Just to update:  
Road from Cabin to Basin Lake still very rutted - but if you have a spotter for a small car probably passable.  We stayed at Buck Lake instead. 

Park warden stopped by and we suggested they run something thru there just to make it better  

Good Morning,

Last I went to Basin Lake back in 2017. The road was barely passable for a car (very rutted).
Has that road been graded in the last 9 years?   We are looking at going again.  Just seeing if anyone has any updates

Thanks 

RCSpartan wrote:

@Mulder, I think the lockdown is until June 2nd inclusive. Might want to check on that.

 
Yes, I just got the partial cancellation email. Says I can change to Thursday the 3rd if I want.

2) I've seen people bring in coolers before.  Even on Crotch Lake (as Park staff watched).   I don't think they are a big issue on these lakes as they are popular, and you canoe right to the site. 

I bought this prior to my trip 3 weeks ago and it worked great.

https://www.costco.com/titan-deep-freeze-26-can-backpack-cooler.product.100659654.html
We put Meats/Cheese/Eggs/Veggies etc.

3)  I've camped on Site #1.  It was very nice but you might share the island. 
I'd avoid site #3 (on hill) and site #11 looked small. 
Sites #4 to #9 are big but very close to eachother. (It's like you are car camping close)  low lying and good beach.
#10
http://www.algonquinadventures.com/PCI/lakes/Crotch/CrotchCS10/CrotchCS10.htm


  
 

Plenty of parking off to the side of the Sunday Lake Access point at the head of the portage. 
But could always park at Big Pines Trailhead and make that 1.5km walk back to gear? 

RCSpartan wrote:

Yeah, why would they suspend one service and not the other if the plan is to keep the Park closed? No logic in that. Looking positive.

 

Perhaps a phased in opening for camping,  Backcountry, low risk, if it's OK, partly open front country.    

I suspect we will get an announcement on when camping is going to happen today anyways.  
It's frustrating for me, I leave the 18th for my 5 day trip.   
My company put all vacations on hold, I can likely still get approval on short notice. (After working from home for almost 3 months, I could use a break from home)  

LeoV wrote:

@Mulder
The fact is they never had enough test kits to test for the corona virus. Especially during the beginning of the outbreak. This was a worldwide problem. In March, people without a suspect travel history in Canada, who were sick, had the symptoms and were expecting they were infected they were send home, told to isolate but were never tested. As a result they are not included in the confirmed numbers. They still only perform a limited amount of tests.

Governments in other countries wanting to know the real scope of the infections and death rates performed random street tests. These tests on the low end indicated ( This one was done weeks ago in the Netherlands so by now the numbers are higher. ) a 4% infection rate. BTW as far as I know Canada still has not approved this (blood) test they use for this.

I can also come up with a higher death rate for the flu. If you like to go with the confirmed deaths that start out as flu, turn into pneumonia and then result in death is 8000 per year in Canada. This would give a death rate of at least 14.5%.

Anyway all beside the point I was trying to make. At the moment people are presented with these high death rates while in reality they are no were near the +/-7% the official numbers suggest. Most likely they are around 0.175%.

Another interesting bit of information about new York. New York Gov. Cuomo actually mandated early on during the outbreak that nursing homes take on Covid 19 patients….That’s why they have sky high number of deaths in their Nursing homes.

There is no point to this, you are ignoring what MANY health agencies, epidemiologists and studies are saying.   You are choosing to take the numbers and manipulate them to get your desired results.   Can't reason with that, sorry. 

LeoV wrote:

. The result is that the actual cases are many multiples of the official confirmed cases. If you would go with the 4% and apply it to Ontario than that would mean there most likely are actually already about 600000 cases in Ontario resulting in a death rate of 0.175%. This is a lower death rate than the yearly flu.

"The Flu" is a broad term that covers a range of viruses. 
Your assertions/assumption is also far correct. 

From New York City, they already have deaths AND Antibody testing, And they have already lost around 0.3% of their population from COVID, and counting. 

To contrast, the last major Flu Pandemic H1N1 of 2009, estimated to have killed between .01% - .03%. of those infected, and THAT was considered a bad flu year. 

DanPM wrote:

You could get there by either route, the best might be to go there from Kingscote and out by the river, I think you can arrange a shuttle back to your car from Pine Grove Point fairly affordably.

I'd agree with taking the easternmost campsite on Scorch if you can.

Getting onto the main part of the lake from the portage might be challenging. It was a bit of a rock garden when I was there a few years ago and I've also heard the dam broke, that would mean the beaver dam at the outlet of Scorch Lake (near the portage where a creek drains it into Branch Lake) so that might lower the water levels a bit. I'm sure it's still doable but it might take some extra portaging or wading.

Don't miss the short hike to the lookout.

Lots of wading and extra portage probably 200m+  we were able to put in and paddle for about 50m before we just had to pull the canoe.  Sometimes ending up waist deep in muck   There was a small beaver dam at the end and we were able to paddle from there.

Looking at previous pictures it's crazy to see how much this lake level has dropped even from 2014.  (Sometime between 2009 and 2012 is appears the first major dam broke - and an additional one broke sometime after 2014).  Does make it difficult if you planned to get there on day 1.   We left Kingscote about 10:00 (due to storm) and got at the site at 6:30pm. 

Heading home along the river route to do that loop there was at least 3 beaver dams we had to pull over, some very impressive, at least 2 over a meter tall, and one that basically surrounded us as we pulled into it.  Very cool.

Alot of the Portage signs are missing.   We needed up missing the one near the Gut Rapids Trail, pulled over a beaver dam, found the trail then had to double back. and pull back over the beaver dam.   Probably lost an hour of time there cause we got lost. 

We ended up leaving our site on Scorch Lake at 8:10 and in Pine Grove Point just before 6.