North Killarney Loop

Map is courtesy of Jeff's Map -- my route is marked in blue.

At the put-in at the east end of Bassoon Lake, we whipped up a quick lunch of summer sausage and cheese in a pita wrap. While munching on our mid-day feed, we noticed fish jumping out in the bay. Good Omen!

Once we got out there, we realized how shallow this entire back bay was. We quickly made a plan to get to our site, set up camp and get back out on the water with our rods. Heading around the point, we investigated the first site on the island in this bay. It wasn't anything to write home about, so we decided to continue to the next island site on the west part of the lake, close to the High Lake portage. We were glad we did. The site was a good one-- high on a rock in a grove of pines with views of the lake all around.

Once we set up our camp, we headed back toward the portage to do some fishing where we saw them jumping earlier in the day. The afternoon began to cloud up and the fish were not in the same mood. We didn't have any luck and went back to camp for a dinner of steak and caesar salad.

The skies remained overcast and we thought we weren't going to get much of a sunset, but as the sun dipped below the cloud ceiling, we were treated to some nice westward views over the western bay of Bassoon Lake through the trees on our site. I love that effect when the lake looks like it's on fire.

Before noon we were packed up, loaded and heading for the portage into High Lake. Dad wanted to try one last cast before leaving Bassoon and in doing so hooked into a real fighter. It turned out to be the largest catch of the trip and probably was upwards of 4 lbs. It took him a good 10 minutes or so to get that fellow in. Exciting!

The portage into High Lake was easy and flat. There were fishing boats on both ends of these portages bearing the name of Bear Lake Camp. Others were from a camp on Lang Lake, which is quite a distance from Bassoon. This made me think the fishing on Bassoon must be special. It was for us at least.

High Lake was not much bigger than a pond and nothing to write home about. We didn't fish at all there. The portage into Bear was a steep descent, but well-used and sat adjacent to a small waterfall. We paddled the length of Bear, grateful for only a light headwind, and knew we found our spot for the night on site 219 on the south shore -- two-for-two in finding amazing sites so far. On a point, but nestled in a fantastic pine grove, we had wind and sun protection. The view of the entire expanse of the lake was incredible, and because there are very few sites on the lake, we felt we had this amazing place to ourselves, despite the odd fishing boat that went by now and again.

Getting to the site early in the afternoon allowed us to cook a nice lunch, set up the hammock and relax for the day. Glorious.

After the pond was another 285 m portage on which we surprised a family of grouse. When they flutter away, they never fail to make me jump! It was an easy one and opened up to a rocky point on the west end of Fish Lake. It was long, narrow and seemed to be a wind tunnel for the air coming in off of Georgian Bay to the southwest. Luckily for us, the wind was at our backs as we needed to head east at that point.

There were only two sites on Fish Lake and we were aiming for the eastern island site at the far end of the lake. We passed the first site which was vacant. It was perched high on a rocky cliff on the north shore of the lake. We didn't stop and get out, but I'm guessing the views from the site would be good, though I wouldn't want to walk down those rocks regularly to gain access to the lake.

We happily found that the island site was vacant and a nice one. Three-for-three for amazing sites thus far! It was mid-afternoon and we were hungry, so we jumped into lunch and then set up camp.

By early evening, the wind died and the lake was like glass, making it ideal conditions as we enjoyed an hour of fishing the southeastern shore.

The island that we were staying on was actually two islands separated by a narrow little marshy bit. Our site was on the east side of the island.

In the afternoon we explored the island and right next to the beach on the west side, we found the skeletal remains of an animal. There was also some light-coloured fur near it. Looking at the size and the skull, it looked to be a rather large mammal of some sort, most likely a deer.

Maybe a high-speed chase through the forest, and the deer swam to the island in the hopes of escaping a predator, but was unlucky to discover that the hunter was a faster swimmer?

Not too far from the muddy take-out and into the main part of the lake, we spotted another abandoned old cabin on the northeastern shore. We contemplated stopping in and poking around but the 3km portage was looming and tempting our mettle. We pressed on.

The 2780m portage out of Great Mountain did its impression of the Macho Man Randy Savage by picking us up and slamming us from the outset. The portage immediately began with a mountain to climb. Right out of the gate from the take-out was an upward vertical assault for the first 150 meters or so. The steepness tapered off, but it still inclined until you were standing on a giant mound of white quartzite after about 1000 meters in. One is traversing the La Cloche mountains on this carry.

The forest was spectacularly beautiful though with more giant hemlocks along the way. We made a leapfrog stop at the summit and went back for our second trip of gear.

After descending the mountain to the south, the trail turned east and followed a weedy creek, parts of which can be paddled in high water. The path became quite rocky and we had to watch our footing carefully to avoid a twisted ankle or worse. It then started elevating again up a very steep rise only to come back down as it neared David Lake.

It wasn't the worst portage I have been on, but it is known to be one of the more difficult ones in the park. We passed a family coming the other way. They looked like they might have been on the trail since the late 90s. One of the daughters had a murderous look in her eyes, so I avoided eye contact and quickly moved on.

At the put-in on the west end of David, a large group of people in their 20s was starting the portage from that side. I laughed under my breath when one young man asked me if they could do the portage in a half-hour or so. I told him he could try!

David Lake was pretty and we were worried about finding a site. We could immediately see why it was one of the more popular lakes in the park. It was still raining on and off and we could see plumes of campfire smoke emanating from various shore locations.

It was mid-afternoon and we were hoping to stay in this west bay so that we could easily access the Silhouette Trail later that day. We were very thankful to find that site 104 was vacant. It was nestled in a lovely protected shade of pine and birch on the southern shore. We didn't have any views of the La Cloche mountains but it was super close to the take-out for the Silhouette Trail and was spacious on a lovely bed of pine needles.

As it was raining, I quickly set up the tarp next to the fire pit to dry some firewood and as soon as I finished, the clouds broke and the sun came out. Go figure. My tarp efforts were not in vain though. They did elicit a comment from a couple of elderly passers-by, who upon seeing my tarp work, exclaimed appreciatively from their canoe, "Nice installation!" This became our catchphrase for the remainder of the trip.

We made an early supper and were back on the lake and at the portage to Boundary Lake, which led up to the Silhouette Trail, by 6 pm. Upon spotting the take-out, we were aghast. There had to have been 20 canoes ashore on the rocky beach. There was no room to land our canoe! Eventually, a group who was returning from the Silver Peak hike got into their boats and left us some room to beach our canoe.

The Silhouette Trail leads to Silver Peak which is the highest point in the park. It is the highest point in the entire Lacloche Range -- one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world at a ripe age of 3.5 billion years old. We had originally intended to fit the entire hike into our trip, but we were only able to book one night on David Lake. This did not afford us enough time to do the entire 10km round trip to the summit and back. Desperately wanting to get a peek at those gleaming white Lacloche mountains, we compromised and hiked up to the first lookout over Boundary Lake. We were not disappointed. The view over Boundary Lake was stunning.

So was the view of Silver Peak in the distance.

Reluctantly leaving that view, we made our way back down to the canoe and paddled back to camp. Seeing only a tiny part of the Silhouette Trail was one of the highlights of the trip and I knew I would be back to see more of it in the future.

We had another great night by the firepit and enjoyed campfire popcorn with our beverages. It was mid-August, and occasionally at night, the temperature tends to drop in northern Ontario as a harbinger of what's to come in the near future. This was one of those nights. This made for some fantastic mist coming off the lake in the morning.

Day 5 - David Lake to Harry Lake

Soon after the mist cleared, we paddled out to the northeast end of David Lake through some very pretty channels dotted with white quartz, glancing back at Silver Peak from time to time to remember the view. It was now enshrouded in mystery...or maybe just clouds.

The portage into Balsam Lake descended through...well...a forest of balsam trees. It found it to be an easy and well-trodden path.

Once on Balsam, we continued in a northeastern direction to find the portage to Pike Lake in a weedy back bay. There, the forest changed somewhat and many more birch trees appeared. The put-in to Pike was at a very weedy creek. We tried our hand at fishing, but it was tough going without getting snagged in the gazillion lily pads all over the place.

Moving northwest, we got out into the more open part of the lake. I got a couple of smallies and my father hooked into a tiny pike. Seeing a group of canoes coming up the creek behind us, we pressed on, wanting to get through the portage and not clog up the take-out. We ran into the group on the portage when we came back for our second trip of gear and discovered it was two families with very young children. It's great to see families introducing their kids to the wilderness at such a young age.

Harry Lake was a pretty lake and was divided into two sections by an island that has a campsite. There was a plaque on the channel just west of the island, right across from our campsite, dedicating the spot to a fellow who fished there often.

The site was nice, sitting upon a rock high off the north side of the island, so we decided to make camp there. On this particular afternoon, however, the wind was howling and we were quite exposed, especially on the two tiny tent pads on the southwestern side of the island. I tried fishing a bit around the island and had no luck. It was difficult to get anywhere else around the lake with the wind up. In case the wind was bringing clouds, we strung up the tarp near the fire pit. Another nice installation!

Day 6 - Harry Lake to Lake Panache

The wind howled through the night and did not appear to want to let up in the morning. On the plus side, it was sunny.

After a quick oatmeal breakfast, we packed up and began our long paddle to our vehicle. The portage into Frank Lake was easy but a bit buggy, even in mid-August. A quick paddle across the tiny Frank Lake took us to the 500m portage into Brown's Bay at the south end of Panache Lake. There, we seemed to take a wrong trail and ended up heading down an ATV trail that might have been on private property. It emerged at a dock in Brown's Bay.

From there, we started the 3-hour paddle across the entire expanse of Panache Lake. In the southern bays, we managed to evade most of the wind, but once we passed Pine Island in the north and got that West Wind coming in from the massive western arm of the lake, the wind was pretty much a gale force. Since it was only shortly after noon, we didn't want to be windbound all day and decided to chance the crossing. We made it across with only a couple of close calls, and I knew what it felt like to be a yo-yo by the end of it.

Grabbing a couple of well-deserved snacks for the car, we made our way back out to highway 17, south on 69 and enjoyed a tasty plate of burger and fries at the French River Trading Post on the way home.

The north end of Killarney was amazing and we were satisfied with the fantastic trip we had experienced; I can't wait to get back there again.