Larder River

40 KM/3 DAYS June 20 – 22, 2014

My daughter, Samantha, was working in Matheson for the summer and had 4 days off coming up. I hadn’t been on a canoe trip for a few years (see August 2015 blog post). A trip that had caught my eye a few years ago was the Larder River. This seemed like a good time to renew my love for canoe tripping, get to spend some time with my daughter, and tick off another trip from the bucket list.

I drove to our cottage in Whitney to pick up our whitewater canoe and then headed to the town of Larder Lake. Lucky for us, Sam worked with a couple who lived in Larder Lake and had volunteered to do the shuttle for us. I arrived in Larder Lake late afternoon, just as Sam and her friends were arriving for work.

If you are going to do the shuttle, it would be about 2 hours return from the put-in. The public boat launch to start the trip is right in Larder Lake and there is plenty of parking.

Day 1-June 20: 15 km

Larder Lake is a very large lake and we wanted to be on the water early to avoid as much wind as possible. The town is tucked into a bay called South Arm and once you pass through Big Narrows the whole of Larder Lake opens in front of you.

Looking at the topo, we found an access road about 5 km north of town (just off Hwy 66 before Tournene Lake) that cuts off a chunk of the lake paddling. It seems to be used by locals as a boat launch/camping/swimming spot. We were up early, drove to this put-in, and were on the water by 8 am. Our friends would pick up our vehicle here and drive it to the takeout for us.

The day was sunny, calm, and cool; perfect paddling weather. The lake remained glass calm and we crossed it in 1 1/2 hours. Though South Arm is populated, the shores of Larder Lake proper are pristine. We saw no development on the lake at all. We never even saw another boat.

There is a campsite on the point just as you are about to enter Larder River. We continued on, however, and reached the Larder lake Dam in about half an hour and quickly finished the 100m portage. Sam even carried the canoe!

Another half hour of paddling and a few gravelly swifts brought us to Raven Falls. This is a spectacular, multi drop falls. It would be incredible to see in high water.  The first part of the falls we were able to line on river right for about 50 m. We then got back into the canoe to cross a little pond of water. All the water at this point funnels through a large crack in the rock. The portage was completely over grown so we portaged the remaining 150m on the left down the rocky shore.

We had lunch at the bottom of Raven Falls enjoying a beautiful day, the roar of the falls and Raven Lake in front of us.

There are campsites available both at the dam and at Raven Falls. We paddled north on the left shore of Raven Lake and found a nice site within a 10 minute paddle. It was only 1 pm, but we knew this was going to be an easy trip. We set up camp and relaxed the rest of the day. There were surprisingly few bugs all day and at the campsite. I’ll take it.

Though we really hadn’t seen any development, we were now in the park proper and were sure we wouldn’t see any. Talking to the locals in Larder Lake, they seemed barely aware that there was a river down here at all.

Day 2-June 21: 15 km

Today we again awoke to sun and warm temperatures. After packing up, we were on the water by 9:30.

About a km down Raven Lake we came to Corset Falls Dam. It consists of 2 flat, cement weirs with a low, gravelly rapid in between. Next there is an old wooden dam followed by a large concrete dam and building. The first part of this could have been carefully lined but the second section must be carried. We decided to portage the whole thing, 300 m on the right.

The rest of the day was small lakes connected by swifts and C1s, which were quite a lot of fun. We had just enough water to get down. This section, however, might be tough later in the summer though there wasn’t much evidence of portages around these rapids.

Just before the Larder River flows into Skead Lake, we came to Flat Rapids. Flat Rapids is actually 2 rapids, the first being an easy C1 and the second being a little bigger C2, both runnable. The standing wave at the bottom of this second section dumped a bunch of water into the canoe, which Samantha was not too pleased about. We paddled over to shore and bailed the water out.

We camped about half way down Skead Lake arriving at camp at about 2:30. The campsite was quite nice again. Though not overly used, the sites haven’t started to really grow in yet. Hardly any bugs again today. No bug jacket or bug repellent all day.

Day 3-June 22: 10 km

Being our last day and only a short paddle to the takeout, we had a relaxing morning and weren’t on the water until 10 am. It looked like it was going to be another hot and sunny day with minimal bugs.

About a kilometer from camp we came to First Falls, which is actually a giant slide. Lining looked like it would be difficult so we used the well used portage of 130m on the right. This slide looked like it would have been a blast in my whitewater kayak!

We had a nice paddle down to Wendigo Lake with a slight breeze in our backs. On one side there are some quite spectacular cliffs and we watched a bald eagle soaring in the sky.

We entered into Wendigo Lake proper through Swift Water, a large gravelly swift. Boaters have built a boardwalk on the right so they can line their boats up to the northern section of the lake. The boardwalk has started to rot and half of it has listed into the water.

We reached the take out by noon where we had our lunch and a swim. This seems like a popular spot for locals to swim and relax for the day. Soon we were loaded and back in the car headed back to Matheson.

Slideshow of Larder River Canoe Trip

Wayne