Tips Sail

Here are some shots of a daytrip to the Western Edge of Algonquin Park. Fall colours have begun. Some of my previous experiences in Algonquin park have been disappointments...mostly because of dirty campsites littered with refuse from disrespectful campers. These tend to be the well used "maintained" routes.

With a single day devoted to exploring, I thought I would venture to a region that is technically not part of the park, and therefore appears on maps as an "unmaintained" region. An added bonus is that it is only 20 minutes away from our Cottage.

Access is from a little trail right off Highway 60 which leads into a boggy section of "Park Lake". On the Algonquin Adventures forums a while back, a question was asked about the worst/ugliest lake in the whole park...someone answered this "Park Lake". Wasn't that bad in my opinion...but its unfortunate location running parallel to the busy Highway 60 corridor means you certainly hear transport trucks rumbling over the hilly terrain. Not much of wilderness experience here.


Start Access Point


View across the length of Park Lake


Hills stating to change

Despite this, the lake had lots of wildlife, owing to some boggy areas along eastern and western edges. Plenty of waterfowl like bufflehead ducks, loons, and even a great blue heron in these areas. My goal was to paddle to the small chain of lakes tucked behind the hills and scout the "unmaintained" campsite on a little spit of land jutting into Victory Lake.

After paddling the canoe through some weedy shallows and over an old beaver dam, I entered Victory lake and landed the canoe at the base of the site.


Campsite landing


Clean, sweet little site
Pleasantly surprised! It was an clean, elevated site with a nice fire ring and some perfectly spaced out trees for my hammock. Someone also built some two flat benches with some stones around the fire pit. For an unmaintained site not officially part of the park, this was one of the cleanest I've ever encountered...no bit of food or junk in the firepit and even a nice pile of wood stacked up for the next visitor.

The lake has plenty of dried wood along the shoreline and a nice creek at the end which begged for more exploration. A little upstream I just missed snapping a pic of a beaver.


Solitary maple turning


Bright's Creek


Just missed the beaver
In any event, time was running out and I had to head back. While certainly not a deep backcountry location, I'll be heading back here again for an overnighter eventually. The added bonus for my worried wife is that there is cellphone coverage at this location so she can call me to rush back home at the slightest emergency.

Map of the Crystal Falls Canoe Route

Old Wood Canvas Canoe at Put-In

Getting ready to launch

Calm waters of Buck Lake

The 70 km of trails on the property encircle most of the lakes. They are well maintained an feature boardwalks over streams or other unstable terrain. Sure makes portaging the canoe a lot easier.

Convenient portage boardwalk over stream

Each of the lakes are connected with very shallow gravel or beaver dams necessitating getting out of the canoe and doing some basic liftovers...a minor inconvenience to get out into this pocket of wildlife. The little grassy islet in the pic below is a loon nesting site.

Shallow lift-overs from lake to lake

Camping along the shoreline isn't permitted on the property and isn't really practical either. Most lakes along the route feature extreme cliffs and thickly forested walls. Difficult to perceive the scale of the pic below but the boulders at the bottom of this rockslide were huge and a giant white pine is thriving in the rocky soil.

Steep  cliffs mean frequent rock slides

An abandoned colonization road north, the Bobcaygeon Way, goes through the property and is now part of a hiking trail. To maintain this crossing point, a steel culvert was installed. It is just wide enough with suffiencient water levels to float through.

Steel  culvert under old logging road

Wetlands separating Little Twin Lake from Long Lake are covered in beaver dams to maintain water levels...there were about 5 beaver dams to lift over in this area which is apparently a major fish spawning area for the chain of lakes.

Multple beaver dams in wetland area

More wetland streams

At the end of the Long Lake, the water flows down through another small gorge over Crystal falls. Since this area gets next to no visitors, and is pretty much the end of the property there is is no maintained trail network. One has to scramble over mossy rock along the creek shore to reach the falls. But tucked away is pretty little cascade, Because of the topography, my camera could only capture the entire waterfall in thirds.

Upper third of Crystal Falls

Middle cascade of Crystal Falls

Final Drop of falls over rockface

 I'm sure in full spring runoff the falls would look even more spectacular. Couldn't really get a pic of it, but there is just enough of an opening in the tree canopy for the noon sun to shine in. Apparently if you get there at a certain hour, the whole place lights up with rainbows and glistening rocks. Anyway, this is an out-and-back style trip so I headed back up the chain of lakes. Here's a shot of my lashing set up with the tumpline and paddles that has become my preferred method

Paddles lashed in for portage

Calm Waters and thick forests

Also did a small detour and visited one of the areas known Osprey nest sites, located on a small island appropriately named after this wonderful bird. A lightning strike knocked off the canopy of a huge white pine which has since served as nesting site for the mating pair. They return every year which is a great ecological indicator of abundance of fish and overall health of the watershed in this region.

Osprey nest on broken white pine trunk

Many thanks to the owners of this fantastic property for creating a wonderful nature reserve for folks to enjoy. If anyone decides to visit after this post, please respect their rules and keep this place open!