Our 30 Year Old Canoe Lake Trip Report

I was going through some old files and just found our trip report from our Canoe Lake canoe trip in Algonquin Park that we did 30 years ago. This is the same trip Cathy and I redid this year to mark its 30th anniversary.

It seemed like a hell of a trip back then. All our meals would have been cooked on open fire. We never had a stove. Drinking water came directly from the lake. It was never treated. Camping fees were $2.00 per night. Now they are $12.50.

Same Canoe Route - 30 Years Apart

Shortly after my wife and I graduated university, we wanted to learn to canoe and to do a canoe trip. We had no idea how do to any of this, but since we just graduated, we decided to learn how ... from books. We read up on canoe tripping, gear needed, and etc. We had heard of Algonquin Park and thought that would be an exciting place to go.

On our very first canoe trip, we set off from Canoe Lake and I had a book on the bottom of the canoe and I read how to do a J-stroke as we weaved down the lake. Our first little trip was a success and the next year we bit off a bigger challenge. We would take a week’s vacation and paddle the popular route from Canoe Lake up the Burnt Island and onto Big Trout Lake. We would return via to 2.5 km portage to Tom Thompson Lake.

This route took us 7 days to complete. Not being overly familiar with portaging, we tandem carried the canoe across all the portages. We cooked off of fires, because that’s what you did back then (as well as drink right from the lakes). The misery and agony of the 2.5 km portage has been blocked from my mind.

This year is 30 years since that trip. We, hopefully, have come a long way in our tripping ability since that trip. Our skills in paddling, portaging, planning, and packing developing over the years through courses, paddling with others, and experience. We decided to do the trip again to commemorate its 30^th anniversary.

This time we would do it in 4 days. We did not want the crowds of the summer so we decided on June, though we knew the bugs would be bad. That’s ok. We have toughened over the years. We knew we had the skills for the trip, the question was, do we still have the stamina? We both turned 54 this year and although we keep in good shape, there are frequent and long portages along this route.

We left early in the morning and drove to the Canoe Lake access, got our permits, had lunch and were on our way. The day was sunny and warm. We paddled the 13 km to Burnt Island Lake, doing the 4 portages to get there, without much problem. Easy peasy! We got into camp around 5 pm, set up the bug tent, had dinner, and relaxed.

Day 2 had us covering 21 km to Big Trout Lake. This involved 6 portages for a total of just over 2 ½ km. This we seemed to do with surgical precision. We moved along at a good pace and were quite good at banging off each portage. We arrived where we had planned to camp at 4 pm and felt so good we decided to keep going. We paddled another hour into White Trout Lake making our distance for the day 25 km. We were rewarded by seeing 2 moose. We didn’t have a reservation to camp on White Trout Lake, but we had seen no one else all day and saw no activity on any campsite. I’m over it. We felt good about the day and were now anticipating a big day tomorrow.

Day 3 was the big challenge, the 2 ½ km portage from Ink Lake to Tom Thompson Lake. It had started to rain in the early morning but thankfully stopped by the time we were loading the canoe. We warmed up for the big portage by completing 2 portages of 660m and 490m, had lunch and then arrived at the 2 ½ km portage. Our plan was to do it in 4 sections with rests in between. We put on some fresh bug juice, zipped up the bug jackets and started our trek.

We were pleasantly surprised at our pace and our ability. We finished the portage in 2 ½ hours. Not bad at all for 2 aging paddlers. We felt good when we finished and paddled past Tom Thompson Lake and camped on Little Doe Lake. Though overcast all day, it never did rain on us. An omen of good luck?

We arrived in camp at 5 pm ending another 25 km day, tired but feeling pretty good that after 30 years we still had some spark. The next day was an easy 10 km paddled back to Canoe Lake and our car.

It was nice to know that we still had the ability to do a more challenging trip with longer days and longer, more frequent portages. This certainly opens up a world of possibly for future canoe tripping routes.

Wayne

Our Disappearing Canoe Routes

Like probably many people, I pass time in the winter longing for summer and the thought of a summer canoe trip. I spend many hours scanning the internet and reading trip reports for possible future trips.

Many of these trip reports are getting old. Many seem to be 15 or 20 years old. Even the popular Ontario canoe routes books published my Kevin Callan are over 15 years old. How long before the book was published was the canoe trip for the book done?

Many of these trip reports show that many of Ontario’s canoe routes are disappearing, being absorbed back into nature. This year, I did 2 canoe trips, The West Montreal River near Gawganda and the Nabakwasi River near Gogama. Signing on these routes was none existent and the portaged were in very rough shape, if not completely gone.

For the most part, it used to be the Junior Ranger Program that maintained our canoe routes. These youth would go out and clear portages and campsites and make sure signs were in place. I had the pleasure of working with some Junior Rangers one summer when I working in Red Lake.

With never ending funding cuts to the MNR, the Junior Ranger Program now only runs out of certain provincial parks. Crown land and numerous canoe routes have long been abandoned.

I ran into a conservation officer as we finished our West Montreal River trip. He was ecstatic to see us. He said the route is hardly ever used by canoe trippers anymore. He was quite happy to see someone paddling this route.

Later in the summer, when we arrived in Gogama, we discovered that the large MNR office there had closed completely and had been relocated to Timmins. I don’t think a lot of trail maintenance will be happening in that area any time soon.

As must as I would like to blame the government funding cuts for the disappearing canoe routes, part of the problem has been a cultural shift away from paddling. Fewer and fewer people are canoe tripping and camping. ABS canoes are not even available anymore.

Reservations at provincial parks across the country are down. Many parks are trying to entice visitors with glamour camping options, or “glamping”. Who wants to stay in a tent when you can stay in a fancy yurt?

On the upside, it means the canoe routes won’t be crowded and trippers will be enjoying solitude. On the down side, many routes will be much more challenging to do, especially portages, navigation and campsites.

One day they may be gone forever. For me, I am going to try to do as many as possible before either the canoe routes or I disappear.

Wayne Gignac

Posting of Canoe Trip Reports

Today I posted 3 canoe trips to my pages:

• Larder River Canoe Route
• Nabakwasi River Canoe Route
• West Montreal River Canoe Route

I hope you find them interesting, enjoyable, and worthwhile.

For years, ever since the kids were young, each year we did a family canoe trip. These trips consisted of me, my wife Cathy, my daughter Samantha, and my son Jeremy. Usually we also had some close friends come along as well. These people varied year to year based on what was going on in their own lives, but they were all as close as family to us.

We had to stop this tradition because of illness in the family and for 5 years there were not any canoe trips. Thankfully, last year we were able to start canoe tripping again.

This blog will contain trip reports from the various canoe trips we will do. As time goes by and the family gets older and lives change, this seems like a good thing to do.

Many of these trips that we do, we will probably never do again. There are so many exciting routes out there. Posting the trip reports here, however, may help others and other families do these trips.

There is no better time for bonding than on a canoe trip.

And so here starts my first blog.