Big Trout Lake Loop

Algonquin Big Trout Lake Loop - September 22-26, 2014

Looking for a late September backcountry trip as I usually do, myself and Pete decided upon a loop kayak trip in Algonquin, starting from Canoe Lake to Big Trout Lake – a well known and traveled route by many.  In fact, the Portage Store’s website shows it as a virtual canoe trip route, and it is in Kevin Callan’s books as well.  Personally, I would never start any trip from Canoe Lake in the peak seasons of July or August, it’s simply way overcrowded and probably is the epicenter of canoeing in Canada, if not the world..  filled with newbies, yahoos, singing Boy Scout troops and other undesirables I precisely want to get away from on a backcountry trip.

We got in late afternoon and decided not to go out that day as we were originally planning, so we went to Canisbay Lake to car camp.  I had never been there before and to my pleasant surprise, it was one of the better campgrounds I had been to in Algonquin – I certainly don’t like Mew Lake or Kearney Lake, they are way too crowded, Lake of Two Rivers is pretty, but crowded as well.  Canisbay has many privater-than-average sites, and is on a nice lake that even has paddle-across-the-lake semi backcountry sites.  We arrived with the power out to the campground from the huge rains earlier in the day, drove around to look at some of the vacant sites and picked one.  We had to deal with some typically shitty Ontario Parks firewood for our camp fire that night.

Day 1

Luck was on our side with the weather for this trip, although it didn’t appear so at the beginning of Monday when we got to Canoe Lake to start off, after having eaten a not so great, but good energy breakfast at the Lake of Two Rivers Cafe.  The weather was overcast, coldish with a high of 10, windy and spitting rain.  The leaf change was well underway, but not at their peak quite yet.  The good thing about that was that there was no one else leaving for the backcountry from Canoe Lake.  We packed up the canoe and headed out on Canoe Lake, our destination Burnt Island Lake for the evening.   We passed the Tom Thompson cairn on Canoe Lake and made our way to the 295m portage between Canoe and Joe Lake.  This portage looks like a highway with a big wide portage trail, complete with a composting toilet rest stop midway through the portage.  Continuing on to Joe Lake, we passed a few campers on their site, otherwise it was pretty quiet on the lakes.  The water was higher than normal on most f the lakes due to the rain from the day before which was good for several reasons.  The route took us to a meandering stream that, because of the high water, bypassed one of the portages since we glided right over several beaver dams.  We ate lunch at the beginning of the 730m portage and a quick paddle to another 200m portage before we were on Burnt Island Lake.

Burnt Island Lake is quite Large and beautiful, fortunately the wind was on our side for a change and we had a tailwind, as the sun began to dip down on the horizon.  We paddled about 2/3 across the lake and decided to look for a campsite.  Just around this time the wind started to pick up quite a bit.  The first campsite we went to check out had a good camp layout, however the wind was becoming quite the beast and this site was exposed, unfortunately, the wind was coming the same direction as the sun, so we were reluctant to go for a site in the shade to shelter from the wind - it was only 10 degrees after all.

We paddled down one arm of the lake to the last campsite on that arm and pulled up to it.  The trees were growing out of the water and it was a bit difficult landing since the water was about 5 feet higher than normal, judging from the shoreline.  Fortunately this site had a hill shading us from the wind but not the sun.  We set up camp, then broke out Pete’s breakdown bucksaw and his new Woodsman’s Pal, a machete-like implement, great for limbing small to medium sized branches and went to hunt for firewood.  The wood was plentiful from a downed tree up on a ridge behind the camp and the saw and pal made short work of them.  We drank plenty of wine/beer that night around a roaring campfire.  The skies cleared for a bit as we listened to the loon calls, alas, we were to find out the clear skies would not last - luckily the calming wind would.

 

Day 2

Destination for this day was Big Trout Lake.   We got a bit of a late start this day – woke up with some on and off light rain that would not relent, and still a bit chilly from the night before but not too bad.  We slowly packed up and hit the water, making our way to the 790m portage between Burnt Island and Little Otterslide Lakes.  We set off on the portage after fuelling with some chocolate.  After paddling the Otterslide lakes a series of shorter portages then the last 730m portage, we finally made it to Big Tout Lake, and there was still some decent time left in the day.  The skies were heavily overcast but that was fine, there was not much wind thankfully, as this is quite a big lake.  We decided to pick an Island campsite, both because there was apparently a nuisance bear in the area according to the park staff before we took off, and an island site also could provide us with both sunset and sunrise views.

The only site we checked out is the one we picked.  It had a cool looking grass campsite, with a good bench around a nice firepit on a point – sold!  There was a large deadfall pine tree very close to the camp, we were surprised no one had harvested it earlier.  We cut the larger limbs off and processed a huge pile of wood for the fire.  It was still moist and damp so a fire would be good that evening we thought as we set up our still soaked tents and dampish sleeping bags.

The sky cleared that night and I got a couple night shots, but a fog started rolling in shortly after before going to bed.

Day 3

I woke up surrounded by white dampness…  the fog which looked pretty cool.  But I think this was the turning point for the weather – it was all good from here on out.  The fog burned out, gradually revealing the colors of the nearby islands and the sun warmed and gloriously dried everything that were spread over the rocks, before packing up and pushing off.  It was a brilliant day weather wise.  Another lateish, past 11am start due to drying our gear out.  The plan for the day was to get to McIntosh Lake, but do a day hike behind the ranger cabin on Trout Lake to a former collapsed fire tower on the ridge, according to Jeff’s Maps.

We paddled across Trout Lake on a summery day - past the high cliffs between Trout and Big Trout and made our way to the ranger cabin on the other side of the lake.  After pulling up the boat at the ranger cabin, we quickly ate some snacks and started off to look for the trail.  The trail starts off passing the outhouse behind the ranger cabin and quickly becomes overgrown, covered with deadfall and unfollowable after a couple hundred meters.  Despite that, the forest under the canopy is relatively open so I used my GPS to do some bushwhacking…  my only regret was that I was only wearing shorts not pants since I wasn’t expecting this activity, o my shins got scraped up good in the bush.  After about an hour or so tromping around in the bush, we made our way to a ridge where we heard a moose maybe 30 meters from us.  We wanted to get to the tower but from my GPS, it still was another kilometer away and it was starting to get a little late. We had a bunch of paddling to do to get to the planned destination for the evening so we turned back and headed back to the boat.

Off through McIntosh Marsh we went, and a marsh it is – a huge wetland with cool scenery  We picked our way through the channels, around the floating peat islands through the marsh.  We did stop at one campsite-one of two campsites in all of McIntosh marsh - and debated for a short period of time whether to camp there, or continue another 6 km of paddling along with a 745m and a 510m portage to McIntosh lake since it was now about 4 o’clock and darkness starts to set in around 6:30 or 7 this time of year.  We decided to push on.  Up McIntosh creek we continued with the meandering until we reached a substantial beaver dam in the way.  I was glad that it was just high enough to still be able to drag the loaded canoe + peter over it and continue on our way without much issue.

On to the 745m and 510m portages which were quite scenic and I enjoyed the view, despite being loaded up with a canoe and 100lbs of gear.

We reached McIntosh Lake with the sun getting low on the horizon, but still some time in the day.  Deliberating what site would be a good one by the map, we decided upon an island site, once again for the bear protection and a good view of the sunrise and sunset.  We got to the site and quickly assessed it for quality of tent spots, firepit, bear hang, and firewood.  The firewood was a little scarce, but I found a couple medium sized deadfall trees on the far end of the island – a bit of a hike, but some good wood, so we decided on this site.  The other alternative would be to check out another site, but that would waste another half hour of precious daylight.  In the end, I was super glad we took this site, as I got some phenomenal night shots from this site.

We collected wood first, since it was getting late, then set up camp and ate.  It was good timing, and we enjoyed yet another decent fire, and took photos of the night landscape.  The sky was crystal clear, the lake glassy, with the faint glow of Huntsville on the horizon and a full on view of the Milky Way.  There was no moon in sight to ruin the view of the stars which I was thankful for-I prefer a no moon full on starry sky to a sky dominated by the moon at night.

Day 4

Another brilliant sunny day to wake up to – prefect sleeping temperature and only slightly breezy.  This past night I slept without the fly on the tent and it was marvelous, gazing at the stars shining through the canopy of enormous White Pine trees.  I awoke just at sunrise and I rushed out of the tent to grab some good sunrise shots.  Unfortunately I wasted a bunch of time with the first bunch of photos, since my camera was still set up for night shooting and I forgot to put the settings back. 

I then made coffee and went for a shot solo paddle on the glassy water.  My Swift Kipawa is quite unstable and tippy but fun while soloing, especially when sitting in the rear seat.  Kneeling midway offers more stability, but the posture and the paddling are not quite as enjoyable.  I did manage to check out a swampy area and loop back to the campsite, with a loon resurfacing right next to my boat, more startling the loon than myself.

 Another dry out session in the brilliant sun, packing up and hitting the water again – this time we knew there was not much traveling,  just a long 2300m portage and that’s almost it to Tom Thompson Lake.  We paddled to one arm of Macintosh Lake and a serene but beautiful creek leading to Ink Lake.  The creek’s water was clear but very dark, my paddle disappearing into the murky depths.  Apparently Ink Lake refers to this.  The meandering creek was beautiful, lined with tamaracks in a bog-like setting of low bushes, moss and some pitcher plants.  Breaking out into Ink Lake we saw an amazing scene, with the mirror like Ink Lake reflecting off of the perfect little fluffy clouds (aka The Simpsons clouds) as we made our way across the lake to the long portage takeout.

The takeout is a little amusing - being so far away from everything, yet, there is this nicely constructed staircase made out of pressure treated 6 X 6 timber making it’s way up the slope from the water.  Sure, it helps with erosion and makes it easier to climb or descend, but it just is out of place; I’d rather keep it natural looking.  The portage is straightforward, a little muddy in places, a little rocky in places but not bad.  We came across a guy going the way we were, with a cedar strip canoe.  Only, instead of doing a single carry, he was doing a triple carry…  meaning he had to walk 7.9 kms instead of 2.3 km.  That cedar strip aint worth that, bro.

We arrived at McIntosh and the dude that had the cedar strip was just finishing up his portage and we chatted a bit.  We set off on Tom Thompson Lake and looked for a site.  This place was packed and many sites were taken.  I personally am not very accustomed to backcountry camping with many others around.  The reason this place has so many people is there is only one short portage, in fact the same first portage as we took on day 1, that separates Canoe Lake from this area..  and a couple hour paddle as well.  

 In any case we managed to get a site on a point.  A very large site in fact.  We looked around for some firewood..  not much to be found in an easily accessible campsite like this – just some green maple and green pine branches some douchebags cut down.  I did find a punky old dead pine tree standing up in close vicinity as well.  Exploring the woods behind this site and the campsite next to it, there was a ton of moose poo everywhere, some bear poo, and some unknown..  maybe coyote poo was well…  poo central!  I was hoping to see a moose (not a bear) with all of this fresh stuff around, but I never did see any creatures, other than humans…  and the busy beaver in the lake that decided to waddle up next to the campfire, rustle some bushes and have a late night snack, munching away right beside my canoe.  I went up to it to take a photo and it was not intimidated at all…   just sat there while I shone my headlamp on it while taking a photo.

Day 5

It was a Friday and time to head out today.  We took our time getting our gear together, it was another brilliant day.  Only a couple hour paddle and no portages back to Canoe Lake.  On the way out it was apparent that the leaves had changed significantly since we started the trip.  We enjoyed the sun, warm breeze and relished at the amazing fall colors as we leisurely paddled.  On our way out, there was armadas of canoeists heading into the backcountry since it was the weekend..  we were glad we were headed in the opposite direction. We got to Canoe Lake after the same 295m portage that we first entered the backcountry area. I wanted to check out the om Thompson cairn and totem since we were in the area and quickly stopped to check it out on the way back to the landing.  We got back mid afternoon.  Since it was so amazing out we eventually went to Canisbay to car camp and have a day hike the day after, but not before having a giant Hungry Bear burger, poutine and a bottle of Muskoka Brewery’s Mad Tom IPA at the Portage Store Restaurant…  amazing how your first meal back tastes after a great adventure!