Mashkinonje Provincial Park is officially a non operating park, but thanks to The Friends Of Mashkinonje it still has a lot to offer. In fact, part of the parks appeal is that it is less developed (and I assume less travelled) than larger more active parks. I didn’t even know about the Mashkinonje until a few days ago when I was looking for a wilderness geocache to find in the Nipissing area. While not as famous as parks such as Killarney, Algonquin and Killbear the Mashkinonje offers a subtle less crowded experience.
I visited Mashkinonje twice in late December because on the first day I ran out of time. The snow level was such that walking was a bit tiring, but not so deep that I wished for the discomfort of snowshoes. A few more inches of snow however and I would have wanted some help to float over it.
There’s an extensive network of trails in the park. They’re all very well marked with clear and obvious blazes. With very few exceptions I was able to find the blazes and easily determine the direction they were indicating. In addition to the blazes there are clear and obvious signposts at all of the trail intersections, and excellent maps. The maps are very high quality topographic maps and include trail names and points of interest. Combined with the signs and junction markers they make it very easy to navigate the park trails. In addition to the blazes there are extensive boardwalks in low lying swampy or marshy areas (of which there are many). I can only assume that the bugs are horrendous at certain times of the year.
This may seem like a lot of infrastructure but despite this the park still feels very unspoiled. The trails are narrow tracks through the brush and many of them wind their way amongst the rocks and trees in a very natural way with plenty of interesting elevation changes. It certainly doesn’t feel like walking down a logging road, rail trail or snowmobile trail. When I reached Warren Bay I expected to see the far shore (that is outside of the park) dotted with cottages but it was clean as well. The ice had some animal tracks but it wasn’t until the channel had narrowed considerably that I saw any skidoo tracks. This all conspires to make the park feel very remote and wild.
When I visited I had to break fresh trail through the snow because there had been no recent visitors. Often wildlife tends to shy away from trails because of the traffic, but the trails here were crisscrossed with the tracks of many different animals. In several areas the tracks followed the trail for several hundred meters as if the deer were reading the blazes. I saw many deer and hare tracks, as well as several different types of bird. In one spot on the remote Atakas trail I found an area where a deer had recently laid down in the snow. I also encountered two sets of tracks that had foot pads instead of cloven hoofs, and appeared to belong to a wolf or a coyote. There was also one set of tracks that an overactive imagination could imagine belonged to a bear, but were more likely caused by a much smaller animal hopping through the snow.
Despite all of the tracks the only animal that I encountered was a woodpecker hammering away at a tree where the Coastal and Atakas trails meet. I heard a distant howl in the daytime, and a similarly distant barking after the sun had set. Wilderness in the winter always feels a little desolate, and this was no exception.
Samoset Trail
The Samoset trail starts at the Blandings Access point. It is a relatively easy hike with few elevation changes, but there are a few areas that cross some rock outcrops. The first of these around point 12 on the map has a bench and is where the Samoset trail loops back on itself, so make sure you select the correct path when leaving the clearing. One of the trails is a bit hard to find.
Lapin Beach Trail
The Lapin Beach Trail is a short loop and one of the few trails that I hiked in it’s entirety. Lapin Beach is one of the water access points for the park and is identified with a historical marker on the map. I wasn’t able to find out what the marker referred to and didn’t see any structures at the location indicated on the map so it’s a bit of a mystery to me.
The trail is bordered by bog and marshlands on two sides, Lake Nipissing on another, and runs through the woods on the last. The trail is mostly flat and quite easy, but I did see a sign warning of poison ivy in the summer, and finding the markers on the southern section was a bit tricky after dusk (but would probably be quite easy in daylight).
Coastal Trail
The Coastal Trail follows the shore of Lake Nipissing and climbs up and down the rocks along the shore. The elevation changes make the trail a little more challenging than the Samoset trail especially if you’re trying to keep ahead of a setting sun. There are several lookouts scattered along the trail with rustic benches. I only hiked as far as the bridge where the Coastal Trail joins the Atakas trail but the Coastal Trail continues almost to the north border of the park. The Coastal Trail is the most scenic part of the park that I visited.
Atakas Trail
After finding my geocache I decide to return partway via the Atakas trail for some variety. The Atakas (Cranberry) trail runs inland along the edge of a large bog. One section of trail has steel signs on posts rather than blazes on trees and appeared to be in the water rather than on the rocks. I’m not sure how nasty this stretch would be in the summer when there is no ice. As it is I was careful to avoid breaking through the thin ice, and other than some ominous sounds had no problems.
Following this there are many small hills to climb and this was the most challenging section of trail on my hike. I encountered a downed tree that required some clambering to circumvent and some of the blazes were harder to find than elsewhere or were pointing in odd directions.
Beckett Lang Trail
The Beckett Lang Trail is a very short trail that connects the Coastal Trail and the Atakas Trail where they are close to each other. It isn’t difficult at all.