Algonquin to Big Trout - Stymied! :-(

Fall of 2026

by Randy Born

Sunday - Departing Canoe Lake at 6 p.m.

We arrived at the end of Canoe Lake at 7 p.m. and reached the end of the Joe Lake portage at 7:30 p.m., having double-portaged our gear. It was just beginning to rain lightly.

We departed, figuring we would find a campsite on Western Joe Lake in about 20 minutes. That didn't happen!

Instead, we endured a harrowing 75-minute paddle through rain that grew heavier by the minute. Paddling toward a campsite became increasingly difficult as the wind picked up and a large, dark cloud blocked out what little daylight remained. Before long, it was pitch-dark, and we were following the right-hand shoreline by headlamp. Needless to say, this made the paddle much slower and longer than anticipated.

Thankfully, we eventually spotted a campsite sign, and the site was unoccupied. At that point, we had absolutely no concerns about whether the site was suitable or not. We were simply happy to get off the water and onto dry land so we could set up camp for our first night.

Camp setup was completed by headlamp, after which we had to prepare something to eat and drink.

Fortunately, the rain tapered off and actually stopped about five minutes after we finally found a campsite!

We decided on MRE pasta meals because they were supposed to self-heat using the heater sleeves included with the meals. Sadly, the heaters didn't work very well. This meant a barely warm, almost cold supper. However, we needed the calories because we were cold and wet, so we ate it anyway, despite the food being little more than ambient temperature - which was rather cold, to say the least! :-(

Note to self .. That 25% discount on MREs might not have been such a good deal after all! At least the meals were edible and not past their best-before dates.

We made hot toddies rather than our usual tea to accompany supper, then headed to bed at midnight. No campfire tonight, unfortunately. A fire would have been nice, but there was no dry wood to be found anywhere nearby.

Monday - Little Joe, Western Narrows to Burnt Island

We awoke around 7:30 a.m., still cold and feeling the effects of the previous night's miserable conditions.

Soon however, we had hot porridge, hot coffee and a chocolate bar for energy. A fire was out of the question because we couldn't find any dry wood.

Our plan was to get beyond Burnt Island and reach the Otter Slides that day. Sadly, that didn't happen because we got lost on Burnt Island while looking for the portage out.

After a hearty lunch of hotdogs, chicken-flavoured ramen noodles, tea and cookies, we resumed our search. We ate near the spot where we thought the exit portage should be, based on what we believed was Caroline Island.

As it turned out, we were in an earlier bay. After paddling around aimlessly for an hour or so, we encountered another couple fishing from a canoe. And, as all men do quite easily ;-) - we asked for directions because we figured we might be a little disoriented after all.

We eventually found the portage after paddling around in 6-8 inch whitecaps. The couple helped us get our bearings and explained that the location we thought we were in was wrong. That meant we had spent more than an hour searching for the exit portage in the wrong bay! :-(

The kind couple pointed out exactly where we were on the map in relation to the real Caroline Island. From there, it didn't take long to find the portage. Unfortunately, the time wasted searching in the wrong bay meant we were quickly losing daylight and approaching dusk. We decided to camp that night on Burnt Island Lake, near the exit portage.

Supper was once again prepared in the dark. There was no fire again, sadly, as I was sure the gale-force winds blowing inland would have made a campfire extremely difficult to manage.

Supper consisted of beans and hotdogs that had previously been frozen in a vacuum-sealed bag and were now thawed. We easily heated them in my double-boiler pot of boiling water. The hot beans and hotdogs were awesome, especially given the chilly conditions and the wind blowing off the lake.

Well fed, we decided that 8 p.m. was too early to hit the hay. Instead, we chatted about the trip planning needed for the following day and then enjoyed some much-needed campfire therapy until 10:30 p.m.

Tuesday - Burnt Island to the Otter Slides

We were both up at 7:30 a.m. After porridge, coffee and another chocolate bar, we headed out across the rough water toward the 790-metre portage to Little Otter Slide.

We managed the double portage into Little Otter Slide in just over an hour. Soon, we were paddling toward Big Otter Slide Lake, where the exit route (five portages later) would eventually take us to Big Trout Lake.

That was when we encountered a solo paddler we had met earlier. He was heading back toward us, having abandoned his plans to continue to Big Trout and then on toward Cedar Lake.

Naturally, we were surprised and asked what had happened.

He explained that Otter Slide Creek was dry beyond the first portage. In addition to the other three portages, other paddlers had told him there were also about two kilometres of dry creek bed farther along. He considered the route a no-go.

This solo paddler was travelling in a lightweight, 23-pound, 13-foot Swift Carbon Fusion canoe, carrying just one gear pack and easily managing single portages. Even so, he wasn't willing to drag or carry his canoe up a dry creek bed.

He also told us that he hadn't even made it past the second portage. A new, four-foot-high beaver dam near the second of the five portages had lowered the water in Otter Slide Creek to about an inch. Continuing would mean carrying or pulling the canoe along the creek bed.

This was disappointing news for us as well and meant changing our plans. We stopped for lunch and discussed what to do next. Just as we were trying to figure things out, the skies opened up again and the wind picked up, making our lunch spot on Big Otter Slide Lake near the portages wet and chilly.

We still needed to eat and get some calories into us before paddling back down Big Otter Slide Lake against the wind and whitecaps to find a campsite sheltered from the wind.

We eventually returned to Little Otter Slide Lake and set up camp for the night. It was raining lightly, but somehow we managed to get a tarp up.

Supper was a welcome improvement: warm rice, beef and black beans, accompanied by tea and cookies for dessert. Before supper, we enjoyed a Canadian version of a Cuba Libre hot chocolate with Cuban rum!

We had managed to scrounge up enough wood for a small fire, so we stayed up until 11 p.m. enjoying some much-needed campfire therapy. We reminisced about the ordeals and disappointments that had befallen us so far. Somehow, after a couple of stiff drinks around the campfire, we had a more positive outlook before heading to bed at 11 p.m.

Wednesday - Exploring the Otter Slides

Robert was up at the crack of dawn, or more accurately at 7:30 a.m., Randy finally got up around 9 a.m., when Robert asked if I wanted some coffee. :-)

Breakfast consisted of a bagel or English muffin with peanut butter and honey, along with bacon.

We left the Little Otter Slide campsite at 10 a.m. Our plan was to fish both Otter Slide lakes, which we did, before having lunch at 1 p.m. at the same spot where we had eaten the previous day.

Today, it was a much better lunch spot! The sun was out, there was no wind, no whitecaps and, best of all, no rain.

Lunch consisted of hotdogs, ramen noodles, tea and cookies for dessert.

After lunch, we left the Otter Slide Lake lunch spot and trolled our way back toward our campsite on Little Otter Slide Lake.

While casting from shore as lunch was being prepared, Robert managed to get his lure snagged on a log in shallow water. He had to go skinny-dipping to recover it from about three feet of water! The water was warmish and I too decided to have a quick dunk.

I also had to go looking for my bobber and lure after losing them earlier. My line had snapped when I cast particularly hard to get some distance from shore because the bail had closed too quickly.

Since the lake was calm, I figured I would easily find my bobber and lure after lunch, especially after Robert's swimming adventure to rescue his own lure.

No such luck!

My story and I'm sticking to it! :-) is that a trout must have bitten the worm on my dangling lure, hooked itself, and swum away with both the lure and the free-floating bobber. Later that night, no doubt, it was telling all its fishy friends about the size of the bait it had snagged earlier that day!

I searched high and low for that bobber, but after 30 minutes of exhaustive searching, I could only believe my own story. And I'm sticking to it!

We continued trolling until supper time.

The night's supper was a dehydrated AlpineAire "Pad Thai" meal, accompanied by a Chardonnay white wine. Tea and cookies rounded out the evening meal.

We stayed at the same campsite on Little Otter Slide Lake and called this our rest day. In reality, it wasn't particularly restful, given all the paddling and fishing we managed to squeeze in!

Thursday - Little Otter Slide to Burnt Island

Robert was up at 7:30 a.m., while Randy didn't emerge until around 10 a.m. Sadly, the coffee wasn't ready yet!

Robert mumbled something about me sleeping the day away. I suggested that if Robert wanted me up earlier, all he had to do was announce that the coffee was ready. :-)

Breakfast consisted of coffee, porridge and dehydrated apples, along with English muffins or bagels topped with peanut butter and honey, plus bacon.

After spending two nights on Little Otter Slide Lake, we packed up camp and headed back toward Burnt Island. The portage was uneventful, and by around 2 p.m. we were having lunch just past Caroline Island.

We hoped to find a campsite close to the dam so we wouldn't have to worry about potentially being windbound the following day. Unfortunately, all those campsites were occupied, so we had to backtrack and find one farther up the lake on the north shore.

We ended up at the second campsite from the narrows at the end of the lake. It turned out to be the best campsite of the trip so far!

The fireplace was positioned in front of a huge, flat rock that reflected the fire's heat back toward us as we sat in front of the campfire. We also easily found plenty of dry wood nearby.

This night, we had another MRE meal. Once again, the heater sleeve didn't work very well, so I heated the bagged meals in my double-boiler pot instead.

We had goulash and beef-and-black-bean meals, sharing them half and half. Both were excellent, although the beef-and-bean meal was a little spicy. Still, it was very palatable.

The campfire was awesome. We found lots of dry wood nearby, including a three-foot-long hollow log that we cut into three one-foot pieces. Placed vertically on a bed of coals, they burned like chimneys, with flames shooting out of the tops!

It made for a great campfire.

After a much better evening, we turned in relatively early at 10:30 p.m.

Friday - Burnt Island to Western Narrows, Little Joe .. via Little Doe instead of Baby Joe! :-(

We broke camp on Burnt Island after an early, hearty breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Breakfast was once again coffee, porridge and an English muffin or bagel with peanut butter, honey and bacon.

We broke camp at 10 a.m. and reached the start of the exit portage about 20 minutes later.

Our plan was to return to Little Joe and find a campsite early in the afternoon, leaving us time for some fishing on our last full day.

After the first 200-metre portage, we encountered signs indicating Little Doe and Burnt Island. Somehow, we must have misread or ignored the signs, or simply forgotten the route we had taken five days earlier.

Yes, we were tired and gradually becoming more exhausted after five days of portaging and paddling. Somehow, we had forgotten that we should be heading out through Baby Joe, via those nice Y-steps that had brought us in from Baby Joe Lake.

Mind you, Little Doe and Little Joe are easily confused when you're tired!

It wasn't until we encountered a very steep, long and rocky downhill section about 500 - 600 metres into the portage that I realized we had taken the wrong route. The portage we should have taken was only 435 metres, whereas this one was 1,140 metres.

By then, I was already feeling very tired and exhausted. However, I decided to continue because this route would still get us to our intended destination, albeit by a longer route.

At the end of the portage, at Little Doe Lake, I sat down and ate an orange to regain some energy while waiting for Robert.

It turned out that Robert was also exhausted. Unknown to me, he had put the canoe down about halfway along the portage because it had become too heavy to carry. He had continued onward without the canoe, carrying a few loose items we had tied into it.

After waiting about 10 minutes, I began to wonder whether something was wrong. Robert is usually as quick as, or quicker than I am, so I started walking back up the portage to find him. I was genuinely concerned that something might have happened.

I met Robert about halfway along the trail, carrying the loose items from the canoe. He wasn't sure he could continue carrying the canoe any farther and had decided to leave it behind while he carried the smaller items forward.

Once I understood what had happened, I suggested that we double-carry the canoe, which might make things easier.

My chiropractor had warned me that carrying a 70-pound canoe by myself could injure my back. However, I figured that sharing the load would mean about 35 pounds each, which seemed manageable.

We left the loose items Robert had carried farther along the trail and sat down for a short break. We ate a chocolate bar and another orange for energy, then walked back past the canoe to retrieve the second load of gear.

We carried that load forward to where the canoe had been left, roughly halfway along the wrong portage. :-(

By the time we backtracked and reached the canoe, Robert felt he could manage to single-carry it again, so he did. I carried the first part of the double load of packs to the spot where the canoe had been left. And Robert brought some other gear.

We then got the canoe and that first load of gear to Little Doe Lake. Afterward, we both walked back for the remaining gear and carried it forward to Little Doe Lake.

We were both exhausted, but Robert had done the lion's share of the heavy work by carrying the canoe across the portage. Once we loaded everything into the canoe, I suggested that Robert rest and avoid paddling for a while, or at least paddle lightly, while I did most of the work.

Somehow, our exhaustion seemed to leave us disoriented once again on Little Doe Lake!

When we encountered some people on shore, we asked them to confirm whether we were heading in the right direction toward Fawn Lake, then Tepee Lake, and eventually Western Narrows on Little Joe.

They confirmed that we were in the correct bay for Fawn Lake. That was reassuring that we hadn't made another navigational mistake!

We continued paddling slowly, gradually regaining our strength. Thankfully, there was no headwind. Eventually, we reached Western Narrows on Little Joe and began looking for a campsite. We decided against quitting a day early and heading straight back to the car at the Canoe Lake access point. We were simply too tired to face the drive home that evening.

Finding an unoccupied campsite proved challenging, but eventually we ended up at the very same campsite where we had spent our first night.

In the fading light, the site looked quite different from how we remembered it. Still, it was a good campsite after all, especially since we were no longer cold and wet, although we were certainly tired!

We unloaded quickly and set up camp for our final night. We even managed to find a fair amount of dry standing deadwood nearby.

After supper, the campfire was a welcome delight on our last night in the park.