May 26th - 30th, 2016: Northwest Killarney Nelly Lake Canoe Route

May 26th, Drive from Ottawa to Widgawa Lodge

On Thursday we drove the 570km from Ottawa to the Widgawa Lodge located adjacent to the northwest section of the Killarney Provincial Park. The lodge also acts as entry point into the park and one can rent canoes there as well. Somehow we left Ottawa relatively late and ended up well past sun-set at the lodge. The lodge owner had offered me the possibility to camp on their property so we could pick up the canoe in the morning. We built up the tent using the low beam light of our car and immediately went to sleep.

May 27th, Paddling to Grace Lake

The morning started already interesting. Daniella went to the "washroom" and once she came out was immediately chased by a barking dog. So she went right back into the "washroom". However by then the black flies had noticed the prior human activity and were waiting for an ambush! Once Daniella came back to the tent she already was bitten several times around her neck area. These beasts bite the flesh with the skin. Once Margaret and I heard the story and saw the aftermath we immediately put on our bug shirts. And from now on, we were only rarely without a bug shirt when on land.

Daniella's black fly bites

After looking around the canoe departure area I went to the lodge to look for the owner. We chatted for a while and I also inquired about the paddling conditions. Similar to Daniella the owner also recently experienced her first black fly attack of the season. We got a relatively new canoe. She had her dog with her and she assured me that the dog was totally peaceful. Just happy to bark at times and explore newcomers. After I overcame my age-old rabies aversion of dogs by utilizing the rationale side of my brain (in my youth I got about 20 injections into my tummy because our little dog got rabies and ever since I have a problem with trusting a dog that snoops around at my feet or tries to jump on me in a playful manner or generally is simply to close for my comfort level), I even stroked the dog. When Daniella and Margaret showed up, they were quite astonished that I was comfortable with the dog, because that was the same dog that chased Daniella back into the washroom. And normally my daughters are the one's laughing at me because they are comfortable around dogs.

The canoe area at Widgawa Lodge

Canoe launch and our stuff

Packing the canoe went smooth. We were the only ones that weekend going for a canoe trip. Looks as if everyone else was (rightly) scarred of black flies and mosquitoes. We paddled on the little river below the lodge for about 10 minutes to Charlton Lake. Once we reached that lake we paddled for about 45 minutes through the Willisville narrow to Frood Lake. It is best to pass the narrow during the morning calm. Any southerly (or south-west) wind will make things unnecessarily difficult. Willisville and its opposing island sport a number of beautiful cottages. It is cottage country at its best there. You also get an initial inkling of the La-Cloche mountain knob style early on into the trip. Some "Group of Seven" members painted some views from the local fire-tower mountain there.

After a decent amount of paddling (with some wind support from behind) we made it through Frood Lake into Cranberry Bay to the first 1745m portage leading to Grace Lake. And yes, the portage was a long one. And we also had to overcome a decent height difference between the two lakes. It was my first such portage with a significant height difference: Welcome to Northwest Killarney. By comparison everything in Algonquin and La Verendrye is just flat. Two of us had to do the trip twice. Once to get the luggage across and once to portage the canoe. The portage was quite buggy but manageable with our bug shirts. So I thought! What I had not considered was the fact that I stretched the bug shirt fabric very tight around my exposed elbows when carrying the canoe. But tons of mosquitoes noticed that and the fact that I could not slap them and started to feast. I won't mention the mosquitoes many times going forward, but the fact was that at the end of the trip one could see two red discs covering my elbows that were caused by the dense mosquito bites. But I have to say, once you have ten or 15 bites in a relatively small area, you no longer care about another 15 or 30 in the very same area. It is all the same and the itch becomes so constant that you no longer bother to scratch either. The mosquitoes also attacked my exposed legs (which were not covered by a bug shirt) but there the bites were much less because my legs moved during portaging.

Entering Charlton Lake from Widgawa Creek

Figuring out our way into Cranberry Bay

Looking back to the Willisville Fire Tower Hill somewhere from Frood Lake

In need of a portage rest somewhere on the 1745m portage to Grace Lake

Anyway we made it to Grace Lake and looked for a campground. Grace Lake is a beauty surrounded with iconic La-Cloche white mountain knobs. It is also dotted with one or two handful of little rocky islands. It has 3 campgrounds and we looked at all 3 of them before picking the prettiest and least bug infested. Cooking went smooth and we went to sleep.

First Grace Lake impressions

Grace Lake: Looking for a campground

Grace Lake: Vista from our campground

Our Grace Lake campground: Even the hammock found its use

Grace Lake: Daniella doing her exercises

And more exercises

Little me relaxing at the fire pit bench

 

May 28th, Mostly Portaging and some Paddling to Nelly Lake

It rained during the past night. In the morning my daughters questioned the wisdom of continuing paddling given the wetness of things in the morning and the general existence of black flies (Widgawa Lodge) and heavy mosquito presence on the various portages and to a lesser degree at our campground. But I was able to nudge them around and we decided to continue paddling and not paddling back. After breakfast we paddled for about 10 minutes to the portage to Nelly Lake. This one was even longer sporting about 2100 meters and even more height differential compared to yesterdays portage (it has some going up and going down features aside from the general way up (steep at times)). But we managed it without too much fuzz. Arriving at the portage rested and with a recent breakfast in our bellies certainly helped. The morning was also relatively cool.

Grace Lake: Morning impression from our campground. A nice day after a rainy night.

Grace Lake: Ready to paddle again.

Another morning view from our Grace Lake campground

Nelly Lake is another beauty with its own iconic La-Cloche mountain ridges different from Grace Lake. Also Nelly Lake is much larger and has crystal clear water (similar to Killarney Lake and OSA Lake in the south of the park). We took our time and explored all three available campgrounds and picked a beautiful place at the tip of a peninsula. It had wind exposure and was bug free when the wind blew. There was no need to wear the bug shirt hoods or you could even take off the shirts at times. We also embarked on a nice relaxed paddling/drifting trip in the middle of Nelly Lake to enjoy the scenery.

Our Nelly Lake campground as seen from the water. Notice the water clarity.

Evening impressions on Nelly Lake: The next day we went up to the ridge top with the lone pine

Nelly Lake

Evening sun at Nelly Lake

 

May 29th, Relaxing and Exploring at Nelly Lake

Today was our Nelly Lake exploration day. Already yesterday we had seen a ridge we wanted to get up to. But before that we paddled to the campground located by the lake bay called Carmichael Lake and utilized its outhouse. The outhouse at our own campground was in a somewhat deteriorated state after the winter (looks we were one of the first parties paddling at the lake this season). The Carmichael Lake campground is also a good one. Afterwards we continued to paddle into the Carmichael Lake bay and beached the canoe at a spot that was relatively rock free (relatively close but different to the Murray Lake portage). From there we tried to climb up to the ridge. After several failed bushwhacking attempts we managed to reach the ridge. And it was beautiful and bug free. We spent there several hours enjoying the vistas and the sun. The clarity of the Nelly Lake water added to the mystique. I led the pictures speak for themselves. The Group of Seven painters certainly picked a beautiful spot to paint their pictures 100 years ago. Now that I have seen the area, I am looking forward to have another look at their Willisville, Nelly Lake and Grace Lake pictures at the McMichael Museum in Kleinburg Ontario, the ROM and the local National Art Gallery in Ottawa.

Nelly Lake: View to the east from our gorgeous campground

Nelly Lake: View to the west from our campground

Breakfast

And yet another view from our campground to Nelly Lake

Carmichael Lake bay on Nelly Lake

Bushwhacking our way up to the ridge

More bushwhack, we are not where we wanted to be!

Finally we are where we wanted to be. It is superb: Nelly Lake in the background with our campground peninsula (campround was at the very tip).

View towards tomorrows Murray Lake portage (running through the narrow valley in the middle)

Nelly Lake: Margaret at the ridge top

Nelly Lake: And now Daniella at the same spot

Picture with little me also somewhere on the ridge top

Nelly Lake south view: At the end of the lake is somewhere the 2.5km portage to Helen Lake

The ridge top was quite large and open and offered views in all directions

At some point Daniella started to burn her surplus energies.

And with time the stretches got better,

and better,

with the occasional jump sprinkled in a well

and after a longer while the stretch was as good as it gets.

Back relaxing at our campground in the afternoon sun. With the wind blowing the bugs were absent for the time being as well!

Afterwards we spend an hour or two paddling and drifting on the lake again. The clarity of the Nelly Lake water is super duper. We also had an enjoyable early dinner at our campground and went to sleep when the wind calmed down around sunset to avoid the mosquitoes. It was a beautiful day.

 

May 30th, Paddling and Portaging to Murray Lake

Another nice day. We paddled back into the Carmichael Lake bay to the portage leading to Murray Lake. It is another 1500m portage. And it had the steepest height differential of the 3 main portages on this trip (this time downward). This one had several sections that were really steep. I would not want to carry a canoe down or up when this trail is wet and slippery. If you fall, the canoe just buries you under it. The worst section has some sort of a slip facility that allows to slide a canoe down. But I am not sure how reliable that slip facility actually is. It did not seem to be in active use (keep in mind we were one of the very first parties this season so I may be off with regards to its use). Anyway we also managed that portage (we were well rested and had only to paddle a little bit this morning). We picked the campside closest to the portage exit from Nelly Lake. There was nothing special about the site, but it got a higher recommendation compared to the others which we did not explore and it was close to the portage exit.

Murray Lake is totally different from Nelly Lake. It is a beautiful bog lake. Lots of birds (herons) and beavers. After building up the tent and having dinner Daniella and I went on a longer Murray Lake animal paddling exploration tour. We saw several herons fishing and we encountered several active beavers. At the most promising spot we simply "parked" the canoe on a block of mud, stopped paddling and waited. About 5 minutes later several beavers reappeared and were busy 5 to 10 meters away from us. We watched for about 30 minutes or so until close to sunset.

First view of Murray Lake from the end of the Nelly Lake portage

End of the portage with my very much needed and capable helper. For additional elbow mosquito protection I kept my fleece on and instead sweated a lot.

Murray Lake: With Daniella exploring the various beaver castles in the evening.

Eastern end of Murray Lake

Paddling back in the evening sun. We are still a while away from our campground.

Waiting for the beavers while "parked" on a mud block

Murray Lake sun set view from our campground

 

May 31st, Paddling back from Murray Lake to Widgawa Lodge and driving back to Ottawa

We paddled back from Murray Lake to Charlton Lake via Howry Creek. Howry Creek is a little meandering river flowing through a diverse set of lands (bogs, beaver dam crossing, portaging a rapid, normal forest, several boggy mini lakes). I was only missing a moose or two standing somewhere in the water. That would have been perfect ;-). Paddling Howry Creek reminded me at paddling Otterslide creek in Algonquin. After a longer while paddling we arrived at Charlton Lake. The wind gods were favorable with us and the wind blew mostly from behind or from the side. Charlton Lake is a narrow but long. I can't comment how paddling feels if the wind blows against you, but in our case it was just a very nice paddle with good weather. Again some of the lake area is prime cottage country (the Killarney provincial park pretty soon ends after Howry Creek enters Charlton lake). We made it early afternoon back to Widgawa Lodge. No black fly attacks this time. We were prepared. Returning the canoe and packing the car was straight-forward. Afterwards we had a late lunch, early dinner at the Espanola Subway and then it was time to drive home to Ottawa. We arrived in Ottawa sometime around midnight or so.

Murray Lake close to Howry Creek on its western end

Somewhere on Howry Creek not too far from Murray Lake.

Howry Creek is very diverse: Sometimes as wide as here and sometimes narrow

Bog area on Howry Creek

Howry Creek: There is a rapid/beaver dam that needs to be portaged (210m)

In a more boggy area of Howry Creek

Howry Creek

Somewhere on Howry Creek

This larger beaver dam had to be navigated via a short 50m portage. A liftover of the canoe is maybe an option as well and faster.

Howry Creek: Meandering section

Meandering section of Howry Creek

Selfie somewhere on Charlton Lake halfway towards Widgawa

Charlton Lake

Entering Widgawa Creek from Charlton Lake. The lodge is about 10 minutes of paddling away

 

Final Thoughts

Paddling the Grace Lake - Nelly Lake - Murray Lake round lived up to its hype. The paddling route is one of the most diverse I have done. Clearly Grace Lake and Nelly Lake and its surrounding La-Cloche quarzite mountain knobs are super duper and totally comparable with Killarney Lake and OSA Lake. But Murray Lake and Howry add another dimension to the trip in terms of bog diversity and there is something about paddling a meandering little river, that has its own charm. Charlton Lake and Frood Lake are prime cottage country but not overcrowded.

For sure the 3 portages, each between 1500m and 2km long and significant height differentials pose a challenge. We managed it. But it is not necessarily a suitable route for someone going canoeing for the first time or the first season. I perused Kevin Callan's "A Paddler's Guide to Killarney and the French River" for trip planning and we had the backcountry hiking and canoe route map from the Friends of Killarney Park with us. The canoe was top-notch, lightweight and had a very comfortable yoke.

Even the girls agreed that it was in hindsight the right decision to continue paddling and not turning already back at Grace Lake. The bugs were less of an issue on Nelly Lake and Murray Lake and we probably learned to deal with them. This was our first canoe trip during prime black fly and mosquito season. Normally I go in late August or even better in September when most of the mosquitoes and all of the black flies are gone. But we were rewarded with paddling superb lakes alone and no reason to rush anything because we knew we had all the time of the world to pick the best camp spot. This is very different compared to trying to find a spot on an already crowded lake lets say around and before Labor Day weekend.