The scenery and wildlife provide an amazing experience. The park contains rivers of various sizes, including some white water on the Petawawa, big lakes with long stretches of paddling, smaller lakes and marshlands, and landscape ranging from very southern Canadian Shield with its stark beauty, lush deciduous forests with the famed Ontario fall colours, primarily coniferous forests, and marshy grasslands. You can download a PDF format map of the canoe routes, but you'll want to buy your own up to date one if you're actually going on a trip. There's a wide variety of wildlife, and I've personall seen (or heard) deer, wolves, loons, muskrats, otters, assorted ducks, assorted birds, quail, chipmunks and squirrels, beavers, fish, pheasants and herons (everything except moose actually).
This trip is refered to as "The Walk About the Park" due to the very high density of portages. We did the portages as doubles (one trip with the canoes and food packs, walk back, another run with the gear packs) due to the amount of gear and food necessary for a two week fall trip. As a result we walked 120 km and paddled 80 km. The park was deserted, and we didn't see anyone in the first eleven days of the trip.
If you've only done trips of a week or less, plan to increase your food during the last half of the trip, as your body burns off its first reserves. We didn't starve, but we came out of the park with only salt, pepper and a couple of tea bags left, and had lost weight.
Similarly, fall trips require more food than summer trips, as you burn more calories staying warm.
If I do a trip of this length again I would schedule a rest day in the middle for cleaning/drying gear, resting and
healing, as by the end of two weeks the sore muscles had healed but the strains/bruises/blisters were increasing
in severity.
The Route
This was a straight forward paddle up Grand Lake, in nice sunny weather with a light breeze. The access road into the park is quite managable. Nice campsite, with lots of space.
This day was largely composed of the second longest portage in the park. The trail isn't diffcult, but it is hilly, and runs under some of those big power lines. As we were doing double portages, the total distance walked was 18 km. This section of the park is one of the only ones with poison ivy. The campsite (nearest to the portage) was nice but rocky, with a good view.
Some of today's portages were nominally low maintenance, but were in pretty good repair, as was the campsite. The campsite was good, up from the water, flat and lots of firewood.
Ow. This was one of those days which makes you wonder why you do this. 15 km of portaging before lunch. We climbed fairly over portages, but the day was long, partly because we were covering a large distance, and partly because it rained almost all day. We finished up by paddling across White Partridge at dusk, and had to locate the campsite in full dark (not recommended), set up camp in the dark, in the rain, and make and eat dinner. The campsite was quite small, the only space for the tents being on the path to the outhouse.
The day started out with a thick thick fog, but then turned nicely sunny and calm. Some nice lake paddling today, which went quickly as the weather was calm so we made camp early and had time to dry out wet socks, air out the sleeping bags and tents and lie in the sun. We also learned that tea is good for treating a scratched cornea. A clear night with beautiful stargazing and the sound of loons and wolves.
This was another day of big lake paddling, which is quite easy on clear, calm days like we had and next to impossible on stormy days. We had planned to stop at a campsite just before Crow River, but when we got there it turned out that it wasn't big enough to fit two tents. We headed on, as the park was deserted, and ended up finding a nice site on Mallic Lake with enough time to air stuff out. It was a lovely clear night, perfect for star gazing (full view of the Milky Way, dark enough to see Andromeda, and clear enough to see the stars in the water.
Today we started the "paddle and portage" section. You have to be efficient here, as you're getting in or out of the canoe every half hour or less. The water levels were quite low, which required some maneuvering to get through without grounding out. We camped where White Partridge Creek crosses between two portages: there are two sites right on the portage, both very small. We ended up using one for the tents, and one for the fire. Nice creek going by, but there are probably a lot of bugs in the summer. There was plenty of firewood.
The day started out with an easy 2.3 km portage. Water levels were still low, necesitating some wading on the Crow. The river broadened and deepended when we joined up with the Petawawa. The low water levels did expose some rocks/mini rapids which would otherwise be covered. We were going to stop just before a portage, but couldn't find the campsite, so camped on a small island at the end of the portage. This is a very nice site, with lots of room, and a great fire aream abd great scenery. This part of the trip started the "very Group of Seven" portion of the trip.
We did some more paddle and portage along the Petawawa, portaging around various rapids. We camped fairly early near the turnoff to Eustache Lake, and hiked out to the lake (the deepest in the park). It's a nice change to be able to watch the scenery without carrying anything or being too worried about pace. The trail to the lake was quite nice. We were slightly startled by glowing red eyes shining in the dark (I mean really glowing), but it turned out to be the edge of the Algonquin Radio Telescope poking out from above the trees.
A bit more paddle and portage followed by a long paddle up Lake Travers. The portaging was a bit tricky, with very rocky terrain, and slippery wet leaves. Being astronomers, we decided to have lunch at the Algonquin Radio Observatory, once we actually found it. (It's the right hand side road off the access road) Today was the first day of hunting season, so we did our best not to look like moose. We camped at the beginning of the continuation of the Petawawa, not a bad site, but very cold with a cutting wind.
There are some beautiful cliffs just after the Nach Rapids, after which the terrain flattens. This area is mainly populated by coniferous trees. The low water levels made for some interesting landings where the water was very shallow and sprinkled with round rocks. This is more of a problem with a heavily laden canoe. We camped underneath the power lines, on an access road, in the middle of a field of poison ivy. Not the best campsite, but it would be a good site if you wanted to do some side wandering.
We did the portages today as single portages, shortening the day, but maintaining the same amount of work. The portages weren't bad however. We camped on Whitson lake, at a not too bad campsite. The "spectacular silver maples" mentioned on the map aren't very impressive after all the leaves have fallen.
Mainly lake paddling today, with only two portages, one of which was very short, getting us out to the access
point on time, and back to civilisation for (in order), A change of clothes, a huge meal at McDonald's, returning
the gear, returning to Toronto, and bathing several times.