Not sure if you booked the jump off site because you are arriving late but they are an area in the middle of the parking lot. You might want to change that to an interior site.
I believe the office closes at 7pm so you would still have enough daylight to make it to somewhere decent to spend the night.
Oh the permit office is in Town about 30ish minute derive from the lake.

There is a decent interior campsite within a 5-10 minute paddle from the access. It's typically vacant and is much better than the jump offs. ;-)

Guest99 wrote:

AlgonquinLakes wrote:

Thanks for the warning but I am arriving late. I figure if I somehow make it early enough to get a spot on the lake itself I can just make the switch at the permit office

You are aware that you still need to pick up your permit fir the jump off sites at the Office in town before they close.
If you are arriving at the Office after 7 PM you can crash in the car in the parking lot for the night.  If not you are camped without a permit and a drive back into town in the morning for your permits.
Not the best system but the only one there is.

Yup. I am aware of that. I agree it's not a great system. For experienced trippers there should be an option to print off your own permit/check in online. It'd also be great if they could set up a registration system online so that when you're booking you can bypass the "the selected campsite is too far" nonsense.

My Self Reliance wrote:

Hey Drew. It doesn't sound like an issue for this trip, but I can tell you there is a way to head out before getting your permit. I start many of my trips before the permit offices open. They check me in over the phone the day before I leave and give me the permit Number, which I write on a piece of paper and leave on my dashboard. I've never had a problem.

I'm really interested in this.
You call the specific permit office, ie: Kearney in this case, explain the situation, settle up with fees over the phone, get your permit number and bob's your uncle!?

Do you do this often?

I would love to be at the access point for first light and be able to get one the water then and there.

A couple of years ago I ran onto the same problem. Once arrived at Kearny we asked why we could not access a live person with a phone call. The lady said that she worked the office alone and did not have time to answer the phone as she was handling permits all day. The phone then too was routed through the municipal office.
Another tip: the lady then had no idea what water levels were beyond what was on the friends of Algonquin website. The outfitter down the road was really quite well informed about the water levels etc. So give them a call if you need that info.

My Self Reliance wrote:

Hey Drew. It doesn't sound like an issue for this trip, but I can tell you there is a way to head out before getting your permit. I start many of my trips before the permit offices open.  They check me in over the phone the day before I leave and give me the permit Number, which I write on a piece of paper and leave on my dashboard. I've never had a problem.

So I called the algonquin park information line and spoke with someone. I asked if he had the phone number for the Kearney permit office. He said he did and he asked me what I wanted it for. I explained I would like to check in the day before and get my permit number over the phone as I wouldnt be able to make it up before the permit closed the day before my trip, but i wanted to get any early start the day of my trip. He said they wont do that...  He told me I could pickup my permit the day before but I needed to be there before the office closed.
Any tips or tricks from someone who has been previously able to do this would be greatly appreciated as I am only going for 1 night and would love to be on the water by 630 instead of 8ish tonmake the most of the time available to me. PMs are fine.

Last edited by breed85 (7/09/2017 2:50 pm)