Summer TR: A canoe trip in Algonquin Park (LOTS of pics)

We're going on a canoe trip!


A big part of my job is helping outdoorsy people like you plan and undertake canoe trips in Ontario's iconic Algonquin Provincial Park. That makes me a bit like the marketing person at the ski hill - do you ever actually see them skiing? Throw in a year off for knee surgery and general craziness and you get a recipe for slacking off from the activity that brought me to this place in life. Back in late June, Blue Toes and I resolved to go on our first overnight canoe trip in a couple of years. We have been on many great ones in the past, both with friends or just on our own: a variety of rivers in northern Ontario, several trips along the coast of Lake Superior, Georgian Bay and of course, right here in our "backyard" of Algonquin Park. In fact, one of our first dates was a whitewater canoeing day trip, with a borrowed scow of a canoe and little idea what we were getting into. And here we are, all these years later!

So I picked a route that I often recommend to people, the "Rock-Pen-Welcome-Louisa" loop. It is a beautiful trip and even though there are not that many portages, there are some looooonnngggg portages. Those long portages keep out the riff-raff though: between the Pen/Welcome portage and our return to Rock Lake, we only saw one other canoe.

Map notes: the black triangles are campsites, black lines are portages with the length noted in metres (eg. P2000 is 2000 metres which is about 1.25 miles). Check out the full map on the park's website.

In retrospect, I might have picked an easier trip. Nobody in this crew is getting any younger, including the dog, and we choose to bring lots of fresh food (=heavy), packed quickly and brought too much stuff (=heavy) and Blue Toes' back was not cooperating with carrying heavy packs over long trails. As she said later: "what doesn't kill you makes you stiff!"

So here is a little report, with lots of pictures.

Like many big parks, Algonquin offers a variety of camping options. We are the ones with the canoe:


Even those without motorhomes can bring a lot of stuff. I felt sorry for this canoe, it is a Swift Dumoine, actually a pretty nice canoe with a fine whitewater pedigree. Here it is reduced to hauling coolers and large people and being towed by a tin boat. Our access point, Rock Lake, offers motorboat access camping. Beyond the first portage it is canoe-only.


Our canoe, also a Swift but the fast and sexy Winisk model, happily looks a little more lightly loaded. Not to mention the attractive bow paddler:


Let's back up a bit. Before getting in the boat, there is some work to be done, like packing. In our house, this happens in the living room (the stuffed dolphin dog toy did not get packed):


No wilderness trip would be complete without Life Essence. On this journey, the brown elixir of choice was The Kraken:


Back to paddling but before Life Essence time. Rock Lake is not called Rock Lake for nothing. The are some very cool cliffs and outcrops:


What happens when two bloggers go somewhere? They take pictures of each other!


After a short 350 M portage from Rock to Pen Lake, we headed towards our first campsite. At the end of the portage, we met the Soup Boys, two young men who were relaxing with a bowl of soup and cigarettes after dragging giant hockey bags across the trail. It was four o'clock in the afternoon and they stopped to make soup. OK. They assured us they were not planning to go much farther. Once you get past the first popular lake, you don't see any more docks at the end of portages:


Here we paddle by a lovely empty campsite on Pen Lake, as I have another in mind:


The plan was to enjoy three different styles of campsites: beach, rock point and island. Our first was a lovely beach site on Pen Lake and by this time, we were ready for some Life Essence. Cheers!


Our first dinner was smoked pork chops from the fancy butcher shop, grilled on the fire, and a Jambalaya rice dish cooked in the fancy new dutch oven. The dutch oven is a bit heavy but can produce some amazing meals. That there is $12.60 worth of smokies, yum, yum:


Notwithstanding the expensive cuts of meat, this kind of meal does not come without a price. Much firewood is needed, so we had axe, saw and the dog to supervise the process. I just can't get away from wood chopping!


After a Cuban-style mango snack the next morning, we were on our way:


We had two portages on day two. The first was short but steep and had a rocky landing. Then there was the fact that it took us a while to get there, since I was attempting to do the route without using the map. This tactic did not last long and soon Blue Toes was in charge of map-reading.
 

A canoe makes a great sun hat:


After a short creek section we came to the next, and much longer, portage. It was very hot and the deerflies were fierce. My job was to get the canoe and the food barrel to the other end, while BT carried the giant green pack. I did this carry in a series of hops, taking one load part way, then going back to get the other. This method is reasonably efficient and breaks up up the workload nicely:


Eventually we arrived at Welcome Lake and the beautiful beaches it is known for. We relaxed, had lunch, a swim and for some reason took no pictures. The next creek section was well-maintained by by the local beavers and water levels were good. The deerflies were out in force, though, and we even had to put bug dope (non-DEET variety) on the dog's head. It worked!


The beavers did create some challenges, specifically a two-foot high dam that we had lug the canoe up and over:


Utah was relieved when we got into open water water again and the deerfly assault abated.


Our next campsite was a rock point on Rence Lake. Lovely site, very open and very isolated. We had the lake to ourselves. The site featured an impressive rock table down by the water:


This site also had a multitude of benches, which you need a chainsaw to create. My guess is that park wardens like to stay at this site when they do campsite and portage maintenance. I was very pleased with the tarp setup here. It is too bad there not high-paying job opportunities for Master Tarpologists like me:


The resident loons hung out and put on a great audio show later that evening:


With a relatively short distance to travel on day three, we had a lazy morning enjoying the setting on Rence, drinking coffee and taking pictures. Coffee is as important as Life Essence on our trips. You could call our style of camping a blend of modern high-tech and old school. Here I am checking the cowboy coffee brewing on the MSR Dragonfly:


The day had dawned a little grey. Just as we loaded up the canoe and were ready to head out, the rain started, turning into an off and on all-day light drizzle. By the time we got to the next site, we were soaked and chilled, despite good rain gear. Ugh.


Utah ponders the edibility of water lilies:


The long portage on this day was very wet. At a maintenance road crossing, Blue Toes makes a vain attempt at alternative transport and Utah scans for traffic coming the other way:


Our destination for day three was Lake Louisa, one of the "jewels" in the park. It was looking a little tarnished by the time we arrived, damp and tired. We did find a good pile of driftwood to scavenge for firewood, so were all set when we arrived at the island site.


The dog was not pleased with his lot in life:


Our island site was sheltered, beautiful but a little soggy.


Once again, the dutch oven produced an excellent meal, much needed at that point:


The next morning dawned sunny and windy, a good combination for drying out. We paddled down lake Louisa without seeing another soul and did the long but generally downhill walk to Rock Lake, our starting point. By the time we got to Rock, the wind had picked up to gale force and of course was right in our faces. We made slow headway back to the parking lot by tucking in close to shore and taking advantage of the wind eddy often found along a shoreline.

Blue Toes walks towards the light at the end of the tunnel:


At home, the ceremonial unpacking and drying of stuff needed to be done:


Al in all, a fine trip but not without some challenges. But isn't that why we do these things? Blue Toes summed it up later with this comment: "what doesn't kill you makes you stiff!" It would have been safe to say that we were dog tired.


Minor spam: If you made it this far and think you might be interested in this kind of adventure, check out my work site here. Fill out the contact form and I will respond to your email. If you call though, don't ask for SBR, just ask for Gord.

Nice TR. That landscape reminds me of the Moose River Plains here in NY. We camped there as youngsters... I gotta go back.

Raymo40 wrote

Nice TR. That landscape reminds me of the Moose River Plains here in NY. We camped there as youngsters... I gotta go back.

Thanks Raymo - you should go back. According to Wikipedia, Moose River Plains is a 50,000 acre area. Algonquin is just under 8000 square kilometres, and according to answers.com, "Rounded to two decimal places, 7653 square kilometres is equal to 1,891,097.48 acres." So, similar landscape but a lot bigger. And not that far away. And the gas is way more expensive...

You got a serious sport for a girl there SBR.

It does look a bit like the Moose River, or maybe Cedar Lakes in the Adk.  

I spent 10 days in Cedar Lakes and it was just one portage but it was about five miles in each direction, and I did the same thing, basically shuttling sections to cut my back a break.  While it's not that far, we were the only people we saw with a boat (that didn't leak) and we killed it on the brook trout.

Looks like maybe you hit the Kraken before you even left?

Sweet report!

Yeah I would say a lot bigger Sbr. The same wilderness feel though.
We did a backpack trip to West lake that SuzieQ still calls hell hike 90.
I was told its the farthest spot from any paved road in NY.
Don't know if that's true or not.

Raymo40 wrote

We did a backpack trip to West lake that SuzieQ still calls hell hike 90.

You may have noticed the blue "barrel pack" in some of the pics. It has food and cooking gear in it. Very heavy. Blue Toes named it "The Wife Killer" and made me carry it.

Harvey44 wrote

You got a serious sport for a girl there SBR.

You have got that right.

Harvey44 wrote

....and we killed it on the brook trout.

As you might know, Ontario is a big province with many lakes. Consider this: 25% of the natural brook trout lakes in Ontario are in Algonquin Park. You want to catch brookies? Come to the Hinterlands in May. I will direct you to some places...

Harvey44 wrote

Looks like maybe you hit the Kraken before you even left?

Well, I had to make sure it wasn't spoiled. But I did decant it into the well-used red Sigg bottle, in accordance with the "no glass containers" rule.

Really enjoyed the report SBR.  Nice looking boat, what does it weigh in at (no kilogram BS please)?  Curious why the axe?... lotta extra weight on the portage.  I always go with the snap it or scrap it rule.

Yeah, looks like the Moose River Plains, looks like the West Canada Lakes.  Looks like lots of the Adirondacks.  That's SIX million acres compared to your piddly TWO (not even)

Adk Jeff wrote

Really enjoyed the report SBR.  Nice looking boat, what does it weigh in at (no kilogram BS please)?  Curious why the axe?... lotta extra weight on the portage.  I always go with the snap it or scrap it rule.

I am often a follower of the "snap it..." rule. The great thing about a lightweight axe is that you can split wood, which means that you can make a fire in most any situation with wood that otherwise might not light under adverse conditions. The axe was one of the new pieces of gear we were testing on this trip. I like it.

Our 17.5' carbon/Kevlar Winisk is about 50 pounds with all the accessories but it is a 1996 model. Light for its vintage but not by today's standards, with the advances in composite construction. Depending on how much money you wanted to spend, you could get a current model as low as 36 pounds (full carbon with composite gunwales).

PS: check the map, there is one paved road running through Algonquin Park and no towns within its borders. Less acreage but more contigious wilderness? Anyways, be thankful that we have places like the ADK and AP to play in, and they are not over-run with civilization.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Anyways, be thankful that we have places like the ADK and AP to play in, and they are not over-run with civilization.

+1

SBR : I always enjoy reading your photo journalism, It is a treat !!  This  latest adventure  of yours delivered !

 Great shots of of the AP and  you guys and the  dog .   Tell Blue Toes she's a real trooper !

all the best

Warp

Nice job SBR...your dog is wicked cool

campgottagopee wrote

Nice job SBR...your dog is wicked cool

Utah says: "I'm cool? Uuuh, thanks, Camp"

Great report and pictures. That's quite a backyard you have in the Hinterlands.