Algonquin Adventures / Opeongo River

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 5/22/2025 7:04 am

Went down Opeongo River last weekend. It's a whitewater day trip, from Shall Lake to Aylen Lake. So it starts in Algonquin, but quickly leaves and ends on crown land.

My son paddles a whitewater SUP, I paddle a L'edge.

The run is outlined in George Drought's guide to Madawaska River. Mainly class I/II run, but has a couple of class III (maybe IV) sections. It was still high enough last weekend, but is gonna be pretty rocky the rest of the year (although still paddle able). Would definitely need a royalex boat, not kevlar.

To get there, it's about 10k of flat water. The last lake is Victoria, and apparently most of that land is owned by the Weston family - they prohibit any land use, or use of their private road that accesses the start of Opeongo River... hmmm. not nice.

One question: has anyone fished it? Cause... there's not a lot of pressure, and sure seems like a nice trout stream....

Cheers!
Marko

**Posted by iainwf** 5/22/2025 2:13 pm

Very cool trip! I've never heard of a whitewater SUP

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 5/22/2025 5:07 pm

hahaha oh it's definitely a thing.
we were at MKC the following day.

**Posted by MartinG** 5/22/2025 7:15 pm

That looks awesome Marko!

When we ran it in 2017, we couldn't see any of the bridges foundations. Water was right up to the underside of the bridge. Maybe 3 feet higher than in your pic. We stopped for a shore lunch at the camp on Lake Victoria and met the caretaker. He told us the Weston's no longer own it. They donated it to the Salvation Army. Not sure if that includes all the rest of the land around the Lake.

The Weston's originally bought all that off the one time Governor of Vermont. He owned the whole lake and it is why there is that unusual jog in Algonquin Park's border. I did fish Victoria Lake briefly and caught one small Pike.

For us it was one long Class 2/3 river almost completely washed out with nothing to hit. I don't think anything was Class 4. Maybe Victoria ledge was pushing it.

Camp Madawaska on Victoria Lake

Victoria Lake from the camp. We were standing on what was normally their beach

I made a short video. Such a fun river! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjQlsioYUWY

Last edited by MartinG (5/22/2025 7:17 pm)

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 5/23/2025 6:36 am

Martin, that's really interesting!

Talking with the shuttle operator, they've been asking for Victoria Road access for years (i.e. including this year), and denied every time - so I think the donation is only for the camp, but the rest of the land is still with the Westons...

You're right about the water level, that's far higher. Ou level was low, but a lot of fun as the features are a bit more prominent.

@Martin, did you actually get a boat shuttle to the start of Opeongo river? Cause... that would save 2.5 hours of paddling on flat water...

**Posted by MartinG** 5/23/2025 11:21 pm

We started at Lake Opeongo and finished at Bark Lake. Barkwick camp did our car shuttle to Opeongo Access. Opeongo Outfitters for the water taxi to the Dam at the foot of the East Arm. Camped on Farm and at the Forks where the Aylen river joins the Opeongo River. Our only portages was 10 meters around the dam at thee foot of Booth Lake and 10 meters over the Victoria Lake road.

There are campsites on the lake for the campers. I think maybe outpost cabins too. Maybe the Weston's do still own it and it's just leased to the Camp. I imagine the taxes alone would be staggering.

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 5/24/2025 6:51 am

Now that's a great idea for a trip... I really like the idea of doing the whole Mad from Opeongo to Griffith... Hmmm.... Very few portages. The camp sites would probably need to be the forks at Aylen, then... MKC? Then Jessup's, and then rest of lower Mad is easy... A lot of flat water between Bark Lake and Jessup's, solo canoes would be a slog. But that would be an interesting tale.

I just looked at the 2017 May flows, and they were historically high - Palmer Rapids was running around 500 cms for your trip - it was 46 on Saturday for our trip - a weeeee bit of a difference!!

Last edited by Marko_Mrko (5/24/2025 6:52 am)

**Posted by MartinG** 5/24/2025 7:44 am

Doing the mad from Source lake to Griffith would be great. I don't think it would be that hard. You would want to do it in the spring for good flows. The Upper Mad scares me a bit. I'm not a strong WW paddler and I've gotten more hesitant in the past few years. I couldn't paddle a L'edge to save my life.

There are places to camp on the Upper Mad, Bark Lake, Middle Mad and Kaminiskeg Lake. Once you are at Palmer's it would be easy to get campsites down to Griffith. I've looked at building a route to go past Griffith and get into the North Frontenac Parklands, Mississippi River, Rideau Canal and basically paddle home to Kingston.

In the 60s the Scarlett Brothers started at Arnprior paddled up the Mad, up the Opeongo down the Crow Down the Pet, train out of the park, and down the Ottawa back to Arnprior. Can you imagine how hard and great that would have been!

Last edited by MartinG (5/24/2025 7:44 am)

**Posted by MartinG** 5/24/2025 7:55 am

Marko_Mrko wrote:
.... Very few portages. The camp sites would probably need to be the forks at Aylen, then... MKC?

Paddling up the Opeongo to the Forks would be a massive pain in the butt. And there are other camp spots on the Opeongo River south of the campsite at the Forks. I was told by the owner of Barkwick camp, there are a couple of campsites on Bark Lake. Don't know exactly where. I have a friend who lives on the Middle Mad, she uses campsites on islands on Kaminiskeg Lake. I could find out where if you actually end up doing this.

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 5/24/2025 8:53 am

Hmmm well there's next year's trip!

Only question is whether to do it at ice-out, or July. The trout fishing won't be amazing on this part, and I am not a fan of week-long trips in dry suits because I'm fragile.

Either way, gonna portage the class IV rapids on the upper, so I feel like it will be passable. I may do a scout paddle on the upper in July.