Planning
Planning a trip into any of Ontario’s National or Provincial Parks can be challenging. The good sites book up very quickly, and information about the reservation service and park rules is difficult to come by. To further complicate things Ontario Parks was changing reservation services this winter, so the reservation phone numbers were down early in the year.
After being disappointed last year I made sure to plan early, and selected our campsites in December. Since this was my first visit to the park I used several resources to do so. There is an excellent online list of the Massasauga campsites here that rates and reviews each site in the park. We complemented this with the official park map, and finally, Kevin Callan’s excellent (if slightly dated) “A Paddler’s Guide To Ontario’s Cottage Country”. I combined both routes listed in the book to form a longer five day trip. Our goal was to get outdoors and enjoy some of the parks beauty, challenge ourselves a bit by travelling to a remote part of the park, and find the traditional geocaches in the north end of the park.
The first few times I tried to book the trip I was unable to contact the park thanks to the change of booking service, then I found out the park wasn’t open as early as I had hoped (I had been hoping to get in before bug season started). Finally I rebooked my trip for the current date six months in advance on a very dark and cold January morning. As it is I still wasn’t able to book one of the sites I had planned on and had to choose an alternate. Some of the confusion booking in the park could have been avoided if the park had more comprehensive information regarding booking policies and park regulations on their website.
Getting Started
One of the chief disadvantages of the necessity for booking so far in advance is that you have no idea what the weather will be like when you make your plans. After the obscene amount of rain this spring I was beginning to worry about our trip, and sure enough in the week approaching the trip the forecast was calling for rain for most of the duration. To further complicate things, not only was this to be my wife’s first backcountry trip, but she developed a rather bad flu in the days leading up to our departure. I recommended that she stay home, because a flu in a wet tent wouldn’t be fun for either of us, but she decided to soldier on, which ended up being the right choice since we had a great time.
This was also the longest backcountry trip that our son and I had attempted, which made the packing more complicated. We had intended to get to bed early the night before we left, but found ourselves up at 4AM getting all of the bags together and the canoe on the car. The hourly weather forecast was predicting thunderstorms early in the day, and we decided there was no point in rushing to the park only to be weather bound at the access point.
Day 1, Friday Site 020
With the weather delays and the complications shuffling our own canoe and the one we rented from the park it wasn’t until 6PM that we got on the water. It had been raining earlier, but it had stopped and we managed to make the paddle without getting wet.
We only had one portage for the evening, the 650m portage from Three Legged Lake to Spider Lake that would lead us into the park. We managed to make it a double carry, taking our gear in one trip and then Sherri and Alex carried the heavy boat while I solo portaged the kevlar rental.
There’s a geocache on Spider Lake that I had hoped to find on the way in, but we were so late that we decided to pass it up and push straight on to our campsite. Spider Lake lives up to its name with many sprawling bays and inlets that make for a convoluted trip. The scenery was quite muted by the gray sky, but the mist gave it a west coast feel like inlets along the shores of BC.
We reached our campsite after sunset but before dark. Sherri and I set up our new tarp and bug shelter very quickly while Alex set up his tent. We didn’t have time to gather firewood or even find the thunderbox before dark so we had to cook our burgers on the stove. It started to rain soon after we were set up and we spent the evening huddled under our tarp. The tarp enabled us to stay up late and we hung the food and set up the last tent in the rain after midnight.
Day 2, Saturday Site 031
The rain had stopped by Saturday morning, but the sky was still grey despite the occasional glimmer of sunshine. After a very hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs we were able to dry out most of our gear before packing up and heading out for a late departure.
We still had quite a ways to paddle through Spider Lake, to reach the two short portages around Frog Lake into Clear Lake. In Callan’s book he only mentions a 650m portage directly from Spider to Clear Lake, and I was a little worried that there was something wrong with the Frog Lake route, but other than an abundance of mosquitoes it was fine. The portages were both quite short so we took it easy and made many short trips to ferry our gear. For some reason I decided to solo carry the heavy boat on the second portage which did not make the muscles in the back of my neck happy.
Once we arrived on Clear Lake the sun finally broke through the clouds and it was a short paddle to our island campsite in the middle of the lake. Campsite 031 is identified in the online list of sites as well as in Callan’s book as one of the nicest sites in the park. We had the entire island to ourselves and it felt like our own private retreat. It has a small sandy beach for swimming, a beautiful sunset view from the campsite and a large fire pit which was thoughtfully supplied with firewood by the previous tenants. Just across the bay from the island a small rock is home to a familly of terns, and they can frequently be seen soaring majestically overhead. Even the thunderbox is in a pretty spot. To add a dash of style to the site someone had hung a large spine of indeterminate origin to a tree on the rocks near shore.
The firewood was too damp to really get a fire going but we did manage to make enough of a blaze to cook our steaks over the fire. After watching a beautiful sunset we ate dinner with some red wine before going to bed.
Day 3, Sunday Site 031
Sunday was a down day for us because we were staying at site 031 for two nights. After a grey morning it turned into a beautiful sunny day. We explored the island, swam a bit, read, napped and just relaxed. Sherri did manage to stub a little toe on a log hard enough to break it (or sprain it very badly) but it didn’t really slow her down for the rest of the trip but it did turn some interesting colours.
While Alex was walking around the far side of the island he almost stepped on one of the elusive Massasauga rattlers the park is named after. The snake escaped into the water and came back to shore nearby. We didn’t manage to see the snake again, and he didn’t have a camera so he was the only one of us who was able to enjoy it.
We went out for a paddle just before sunset to visit the terns rock, and then Sherri tried fishing unsuccessfully on the far side of the lake. Just as the sun set another canoe approached us, and some friendly locals offered us a fish that they had just caught. Alex cleaned it on the rocks and we had fish with our red beans and rice for dinner.
Day 4, Monday Site 202
We were all a little sad to leave our island home, but I had planned the trip to take us into the bay so that we could see the different scenery closer to the winds of the big lake, and also so we could find the geocaches in Spider Bay.
The portage from Clear Lake to Clear Bay was again short enough that we were able to make multiple carries back and forth and we easily portaged both canoes with two persons. By this time in the trip Dakota had finally figured out what the canoe was about and started to hop in every time he saw us loading up the boats — often before we even put them in the water.
The wind wasn’t bad, but it did make the paddle through Clear Bay challenging at times, particularly for Alex who paddled the entire trip solo despite offers to switch boats. Since Clear Bay is on Georgian Bay there are cottages dotting the shore. It’s still a part of the park so there aren’t many, but it does shatter the backcountry illusion that is maintained in the inland areas. Sherri and I spotted a snake swimming nearby but we weren’t able to identify it as a rattler or not.
The sun left us as we paddled though Clear Bay which is a pity since our campsite was on the top of a cliff and afforded a great view of Three Finger Bay. The cliff-top site is surprisingly buggy, and the tent pads are small but the view makes it worth it. We also had considerable difficulty finding the thunder box in the thick growth behind the site, but were able to find enough wood to build a nice fire with little effort. There’s a small rock spit below the campsite that offers a different view of the bay. It is a lovely spot, but one that could better be appreciated when the sun is out and bug season is over.
We enjoyed some dehydrated burritos under our bug shelter while watching the view of the bay beyond as the sunlight faded. While the weather wasn’t perfect we got lucky. Soon after going to bed it started to rain pretty seriously but we were all buttoned up for the night.
Day 5, Tuesday
We had set our tent up at the edge of the cliff with a view of the bay below. When I woke up early I looked out the window to see the sunrise slanting into the bay and casting a golden glow on the rocks below. In the time it took me to wonder if I should grab the camera and head outside to get a picture the sun was gone and it didn’t return before we were long gone.
Just as we were finishing breakfast a very heavy rain began to fall. It was fortunately short lived and we packed up our wet gear before heading out. I slipped carrying our largest pack down the wet rocks to the canoe but managed to land without injury. Yet again Dakota was in the boat before we had it in the water.
There’s an impressive tree down across the channel near the group access site at the North end of Three Finger Bay. It’s quite easy to paddle past it, but It’s an impressive sight. Soon after that and we were on the portage to Spider Bay. This is another portage that is notable for the amount of bugs. It’s also just long enough that we tried to minimize the number of trips we made, but I still doubled back to help carry both canoes.
As soon as we were on Spider Bay the sun came back, which was an unexpected surprise. Suddenly the scenery was so much more vibrant and the day just felt more alive. Near the mouth of the channel into Spider Bay is an island that is home to our first geocache of the trip. We found the first part of the cache quite easily, but due to the twist in this cache we weren’t able to log a find. If you are thinking of finding this cache I wouldn’t recommend the route we took unless you’re prepared for a lengthy detour.
Our next task was to paddle across Spider Bay. The trip is short, but due to direct exposure to the winds of the bay I expected it to be the toughest part of our trip. Fortunately the wind wasn’t strong and the bright sun buoyed our spirits and made the effort seem easier. Alex insisted on attempting the paddle solo and despite some difficulty made it across in good time.
On the North side of the bay we made our first geocache find of the trip while enjoying the sun and scenery. We then entered the narrow channel to the North that soon turns into a winding trip through a marsh. I was quite surprised at this terrain that is not characteristic of the Georgian Bay area.
The portage back into Spider Lake was very easy with the exception of a downed tree that was blocking the path. Still it didn’t take long to carry our gear and boats over. Seemingly minutes after putting our boats back into Spider Lake the sky clouded over again and the sun left us. Fortunately the wind was at our backs and the long paddle was relatively easy.
We finally made it back to the Massasauga Paperback Library geocache that we had to skip on the way in. The coordinates were way off, but the hint was very specific so after a bit of exploring we were able to find the cache. We also found two suspiciously fresh looking piles of bear scat, but their owner was nowhere to be found.
The sun had teased us briefly on Spider Lake with glimpses of blue sky, but by the time we made it back to the Three Legged Lake portage the sky was almost black and a fierce wind was blowing from the West. We met two intrepid parties heading out into this bad weather to start their own trips. The wind would have made their paddle difficult and I can’t imagine the weather being enjoyable for the first night of their trip.
The return portage to Three Legged Lake was just as long as the first time, and this time I was tired enough that I didn’t solo carry either of the boats, so Alex and I made the trip three times. After that it was a relatively short paddle back to the dock, and the car. We were quite late returning our rented canoe and the park was closed, but they had no problem with us leaving it in it’s berth overnight.
Conclusion
The weather wasn’t perfect, but it could have been a lot worse. In the end we had a very nice trip with a few spectacular days. We learned a lot about our gear and preparing for a slightly longer trip. After making all of our trips last summer with minimal ultralight gear we got caught in the trap of bringing more with us than was easy to carry this time, and we’ll need to figure out how to cut back on that before we tackle Killarney later in the summer. Overall the trip was quite easy, but carrying so much gear was a pain.
Tips
- Plan ahead. Research sites before you plan your trip to ensure that you get a nice place to stay. Be prepared with alternate sites in case the sites you want are booked (even if you think you’re booking at the earliest available date).
- Book ahead. Learn the park policies and book as early as you can. You can book six months before your trip starts. Even then you may find that sites you want to visit are taken.
- Decide what kind of trip you want. Do you want it to be backcountry only or do you want to visit the outer parts of the bay?