Remona is the closest so far

Neither of the above

Just entering Catfish.

Very good  story telling... waiting on the next part...

I will also be booking holidays for a first week of November trip and will be nowhere near either gate..
2 weekends ago we were booked for sunday lake sat night, we arrived to the campsite on the island to find a tarp setup even though there was no other bookings on the lake. I tried to call the east and west gate 20+ times and couldn't get through... I even called AO to confirm I had the right phone numbers... I would say its safe to say when I go for my trip and they are not answering the phone the permit will be free and I will leave a note on my dash.

Good luck! 
I did a trip the first week of may coming out from the nipissing this year, I ended up travelling the entire way from burntroot back to cedar via the nipissing in around 9 hours solo (wanted to see if I could). I made it no problem and camped on cedar that night. The next morning I went to hike the brent crater and stepped on a rock with just my toes, I felt my calf muscle stretch then pop as I tried to gain balance, then I hit the ground like a sack of potatoes in some of the worst pain ive felt in my life. I had to almost literally crawl back to my truck, I was wondering what if this happened the day before down the nipissing, I figured I would have needed an extraction for sure. I hope you heal well, mine is still sore over a month later.

Every single time my wife and I go we book two permits on whatever lake we take, last year we went with my family and booked a total of 6 permits on one single lake, and occupied one single campsite. We actually have multiple campsites booked on cedar lake for one weekend this summer already.
Last year we also booked a lake for 3 solid weeks, 1 single permit for the weekdays and a separate one for each of us on the weekends and left our tent etc setup for 3 solid weeks but only visited on the weekends. 
I asked a ranger about this and he said there is nothing they can do as long as we have a permit.
Mind you the lakes we do this on are never even close to full and I dont think Id do it in a situation where it would stop someone from taking a spot, but after seeing all the BS that goes on over the years I figure why not.
There are so many loopholes, for example if you want to go hiking for a day on highway 60, just book any random canoe or backpacking site available with no intentions of using it, then you get two day permits for 12.43 vs. 17 or whatever for a single day.