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Spring Trip 4 day Loop Algonquin Park

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Hey Everyone. My name is Rich and I am new to the forum. I’d like to thank Doug for responding to my request to join so quickly and for taking the time to research the brand of boat I own and saying nice things about it. I wanted to get active on here as soon as possible so I thought I would share my Spring canoe trip with everyone.

May 17th I entered Algonquin park from access point 29 which is the Kiosk Lake access point. I was heading out for a 4 day trip with 2 friends. We spent the winter looking over maps and made the decision that we wanted to check out one of Algonquin Parks interior ranger cabins. We landed on a route that would take us to the Birchcliffe cabin.

The entire trip was unusually cold even for an early May trip. Ice out had just happened and many of the portage trails still had snow cover on large sections of them. The first nights forecast low was for one degree above freezing.

Day one we set out from Kiosk, made our way down Maple Creek and into Maple lake. We did our last portage of the day into Erables (French for maple) and spent the night on the southern island campsite. The site was in great shape and with a few downed branches and small trees from winter we found firewood easier to find than is normally the case on an island sight in such a busy park.

Day at two we made our way through the lower end of maple creek, took the 965m portage into Tillie and then continued into North Raven and Coral root lake before finally getting into Birchcliffe creek and paddling to Birchcliffe lake where the cabin that the whole trip was planned around was waiting for us. Water levels were high. Alder was thick on parts of Maple Creek and downed trees covered most of the portages on today’s route. The 230m portage was very steep and the entire thing was an uphill climb. The biggest hurdle of the day though was that on Jeff’s Maps the 245m portage on Maple Creek is actually about 500m west of the location it shows on the map. All that being said the Cabin was fantastic sitting probably 30 feet above the lake with great views.

Day 3 we headed into Birchcliffe creek and headed west toward Biggar lake. The map had paddle time listed at 2 hours. This was not the case. Water levels were high and fast and although we were with the current the Alder was thicker than anything I’d ever seen before. It was a day of cutting branch after branch just to get any forward momentum. There were also large trees across the creek that we had to go over or under and the fast moving water combined with alder caused one of our group to tip his boat in the frigid water. Total time on the creek was 10 hours. When we got off the creek we pushed hard in the pouring rain and made it from Biggar up through Hornbeam and finally found a free site in the dark at around 10pm on Mangotasi.

Day 4 we woke up to strong winds pushing the waves towards us in the narrows between Mangotasi and North Tea. We had to give it our all to fight them but once we got around the corner into the open body of North Tea the waves pushed us toward our portage into Manitou. The gps elevation recording indicates that the waves were approximately 1 metre (3 feet) high. After getting into Manitou we Strategically planned our way across the lake to take advantage of islands as wind blocks and try to keep the wind at our back as much as possible. The last big portage brought us to Amable du Fond River and then a few short portages got us back to Kiosk and in our cars by 1pm. The portages in this area were all well maintained. The had ground cover because it was early in the year but nothing serious. The rapids on the Amable du Fond around the portages were raging with the high water levels and made for some great sights as we carried around them.

The trip was by far one of the hardest I’ve done in terms of weather and obstacles and unforeseen situations. We made the best of it though and had a great trip. If anyone has any questions about it I’d be happy to share. Once again thanks for letting me be part of the Canoetripping community.

If anyone would like to see video video of this trip you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/c/SingleMaltAndMaps
 
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That is a tough area. I was in there last year starting from AC 1 Kawawymog Lake and out to Mink then down. From your report, I glad I did Erables, Maple, 3mile, then Biggar instead of Birchcliffe Cr.
 
Welcome Singlemalt, and thanks for the trip report! I look forward to finishing your vid. Your African Queen adventure sounds gruelling.
 
Thanks all. Yes it was a tough trip but primarily it was Birchcliffe creek that was the really challenging part. I agree with Sweeper. If I was going to do this trip again I would avoid Birchcliffe and come around through 3 mile.

In the end it was probably a good experience to have. Give you an idea of what you can get through and makes you appreciate the smooth days a little bit more.
 
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