Christopher Lakes + Rossignol Lake "Loop"

[Tristan Glen]

Hi all,

Last weekend, Jan and I paddled a 56 km route through the Christopher Lakes to Lake Rossignol, and then back to highway 8 via Sixteen Mile Bay.  From there it was a short 10 km bike ride back to our car at Camerons Brook Provincial Park.  

Day 1 (Sept 7):

31 km

Weather: Rainy, East winds

Left Bridgewater at 11 am.  Stopped at a logging road near Big Sixteen Mile Bay Lake and dropped off a bike.  Drove another 11 km to Cameron’s Brook Provincial Park, and parked there (there is no real parking lot - so just parked on the side of the gravel road).  Got on the water just after noon.

It had been a very rainy morning, and it was still raining a little.  We crossed First Christopher Lake with no issue, and portaged (200 m) across the campground to Second Christopher Lake. We carried on, with a tail wind.  Second Christopher Lake is beautiful and has no development aside from the campground. We paddled into the bay until the stream started, and we portaged again on the NE side of the stream (120 m) to Laurel Lake. Laurel Lake took us to Third Christopher Lake.  We followed the stream (upstream) through the many little ponds and twists and turns.  I think we had to make a short portage or two.  It began raining in earnest again. On Fourth Christopher Lake we took the portage (250 m) which was a mix of open forest walking and a dirt road. Then it was Tefler Lake.  We followed the stream outlet up to the very end where there’s a cabin (and a modified shoreline) and portaged (280 m) the dirt road over to a stillwater. And then made another short portage (70 m) over to the inflow.  We were now on Apple Tree Lake, the last lake in the watershed.  So far we’d been traveling upstream the whole way. From Apple Tree Lake we took a long portage (1100 m) portage that was recently cut out and flagged.  The portage followed a logging road for a short distance and then went off into the woods.  It was rough, and needs some serious re-aligning. I kept feeling as though we were walking complete circles.

We were now on Carrigan Lake.  It was a nice lake with a circuitous path over to the final portage of the day.  We tried to take the stream over to Lacey Bay (Lake Rossignol), but it was not navigable, and the portage didn’t exist.  Also, when we walked to Lacey Bay, we saw the water level was many many meters lower than ‘usual’ and it was many hundreds of meters of sharp, slippery, black rocks to get down to the water - and there was very little water!  It didn’t even look as though the small pool of water at the bottom connected to the water further to the west. We portaed back to Carrigan Lake, and paddled over to where we had seen a cabin at the narrow spit of land.  There was a much better portage (150 m) there onto a swampy shoreline. 

We still weren’t on Lake Rossignol (but kind of).  We had to line down a few shallow rocky streams to get onto the water proper.  We paddled for a few hours, and then at 7:15 we made camp on the rocky shoreline.  There were billions of cranberries - they crackled under our feet as we walked around. Jan made a fire of dry pine root driftwood, and I set up camp and cooked dinner on the stove (Salmon Casserole).  A great wet day!

Day 2 (Sept 8)

25 km

Weather: Overcast, rainy, SW winds.

Got up just before 7.  It wasn’t raining, but the winds were strong.  We packed up, cooked up a quick breakfast on the stove, and just around 8 am, it started to rain again, so we finished the packup quick, and got going. The shoreline of Lake Rossignol was very different from the satellite imagery I had - the lake was much smaller and there were many more island and points. Jan’s satellite imagery was more accurate. We fought the wind to the SE for a while, but then after an hour or so, we turned NE and had a nice tailwind.  We went up the NE arm of lake Rossignol.  It was a very twisty route owing to the fact the level of the lake was really low.  Many of the channels were swampy and 2-5 inches deep - making it difficult to get through.  Often the bottom was muddy and we’d have to ‘pole’ through the mud, yet the hull was dragging on the mud. We took a long windy path - following what little water was there. It was slow work.  When we did have to navigate the rocky sections, we’d slip around like crazy on the large slimy rocks. We saw many Eagles.  The views were long here.  This part of the lake is a little eerie. There were many geese and little mud birds as well!  At one point we portaged (250 m) across a rocky grassy area to cut off a long shallow bend in the channel.

Eventually we portaged (250 m) up it to another ‘lake’ where the banks weren’t as tall.  From there we followed a small stream up to Little Sixteen Mile Bay Lake. We had to get out many times, but the going was getting better. The channel over to Sixteen Mile Bay Lake was also navigable.  We paddled across, and found the swamp on the far end that was close to the end of our route. We stomped around a little, and decided to take our chances on the TINY stream that runs through the swamp.  We tracked, dragged, poled, and paddled our way up - and it was really good - much better than portaging over the uneven wet ground. The stillwater narrowed to the point of being 1-2 ft wide, but it was still good going.  We’d move forward by grabbing the bushes and pulling ourselves forward. We hit a dead tree crossing the stream, and decided to portage (1300 m) from there - the dirt road was quite close. It was a tough push through the swampy alders, then a nice walk through an open hemlock forest.  The last 1000 m were on a good dirt road (with a gate).

I found my stashed bike, and biked the 11 km back to the car in the rain.  It was about 3:30 pm.

Route Notes:

This route should have been done in the other direction - we were almost always going upstream.