1 of 1
Where In Algonquin? » WIA 883 » Today 9:57 am |
East of Sawyer
Trip Reports » Opeongo River » Today 8:53 am |
Hmmm well there's next year's trip!
Only question is whether to do it at ice-out, or July. The trout fishing won't be amazing on this part, and I am not a fan of week-long trips in dry suits because I'm fragile.
Either way, gonna portage the class IV rapids on the upper, so I feel like it will be passable. I may do a scout paddle on the upper in July.
Trip Reports » Opeongo River » Today 7:55 am |
Marko_Mrko wrote:
.... Very few portages. The camp sites would probably need to be the forks at Aylen, then... MKC?
Paddling up the Opeongo to the Forks would be a massive pain in the butt. And there are other camp spots on the Opeongo River south of the campsite at the Forks. I was told by the owner of Barkwick camp, there are a couple of campsites on Bark Lake. Don't know exactly where. I have a friend who lives on the Middle Mad, she uses campsites on islands on Kaminiskeg Lake. I could find out where if you actually end up doing this.
Trip Reports » Opeongo River » Today 7:44 am |
Doing the mad from Source lake to Griffith would be great. I don't think it would be that hard. You would want to do it in the spring for good flows. The Upper Mad scares me a bit. I'm not a strong WW paddler and I've gotten more hesitant in the past few years. I couldn't paddle a L'edge to save my life.
There are places to camp on the Upper Mad, Bark Lake, Middle Mad and Kaminiskeg Lake. Once you are at Palmer's it would be easy to get campsites down to Griffith. I've looked at building a route to go past Griffith and get into the North Frontenac Parklands, Mississippi River, Rideau Canal and basically paddle home to Kingston.
In the 60s the Scarlett Brothers started at Arnprior paddled up the Mad, up the Opeongo down the Crow Down the Pet, train out of the park, and down the Ottawa back to Arnprior. Can you imagine how hard and great that would have been!
Trip Reports » Opeongo River » Today 6:51 am |
Now that's a great idea for a trip... I really like the idea of doing the whole Mad from Opeongo to Griffith... Hmmm.... Very few portages. The camp sites would probably need to be the forks at Aylen, then... MKC? Then Jessup's, and then rest of lower Mad is easy... A lot of flat water between Bark Lake and Jessup's, solo canoes would be a slog. But that would be an interesting tale.
I just looked at the 2017 May flows, and they were historically high - Palmer Rapids was running around 500 cms for your trip - it was 46 on Saturday for our trip - a weeeee bit of a difference!!
Trip Reports » Opeongo River » Yesterday 11:21 pm |
We started at Lake Opeongo and finished at Bark Lake. Barkwick camp did our car shuttle to Opeongo Access. Opeongo Outfitters for the water taxi to the Dam at the foot of the East Arm. Camped on Farm and at the Forks where the Aylen river joins the Opeongo River. Our only portages was 10 meters around the dam at thee foot of Booth Lake and 10 meters over the Victoria Lake road.
There are campsites on the lake for the campers. I think maybe outpost cabins too. Maybe the Weston's do still own it and it's just leased to the Camp. I imagine the taxes alone would be staggering.
Trip Reports » Ice Out Trip 2025 – Ahmek District » Yesterday 1:12 pm |
Great read =)
Thanks for sharing!
Where In Algonquin? » WIA 883 » Yesterday 11:31 am |
Sawyer, looking at the north shore?
1 of 1