Algonquin Park

Date – Sept. 2004

Route: Tim River to Magnetawan Lake via Rosebary, Queer, Little Trout, Bice

 and Hambone Lakes

Participants:  Tom, Nate, Brad, Adam

Canoe: 2 Mad River Explorers   

About the Author: The following account was written by my father, Tom. My name is Nate and this is the account of my second canoe trip in Algonquin but my “god-only-knows” number visit to Algonquin Park. My parents used to take my sister and myself up to the park often as children. We would normally stay at the Blue Spruce Inn on the south end of Rt. 60 along the banks of Oxtongue Lake. We would often take short take trips into the park, either walking one of the trails or a short paddle in various parts of the park. I have always thought fondly of the park and it’s seemingly endless stretch of solitude and beauty. We are native to Toledo, Ohio in the states and currently I have moved to Cleveland, Ohio where I attended school at Baldwin-Wallace College. I am now the marketing and promotions coordinator for the Cleveland Barons Hockey Team. I wish people in Cleveland loved hockey as much as our neighbors to the north. I look forward to several more exciting trips into the park over the years. I can be reached at pktntaylor@hotmail.com. The following is a picture of me and my dad.

          We left Toledo on Weds evening at 7 pm and stopped just short of Toronto shortly before midnight.  On the road the next morning by 8 am in heavy traffic and rain.  Stopped in Huntsville to rent some misc gear and continued to Kearney to purchase our permits for the Park.  One last stop to make shuttle arrangements and we were finally on the water by 2 pm with clearing skies.

          I predicted a three hour paddle to Rosebary Lake, but am pretty sure it took at least four hours.  The ground rules were quickly established: the river takes a very serpentine route, fairly low water levels and several beaver dams made for a slow pace

          At Rosebary Lake, we were the only group on the entire lake for the night.   Darkness came up quickly as we set up camp and tried to relax a little.  The now infamous “propane incident” takes place here.  As I screwed the newly purchased stove onto the propane tank, you could here the gas leak.  A couple of quick attempts to tighten seal did nothing.  Nate held the lighter at ready while I screwed the stove on,  the flames were instant and big.  When I attempted to turn it down, flames started shooting out of the seal, directly onto the tank.  First reaction was to knock the stove over, only to discover the entire area was covered in pine needles.  A forest fire just waiting to happen.  As I watched the flames coming from the top of the stove light the pine needles and the flames from the seal area blowing directly onto the tank full of gas, a new Olympic sport was invented.  The “propane toss.”  I grabbed the tank and threw it as high and far into the lake as I could.  For a moment it looked like Sputnik re-entering the atmosphere.

          We cooked the steaks over the campfire later that evening and did some star gazing.  The night sky is amazing when you get this far away from everyone else.

Day 2

          We awoke the next day after a fairly comfortable night’s sleep.  We kept hearing something moving around the campsite and assumed that the guys from tent #2 were up and about.  After awhile, Nate and I came out of the tent only to discover that we were the first ones up.  What was all the noise, who knows.

  Finally the last of our group came crawling out of his cocoon.  He promptly went into very strongly worded description of the worst night’s sleep he had ever suffered through.  After a good breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausage, we were on our way down the second leg of the Tim River.  The use of the word river here could be the subject of a good debate.  It was more like a stream.  This entire section was so narrow, you could touch both sides with your paddle.  A total of 12 to 15 beaver dams would be encountered on this trip with probably 50 to 100 meters of very shallow water after each one.  Nate and I spent a good deal of time walking in the river and pulling the canoes through these shallow areas.

After way too much time, we finally arrived at the portage over to the string of lakes we would follow to the take-out.  This portage was 1330 meters long.  This coupled with slow progress on the river made for some grumpy guys.  But I must say, we all hung in there and pushed on (there really are no other options of course).

The first lake was a quick paddle over to the last portage of the day.  A short 175 meter portage brought us to Little Trout Lake, where we would spend the night.  Before we got back on the water after the portage, I had each of us gather as much firewood off the trail as we could, since the next stop would be a campsite.

The loons on this lake were awesome, calling before dinner and all night.   Dinner was spaghetti and garlic bread over the campfire and another great view of the sunset from our island campsite.

The night brought with it cooler temperatures than the night before, but still not bad.

Day 3                                                

 By the next morning it was pretty nippy.  As Adam once again emerged from the tent, he quickly declared that the impossible has happened.  The previous night was declared by him to surpass the night before as the worst night’s sleep he as endured.

After munching on trail mix and granola bars, we headed off on the last day of paddling.  The temperature warmed instantly as we came around the end of the island into the direct sunlight. We watched some loons and warmed up nicely as we made our way to the first portage of 435 meters.

The next lake was Bice Lake and when we came out of the first bay and around a point of land, we were all taken by the size of this lake.  It was huge by comparison of where we had been.  We made our way along the left shoreline for two reasons.  I did not want to be caught out in the middle if the winds picked up and by staying closer to shore, visually you can see landmarks come and go as proof of your progress.  The weather could not have been better, blue skies, no clouds and perfect temperature for paddling.

This section is what a canoe trip to Algonquin is all about, easy paddling, no stress, no time issues and great scenery.  Since it was a Saturday with great weather, we encountered plenty of other parties headed in for the weekend.  To everyone’s happiness we made it across Butt Lake and made quick work of both Hambone and Magentawan Lakes to the take-out by 12:30.  I was the only one who would take the post trip swim. 

First stop was McDonald’s in Huntsville, followed by a drive through the Park on Route 60.  Saw one moose at visitor’s center and 2 more on a side road.

Arrived in Toledo at 1 pm Sunday.

See you on the next trip.