We went on a small bushwack hike behind our site about 10 minutes out and found these barrels. One looked normal until we saw 5-6 small holes in it, and the other was shredded.
Pic of the bear spray is just emphasizing the need for it sometimes (mostly peace of mind)
Couple of shots from this past week at Kiosk - it's been on my list for years to visit for the dark skies, and I finally managed to pull it off.
First photo was Thursday night before the fog rolled in; next two were Friday night; and last one is Saturday as the clouds were coming in.
All photos are multiple 20" exposures (generally 32 shots) stacked down to a single shot. All taken at 11mm on a Canon R3, and processed in Lightroom to pull the details out... I wish the human eye saw the skies this well!
Hi everyone! I'm a long time lover of canoe tripping in Algonquin and also a software engineer. I've been planning canoe trips in Algonquin for years and have always felt like we're missing a centralized hub for this. Reddit is awesome for the community aspect but I built this site to help route plan, trip log with notes on sites, portages, photos and more, in order to have updated conditions input from the community itself. (think all trails but specifically for Algonquin canoe tripping)
The site is 100% free and has no ads, I just built it as a labour of love for the park, the community and backcountry tripping (and to make my own life easier lol). It works best on desktop fyi. This is a solo project so there will definitely be some bugs in the beginning so feel free to leave some feedback on the site (report a bug tab), it goes straight to my email. I really hope this helps some people :)
EDIT: Wow, thanks for all the engagement! We've got one public log and I've received bug reports already, so cool! Based on the comments I'll definitely start cleaning up the code and hopefully open sourcing it within the next few weeks if there's continued use and demand. For the time being I've added a 'Trip Logs' tab to discover public logs more easily and I've added the ability to export public logs as pdfs so you can save logs locally. Hopefully that shows I'm serious about keeping it open and community-owned.
EDIT2: I appreciate everyone's feedback the past couple days! There's been a lot of feature requests, requests to open source the code, and suggestions which are super cool. All of that is a lot of work, which I'd very much be open to doing if there was a wide enough user base interested in using the site longer-term. I just don't want to put in all the refactor efforts for under 10 users (about where we're at right now). All I ask is that if you are interested in this please sign up for an account and /or post a trip log so I have some indication of demand for continuing the project. If the user base grows over the past week I'll continue to work on the project and maybe add an optional mailing list to the site you can sign up to for updates so we don't have to keep coming back to the reddit post. Otherwise I've purchased the domain for a year so it'll be up as is for at least then : ) Thanks!
May 12th ideal may conditions. 40.06k - 7 hours 32mins 1309m elevation.
Im so in love with this route, and looking for a good mix of challenge and some down time. Intermediate experience, though this will be my longest trip. I'm planning for 12 (up to 14) nights solo in August. Double carrying at the beginning of trip and on more technical portages (realistically most portages)
Day 1: Canoe - Big Trout
Day 2: Big Trout
Day 3: Big Trout - Burtnroot
4: Burntroot - Whiskeyjack
5: Whiskeyjack
6: Whiskeyjack - Perley / the Pet
7: Perley - Hogan (this will be a grind..)
8: Hogan
9: Hogan - Merchant
10: Merchant
11: Merchant - Otterslide Lake
12: Otterslide Lake
13: Otterslide - Canoe
Is this realistic as is, or should I throw in an extra night or two somewhere? I've tried to space out my rest days to account for anything unforeseen that I won't get behind more than a day.
Hello, I am looking for some route advice from anyone who has paddled and portaged the Barron Canyon. A buddy and I have two routes in mind. We are intermediate level paddlers/portagers. Likely able to single carry. We would love to get some trout to eat
We are arriving on a Friday around 7PM and leaving on Monday afternoon/evening. We will be doing a one way trip. We have two vehicles and will
Use our vehicles as the shuttle vehicles.
Route 1:
Friday- park at Brigham lot and walk to a Brigham lake site. Internet says these sites are 230m portage from lot??
Saturday to Monday - camp on a site in Lower Barron River. Using Saturday to explore the Canyon area.
Sunday - take a day trip from Lower Barron River to Opalescent Lake and back.
Monday- leave lower Barron River to Squirrel Rapids take out. Shuttle vehicle back to Brigham. Then go home.
Route 2:
Friday- Achray jump off site. Arriving around 7-8pm
Saturday- leave Achray jump off site and portage to St. Andrew’s Lake. Chill for the day.
Sunday- Leave St. Andrew’s lake and portage to Opalescent Lake. Fish and Camp over night.
Monday- leave Opalescent lake and portage to the Barron River. Paddle all the way down to Squirrel rapids take out. Shuttle our own vehicle back to Achray. Then go home.
Mostly trying to get some advice on which route and camp sites are better? If these routes are too ambitious? Any info or advice on these routes would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks 😊
New to this
How do they work?
For example I want to take my wife and young kids out there for 2 nights. But I dont think theyll enjoy the long paddles. Where do these taxis take you? General area of a lake? To a vacant campsite itself? And how would pick up work is that scheduled with the taxi aswell? 2 way booking? Is lake opeongo considered a lake for families are there any other recommendations for lakes that operate taxis?
Photos taken on a Google Pixel 8, Astral mode.
Wondering if anyone has driven the Sherborne Lake Access Road yet this year?? Going camping at the end of the week and need to know what vehicle I need to take! Lol I'm a bit worried it might be too rough without an AWD vehicle 😕
Wet day Wednesday, but it’s always worth it.
It occurred to me that with the type of camping that I do with my family, we can easily carry a big comfortable tent and there is no reason to crouch into a Hubba Hubba (a truly humiliating experience for anyone over 5 feet). What would you say is the largest footprint that is possible to fit on 90% of the back country canoe sites?
Imagine hanging out in something like this
https://www.decathlon.ca/en/p/4-person-inflatable-camping-tent-air-seconds-4-1/304278/m8954328
Hey Reddit campers, I have a challenge for you.
Google is forsaking me. I know there are a few campsites booked under paddling that can actually be accessed by a car. Kingscote is one, I’m quite sure Crotch is another, but is there another one I’m forgetting??
TYIA!!
Edit: on further thought I don’t think Crotch is one of the ones I’m thinking of… but I promise there is at least one campsite legally accessible right on the edge of a road, and the park themselves told me about it and that it could have a trailer on it, but it was years ago and it’s making me nuts that I can’t remember.
Might be Billy or Buck though, thanks Sketchy and UncleJR (not least of all for not immediately assuming I’m lawless or distinctly wrong lol)
Hi, I was wondering if anybody knows about the status of firewood bundles from Ontario Parks for sale at the Lake Opeongo access point with the Permit Office now permanently closed?
Does this mean that I will have to pickup firewood at one of the campgrounds or do the outfitters sell them?
I'm aware that deadwood can be burned in the backcountry when camping, I just prefer to buy some dry kindling to get started on the first night on the lake. Thanks so much.
My 2026 ice-out trip is complete! 5 Days in the Algonquin Park back-country: 100+ km traveled by kayak and foot, 19 lakes and ponds, 4 rivers and creeks, 17 portages, 20+ mm of rain and even some hail/snow, sub-zero at night, 0 cellular service, very few people, countless wildlife, beautiful dark skies, un-quantifiable peace. An awesome and much needed trip. Beating the long-weekend rush on a mid-week trip was the perfect choice. Bugs *just* starting to come out on the last day, but not biting.
The large tree that held the campsite marker had fallen across the front of the campsite, blocking the easier put-in.
Hi friends
I’m usually an avid backpacker and very occasional paddler. Recently I have been dealing with some severe knee arthritis which has been keeping me off the trails. This has pushed me to start renting pack boats / canoes and doing more single lake or short portage trips.
I’ve done some quick trips in the Poker Lakes and Haliburton Highlands area which worked out well, but I’m curious about these types of alternatives in Algonquin.
I have done Canisbay ( too much highway 60 noise ),
Rock to Pen ( nice but got windbound on pen and had to bail early due to a massive storm), and a trip into eastern Kiosk. I’d like to explore more.
Any favourites or hidden gems?
Yes, I have poured over Jeff’s maps :) , looking for some advice from folks who have seen the portages and might know which ones might be a bit on the easier side. Not afraid of a long paddle, my arms are still working fine 😎
I’m heading to the park with a paddling bud last week of July for a trip, and it will be our first time up there.
We‘re considering the Big Trout Lake Loop, going from Canoe Lake, to Burnt Island or Otterslide, to Big Trout for two nights, then on to Thompson Lake, and back to Canoe.
My paddle partner and I did a week in the boundary waters last summer, and we are both in decent shape for reference.
Any feedback on this potential itinerary?