So here's an idea I have for next camping season, and I'm wondering if anyone out there has some interest, even if only at the theoretical level at this point. I'd love to cross Algonquin from west to east (or east to west, I don't particularly care which), but I don't have the time to turn that into a round trip. So I was thinking, if there were another camper (or a group, as long as you can fit in one car!) interested in doing the same thing in the other direction, then maybe we could coordinate. We meet somewhere in the middle and exchange car keys. We complete our trips, drive each others' cars to a meeting point somewhere in the middle, we swap back and everyone goes home. 

It would take some coordination, and probably both groups having inReach devices in case anyone falls behind schedule, but it would let everyone do a one-way trip across the park without the same level of effort that would normally require. 

Any takers? 

Dude, enough. You have nowhere near enough information to be judging these kids, and yet you are anyway. Stop doubling down on being a jerk. 

@pjr: I was on Cedar Lake last week. There were a few black flies. Mosquitoes weren't awesome, but also weren't terrible. The mornings were a regular slapfest, but by early afternoon I was more or less bug free. I'm taking my family into the park the same time you are, and picked up a Eureka NoBugZone just in case. I'd rather err on the side of caution, but I don't expect the bugs to be a showstopper. 

I've camped on Shirley before, that's not a bad idea. The ~1K portage is basically a road. Granted with the amount of stuff I'll be dragging along to keep my family happy it'll probably be a 5K portage, but even so. I see only one booking on Shirley for that weekend, at least so far. 

Thanks for the advice folks. Considering I also have a canoe rented (!) in Madawaska for this trip, I think I'll just stand pat and hope for the best. We'll be heading out early Friday morning for sure, which will hopefully get us there at a good time to find a decent site. 

I'm taking my (almost) 4 year old daughter into Algonquin for the first time, ever, in less than two weeks. I've been on Booth's, I've even camped on Booth's, but I've never looked at Booth's with the mindset of taking a kid there. 

My biggest concern is that I just looked at the weekend we're going, and Booth's is 100% fully booked. 0/17 available. Booth's only has 18 campsites, and so I have visions of ending up with the crappiest, most kid-unfriendly campsite as my daughter's first ever Algonquin experience, and that's making me super nervous. In a perfect world we'll score one of the beach sites on the east side of the lake, but I have to plan for the worst-case scenario. So I guess my questions are:

In general, how would you rate the quality of the Booth campsites? My recollection is that for the most part they're pretty good. 
If we end up with a lousy site, is there a beach stretch we could hang out on, far enough from a campsite so that we wouldn't be intruding on someone else's space? 
If you were in my shoes, knowing Booth's is fully booked, would you rebook elsewhere rather than take the chance? I'm specifically eyeing the Tim to Rosebary, or possibly Canoe Lake to Burnt Island, both of which (at least so far) are nowhere near full for that weekend, but I'm open to other suggestions. 

Any and all advice is appreciated!




 

Thanks folks. I'm heading for Brent tomorrow morning and I still don't know if I'm going to stick with my trip plan or just laze around on Cedar. Will likely be a gametime decision!

MooseWhizzer is clearly the only possible choice. 

From a 'campsite suggestion' perspective, knowing which lakes you're spending your nights on on would be handy!