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We have hiked most of the day hikes along Hwy 60, but this will be our first time canoeing within the park. Therefore we're looking for suggestions for an all-day canoe outing for a group of two physically fit parents in their 50s and a teenager. We have the map but don't really have an idea of which lakes are nicest (scenery, wildlife, cliff jump, seclusion, fewer motor boats etc). We're open to easy portages or side hike excursions. We are experienced day paddlers and are OK with reasonable wind and waves, but not whitewater. An example of the type of day we were thinking of: last year we did out and back Herb Lake to Knife Lake in the Frost Centre which included 4 level portages of about 50m.
We'll be staying at a cottage near Dorset so Hwy 60 and Southwest access points will be best.
Thanks in advance for your help
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Hrm... day trips aren't really my area of expertise, but maybe go in through the Rain Lake access point? The advantage there is that you've got a nice paddle into and through Rain, but the Western Uplands trail also runs along the edge of that lake, so you could park the canoe somewhere and go for a hike as well if the mood strikes you.
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Thanks. Rain was suggested on a different forum as well so it's sounding promising
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A nice day trip too is if you park at the rest stop just past the Wolf Den ( hostel) , on the right, marked with a picnic table on jeffs map, on hw 60, on the rivers edge ( oxtongue river)and paddle up to ragged falls. It's very scenic. There is a spot ( portage )to land the canoe on the right, and climb up all the way to the top of the falls. Thus us very scenic, and on top of the falls a great spit to eat lunch. Once on top you can walk part of ragged falls trail. Back ,to your canoe, you can paddle the river back, go past your car if you're not tired enough, and keep following the river into oxtongue lake. Paddle to the small island which has a great sandy beach where you can swim to hearts content, if the weather co- operates.
No cost to this trip as it is outside the park.
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Kevin Callan's description of the Oxtongue, from Ontario Nature.... he left out a description of the silver maple forests in areas where the river meanders.
Mike Runtz also describes a day paddle in one of his books, Explorer's Guide to Algonquin Park... along the Madawaska river, between Lake of Two Rivers, and Cache and Head lakes.
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River Stories
Hap Wilson and Kevin Callan recount their trips along six of Ontario’s best river runs for wildlife, unspoiled habitat and breathtaking vistas.
By Kevin Callan
...
Oxtongue River
The Oxtongue River flows across the southwest boundary of Algonquin Provincial Park and runs along the north side of Highway 60.
More than a hundred years ago, the Oxtongue River was a busy place. In 1826, Lieutenant Henry Briscoe became the first recorded white person to travel it. He was in search of a military route between Lake Huron and the Ottawa River when the Government of Canada grew concerned over Americans attacking the shipping areas along the southern border. Government surveyors Alexander Sheriff and David Thompson also travelled the Oxtongue in 1829 and 1853 to map a possible navigational canal. Alexander Murray, the first chief ranger of Algonquin, followed in their footsteps. Tom Thomson, a friend of the founders of the Group of Seven, who died three years before its formation in 1920, camped along the Oxtongue during his first visit to the park in 1912.
Today, you would be hard-pressed to spot another paddler travelling the river, especially the lower half that exits the park’s southwest corner and forms a separate waterway park. Why? Perhaps because of the river’s close proximity to Highway 60 (traffic can be heard faintly along some sections) or the assumption that Algonquin Provincial Park has more than this to offer. In fact, the Oxtongue River is a perfect weekend retreat.
I spend three or four weekends per season running the Oxtongue. Sometimes I go there to photograph moose – the river is one of the best places in the park to see them – but mostly I travel the river in early summer when it is almost dreamlike. I’ve spent an entire day floating on a gentle current, listening to the brook trout slurp bugs from the water’s surface or counting the number of wood turtles sunbathing on half-submerged logs. Often, I simply gawk at all the damselflies and dragonflies flitting along the river’s edge. Algonquin contains just under 100 recorded dragonfly species, the majority of which can be seen along the Oxtongue River. Chalk-fronted corporal dragonflies and Hagen’s bluet damselfies inhabit the calm bays of the river. The translucent, sapphire blue insects hover around my head as I paddle, snacking on bothersome mosquitoes and deerflies. I can usually spot the provincially rare zebra clubtail soaring over clear, sandy-bottom sections of the river. But along the Oxtongue, the most notable of all the flying insects are the ebony jewelwing, with its striking iridescent green body, and the river jewelwing, the tips of its wings appearing to have been dipped in ink. Both species have the agreeable habit of perching on the bow of the canoe or the blade of my paddle, or even on me.
The Oxtongue has a number of shallow swifts and a few major rapids and cascades: Whiskey Rapids, Split Rock Rapids, Twin Falls, Gravel Falls and Ragged Falls. But for the most part, the water meanders along. Calm stretches of river wind around pine-clad bluffs on one side and spill quietly past islands covered in alder and dogwood on the other. Much of the river remains similar to what Sheriff described in his 1829 journal as “a level, sandy valley, timbered chiefly with balsam, tamarac, and poplar, beyond which, however, the hardwood rising grounds are seldom a mile distant on either side.”
Oxtongue River Location
Use the access area at Algonquin’s famous Canoe Lake on Highway 60 as the put-in point and the Algonquin Outfitters shop on Oxtongue Lake as your take-out.
Last edited by frozentripper (7/30/2017 4:14 pm)
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