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My wife and I are booked on Linda Lake in July, and we are staying at Canisbay Lake for two nights prior to departing from the Source Lake put in. I assume the closest permit office is Canoe Lake for this launch location. Can we get the permit the afternoon before so we can head out bright and early on the first day we have reserved?
Steve
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Hey Steve,
It's been a couple years since I've been in this scenario - asking for a canoe camping permit for the following day. Both times they hemmed and hawed and said it wasn't really allowed and the system wouldn't let them do it, and both times they went ahead and did it anyway. So unless something's changed, I think the answer is that it's probably going to depend on who you happen to be dealing with, and how many people are standing behind you in line when you're asking!
Not very helpful I realize.
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In my experience (at the Kearney Office) they really don't like doing that (I think it makes extra work for them).
What they did for me was write me a hand-written permit for my trip. The guy told me that the next day when my trip started he would then put my information in the computer and issue a permit as per normal and basically just discard the actual paper permit.
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Yeah one thing that definitely seems to be true is that their computer system literally won't let them process a permit for the next day (as dumb as that is).
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Glad to hear some of you got a permit one day early, based entirely on the kindness and good sense of the staff at those times. Some of the permitting issues and management directives can drive you crazy, The Opeongo office opens at 6:00am this spring. All the others along the highway corridor...8:00 am. Tell me that's not crazy when spring paddlers are up early and rearing to go, and 8:00 am just lets the waves start to kick up, when you could have crossed a lake in calm conditions... Some staff at various permit offices are just fantastic people, cherrie, and fun to talk to..others not so much but that's life I guess. Celebrate the good experiences when they come. Make sure you tell those staff how much you appreciate their extra efforts.
Moonman.
I agree that it depends on who you deal with. We've done it a few times where we car camped the night before an early start and asked for our permits the day before. We always got the "Well we're not supposed to..." but in the end they processed it.
Where we have run into issues is when we stop at the East gate to register for our trip on the west end of the Park. They tell us we have to register at Canoe instead. Huh? They can only process permits up to Source lake but not further west. Never got a clear reason as to why that is.
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I've never had to get a permit early, but I've asked the same question before, and I've always gotten the same answers as others have mentioned in here so far.
But just wanted to mention Linda Lake is a great lake, one of my favourites, with one of my favourite campsites. Here's a trip report of mine: , and you can find the campsites on the campsite inventory as well:
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trippythings wrote:
But just wanted to mention Linda Lake is a great lake, one of my favourites, with one of my favourite campsites. Here's a trip report of mine: , and you can find the campsites on the campsite inventory as well:
Based on your trip report and recommendation this past winter in the Trip Planning section, I booked 2 nights on Linda for us this July. It will be a great reintroduction for back country camping for me after a few decades and a first for my wife.
We are already trying to plan another 2 night trip into Algonquin late September.
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If they won't let you check in the day before, you could always try adjust your start date to the day you check in. There would be an extra cost, but it might be worth it for a few extra hours.
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Spoke with the people at the permit office on Canoe lake while attending the 150 for 150 event June 25th. Initially I was asking about extending our trip by an extra day. First person said the system there would not allow her to do that, and I would need phone or do it online. After the other person freed up, I spoke with her asking about an early departure and getting the permit early. She wrote down my info and would pass it along to the people that would be on duty the evening before we are departing early so we could get our permit then.
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