I had been hoping to do a few short solo camping trips this year, but for some reason all of the weekends filled up very early and it wasn’t until June that I finally had a chance. When planning an impromptu trip the Haliburton Highlands are much more forgiving than the large provincial parks, and for short trips offer a very similar experience.

Yet again I consulted Kevin Callan’s “A Paddler’s Guide To Cottage Country” for trip planning. This year I selected the McEwan Lake loop, and chose the Wren Lake access to the North. I did decide to modify the route slightly by eliminating the loop at the south end. First, I’m lazy, and didn’t think I’d enjoy the 664m portage between Margaret and Three Island Lakes with my heavy fibreglass canoe. Second, the map at the access point showed one or two cottages on Margaret Lake. Finding a cottage at the midpoint of the trip would spoil the spell a bit so I decided not to risk it. Since I didn’t visit Margaret Lake on this trip I have no idea how built up it is.

Day One

The Wren Lake access point is just a parking lot off the highway, but it is a fairly built up area with lots of cottages. The trip actually starts with a paddle under highway 35, and Wren Lake is ringed by cottages. The cottages end before the falls at the West end of the lake, but there were a couple of girls sunning themselves on the rocks at the lift over when I arrived. I’m not really sure how they got there since they didn’t have a canoe so there must be a trail.

The lift over is quite easy because it’s over solid rock and then a very short paddle and an equally short and easy portage down the small falls led me to a much more remote marsh. Once below the falls I felt like I’d left cottage country and was in a much wilder area. The stream winds its way through the marsh to a slightly more difficult portage at the other end. There’s a small bridge there for an ATV or snowmobile trail, and the trail system does get a bit confusing on the portage so I hiked a bit of it without the pack and canoe to make sure I was going the right way later.

The next portage is the tough one, and I was dreading it a bit. It’s only 228m long, but it’s almost straight uphill. In Callan’s book he mentions that it’s the watershed between Georgian Bay and the Severn river system. The takeout was a muddy mess, and as advertised the hill goes almost straight up. I didn’t even try to do a single carry, I just went in stages going back and forth for my pack and the canoe.

Horse Lake was worth the climb as it is quite pretty. I enjoyed a leisurely paddle, followed by an unremarkable portage to Margaret Lake. My campsite was in view from the portage, and I had the whole lake to myself. By the time dinner was cooked and hung and the fire lit,

the sun had set and I had to beat a hasty retreat to my hammock to escape the mosquitoes. It gets nasty after dark!

Day Two

I stayed up reading pretty late, and then woke up distressingly early. I had to pee, but I didn’t want to leave the protection of my hammock because I could still hear the mosquitoes buzzing. Trying to sleep when you have to pee is pretty futile, so I swung back and forth restlessly.

That’s when I first heard the banging. It sounded like a paddle on the gunnel of a canoe, but it was quite loud and close. I peered out from under my fly to see if I could see a light but there was nobody on the lake at four in the morning. I had finally decided that I must have imagined the sound when I heard it again. It repeated several times at irregular intervals. Whenever I thought it was done it would start up again.

I was beginning to wonder if it was a porcupine chewing on one of my paddles, which would upset me considerably. I yelled to scare off whatever it was but it didn’t work, and the thumping continued. Between the pressure in my bladder, the buzzing bugs, and the banging sound I didn’t manage to get back to sleep. After about an hour the sky was starting to lighten, the banging hadn’t stopped and I still wasn’t sleeping so I decided to run through the bugs, have a quick pee, scare off whatever was after my paddles and get back to bed.

It turns out that the only remaining mosquitoes were all clustered around my hammock and in just a few steps I was free of them. Imagine my surprise when I looked under my canoe and saw a large snapping turtle peeking out from under the bow!

I was taking a few pictures when I heard a sound behind me. I turned just in time to see another snapper jump off the rocks into the water below. It was only a few minutes later when I found a third digging a hole only a meter from the fire pit. Apparently my campsite was a nesting ground for snappers! The turtle who jumped was watching me from the water, and the other two were eyeing me carefully and hissing whenever I approached.

After snapping some more photos I turned around to spot another large snapper crawling though the rocks I was using as a kitchen. I’m not sure if this was a fourth or if the second had come back around, but this turtle was coming from the direction of my hammock, not the water.

After my pee break I completely forgot about getting back to bed so I set about making some oatmeal. By the time I was done the turtles had started to ignore me and I could watch them clamber clumsily over the rocks as I ate my goo.

I had an ulterior motive for choosing this destination for my trip. A few years ago while on a winter hike some of the other people I was with hid a geocache on Three Island Lake. Not wanting to log a find on a cache I had essentially hidden I promised to come back one day to claim my smiley. I hung my food and left my big pack at the site and portaged over to Three Island Lake. There was another solo camper there and she was packing up before heading out.

For some reason a seagull on a nearby rock ignored me completely on the way in, but got quite irate when I was leaving and even took to dive bombing me (complete with gooey projectiles). Strange creature encounters that morning. It didn’t take long to find the cache but by the time I was back at my campsite the turtles were all gone. They had left some poorly covered (and broken) eggshells. Hopefully they’ll find a more appropriate place to lay their eggs in the future. I packed up and retraced my route from the first day. It was a thoroughly enjoyable short trip, but I was pretty tired on the drive home thanks to the lack of sleep!

Tips

The Haliburton Highlands Water Trails are a managed camping area and require a reservation for overnight camping. They have an excellent website for online reservations. Campsites are booked individually rather than by the lake so you know you know that your site will be available if you arrive late.

Difficulty

• This is a very short trip and the longest portage is 664m. I cut that one off. The Horse Lake portage is a bit steep but other than the grade the terrain isn’t very difficult.
• There are some swifts below the ATV bridge but they can be easily be portaged around.
• The trip can be easily completed in two days, or even done as a day trip with an early start.

Comfort

This is an area that gets particularly buggy in the spring.

Remoteness

• There are lots of cottages on Wren Lake, possibly one or two on Margaret Lake, and a bridge for an ATV trail crosses the route but other than that it is quite undeveloped. If you go looking for it you can find a ski warm up hut on Three Island Lake, but it isn’t visible from the water.
• The route isn’t heavily trafficked and there aren’t many campsites on each lake. One nice thing about Haliburton Highlands is that you can book close to your departure date and the online system lets you see which other sites nearby are booked so you can avoid crowds.