September 15th - 23rd would be my longest time in the park. A loop that would take me from Canoe Lake east to the Otterslides, up to Burntroot; down to White Trout, and home via McIntosh and Tom Tompson. A good challenge, and a handful of lakes I had never paddled. Fun times ahead.

Day 1 – 21.1 km paddling / 5.3 km portage (2x carry)

The drive up from Toronto was uneventful and I was on the water at 9:00 am. A good start to the trip. From the beach at Canoe Lake, visibility was less than ideal. This was going to be fun. 3C morning temp and warm water had a foggy start to my day. As a reference, I didn’t see the lighthouse until I was almost on the rocks, and could barely see the hydro lines until you were under them as you approached the 240m into Joe Lake.

By the time I by the time I crossed the first portage into Joe things were much improved, and the sun was heating things up. With the haze gone, I had a glorious, sunny July like day and a dead calm paddle on the Joes as I made my way to west to Burnt Island Lake.

Burnt Island is a great lake. It's long, but I really enjoyed the couple of hours spent paddling it. I have only been on Burnt Island Lake one time before. One night on the tail end of a Sunbeam loop. It was busy, noisy and I had to settle for what I hoped was the worst site on the lake; barely more than a patch of grass and mud, but I digress. I don’t remember the portage into Little Otterslide Lake being eventful, but I was excited to start into some new territory and lakes. I settled on the East most campsite on the island (PCI campsite 3), and hung up my paddle for the night. A nice elevated site, that I would return to in a heartbeat. Camp set up, dinner in my belly, a few bevs for star gazing. A pretty awesome first day! Day 1 did have a lesson for me though. With 6 hrs of solid work and 25C sunny weather, apparently the human body needs more than 6 x 1L nalgeen bottles of water! Learnings for tomorrow.

Day 2 - 12.2 km paddling, / 5.6 km portage

Day 2 started much the same as Day 1. Pretty dense fog. I didn't bother checking my watch but broke down camp and again hit the water to follow shorelines on my way north to Otterslide in the fog. Otterslide Creek is a nice paddle and reminded me of the western Tim but prettier. The other Tim similarity is related to beavers. I am convinced that Otterslide beavers barely attained their engineering degree, where Tim beavers hold master’s or doctorate level certification.

Beavers aside, it was a great paddle towards Big Trout. Another spectacular weather day, which was much appreciated on the aptly name BIG Trout Lake with only light chop for me as I paddle north. I can see how heading south to north (or any other direction) on Big Trout could be a real challenge. With a reasonably easy day, I pushed on to the top of Big Trout (PCI campsite 35 - northmost site on eastern shore). A significant slope to the water, but hey, great views! I do remember wondering what the big orange structure to the north was. Took me longer that it should have to realize it must be dam related. At least I know where I am heading in the AM.

Evening 2 was also my first wildlife ‘encounter’ of the trip. On a dead calm and quiet evening, 12 mergansers snuck up on me and all started diving and flapping at once. Felt the same as the rabbit outside the tent at 5AM imitating a bear or moose. With heartrate back in check, I called it a night.

Day 3 - 12. 5 km paddling, 1.3 km portage

I was really looking forward to today. An easy day heading to the much-anticipated Burntroot Lake, with Redpine Bay thrown in for added excitement. I have read many good things about both. Today was different though. The rain started as I hit the water, but on the upside, the dam was in sight. What could go wrong?

As I approached the dam, I couldn’t find the portage on the left, so it must be on the right. Wrong. This is where using the technology and/or maps you bring, come in handy. Note to self. Use them. (the portage is very clearly marked around the point on the western shore). There is a ton of water moving from Big Trout to Longer. Way more than the 2m elevation change would lead you to believe. Pretty impressive.

I like paddling long narrow lakes. Less so in the rain, but my trip up Longer was still pretty enjoyable. Satellite weather was calling for 30% chance and only 6mm of rain. By noon it felt more like 100% and 30 mm. At the 40m going into Redpine Bay, Jeff’s map is correct, there is poison ivy. I wish I had been more careful. As I approached the 80m portage, it looked very runnable, so down I went with not a bump. I want to believe all the good things that are said about Redpine Bay. Maybe I'll have to get back there sometime. I do see how it would be a better choice than Burntroot if wind or nasty weather set in.

I set my sights on the eastern shore of Burntroot and made my way north, past Anchor Island and settled on the 2nd peninsula site (PCI campsite 11) about halfway up the lake. Here for 3 nights was the plan. Ahh. With camp set up I greeted a couple paddling south. The only humans in 2 days. I’m a long way into the park!

Day 4 – Rest and fishing day on Burntroot

Today turned out to be a miserable day. Rain, wind, whitecaps. I crawled back into the tent and didn’t surface again until noon! My first windbound day ever. Oh well. No fishing trip to Pearley or Robinson / Whiskey Jack today. I hung around camp and tried to stay busy. I found an old rotten birch log, dumped out the centre, and harvested some birchbark for a project back home. More on that later.

Sometime on Day 4, my brain started doing backflips. "While I am excited to be the furthest into the park I have ever been, I am 3 days from civilization. I’m in over my head. I have seen almost no one. What if I roll an ankle (or worse)?"

Day 5 - 17.8 km paddling, 1.3 km portage

I was up at 7:30 to blue skies and was gone by 8:15, skipping both breakfast and coffee. I had a beautiful paddle down Burntroot on my way to White Trout.

With the sun in the sky and a breeze at my back it was another good day. That was, until my first portage. The rocks were slippery from the previous day's rain, and I went down hard on my left knee. No real damage. I shouldn’t have skipped the coffee.

I made my way down through Longer Lake. It was a nicer paddle, with the sun and a tailwind. I toured around the large island at the entrance to the narrows to White Trout. The wind had risen and was it was harder work getting west to the cliffs .. another pretty section of the park. I took the third site past the cliffs on White Trout (PCI campsite 6). I landed around 1:00 PM to a pretty steady flow of traffic heading east to Big Trout. It was a fairly sheltered site with a great west view. I could see a structure across the lake and assumed it was the Ranger cabin. I'd be confirming that tomorrow at the start of my day. The rest of the day at camp was awesome.

Day 6 -11.5 km paddling, 4.1 km portage

White Trout is a pretty paddle. I left mid morning, later than usual, and paid the price with a solid breeze from the west. Grassy Bay is a nice and easy paddle. A beautiful bald eagle buzzed me on Grassy Bay with a flyover maybe only 20 feet up. I love birds of prey!

My next wildlife encounter was a group of 4 canoes with teenage girls heading east making more than enough noise to scare off all the bears within twenty miles. Ten minutes later, I was met by a similar group of teenage boys going the same way. They were a much more subdued crowd.

With McIntosh creek ahead of me, the noise faded. I remember the 770m portage as not being fun. However, I've done 250m portages that have felt worse. With McIntosh to be home for the night, I was in no rush and had lunch on the Macintosh end of the 500m portage.

I followed the Macintosh shoreline south and ended up with the last site on the eastern shore (PCI campsite 17) on a point facing southwest. MacIntosh was beautiful with some orange starting to develop in the tree canopy. I arrived on the campsite around 2:00 PM. I toured around McIntosh before the sun set .. another ‘will return’ lake. Day 6 brought the end of the fuel for my stove. Oh well. Firewood was also scarce there which makes sense as it's the first site coming from the south onto this lake. Firewood secured and a good fire for the evening brought a great end to the day. I was a bit surprised that this was the first night hearing wolves. That is always special. I considered changing my plan to leave in the morning and instead to spend an extra night on Tom Thompson on my way out. Day 8 winds were supposed to be from the south so I didn't want to fight a headwind al the way down Canoe Lake after a 2400m portage (3x).

Day 7 - 16 km paddling / 7.6 km portage

I was off to Tom Thompson in the fog. I actually checked my phone and pushed off right at 8:30.

I wasn't looking forward to a 2400m portage. I started it at 9:00 AM and I was done by 11:30 AM. I managed to enjoy the 7200m walk in the woods as much as one can.It was pretty uneventful, except for a grouse that took off right next to me while I was carrying the canoe. Apparently the mergansers had called ahead!

Arriving at the end of my double carry onto Tom Thompson, I ran into 3 Irish guys who had flown over just to do a 5 day Algonquin loop. You already know how lucky we are to have this park accessible to us. They were impressed.

As I paddled out on to Tom Thompson, I refilled my water bottle. I found myself with a dilemma. I was on Tom Thompson by 11:30am which already seemed busy. I could stay there 'off permit', or I could be on the Canoe Lake beach by midafternoon.

The cold nights over the last 7 days had made a big difference to the fall colours. They weren't at their peak, but had way more colour than a week prior. I had a leisurely snack stop somewhere on Tepee and then headed down Canoe Lake for the last time this year.

Wrap up

With five days of spectacular weather and two ugly days of rain, I will call the trip a success.

Cutting the trip a bit short felt OK too. July weather in September is always a good thing. A total absence of moose and droppings was a surprise given the remoteness of the route.

For a 56 year old guy with a new titanium hip, who does one or two trips a year, I now have a 120km trip completed. I suppose that it woud have been only a 100km trip, if I could have managed single-carry.

Here's the birchbark project that Is previously mentioned .. to close the loop on that one. It's stacked birchbark with antler and brass ...