We drove on Saturday from Toronto to the Bell Lake Access Point. There we met up with Steve and Hani who arrived from Ottawa roughly at the same time.
The weather during the drive was mixed: Sun, clouds and even some rain. But when we arrived at the access point the weather had improved sufficiently to the point that it did not look rainy any more.
Day 1 - Bell Lake Access to Balsam Lake
We got our canoes from the outfitter place (Killarney Kanoes) right at the lake and loaded them. The same outfitter was also responsible to handle the Killarney Park reservations. It was about 3pm when we started paddling.
Our destination today was Campsite #152 on Balsam Lake. To reach Balsam Lake we had to paddle a good chunk of Bell Lake eastward and then find a 50m portage at the end of a little creek. We actually found the portage without too much problems mostly by following the guidance given to us by the outfitter and Steve checking his GPS from time to time.
Our paddle on Balsam Lake was relatively short. And our campground turned out to be a very nice one.
Day 2 - Balsam Lake to David Lake
The weather looked pretty reasonable today. After Breakfast we paddled to the Balsam Lake to David Portage. It is about 700m long and takes a bit of time. The portage has a certain steepness in parts and I actually managed to take a wrong turn. But it was all manageable. It just took a bit of time going forward backward to get all the luggage across.
On David Lake our paddle was again relatively short. Our destination was Campsite #182. We had booked it for 2 nights and it turned out to be spacious and again a very pretty one (most of the campsites on David Lake that we paddled by looked nice (183, 185, 188, 189)).
Day 3 - David Lake: Silhouette Trail Hike towards Little Mountain Lake
We decided to do some exploration of David Lake. We paddled to the portage from David Lake to Boundary Lake (without our gear). The portage crosses the Silhouette Trail (the big loop trail in Killarney). We decided to hike this trail west towards Little Mountain Lake. The trail went along a few scenic ridges but also traversed a few forest areas. We did not make it all the way to Little Mountain Lake (we stayed on top of a hill and only looked down a bit). Then we headed the same way back. And also paddled the same way back across David Lake.
Day 4 - David Lake
Our destination today was Campsite #193 on David Lake. After breakfast we loaded our canoes and paddled again. Unlike the day before it turned out to be a very windy affair. Margaret and I were not able to cross the open portion of David Lake and we ended up being blown towards the shore near Campsite #191. From the shore we looked what the others were doing. And for a while it looked as if one of the canoes were toppled. Margaret and I actually unloaded our canoe and paddled towards the place where we thought a canoe was toppled over. However the wind was still too strong for us and we were blown back close to Campsite #191.
From what we could see was that one canoe had made it to the shore close to Campsite #193 (our destination for the day). But we could not see the other canoe at all.After about 1 or 2 hours we saw that a pair of canoes was coming our way. And it turned out that Uta and Hansi, as well as Hani and Steve both had made it successfully to Campsite #193 and that only Margaret and me were missing. In any case both canoes came now our way to look for us! We distributed our luggage a bit around and started to paddle again. This time the wind had calmed a bit and we made it all across the lake to our intended campsite. Our campsite was again quite nice.
Day 5 - Silver Peak Hike
We moved our tent gear early on to Campsite #192 (just 80m away from our current campsite). Then we walked from Campsite #193 to the David Lake - Boundary Lake portage point (about 200m or less along the lake shore). From the portage point we hiked again the point where the Silhouette Trail crosses the portage. From there we headed east on the Silhouette Trail towards Silver Peak. Silver Peak is the highest of the quartzite hills/mountains in Killarney Provincial Park. It took us about 6 to 7 hours of hiking to reach the peak, having a rest on top and then walk the same way back to Campsite #193. It was a cool hike. We had good weather and good visibility.
Day 6 - Paddling back to Bell Lake Access Point via David Creek
We had a black bear visit this night. The bear managed to get to the food we had hung up and destroyed a few bags and also bit into our cooler box. We thought we had done a pretty good job hanging our gear up. At least it was definitely one of our better hanging the food up efforts in recent years. But somehow the bear appeared to have torn apart the rope that was wound around a nearby tree to keep everything in place. We did hear some noises but did not see anything. However the bear visited a 2nd time and moved directly through our campsite. I guess he might have been looking for more food. Steve woke up and chased the bear away. That got everyone else except me waking up and coming outside as well. After a while everyone went back into their tents. In the morning we noticed that the hung up food was on the ground.
The bear visit wasn't a disaster for us. It was our last day anyway. None of us was hurt. Also paddling out without a breakfast was not a big issue. We had 2 portages and not too much paddling ahead of us. The weather was very nice again and the paddle caused no problems. One of the 2 portages was a 700m portage. We arrived in good spirits at the access point. There we heard that another party on David Lake was visited by a bear the night before. Unlike ours, it was the first night of their canoe trip and they had to abandon their trip. I guess it was the same bear.
We drove that afternoon back to Ottawa via Sudbury. We had our first lunch of the day in Sudbury (Steve charged his EV car during the time we had lunch). We also had a late dinner at the Irving Big Truckstop in Pembroke and arrived late (and safely) in Ottawa.
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