Continues from https://algonquinadventures.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=2678

Day 4 - Happy Isle to Sproule

I had a really good deep sleep. I can only imagine what my snoring was like. We had a quick breakfast (not inside the tent this time!) and got on the water by 8:30. It was a beautiful calm start to the day. Our first portage was 2km into Lake Opeongo. This is one of the easiest long ports in the park and didn't take us much time. We also crossed paths with the first person we had seen all trip. A lone young man wandering along the portage, carrying nothing. I said a quick hello, which he acknowledged in another language. A very out of place looking dude.

Opeongo was a struggle. Scott sterned for the long paddle to the south end of the lake. The wind again picked up from the north west. We found our selves hugging shorelines in bays and seeking refuge behind islands before turning down wind to surf big waves on long fetches. Scott thought it was a hoot, like riding a roller coaster. I did not like it at all and continued my cursing! By the time we reached Windy Point the sky had turned grey and a steady rain set in for the next 24 hours.
We crossed the long rough 3.3km portage between Opeongo and Sproule in the rain. That portage does not get a lot of traffic. There were countless blowdowns to navigate and the trail gets confused in a few spots. I got a boost of energy and carried the canoe for most of that portage. It felt good to be pulling my weight again.

We arrived on Sproule to see the only good site on the lake was occupied by a couple of fisherman. Booo what the heck were they doing on a Splake Lake when it is prime time for Brookies and Lakers. Grumble grumble, Stupid, easy access, curse, wine, blah blah.. I was disappointed. Even though it was pretty early in the afternoon, we had had enough of the rain and we were booked on this lake so we decided to stay. We took a shitty site on the south shore. This might just be the worst campsite I have ever stayed on. A miserable, uneven, wet, mosquito infested hollow in the woods. We sat around all afternoon sore, bored and wishing we had carried on to the next lake.
















Day 5 - Sproule to Clydegale

Woke up with everything soaked at the worst site in Canada. Today's breakfast was Coffee with Date and Chia morning rounds lightly fried in Olive Oil and smothered in Nutella, finished off with a Carnation Instant Breakfast. Sorta junk food but completely awesome!

The route from Opeongo through to Kearney is tough. We took care of the long climb from Opeongo to Sproule yesterday. The remaining 4 portages are much shorter but they are very rough. The route doesn't see much traffic or maintenance. The last trail between Pond Lake and Kearney Lake is terrible with thigh deep muck, dozens of downed trees and missing boardwalks .

After successfully crossing HWY 60 without getting hit by a logging truck or campervan we arrived at the put-in to Whitefish Lake just before lunch. We had an inReach device tracking our progress on this trip. Friends and family can see where we are and come to our rescue if needed. One of those friends was Rick from Huntsville. He saw where we were this morning and decided to go for a morning paddle on Whitefish Lake and meet up with us. We stopped for a while and had lunch with Rick. It was great to catch up and nice to know that Rick would help us out if we ran into trouble.

During the remainder of the afternoon we paddle 22km through Whitefish, Rock, Pen and Clydgale Lakes. I caught some Bass at the foot of rapids along the way. We didn't see any other paddlers but we did see another moose across the bay from an awesome campsite on Clydegale.















Day 6 - Clydegale to Little Hay

The day dawned beautifully calm with not a cloud in the sky. Today was a short day. We only faced 19km and 3 portages. Unfortunately one of those portage was nearly 7k (not a typo). It was also the start of the really bad bugs.

The route south from here is rarely travelled. It starts where the South Madawaska enters Clydegale Lake. There are only 2 possible wrong turns you can make on the South Madawaska. We took them both. If you find yourself on this river and it comes to an impossibly narrow trickle in an impossibly buggy wet land, don't worry you do not have to find/force a way through. You took a wrong turn. Go back and find the right way.

After we found the right way, the South Madawaska is a beautiful paddle. We paddled part way up the rapids at the 1055m portage because we missed the sign (was there even a sign?). The portage is full of blowdown but is flat and pretty easy to follow. We lined our way up the next short 180m portage. The 1440m portage between the South Madawaska and Cauliflower Creek is along a very old road. Easy peasy (except for the blow downs) and it's missing a sign. Sort of a trend for portages in the panhandle.

The 1440m portage ends at a modern logging road adjacent to Cauliflower Creek. Cauliflower Creek looks like paddling hell. An impossible number of switchbacks and beaver dam lift overs. We elected to portage along the logging road instead. We called it the Hay Creek Death March. All told 6.9km to a spot where the logging road crosses Hay Creek.

Hay Creek is where the trip went from Buggy to Bugpocalypse. I've never seen so many flies. You would easily kill a dozen each time you clapped your hands. I was so glad we had a bug tent. We camped for the night on a decent site on Little Hay Lake. I had a total melt down while trying to untangle our bear hang rope. It took me 15 minutes to undo a maddening tangle of knots. All the while my hands were becoming pin cushions for a swarm of hungry mosquitos. I'm glad there is no recording of this moment because I completely lost my shit. Yelling and cursing at a rope. Scott kept his distance.























Day 7 - Little Hay Lake to High Falls

Over night the bugs infiltrated our sanctuary! I woke up looking like I had been in a fight. Or maybe Scott punched me in the face while I slept. Payback for choosing this route perhaps? Factoid of the day. Scott brought 6 pairs of pants and 4 bottles of Coke on this trip! Did I forget to mention there was 43km in portages?

Today we were going down through the headwaters of the York river. There were lots of unmaintained portages in our path. The first portage out of Little Hay starts by climbing a short hill beside a creek. 150 metres later we lost the trail. After a scrambling around in a mucky stream bed for a while we rejoined the trail. We lost it a few more times before finishing the 1.2km portage. It was a rough trail but not as bad as the next one. That one might as well not exist. For the most part we just crashed through tangled bush for 3/4 of a kilometre.

Disappearing trails on portages were not the only problem. The York River also disappears a couple of times. It just ends at a beaver dam and wall of alder. When this happened we saw no signs of portages around the alder so we just forced our way through until the narrow trickles of water opened up into a river again.

South of Little Branch Lake the portages get much better. They are long but for the most part they follow old logging roads. Very enjoyable walks through open hard wood forest. We saw three moose today. Two on portages and one just before High Falls. Once we got to Branch Lake we were back on a maintained canoe route. We ran or lined most of the rapids along the river. Only portaging once before getting to High Falls.

The campsite on the portage around High Falls is the southern most campsite in Algonquin Park. It was about a half our paddle from here to Scott's truck. Knowing we would have a huge drive tomorrow we stopped and camped for one last night in the park. The campsite and the bugs were awful but the evening and the falls were beautiful.



















The End

After an uneventful 40 minute paddle to Scott's truck we were done our north to south trip across Algonquin park. 175km, including 43km along 48 portages. As anyone will tell you it's the challenges in life that stay with you. The memories will stay with me for a long time and serve as fuel for the next trip where ever it may take me.

Route Map - https://caltopo.com/m/3K9M
Video - https://youtu.be/pBU2_cqoxzQ

Last edited by MartinG (11/11/2019 2:18 pm)