In August 1999, I returned to Algonquin Park for the first time in
eleven years. On this trip, we were a group of two - myself and my
brother Seth.
As with past trips, we would begin at Magnetawan Lake. Our goal was to
reach Burntroot Lake. Because of my interest in history, I've always
wanted see the "Alligator" which is on this lake. Although we had been
to Burntroot before, foul weather prevented us from visiting the
"Alligator".
In order to cover a greater distance, we planned to single-trip all of our portages. This
required careful planning while packing. We decided to pack all of our food in one pack.
The food pack would be a smaller pack so that it could be carried at the same time as
the canoe. All of our other gear was packed in our larger pack. The person with
the larger pack would also carry the paddles and life preservers.
Throughout the trip, I carried the food pack and the canoe. Seth carried the larger pack.
We couldn't decide who had drawn the short stick. As the food pack got lighter, we transferred
some clothing from the larger pack.
We used a Swift Kipawa canoe which we rented from
Algonquin Outfitters.
This is a rather nice, lightweight Kevlar canoe. It weighs around 50 lbs. The
light weight of this canoe made it possible to carry the food pack while carrying
the canoe.
Biggest Surprises
The Weather: The weather was unbelievable. Even though it was late August,
the temperature reached 80 degrees each day. Only one night did the
temperature drop below 60 degrees. As if this were not enough, it did not rain
the entire trip. We had plenty of cool weather gear and rain gear which went unused,
but we did not mind in the least.
The Propane: This was the first trip that we would not be cooking over a
campfire. We brought along a "Grasshopper" propane stove for cooking.
Not knowing how much propane we would need, we brought four tanks. It was the
sixth day of our trip before we emptied the first tank. This meant we carried two
extra propane tanks for the entire trip. This we did mind.
Biggest Mistakes
Sunscreen: Because our most recent trips were cold and rainy, we neglected to
bring sunscreen. After three days of having our legs cooked, we began to drape our
life preservers over our legs. It helped but we will never forget sunscreen again.
Bad Cheese: In previous trips, we brought gouda cheese in wax to eat for lunch.
Because we couldn't find any gouda in wax, we decided to bring cheddar cheese - extra
sharp. As we learned, cheddar does not hold up as well as the gouda did. After the
second day, we both refused to eat it anymore. Thank goodness we brought the peanut
butter.
Just the Pictures
Maybe you aren't interested in the details of my trip. For you, I've created a page
which has just the pictures.
Day By Day
What follows is a day-by-day summary of our trip. Follow the link for each day
to read more and to see some pictures.
Day 1
Route: Magnetawan L., Hambone L., Ralph Bice L., Little Trout L., Queer L.
Distance: 8 miles
Portages: 135, 295, 435, 175
Map
Day 2
Route: Queer L., Little Misty L., Misty L., Petawawa R., Grassy Bay,
White Trout L.
Distance: 17 miles
Portages: 2435, 935, 850, 155, 195, 160, 80, 200
Map
Day 3
Route: White Trout L., Big Trout L., Longer L., Burntroot L.
Distance: 12 miles
Portages: 300, 40, 75
Map
Day 4
Route: Side trip to Barnet Depot Farm, Side trip to Cedar Rapids
Distance: 14 miles
Portages: 155, 155
Map
Day 5
Route: Burntroot L., Longer L., Big Trout L., White Trout L., Grassy Bay, McIntosh Creek, McIntosh L.
Distance: 20 miles
Portages: 75, 40, 300, 745, 510
Map
Day 6
Route: McIntosh L., Timberwolf L., Misty L., Little Misty L., Petawawa R., Daisy L.
Distance: 11 miles
Portages: 405, 765, 935, 450, 135
Map
Day 7
Route: Side trip to Salvelinus L. and Rain L.
Distance: 12 miles
Portages: 1185, 1275, 1275, 1185
Map
Day 8
Route: Daisy L., Hambone L., Magnetawan L.
Distance: 3 miles
Portages: 420, 55, 135
Map
Total Travel
Distance: 97 miles (including portages)
Portages: 16,665 meters (~ 10 miles)
The background image was taken from our campsite on Queer Lake
during our August 1999 trip.
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The maps used on this site were extracted from the "Canoe Routes
of Algonquin Provincial Park" map. A PDF version of this map is available.
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