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8/11/2017 9:20 am  #1


Rain Lake--4 day suggestions

We are planning a 4 day, 3 night trip August 28-31. We are two adults and two teen daughters, 13 and 17. We have done backcountry camping and canoeing before in Killarney, but never Algonquin and would be intermediates. We would like to avoid crowds so are thinking about Rain Lake or Magnetawan access point.  We’d love some suggestions for routes or lakes. We would probably like to spend 2 nights at one camp site and explore from there—so, 1 campsite for day 1, another for day 2-3, and then return on day 4. We’d also consider moving each day.
We are coming from Toronto, so we also need to decide whether to come later in the day on the 27th and stay at a campsite before Kearney or try to come from Toronto and start the trip on the same day.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
 

 

8/11/2017 10:35 am  #2


Re: Rain Lake--4 day suggestions

camper201 wrote:

We are planning a 4 day, 3 night trip August 28-31. We are two adults and two teen daughters, 13 and 17. We have done backcountry camping and canoeing before in Killarney, but never Algonquin and would be intermediates. We would like to avoid crowds so are thinking about Rain Lake or Magnetawan access point.  We’d love some suggestions for routes or lakes. We would probably like to spend 2 nights at one camp site and explore from there—so, 1 campsite for day 1, another for day 2-3, and then return on day 4. We’d also consider moving each day.
We are coming from Toronto, so we also need to decide whether to come later in the day on the 27th and stay at a campsite before Kearney or try to come from Toronto and start the trip on the same day.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
 

I haven't been to that area of the park, but if your main reason for choosing that area is privacy, then I think you can expand your options. You'll be going during the week, right before a long weekend, so I would anticipate it being pretty quiet throughout the park.

You can choose a route off of Hwy 60 which is a bit closer when coming from Toronto (definitely wouldn't need to come the night before) and also has more outfitting options. Lots of good routes to choose from as well. How many hours of travel would you be ok with doing each day? Length of portages? Would you be single carrying or double carrying?

Some lakes that I really like are Clydegale, Linda, and Louisa. Plenty of other great ones as well. If you have a route that interests you from Rain Lake then forget everything I just said lol, but if the idea of starting from Hwy 60 appeals to you then let me know the few questions above and I'll try and suggest some route options.


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8/11/2017 12:22 pm  #3


Re: Rain Lake--4 day suggestions

Thanks. I'd heard that the main route off of highway 60 gets very busy and we could like privacy, but if these routes are pretty quiet that would be good. Are all your suggestions starting from Canoe Lake? We'd be happy with about 5-6 hours of paddling/portaging per day. And might want to build an a rest day where we stay at one site. We could do 3-4 portages a day if necessary. We're all intermediates and will probably carry canoes with one person--but may  have to double back. Not sure what "single carry or double carry" means exactly. Hope this give you some more details.
 

     Thread Starter
 

8/11/2017 2:15 pm  #4


Re: Rain Lake--4 day suggestions

Hi "201"

"Single carry" means you haul all your gear (including canoe) in "one go".

"Double carry" means you split your load between two "carries". Obviously you have to return for the second half of your load. This means you're walking the portage twice carrying load and once without any load.

 

8/11/2017 4:41 pm  #5


Re: Rain Lake--4 day suggestions

camper201 wrote:

Thanks. I'd heard that the main route off of highway 60 gets very busy and we could like privacy, but if these routes are pretty quiet that would be good. Are all your suggestions starting from Canoe Lake? We'd be happy with about 5-6 hours of paddling/portaging per day. And might want to build an a rest day where we stay at one site. We could do 3-4 portages a day if necessary. We're all intermediates and will probably carry canoes with one person--but may  have to double back. Not sure what "single carry or double carry" means exactly. Hope this give you some more details.
 

It's definitely the busiest area in the park, but it will be quiet during the days you're going.

None of the suggestions start from Canoe Lake actually - that's the one launch point I try and avoid when possible. 

Looking at the 28th, there's literally only 1 reservation in the whole region south of Cache Lake (between Head, Harness, Delano, Hillard, Pardee, Kirkwood, Phipps, Kenneth and Lawrence). So if you booked Kirkwood or Pardee, both lakes which only reserve 1 campsite (so you're the only group on the lake), there will pretty much be no one else in that whole area of the park. Privacy both at the campsite, and en route to the campsite.

Linda (starting from Source) still has 3/3 campsites available on the 28th, but a couple sites en route to get there are taken. Still a very private lake - the island faces north so faces away from the other campsites and passerby's, and not many people travel through the lake towards Iris, so you don't get many passerby's in general. None of the campsites are in sight of each other as well.

Both areas are pretty much the same for your other 2 nights as well. It would almost be a better time to do one of these routes off Hwy 60 since you're going on very quiet days - you get to see these areas of the park while avoiding the masses of people that usually travel through there

One route option would be Source --> Bruce (night 1, easy day) --> Linda (nights 2 &3) --> back to Source. Or do it reverse. This is a relatively easy trip for 3 nights, and isn't a very scenic route, but Linda lake is very pretty.

Another one, a bit more challenging, would be Rock --> Clydegale/Welcome/Harry --> Louisa --> back to Rock. You can pick whatever lakes you think would be best (amount of time you want to travel per day), but that general loop is a very popular one. It can be done in 2 nights, moderate intensity, so throwing in a rest day should be easy. A couple long portages, but they're not too difficult (the 3km is very flat). Good wildlife opportunities, especially on Clydegale, waterfalls, hiking options (Booth Rock trail), etc.

Another one which I'll be doing for the first time in a few weeks is Smoke --> Bonnechere --> Kirkwood --> Head --> out at Cache and shuttle back to Smoke. You could also make it Smoke --> Bonnechere --> Pardee (2 nights) --> finish, if you wanted a rest day.

Tons of options to choose from. Just check the reservation system to make sure you get the privacy you want, whether it's on the actual lake, or en route to get there.


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