After spending the night in Sudbury we headed to Espanola after breakfast. It was after 11 by the time we had our permit and were on the water, and we had to start with the long paddle down Charlton Lake to Murray Creek. I had considered using a water taxi to shorten the trip through motor boat infested waters outside the park, but we had enough time and paddling the whole way gave me the opportunity to grab a geocache I’d missed the year before. We had to fight a stiff breeze on Charlton Lake, and this gave us an opportunity to warm up gradually to the exertions of the trip
After Charlton Lake comes Howry Creek which winds it’s way along the north end of the park. This is a very easy portion of the trip with no wind and only a few beaver dams to lift over before getting to Murray Lake. The flat terrain that makes for such easy travel comes at a price however. Part of what makes Killarney such a spectacular place to visit are the white quartzite slopes of the LaCloche Hills and they only serve as a backdrop for this portion of the trip.
Murray Lake is pretty, but marshy. Its dominant feature is the imposing Notch Portage through the mountains and up to Nellie Lake. The Notch is a very scenic portage carved into a cleft between two mounds of quartzite. It’s also the steepest portage in the park and a brutal carry when travelling south, so our route was to take the much easier portage north from Murray to Leech Lake.
The portage is about a kilometre long, and is relatively flat and easy. We were still loaded heavily enough that we did a double carry, and we also watched our feet carefully at the south end of the portage where the guide books warn there’s an infestation of poison ivy.
Leech Lake is in the process of being added to the park and it has even less scenic charm than other border lakes such as Murray or Howry. Leech was the site of several mining claims, and while we didn’t see any evidence of mining it has a desolate blasted appearance and in many places the shore of the lake is lined with rubble.
Leech Lake
The sun was getting low in the sky by now so we proceeded directly to the short portage to Hanwood Lake where we were to spend the night. Hanwood is prettier than Leech Lake, but there’s still a lot of rubble on the shores and the woods have a scrubby appearance that’s more reminiscent of Muskoka than Killarney. The owner of Widgawa Lodge who sold us our permit suggested that we camp on the island campsite on Hanwood Lake and it did look much nicer than the other site high up on the shore. The one downside to this site is that it has no thunder box, so cat holes were required.
It hadn’t been a particularly hard day, but it was long. I’d managed to keep my feet pretty dry despite all of the lift overs, but when I went to get water I fell into the lake! The slope was quite steep, and I carefully steadied myself on the rocks, but when I sat down I slipped and ended up soaked to my knees. If anything it was refreshing after such a hot day. The night was warm as well and I barely used my sleeping bag.