Opeongo is a big lake and can get pretty windy and choppy. Might not be the best option for beginnerish paddlers. You might consider taking the water taxi from Algonquin Outfitters and portaging to one of the smaller lakes north of there.

The only issue you might have with portaging from canoe to smoke is traffic crossing hwy 60.

Canoe and smoke have lots of good options. Haven't done the Barron but people keep saying I should so it's probably worth it.

If you're in to creeks, head creek or madawaska heading into two rivers might be an option.

If your home base is Rock Lake there are some nice day trips close by. Paddle south down through Rock and Penn towards Clydegale, there are some waterfalls that you can explore on the portages, and Clydegale is a pretty lake often with moose roaming around.

You can also hike Booths Rock Trail and some other trails off of Hwy 60 (Lookout Trail)

If you're beginner canoeists I would avoid the big lakes like Opeongo and Smoke, like keg mentioned above, they can get pretty choppy. If you do end up going to Opeongo though, whether it's by canoe or water taxi, go to the northwest arm to Hailstorm Bay - it's a popular spot for wildlife viewing.

Also portaging from Canoe to Smoke is very quick - much quicker than strapping the canoe to your car. It's about a 5min walk if that, all flat and easy.

You can do a day trip from Cache Lake, go east and at the start of the 360m portage, leave your gear and hike up to Skymount, then afterwards continue through the river, down Head Creak into Head lake, check out the waterfall at the south of the lake, and go back through the 1.6km portage up into Cache (it's a flat portage).
 

Smoke lake is a good sized lake too, but when the wind is up can be a stiff paddle, the portage to ragged lake is short but steep. If you go to park side bay, you can take the portages through Claude lake back to smoke if the wTer is not too low. Smoke has lots of cottages, ragged is scenic as well as busy.

Like trippy things said, the Madawaska  river is a great 5 hr paddle or so, if you start at smoke and end at the campground on lake of two rivers. Not sure about the timing if you veer off towards head lake. although I don’t know the status of the beaver dams on it. Portages are good.

And on the east side of the park there’s the shall lake access point, a day trip to booths lake farm through farm lake and into mccarthys creek. From there through ryegrass,mole, godda , rumley and back to farm lake. Portages were good 2 years ago.

There’s also from the same access point farm lake to crotch, to Shirley and go as far as you can, then back through bridle. Portages were good on that one.

Hi lings.

I believe your plan for Day 3 should possibly turn into a 2-day trip instead of a day on the Opeongo.

IMO, the Barron Canyon area is majestic and relatively easy to paddle/access. The portages are brutal because of the crazy elevation changes due to its extensive geological past.

Do you have two vehicles or just the one? This will greatly change what you're able to do in the park as I find that carpooling loops has allowed my group to do some pretty neat areas!

I'm assuming you have the one vehicle so instead of going up river from A51 - Squirrel Raps, I would put in at A38 and travel down river to the sites on the lower Barron River. It is an amazing area and easy to access! Then, on your way out of the area, do the Barron Canyon Trail - it will blow your mind that you were on that river the day before! 

Again my bias is looking for neat river dynamics and geology.

McManus Lake in that area is also beautiful to paddle and stay on.

If you provide more information on your group's ages/fitness/etc then you can probably get better quality advice to those skill types!

Best of luck!
-Dust

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! These routes sound interesting. I'll look into Cache Lake!

I agree, it's a bit crazy to try to do the canyon in 1 day; we were thinking of camping at a park closer to the canyon but decided we would try to do a 16 hr day and try to have relaxing days before & after the canyon.

We also considered starting from access point 38; I ended up basing the current route from this blog post + suggestion:  https://mcelroy.ca/notes/high_falls_barron_canyon_how-to.html
(about halfway through the post, titled: Canoeing the Barron Canyon as a Day Trip)

How difficult are the 3 portages from access point 38? I think we would want to canoe through the canyon, so we can't avoid the portage at Brigham Chute. This is our 1st time portaging a canoe, so I was thinking the portage at Cache Rapids would be easier to handle.

I hadn't considered going to High Falls since I thought it was already a bit much to drive 3 hrs to Squirrel Rapids, but if we change our route I might consider it based on time constraints.

I can see pros & cons to both routes. If we started from #38, we could hike the Barron Canyon trail & maybe go to High Falls + canoe more leisurely, but there would be the 3 portages. Squirrel Rapids is a longer canoe route, but only has 1 portage. How long would you say the canoe routes are (#38 to Barron Canyon vs #51/Squirrel Rapids to Brigham Chute)? I am concerned about time.

Our group (father & daughter duo):
1) female in her early 20s; not very fit - think skinny arms lacking in arm strength.
2) male in his mid 50s; also not very fit - has decent arm strength though.
Stamina is ok/decent for both though. We were able to put & remove the canoe on our minivan, so we could probably handle portages but might be slow.

Only 1 car 

Ok, last post for tonight! Updated plans:

1. Canoe Lake, based on Martin's suggestion.

2. Cache Lake, based on trippythings' suggestion (might possibly deviate a bit, but going to skymount sounds interesting)

3. Barron Canyon (undecided on route)

4. Rock Lake, based on trippythings' suggestion

5. undecided; sounds like I should consider replacing Smoke Lake with something else. So hard to choose, you guys gave some great routes!! I'll do a bit more research from your suggestions.

I have accessed the Canyon from Brigham Chute and from squirrel Rapids. Several times. It is quicker/shorter from Brigham Chute. The portages are not an issue for me. If portaging is a concern sure start from Squirrel Raps.

@scoutergiz: That's what I was under the impression of as well. I was thinking we would just walk to the Chute to avoid the portage.

@MartinG: you're right. I think since we're canoeing at a different place first with portages I'll see how we handle those. If the portages aren't an issue for us we'll start from Brigham instead. That would probably be ideal time-wise + more to see.

I agree with you guys, sounds like 2 days would be better. I'm not sure if my dad would be down for backcountry camping - I'll discuss with him. Perhaps we should just canoe at Barron a different time.
How important would it be to reserve a site near Brigham Chute? or on the Barron River? Or is it more like a first-come, first serve basis? I hadn't considered doing backcountry camping so I honestly know next to nothing.

We're definitely walking a lot of the trails! Would be good to switch between exercising the arms and the legs.