As much as the scenery in McGregor Bay and Baie Fine is spectacular I was looking forward to returning to the interior of the park where we wouldn’t see any motor boats and there would be far fewer people. The return to the park was to be our last hard day of the trip, but with only two moderate portages and a nearly empty food pack it wasn’t very daunting.
We had another beautiful sunny day to enjoy the scenery as we paddled down to our first portage. We passed a couple of sailboats that had been anchored for the night, and as we passed one of the cottages in “The Pool” we were offered a cup of coffee.
The portage to Artist Lake is relatively flat, but it can get a bit tricky since four different trails intersect in the middle. The Silhouette trail crosses the portage, and continues over the ridge as the infamous “Pig” portage. Making a wrong turn here in either direction will set you up for an unnecessary world of pain. We actually did go the wrong way, but we did so on purpose. Between our two trips across the portage we stopped at the halfway point and climbed part way up the hill to Topaz Lake.
Topaz Lake is a crater lake nestled high up the ridge. Sporting rich azure water ringed by white quartzite cliffs it’s another classic example of Killarney’s scenery. The last time we visited Topaz we were so exhausted that we only paused for a few minutes at the top of the cliff to look down on the water below. We had more time and energy this time so we descended right to the water and spent some time enjoying the spot. We didn’t have it to ourselves however. A group of cottagers had boated over to the end of the portage and then made the short hike up to the lake. We chatted with them briefly, before heading back down to get the rest of our gear.
As we returned down “The Pig” I was surprised that it was much nicer looking than I’d remembered. Perhaps my past perception was coloured by the pain of having to carry a heavy load over this brutal trail, but I remember thinking that it wasn’t a very nice spot at the time. Pretty or not, it is a brutal trail. Not only is it the tallest portage in the park, the path is littered with huge boulders that make finding good footing a challenge.
Ironically, I twisted my ankle on this trip on the relatively easy terrain on the way to Artist Lake. I rolled to prevent an injury, but I almost dropped the canoe. I don’t know how I managed to catch it, and while I didn’t hurt myself seriously I was limping for a while and was worried that I might not be able to finish the trip. Fortunately, I recovered quickly after favouring the leg for half an hour.
Artist Lake is more of a marsh than a lake, choked with lily pads and dead trees. It’s also quite scenic, particularly to the west. I kept turning around to take in the white hills that frame the end of the lake. There are two small ponds that separate Artist and Muriel Lakes, and in the past both of them were navigable, but we had to carry around the length of both of them.
Muriel is another pretty lake, but it pales a bit in comparison to its neighbours. We met a large group of people sorting through their gear at the end of the portage to O.S.A. Lake. We were pretty organized by this point and cleared out of there pretty quickly while they dealt with all of their packs and bags. Other than having a slight climb the portage to O.S.A. Lake isn’t particularly difficult.
O.S.A. Lake was the first lake in the park, and is arguably one of the most scenic, and hence, popular. I had lost track of which day it was and for some reason I thought that the long weekend was over and we’d have an easy time finding a site, but it turns out that it was Labour Day. We did a small tour of the lake checking out various sites, but they were all occupied except for one that I’d used previously. It’s a nice site, but not as nice as some of the island sites in the middle of the lake. Since my last visit a large tree had been cut down and someone had built a full counter and kitchen area with the cuttings.
We managed to reach our site fairly early in the day, and it was a beautiful day so I took the opportunity for another cleansing swim. The swimming at our site wasn’t the best, but it served to wash the grime and sweat of the last few days off. I swam out to a nearby island and then dried out in the sun on the rocks.