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Hello everyone and welcome to my first post! I have been canoe tripping tandem and solo (max 3 days solo) for a number of years now mainly throughout the Kawartha Highlands and Algonquin Park. This year I want to challenge myself a little more and embark solo on a 100km 5 day loop. I have done many days tandem and a handful of days solo consisting of up to 25km total. I have also done bits and pieces of this total route and thought it would be interesting to put it together by exploring some parts of the park I haven’t been to yet and paddling both north and south of hwy60 in the same trip.
Below is my plan with distances and travel times calculated thanks to Jeff’s Maps used on the Avenza Maps app. I’ll be departing from and returning to Canoe Lake Access Point. Based on previous gps tracks, solo I average about 5km/hr paddling and about 4km/hr on portages.
Day 1: ~6hrs of travel 3860m Portaging 20.73km total.
Canoe > Potters Creek P390 > Potters Cr P65 > Potters Cr P95 > Potters Cr P740 > Potters Lake P725 > Brûlée P175 > Rosswood P1015 > Straight Shore P655 > McIntosh Lake
Day 2: ~7hrs of travel 6870m Portaging 24.4km total.
McIntosh Lake > Ink P2390 > Tom Thomson > Little Doe P1340 > Burnt Island P160 > Alder P2105 > Iris P875 > Linda Lake
Day 3: ~6.5hrs of travel 7295m Portaging 20.63km total.
Linda Lake P1315 > Owl P435 > Raven P920 > Bruce P540 > Source P895 > AP11* P515 > Tanamakoon > Cache P1640 > Head P1035 > Harness Lake
Day 4: ~7hrs of travel 5145m Portaging 21.13km total.
Harness Lake P145 > Pardee P10 > Lawrence P470 > Rod&Gun P510 > Lake Louisa P1460 > North Grace P165 > Lemon P810 > McGarvey P425 > Whatnot P930 > Little Coon P220 > Big Porcupine Lake
Day 5: ~3.5hrs of travel 1810m Portaging 14.14km total.
Big Porcupine P395> Big Porcupine P590 > Ragged P240 > Smoke P585 > Canoe Lake
Any thoughts and insights on a good time of year to go, the overall route, fishing along the way, or any other considerations would be awesome!
I have also toyed around with the Ontario Parks website to see if I’d be able to book this online but I can’t. There’s two days which it says that it is too far and too pick another lake. In the past I’ve only run into a warning although you could still book. I assume they have changed that and I’ll have to call. Anything to note when calling in?
Thanks in advance for any comments, advice, help, etc. I can also post day by day maps with route overlay if that helps anyone (just let me know!)
-Austin
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Just call in to book -- you can't avoid the "too far away" warnings through the online system.
I skimmed your post but sounds like you've done a 25km solo before. You'll be crossing a couple of bigger lakes on your 25km days -- might be good to have a contingency plan if the wind is up. I trust this has crossed your mind, though.
Lots of good fishing on days 2-4 on those big lakes... pretty much pick a lake and drop a weighted line with a Williams. Have fun!
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Welcome Austin!
Having time to relax and enjoy where you are is generally a good thing, but if this is a trip just to push yourself to see what you're capable of, I completely understand that as well. My main thought about this route is that the advantage in putting in longer days and having 5+ days of trip time is that you can get away from the lakes near the access points into places quieter and more remote. This trip is doing a big loop around the busiest area of the park so you're not really going to get that. Not sure if that's a factor or not for you, just putting it out there.
If you get bad weather or windy days you're not giving yourself a chance to catch back up if you get off script, but as you're never far from your original access point it's simple enough to abandon and head back to the car if you need to.
Potter's Creek can be a slog in low water.
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That's an interesting trip. Certainly a lot of portaging. I don't think I've heard of anyone picking a route quite like that. I might be tempted pick one side of the Hwy and get further away from the busier parts of the park.
Interesting tidbit. It's not Brûlée. It is and always was Anglicized. Pronounced Broole.
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Thanks for the advice! I like the long day format, keeps my mind busy while I’m alone and the work helps get me tired enough to ease the night time anxiety.
I have considered the weather, I did have to extend a 3 day trip by one day last year from being windbound. I might switch up my route or possibly add a 6th day and shorten the days so that if I do get bad weather I have the route flexibility to catch up instead of just go home. Unfortunately bad weather is hard to predict 6 months ahead of time! I liked the route but I can see what you’re saying about being around 60.
Again, thanks for the input it’s giving me a few more things to consider.
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I guess the thing about staying localish to 60 may be your subconscious contingency plan intentional or not. In the event of emergency or bad weather you're never really too crazy far from civilization and can cut the trip short if need be for whatever reason. Given that your solo, this may not be a bad thing for an extended mileage trip such as this. Zig zagging across 60 isn't such a bad thing in this case IMO. We crossed 60 4x I think on our route from Opeongo to Oxtongue lake lol. Depsite being in close proximity to the highway it does off certain securities. Enoy your trip. Good luck!!.
Last edited by Shayne74 (2/05/2021 8:13 pm)
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