Daisy Lake Trip - Summer 2010
by - Stephen Molson
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This is a photo-based trip-log of our Daisy Lake trip summer of 2010. It’s a chronologically-ordered photo journal of our 5-night stay.
For the annual long-weekend August trip with the kids I was looking at two choices. The first being an East-side jaunt from Brain Lake to Cedar than back, and the other trip being to Daisy Lake. Iit was an easy decision. Given the kids desire for swimming in clear water (versus fishing) and my own for reducing the risk of extended portaging over dry creek beds, we elected for Daisy Lake.
Actually I had hoped to spend a few nights on Daisy Lake last year during a solo trip to Ralph Bice and Tim in June, but sadly ran out of time. We left Ottawa about 11:30 am and made it to the Kearney office by 4:15 pm (stopping for lunch in Huntsville). After handing us the permits, the attendant at the Kearney Permit Office informed us that Daisy, Hambone, RB, Little T and Little M were all booked up, that it was going to be a busy weekend. We made it to Magnetawan Lake and were paddling away by 5:30 pm. We got on to our Hambone site and setup by 6:30 pm.
Canoe with stuffed beaver on the bow (thanks Kearney Office), at the Magnetawan Lake portage landing to Hambone Lake.
What appears to be a King Bolete or at least of member of that yummy group (Boletus variipes), found on the Hambone Lake site.
We left Hambone the next morning 10:30 am and paddled through the channel between Hambone/Pond L and were on Daisy by noon. Lots of groups coming/going were met on the portage. Every 2nd one had a dog with them (including us).
A rare shot of the empty dock – the Daisy Lake landing from Pond L. Deep silt and boot-sucking muck lined the shorelines north and south of the dock.
We picked a campsite on the south-east shore of Daisy Lke's west bay. A 150 meter long path linked this site to the one (occupied) south of us. During our 3 nite stay here there were always at least 2 open campsites on the lake. After setting up and having lunch we explored the lake and paddled north of the island to where the portage from Ralph Bice Lake comes in.
We witnessed one female merganser ‘parent’ with 12+ baby merganser chicks in tow in the shallow reed-filled waters there. It likely ‘adopted’ the extra young from another Merg’s brood (common with this species). Both island sites and the point site west of the island were taken – each looked to be great swimming areas. The kids were getting hungry again, so we headed back to camp to start dinner preparations.
Jurnee making her roasting stick for her chicken dogs.
After supper we headed to the marsh on the west shore for animal sightings. Lots of bats out taking flying insects, but didn’t see any other mammals other than pet canines – lots of doggies there this weekend.
During the crossing my daughter through a line out and picked up this little perch.
We headed back to camp for dessert. We hit the sack by 10, and heard voices and laughter from what could only have been Little Eagle Lake’s campsite. The sound must have been funnelled directly through between the hills, aided by the westerly winds.
Here's Aidan holding a freshly made chocolate bundt cake that he helped ice..
The next morning we explored the campsite area further, had breakfeast/brunch and then took some photos. What I initially thought were a growth of puffballs growing on a downed redpine trunk turned out to be a whole mess of young stemmed mushrooms, likely Bristly or Scaly Pholiota (not edible) ...
Cutting into one revealed their immature gills and stem.
The parasitic and very common Indian Plant (Monotropa uniflora), here with a pinkish coloration were found throughout the area.
The trilliums were now in fruit (unknown edibility).
One of two nesting pairs of loons on Daisy Lake that we passed, each group with baby(ies) in tow.
We took advantage of the sunny weather and decided to paddle to the Petawawa River outflow at the east end of Daisy Lake for some swimming opportunities in the afternoon. The waters in Daisy, like the others in the area, are quite clear with at least a 12’ visibility.
The kids enjoyed water activities at the end of the first portage down the Petawawa River, east of Daisy Lake.