It was so late that we couldn’t find a gas station, and eventually had to park at a closed station on highway 7 waiting for them to open. It only took half an hour before we could fill the tank and continue on, but by the end of the 8 hour trip we were exhausted.

I had a hard time dealing with our failure to actually see the Barron Canyon. It was after all the destination of the trip, and I was a frankly devastated that we had to turn back. I didn’t want to sour the trip with my disappointment, and I didn’t want to think “It was nice but…” every time I remembered the trip. There was much to appreciate about our experience and I didn’t want to lose sight of that.

We enjoyed each other’s company, we challenged ourselves dealing not only with the portages but with the weather, and we saw some great scenery. The entire area we travelled was shaped by the same colossal forces that formed the Barron Canyon itself, and they show the scars in the form of some very tortured and beautiful terrain.

In the end I realized that being disappointed in not attaining our goal wasn’t incompatible with enjoying everything else the trip had to offer.

Tips

  • Don’t underestimate the time it takes to complete the Barron Canyon loop. It’s not very far on the map, but lots of small portages can slow you down, particularly when water levels are low. Best to leave early in the day.
  • Consider a through trip where you take out at the Squirrel Rapids or put in at Brigham Lake if you absolutely want to see the Canyon.
Posted on

Catfish Lake Misadventure

The northern entrances to Algonquin Provincial Park are less accessible than those along the highway 60 corridor. This makes them a much longer drive from the densely populated areas of Southern Ontario, but it also decreases the number of people that are encountered on a trip through this part of the park. I wanted to plan a longer canoe trip than I’ve attempted in the past, and travel further than I had before, so the northern part of the park seemed like an ideal starting point. I decided to tear yet another page out of Kevin Callan’s “A Paddler’s Guide” series of books and attempt the Hogan Lake Loop leaving from the Brent access point. I added a couple of down days to make the trip more enjoyable and give us some time to explore.

Day 1: Arrival

We spent the first night at the Brent campground to have time to settle our canoe rental and get an early start. Brent is an abandoned railway town populated by a small but eclectic group of people left after the rails were pulled up. It is also home to a very active black fly population.

Complaining about the bugs while on a camping trip to Algonquin Park is a bit like visiting the South Pole and complaining about the cold, but I have to say something because I was so shocked by their ferocity. I had been lulled into a false sense of security after the dry summer we had last year, and reports from a co-worker that bug season would be over in the park by July 1st. Of course his report was based on the aberrant weather from last summer as well. This year the bugs were still going strong when we arrived. It was mostly black flies in the town of Brent, and hordes of mosquitoes in the woods. About the fifth or sixth day of our trip it was as if a switch was thrown and the park realized that summer had started. Overnight the berries on the bushes started to turn from green to blue and the bugs eased off considerably.

The most surprising thing about the bugs was how active they were in the daytime. I’m used to having to take cover at night, but usually the sun chases the parasites away. The locals in Brent have achieved a Zen like peace with the bugs, and can placidly ignore them even when in the midst of a swarm. They gave us odd looks as we waved our arms and swatted vainly at the flying pests.

I had been following Kevin Callan’s progress on his twenty day tour of the park using his satellite beacon, and by some strange coincidence Ontario’s most enthusiastic paddling advocate had arrived in Brent hours ahead of us. He was apparently relaxing by the dock at the outfitters, but we didn’t see him. Kevin has been a fixture on many of my canoe trips thanks to his guides, and we’ve thrown many a colourful phrase in his direction in the heat of the moment. It would have been fun to meet him and Andy in Brent, but they were on vacation as well so we didn’t seek them out and disturb their trip.

Obtaining firewood in Brent is a bit tricky, but once we found the ranger he sorted us out with some dry wood and kindling to make a bit of ‘smudge’ as proof against the flies and cook our dinner. Smudge or not we ate inside of our bug shelter and fled into our tents as soon as the sun was down.

Day 2: I Lost My Thrill On Unicorn Hill

We had hoped to get an early start our first day to beat potential winds on Cedar Lake. 11AM is early for us, but not particularly good for beating the weather, so we were lucky that the wind wasn’t up. The first day of the trip from Cedar Lake to Catfish Lake is the hardest, dominated by the 2.3Km portage around the Stacks Rapids. The high point of the portage is labelled “Unicorn Hill” on our map, and marks the peak of the climb along the banks of the Petawawa River as it drops into Cedar Lake.

When we got to the first portage I tried to pick up the canoe while wearing my pack just to see if I could handle both. While I had no intention of doing single carries for all portages, I had a heavier pack than I’ve ever carried, and was wondering if I could even lift both. The canoe went flying when I tried to pick it up as if it had hit a barrier. I tried again, and it bounced off again. I finally realized that my canoe pack was so overloaded and the top was sticking up so high that there was no room for the canoe on my shoulders. Probably for the best.

There’s a lookout part way along the portage that let’s you see a pretty waterfall where the river drops most of the distance down to Cedar Lake. The rest of the length of the portage parallels an impressive rapids. One of the advantages of travelling upstream is that you can scout out the take out points and the rapids before putting the canoe in the water which reduces the risk of being accidentally swept into white water.

The second portage is much shorter than the first, but it climbs over an even more impressive (and beautiful) water fall. The falls are visible from the take-out point for the portage. Several day trippers had left their canoes at the take-out blocking the portage while they walked to the other end, so we had some difficulty unloading our packs, but after that it was a fairly easy walk to the top. When you put in at the top of the falls it’s essential that you turn right and not left!

After an easy paddle up the river we came to the Stacks Rapids and the big portage of the day. The portage is a fairly easy trail and isn’t particularly rugged, but it heads steadily uphill for about a kilometre before dropping slightly for the second half. It wanders pretty far into the bush so there’s very little view of the rapids as you ascend, which is a shame, because they’re quite impressive looking.

We didn’t want to get too spread out, so we decided to do short stages to break up the length. My pack wasn’t the only one that was overloaded, and when we stopped for our first break I took Sherri’s pack after going back for the canoe. Each time I thought I was near the top of the hill I’d turn another corner and it would get steeper. I lost count of my trips back and forth (and forgot my GPSr for one short trip back) but I must have covered most portions of the portage five times, which lengthened it to almost 10Km!

I was winded by the time I got both packs and the canoe to the peak, but it was as I went down the other side that I began to feel an unfamiliar grinding in my right hip. Even though we were coming down the hill now I needed almost as many rest stops as on the way up, and my hip was getting worse as I went. I was fine while carrying the canoe, but my pack was obviously too heavy. Sherri took her pack back for part of the way down which provided some relief, but it was definitely not easy going.

Bunny squeak toy

At one point we stopped for a breather and Sherri stepped off the trail. We heard a loud squealing like a dog’s chew toy. Sherri jumped, and a tiny little rabbit hopped out of the branches she was standing on and ran across the trail. The poor thing was terrified, but appeared unharmed despite having been stepped on.

Like all portages this one eventually ended. The bugs were so bad on the portage that I had been wearing a long sleeved shirt intended for cool nights around the campfire and not the heat of the day. We each had a cloud of mosquitoes circling our heads, so we didn’t stop to rest when we got the end, we just paddled across a pool in the river and then enjoyed a mercifully short 170m portage to Narrowbag Lake. The Narrowbag portage is a bit steep, but otherwise easy, and the hill is crowned with the remains of an old rail line, now just a trail.

Narrowbag was our first chance to relax after the big portage and get out of the bugs. The sun had finally come out, and it was turning into a nice day. I spotted an odd looking bird on a rock as we paddled around a bend in the lake. I was trying to figure out what kind of bird it was when Xander exclaimed, “Look, a moose!”. What I had thought was a bird was the head of the moose and I mistook his body for a rock. The moose was grazing in the reeds of the marsh and was quite comfortable with us paddling fairly close for a good look.

Getting excited about a moose sighting in Algonquin is almost as silly as complaining about the mosquitoes, but despite numerous backcountry canoe trips and hikes I’ve never met a moose in the wild, so I had really been hoping that we’d do so on this trip. We took several pictures of the moose and she didn’t wander off until after we had turned around and paddled away.

The far end of Narrowbag Lake has a very short portage around a small swift that contains the remains of an old log chute. When we pushed the second canoe into the water we were going across the current and the flow hitting us broadside made it hard to turn. By the time we had ourselves perpendicular to the flow we were on the far side of the stream and had been pushed right to the top of the chute. Despite our paddling we were still slipping back slowly so I yelled out “Harder!” and we finally broke free after giving it the last of our energy.

The batteries in my GPSr died as we paddled down the north end of Catfish Lake. I knew that there was an island campsite nearby, but I wasn’t sure which island. We were close enough that I didn’t bother to dig the batteries or the map out of my pack, and we found the site easily enough.

We were so tired after the day of portaging that I was considering not gathering wood for a fire, but then I remembered that our first night’s dinner was frozen steak which would cook much better over a fire than on the stove. I needn’t have worried. Not only did the island have a large pile of firewood ready for us, we realized that we’d forgotten all of our frozen food in the car when we packed that morning! This was a bit of a blow because we were missing two dinners and part of one breakfast. We considered cutting the trip short, but managed to make do by cannibalizing other meals. If anything we still had a bit more food than we needed, but by the end of the trip we only had a small emergency supply thanks to some hearty eating.

Our island campsite wasn’t nearly as buggy as the woods surrounding the portages, but we definitely needed to scurry into our tents after sunset, and there were times during the day where the bugs would drive us into the shelter for our meals. But by the end of the trip we were getting used to cooking, eating and reading while mosquitoes and black flies swarmed all around us.

Day 3: The Alligator

We were pretty exhausted and very sore on Canada Day so we didn’t move very quickly. We decided to postpone the easy trip to Burntroot Lake and take our down day on Catfish instead to recover.

There’s an abandoned Alligator Tug on an island at the north end of Catfish Lake, right next to the island where we were camped making it an easy excursion for a tired day. An Alligator is a highly improbable steam powered boat equipped with a donkey (winch). The Alligator’s purpose was to tow logging booms across remote lakes. The feature that elevates the donkey from being merely a quaint antique to blissful ridiculousness in my mind is it’s ability to winch itself across the land using it’s donkey. Essentially it was an amphibious vehicle with an incredibly inefficient means of overland locomotion. The Alligator was one of the few powered vehicles of its era smaller than a locomotive that could reach the remote lakes of the Canadian north.

We had been cautioned that the Alligator on Catfish Lake wasn’t nearly as well preserved as the one on Burntroot Lake, so I was relieved to discover that even though all of the wood structure has rotted away, most of the mechanical components appear to be intact. One of my other hobbies is machining and I have a fondness for steam technology, so I was more interested in the ‘naked’ Alligator than the wooden superstructure anyway. I’m still disappointed that we didn’t get to see the more complete Alligator on Burntroot Lake, but I really enjoyed taking pictures of the mechanical works of the one on Catfish and trying to reconstruct it mentally.

Days 4 – 7: Exploring Catfish

We spent the remainder of our days on Catfish Lake exploring. We visited Turtle Rock where natives used to worship, and searched for the remains of an old Ranger Cabin on the shore near our campsite (we couldn’t find the cabin remains, it’s apparently very hard to spot). We paddled to the south end of the lake where the portage around the Catfish Rapids begins the trip to Burntroot and we headed part way up the winding channel through the reeds that leads to Sunfish Lake and the portage to Hogan Lake. The passage between Sunfish and Catfish Lakes was the only reason we attempted this trip so early in the season. Normally I would have scheduled later to avoid the bugs, but the channel gets clogged with vegetation later in the summer and I didn’t want to risk it being blocked.

We saw another moose while paddling the marshy channel to Lynx Lake, but she was shier than the one we encountered on Narrowbag Lake and fled into the woods soon after Xander spotted her. We also spotted a loon on her nest protecting her hatchlings, and saw the great blue heron that nests near our campsite many times.

Despite some pretty dire weather warnings before we set out it only rained once for about an hour during the whole trip, and we were well prepared when it came down so we didn’t even get wet. Early on the days were pretty gloomy, but towards the end we had beautiful weather, and every day of the trip had at least some sunshine.

Day 8: The Return

By the time we were ready to leave we’d lightened our packs by almost thirty pounds thanks to eating most of the food. This allowed us to repack in a much more humane way for the return trip. As usual we got on the water later than planned. We hadn’t thought to set an alarm since I’d woken early every day of the trip, but Saturday morning we all slept in until 8AM, and by the time we made breakfast, broke camp, and got on the water it was 11AM.

Saturday was a spectacular day, and the bugs were almost non-existent which made the portages more bearable if not easier. We reversed our route from the first day, and it didn’t take long to reach the start of the Unicorn Hill portage. The trail climbs in this direction as well, but it isn’t nearly as steep as when we came in. I was able to carry my pack and then the canoe to the top in one go each without a break. Going down the other side was even easier, but I was starting to get tired near the end with the canoe. Since all of our packs were lighter Sherri was able to carry her pack across all of the portages so we only ended up doing a double carry in two stages and this time it took us an hour and a half instead of three and a half hours to complete the portage.

We stopped at the end of the portage to eat and refill our water bottles before paddling down the river to the first waterfall. The wind was at our backs so we made good time without much effort. We were pretty cautious looking for the take-out because we didn’t want to get swept over the falls if we missed the portage. The falls are tall, and the take-out is very close to the edge.

We had just unloaded the gear when we realized that we’d left the camera monopod that Sherri had been using as a hiking pole at the last portage. I debated just leaving it, but Sherri and I decided to paddle back while Xander carried all the gear down the short portage alone. This time we were going against the wind and it was much tougher going. We had to paddle pretty hard, and the detour cost us over an hour. We only stopped long enough to grab the monopod before drifting back downwind to the falls. That was perhaps a mistake because later in the day we realized that we’d also misplaced a small fanny pack and it may have been left at the same portage. There wasn’t much in it, but still, who wants to litter?

The scenery changes dramatically after the large waterfall, becoming less rugged and rocky, but it was such a beautiful time of day that it was still spectacular. The sun was getting low and casting the golden light so valued by photographers on the green hills.

I tried a single carry for the last portage since it was downhill and I hadn’t done one yet this trip (Xander did a few on the way back). I had meant to stop and look at the rapids again on the way by, but they were too close to the start of the trail so I decided to do the whole thing in one go and then double back. The weight of the canoe really made the straps of my pack bite into my shoulders, and by the end of the 700m I could feel the extra weight on my spine and hips. But I wasn’t as wrecked as I had been a week before!

Paddling across Cedar Lake in the setting sun was a great way to end the trip. The wind was coming from the west, so it didn’t really help or hinder us, but I gave the wrong directions to Xander which forced him to take a detour against the wind.

We chatted with the friendly locals in Brent as we loaded our gear back onto the car, and then began the drive back to North Bay at dusk. We spotted a moose (almost hit him actually) on the drive out, and possibly a bear.

Days 3 – 7 Revisited: The Mental Journey

If you’ve read this far and are paying attention you’ll notice that we never reached Hogan Lake, our intended destination. We didn’t even make it to Burntroot Lake. In a way this was the hardest part of the trip for me. After our first day of rest on Catfish our muscles were well on the way to recovery, but we were still exhausted. We needed to replenish our energy before continuing.

We had a small window if we wanted to make Hogan Lake since we only had two extra days on our schedule for the trip, and every day we delayed at Catfish meant more days that we’d have to do consecutively before returning. The trip to Burntroot isn’t particularly hard, and from there to Hogan is even easier. But the return trip from Hogan to Catfish has two long portages and I was worried about doing them the day before the long return trip from Catfish over Unicorn Hill.

Every morning we’d discuss ways to alter the trip so that we could continue, and every night I’d lie awake desperate to continue on, but not wanting to push ourselves too hard and ruin the trip. When you only have time for two good trips per year it’s frustrating to see one go up in smoke. And if I couldn’t bring myself to finish this trip now that we’d already done the hard part, who was I kidding thinking I could come back and try the whole thing again?

But I think what really made me lose my nerve was the grinding I’d felt in my hip as we descended Unicorn Hill. A bad hip could put an end to all trips, not just this one, and that made me think that we were overmatched (and I was over the hill). A group portage isn’t like a chain. If the weakest link in the group can’t handle the load the work can be redistributed and the others can compensate. But if the strongest person fails then the group can’t go on. Since I’d brought us all out here I was responsible for getting us back.

In retrospect I think that we could have done the whole trip, but it would have pushed our group right to our limits. There wasn’t much enthusiasm for continuing on from Catfish, and it’s probably best that we didn’t. I had wanted to go on a more relaxed camping trip with the family sometime, and that’s what this became. As nice as Catfish Lake is, it isn’t really ideal for such a trip. It is wilderness, and it is remote, but it’s also one of the main entry points to the north part of the park, so several groups of paddlers a day would pass by our island. The amount of effort we put in to get there didn’t relate directly to the isolation that we experienced. If we were just planning a family camping trip we could have easily gone to a more accessible area closer to home.

This trip has caused me to doubt my limits, and I’ll certainly consider it when planning trips in the future. I don’t want to be responsible for an accident, and I also don’t like deviating from our planned schedule in a busy park, since it’s not respectful of the other users. I had checked with the park office before we headed out and knew that there were available sites on all of the lakes we were going to cross, but there could have been late bookings or other trippers experiencing delays.

I struggled with keeping my spirits up. I was crushed about the trip we weren’t having, but I wanted to enjoy the one we were. Despite some dark thoughts and self doubt I did manage to appreciate that we were almost alone in a beautiful spot, experiencing great weather. Other than the bugs it was a Canadian paradise. We also succeeded in one of our goals which was to plan and manage a longer camping trip. The camping portion of the trip went off almost effortlessly despite some glitches thanks to good planning and preparation and we were quite comfortable. If anything perhaps we were too comfortable and that’s why our gear overwhelmed us on the portages. It was a lovely week in the wilderness even if it wasn’t the week that we planned.

Posted on

Canoe Lake Circuit

Much of the early history of Algonquin Park has its roots in Canoe Lake. The lake has long been a focal point for tourism in the park, and many of the historic camps and lodges are located on or near Canoe Lake. There’s even an old mystery. In 1917 Tom Thompson drowned under suspicious circumstances while paddling the lake. Thompson was a renowned painter and served as an early inspiration for the members of the group of seven.

Canoe Lake is also one of the busiest areas in the park, and the shear volume of traffic has led to it’s being referred to as ‘Yonge Street’. The shore of Canoe Lake is encrusted with cottages, and the interior lakes nearby are dotted with so many campsites that it’s rare to not be able to see your neighbours. When I go camping I’m trying to experience nature as unblemished by humans as possible so I decided to visit Canoe Lake early in the season before the crowds made an appearance. I was able to make my reservation just a few days ahead of my trip (something that’s impossible in the high season), but there was still enough traffic that we were never truly alone. It wasn’t as bad as car camping but we met people frequently on the portages and we could hear people both nights while at our campsites.

I also favour a bit of a challenge so rather than just parking ourselves at one of the first interior lakes we decided to complete the Canoe Lake Circuit through Burnt Island Lake, Sunbeam Lake and Tom Thompson Lake. It’s not a difficult trip, nor did it take us very far into the interior, but it gave us a workout and was more interesting than just staying in one place.

Day 1

The parking lot was packed when we arrived, and the portage store and permit office were crowded as well. It was a bit late in the day by the time we had our canoe in the water but we still had plenty of time to reach Burnt Island Lake. Canoe Lake was the least scenic lake of our trip. Not only are there cottages everywhere, but the shore is almost completely devoid of the rugged rocks that add so much to the scenery of the lakes further from the highway. We took note of some of the old camps on the lake as well as the area where Tom Thompson’s body was found, but we proceeded fairly quickly to the first portage.

The portage to Joe Lake is one of the most popular and also one of the easiest in the park. It circumvents the spillway from the dam that forms Joe Lake. There are still a few cottages on Joe Lake, and there was a line of motor boats waiting for us to cross under the rail bridge just after the dam. The scenery is a bit rockier and prettier on Joe Lake and as we pulled away from the dam and the traffic I started to get into the rhythm of the trip.

Joe Lake narrows at the northeast end until it’s just a small creek that winds back and forth. We took a hint from Jeff’s Map and skipped the first portage that only cuts off a short loop of river. I was pretty surprised when we got to the next portage that took us to Baby Joe Lake. The take out was built up with a dock and stairs so elaborate they would have been more at home on the shore of an expensive cottage than on a ‘backcountry’ portage.

There’s a geocache hidden on the portage so I hauled our canoe out of the water and up the stairs to clear the path for other paddlers before propping the canoe against a tree before we started hunting for the cache. I had some trouble finding the cache and when I finally had the log book in hand we were all startled by a large crash behind us. It took me a moment to realize that the canoe had rolled off of the branch where I had balanced it and fallen to the ground. Fortunately it appears to be unharmed, but it sure was loud when it fell!

We didn’t see any, but the woods were full of ruffled grouse. We could hear the drumming display that the males use to announce their territory and to attract a mate. The drumming is a low booming that starts out slowly and builds in frequency. It’s something that you feel more than hear. I’ve experienced them before, but I always assumed that the sound was a chainsaw or motorboat being started in the distance. This time there were so many we decided it had to be an animal and I looked them up when I got home. To make the sound the male grouse beat their wings so rapidly that it creates a partial vacuum. The air rushing back in echoes with the distinctive booming sound.

After a quick paddle across Baby Joe Lake we arrived at another overbuilt portage. This portage forks in two directions, a short 200m carry to Burnt Island Lake and a more strenuous 1140m carry to Littledoe Lake. To keep paddlers from being confused the wooden chute splits at the end to lead you down one of the two paths. The put in on Burnt Island Lake is heavily overbuilt as well with a short retaining wall maintaining a crisp edge for launching canoes.

We met an interesting group heading in the opposite direction on this portage. It was late in the day and while there are campsites on the Joe Lakes there’s no compelling reason to camp there so I assumed that the group must be heading back to Canoe Lake. I commented on how late they were. One of the group replied that they were indeed late, and had been on the water for 16 hours! They started the day on Catfish Lake and then paddled north to Brent which is at the extreme north end of the park before turning around and heading back to Canoe Lake in the centre of the park. I gather they were doing “The Brent Run” which is a race against the clock to see how fast you can do a trip that is normally done in days instead of hours. It’s not my kind of trip, but good for them!

Burnt Island is a pretty lake but not spectacular. It was the first large lake we travelled that was devoid of cottages and doesn’t allow motor boats so it was closer to an ‘interior’ experience than we’d had thus far. Even without cottages it was somewhat crowded. There are a lot of sites on Burnt Island Lake, but most were occupied. We were heading for a nice looking site on a point when we spied a canoe behind the trees. After searching some more we started to unload on a promising looking island site before we noticed a food bag hanging high overhead. It was now late enough that we decided to stop being picky and take the next available site we found.

We ended up with an uninspiring site on the west shore of the lake. There was no rock at all, and while it was nominally on a point it was pushed back so far in the trees that it only offered a view in one direction. The trees were so thick that it was hard to find a place to hang the bear bag and it was only meters from the fire pit. We only had a brief time to make camp and gather firewood before nightfall. The firewood was particularly important because it was a cold night, and we cooked dinner in the dark huddled around the heat from our fire. Our shabby little site improved in character considerably after dark when the sky cleared to reveal a spectacular display of stars. A few hours later the moon rose directly opposite our site and shone across the water.

Day 2

I woke at dawn when the sun hit my hammock. I had been worried about sleeping in a hammock on such a cold night, but I ended up being the warmest in our group. I didn’t get enough sleep because I didn’t realize how late it had been when we went to bed the night before so I got up too early. It was a spectacular morning with a clear sky, and the sun soon took the chill out of the air. We were all moving pretty slowly that morning and made a leisurely breakfast and took our time packing up before heading out on what was to be our biggest day of the trip.

Before leaving Burnt Island Lake we crossed back over to the east side to find a geocache. Finding the cache was easy once we figured out where to land the canoe, and then we had to fight a slight breeze to reach the portage to Jay Lake. The portage is the second longest of the trip and starts by heading up a very steep hill. I could feel pressure in my chest as I laboured to climb the hill with my pack and the canoe. This was the first portage that didn’t start on a beach or a wooden dock. The take out point was wet and rocky where a stream flowed down the hill.

The route continues through Kooey Pond and Treefrog Lake before arriving at Sunbeam Lake. None of the portages were particularly difficult nor particularly easy, and each new pond presented us with new terrain to contemplate. This part of the trip is particularly scenic consisting of beaver ponds, bogs and inviting stands of cedar trees. Sunbeam Lake is a highlight of this loop, dotted with small rocky islands. I was regretting that I hadn’t scheduled our second night there, but we pressed on to Tom Thompson Lake.

The portage out of Sunbeam is long and steep. It starts out flat where it runs parallel to a marshy bay, but then it heads inland and up and over the hill that separates Sunbeam from Aster Pond. I was really glad to find a pole to rest the canoe on while I caught my breath at the high point of the portage before continuing down the other side.

Three more pretty ponds and three more portages brought us to Bartlett Lake. I particularly enjoyed this part of the trip. The small beaver ponds have no campsites and the rugged portages make this part of the loop feel more remote. We spotted a large snapping turtle swimming beneath our canoe on one pond before he disappeared into the murky depths.

Bartlett Lake is connected directly to Tom Thompson Lake where we were scheduled to spend our second night. We were a bit earlier than the night before and we lucked out this time, finding an excellent campsite with spectacular views of the lake and a huge fire pit banked against a rock face to reflect the heat. The clouds had covered the sun soon after we started out in the morning, but they parted just before sunset to give us a great view of this lovely lake.

We made dinner early and then tried to start a fire, but the one drawback to this site was that there was almost no firewood. The previous tenants had left the smoking remains of a fire, but clearly they had been quite desperate since they had uprooted a live sapling to use as firewood and burnt the end off of one of the logs that served as seats around the fire. We managed to burn some scraps that we found and were able to keep warm until we went to bed.

Day 3

Our third day began with a spectacular warm morning. I was up early again, but I’d had a better night’s sleep so I was able to get moving and do the dishes and start breakfast a bit sooner. There was a suspicious empty canoe floating in front of our site. It stayed put for several hours. We decided that it must have been anchored in place to secure a food stash. We saw several groups of canoeists stop to investigate the boat, but it had been recovered by the time we set out.

There was another geocache on Tom Thompson Lake so we made our way there before heading out. We had to battle a stiff breeze, but the sun was so strong we weren’t cool at all. We spotted another large snapper near the geocache sunning himself on a grass hummock. There are no portages when leaving Tom Thompson Lake to return to Canoe Lake. There’s a potential liftover going into Littledoe Lake but we were able to slide over the dam without setting foot outside of the canoe. From there we could drift down the Little Oxtongue River to Teepee Lake and back to Joe Lake.

Teepee Lake was where we started to see signs of civilization again, Camp Arowhon is on the west shore and we could hear several motor boats. There still weren’t many cottagers on Joe Lake, but the portage to Canoe Lake was a bit crowded. Rather than head directly back to the beach we took a detour to visit the cairn and totem pole erected in Tom Thompson’s memory on the north shore of Canoe Lake. The cairn is accessed from the only public dock on the lake, and is at the top of a short but steep and rocky hill.

Tips

Algonquin is a Provincial park and requires a permit for interior camping. Currently interior sites can only be reserved by phone but it looks like online reservations may be in the future. Campsites are booked by the lake so you will have to arrive early in order to ensure that you get a good site on your chosen lake.

Difficulty

  • The portages on day one are very easy with built up wooden docks and gravel paths. Several of these portages had privies or even composting toilets.
  • The portages on day two are steeper, longer and had more challenging take outs, but other than some hill climbing and a bit of rough terrain aren’t very difficult.
  • The trip can be easily completed in three days, or even in two with an early start.

Remoteness

  • Canoe and Joe Lakes both have cottages, and Little Joe Lake and Tepee Lake both have lodges. There is a fair amount of motorboat traffic on these lakes.
  • The Lakes on this route are packed with sites. This gives options when trying to pick a site, but it also makes it quite likely that you’ll have neighbours nearby.
  • This is an incredibly busy area. Consider visiting in the shoulder season to avoid the crowds, particularly if you will be staying on the easy to access lakes.
  • Tom Thompson Lake and Burnt Island Lake are both very easy to access with few portages. This means they attract even more crowds. If you want solitude you might want to consider spending a night on Sunbeam Lake. Portaging directly from Burnt Island to Tom Thompson Lake takes you from one lake that is crowded to another that is crowded. Spending the night on Sunbeam may reward your extra work with some peace and quiet. This option will make the last day longer however, so be prepared to start earlier if you choose to do so. And while Sunbeam is a very scenic lake, so is Tom Thompson.