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Hey,
Sending this our a bit early in hopes that anybody around the park this weekend will report back.
We are headed up next weekend. Planning a canoe trip but if stuff is too iced in we may need to toboggan in. Plan is to head to a larger lake of the 60, otherwise use a toboggan to head in (have a couple spots in mind).
Just wondering if anybody knows if the big lakes (Opeongo) is to far iced in to paddle? Alternatively, is the show building up enough to lug a toboggan?
Thanks!
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At this point you should probably expect too much ice to paddle but not nearly enough to safely travel across.
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My guess would be that Opeongo would still be open but there would be ice at the shoreline that would make landing at campsites extremely awkward. Much as I love canoeing, I don't think I would want to canoe under those conditions. I have done two trips in November. The first trip was into Parkside Bay from Smoke Lake. Shallow/sheltered bays were ice covered but other than that the lakes were still open. I'm pretty sure that the daytime temperature was above zero but it certainly got cold at night. The second trip was into Tom Thomson lake and the weather was exceptionally good. No ice anywhere. Conditions in November are highly variable but this year is clearly worse than average. A backpacking trip on either the Highland Trail or Western Uplands trail would be a much better plan than trying to canoe.
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Fork Lake on the webcam is 100% white with snow cover which means the ice is thick enough to support the 10+cm of snow on the surface... Fork has been frozen for about a week now, so I would expect small bays on any big lakes to be frozen. The lake behind my house is frozen solid as well in North Bay, usually it doesn't freeze until close to Christmas.
Last edited by ATVenture (11/17/2018 8:40 am)
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Thanks.
Yeah I have been keeping an eye on the Live Cam at the visitor centre. Noticed that Fork was iced over too, but was hoping the bigger lakes were still relatively ice free. The Algonquin Outfitters camera at Openogo seems to have been off line for awhile so it is showing nothing.
I maybe should have mentioned in the original post that we do a November canoe trip every year, usually around Remeberance Day, for close to 10 years now. Always off HWY60 as a way to visit that part of the park without the crowds. We have run into ice before and when lucky just broke through, but have also had to reroute. This year though we had to push the trip back, so are a little unsure about conditions.
We are hoping for either lots of snow (boggans) or some open water (canoe).
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Rivers will be good. Just back from a weekend on the muskoka river. I imagine the oxtongue might be a good option for a late season trip.
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The webcams show our cottage lake is mostly frozen over now and that's an hour south of 60 on the east side of the panhandle.
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Thanks for the info everybody.
Now have a pile of semi packed gear sitting on a table...waiting to be stuffed into duffel bags or dry bags. Really hoping dry bags.
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Not to be a killjoy but have you talked to the park to make sure they are issuing permits?
Last year or the year before I called on a Thursday and was told permits for the weekend were no problem. Called Friday on the way out the door and was told that the lakes were starting to freeze over and they were not issuing canoe or winter permits until further notice.
Hate to see you show up and be turned away.
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Thanks for the heads up Rob. Didn't think about that.
I did call the park yesterday afternoon and asked about ice conditions saying that I would be up next weekend and they said "Opeongo is expected to be open". But now that I think about it, I was only really talking about ice, not permits. Will call Thursday afternoon now, just to make sure. Can't call Friday morning before leaving, we will arrive for when the permit office is just opening since November has such short days.
When I called AO in Dwight, they said basically the same thing.
Maybe I should just head for a self permit area! It's just that Opeongo may be one of the few viable paddling options.
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Just found this live camera feed from AO Opeongo. Might help with your decison making. Of course I haven't played with it enough yet to find current footage.
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After keeping a close eye on the weather, MODIS imagery and some phone calls to the park, we at the last minute ditch the canoe and took toboggans...and happy we did! Opeongo was showing the southern bay frozen over on MODIS.
Went up to Sand Lake gate, up the the Achray Road to the gate, then tobogganed into the area between Grand and Stratton. Stratton had two inches of ice, except for the center.
Only stayed one night though because they had actually plowed right to Achray, which meant very thin snow, which would have melted soon as the temps rose Saturday night into Sunday morning. Even going in we were dragging on a bit of rocks. We got nervous we would have to "portage" out in multiple trips.
Didn't see any other campers or day trippers. However, for the first time we have ever seen it, there was a "harvest count" check point on the way out for hunters.
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Iced in or not. With water temps that cold I wouldn't want to risk a dump. "Course, maybe I've just been canoeing with my Brother-in-Law too much. 
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