Account of the our trip down the Magentawan, Sept 2007

[Pat Ferris]

A TRIP DOWN THE MAG

In the first week of September 2007, Sara and I had the pleasure of
going on a canoe trip down the Magnetawan River from Wah-Wash-Kesh. I
felt it would be fitting to share with you an account of our adventure
as some of you may be interested in doing a similar trip sometime.

Our trip took place over 4 days and 3 nights, which we found to be an
ideal amount of time to take in the natural beauty, take photos, fish
etc., and not over-exert ourselves. The trip began from our cottage
at Toggle Point and followed a rough circle to re-enter Wah-Wash-Kesh
at the Hogsback.

DAY 1: Toggle Point to Trout Lake

This was by far the easiest day, and was planned as such based on the
accounts of other people who had done the route and mentioned that
there are some very picturesque campsites on Trout Lake. My dad,
Dalton Ferris, took Sara, myself, the ATV, and all our gear over to
the entrance to the trail system at the end of Deep Bay via the
venerable barge "HMS La Barge". From here we took the first and
longest portage (approx 2km) via the ATV. Aside from having to muscle
through some of the well worn mud ruts, this portage went well. Dad
dropped us off at Trout Lake where we began the trip in earnest.

Trout Lake is basically a widening of the Magnetawan and was a great
paddle. I had my fishing line in the water right away and got some
good bites but soon gave up as the initial portion of the lake was
shallow and weedy, not conducive to dragging a fishing line along
while paddling. We continued roughly west to a further widening
populated by islands. Here we found the campsite I had been looking
for, it was on an island and looked to be well used and well
maintained. There was plenty of firewood, a table and chair made of
pine logs lashed together with binder-twine, an excellent fire pit,
and a rock table on the east side of the island that was ideal for
viewing our surroundings. We had our camp set up by about 12:30pm,
enjoyed a nice lunch and set about fishing, taking pictures, swimming,
and relaxing. It was a beautiful, clear, peaceful day and one of the
highlights of the trip.

In the late afternoon, after getting used to the tranquility and
having the lake all to ourselves, our revirie was broken by the
jarringly familiar sound of, god forbid, people conversing. A group
of four in two canoes hove into view and were chatting happily,
completely unaware that Sara and I could hear every word. We know
they were unaware because when they finally saw what campsite we had
claimed, one of them said "Get off that Island!" amongst themselves.
They were polite enough when they got close to our site but we could
tell they were disappointed in not getting their favourite spot. One
gentleman said they were from Harris Lake and had camped on this site
every Labour Day weekend for the last 20 years. Oh well, early bird
gets the worm right?

After dinner I decided to throw my line in one more time and was
fortunate enough to catch a perfect sized Pickerel, about a foot and a
half long. After cleaning the fish and setting it aside for
breakfast, Sara and I went to the viewing rock and enjoyed one of the
most star-filled skies we'd seen in a while.


DAY 2: Trout Lake to Lone Pine Lake

After a restful night and breakfast of fresh pickerel and oatmeal we
broke camp and hit the water. Finding our way out of Trout Lake to
continue the trip was not as straight- forward as we had hoped. The
map we had was not accurate enough to show us the way and so we went
around some islands and ran into some dead-ends before finally seeing
a small boat with four gentlemen out fishing for pike who were kind
enough to point us in the correct direction (which happened to be
about the only spot we didn't check before!). After going through an
"S" on the North-West end of Trout Lake we were "back on the Mag" so
to speak. We set our sites to where the Magnetawan splits, at the
split you can either go South towards Big Deep Bay or continue west
and follow the old logging route to Byng Inlet in Georgian Bay. There
were a number of campsites before the Southern Branch that looked as
well accoutered as ours at Trout Lake had been. At one point, along
the north shore we observed a Black Bear coming down to the waters
edge. The bear was on an area of shore that was only about 15 degrees
from vertical and it was walking around as easily as on flat ground!
Neither Sara nor I voiced it but I think we were both glad that we did
not see this bear in our campsite the day before. I had a trusty can
of pepper spray with me at all times for just such an encounter.

We continued down the Southern Branch until it turned west again at
"The Cobblestones" as the locals call it. This was our first true
portage, about 200 meters over rocks that looked as if they were
normally covered in water. The Cobblestones would most likely be a
paddle were the trip to be taken while the water was high.

The paddle between The Cobblestones and the Power Line north of Big
Deep Bay was a windy one with a few wide areas. We stopped a couple
of times to fuel up with GORP. At the power line we stopped for lunch
and were visited by a curious chipmunk who was looking for a bite to
eat as well.

There was a moderate length portage to Big Deep Bay where we met a
family who were picnicking at the north end of the lake. After
chatting briefly with them they warned us of the heavy winds in the
middle of the lake and offered to pull us to the south end of the lake
where we were headed. We politely declined, wished them a good day
and went on our way. About 1/3 of the way down the lake we realized
that we should have taken them up on their kind offer, it was very
windy in the open water, to the point of being dangerous if not only
very taxing on our paddling efforts. Luckily they had finished their
picnic and were on their way past us back to their cottage, we flagged
them down and they graciously offered to tow us behind their Sea-doo
to the end of the lake.

Timber-Wolf Lake was next, it was a quiet lake connected to the south
end of Big Deep bay via a marshy pass, too shallow for anything other
than a canoe. The portage out of Timber-Wolf was hard to find
initially, I did some wandering about in the woods on another trail,
perhaps made by hunters, before finding the correct portage. The
portage out of Timber-Wolf was a steep scramble up a nearly vertical
rocky slope followed by a short, marshy, uphill jaunt to Clear Lake.

Clear Lake is a very small body of water, the portage to the next lake
is basically straight across and to the right on the opposite side.
The portage from Clear Lake to the next lake (which was un-named)
turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip due to an encounter
along the way. Sara and I were loaded up with our gear and just
starting along the trail when we encountered a Massasauga Rattler
lying across the trail. This was the first Massasauga I had ever
encountered in the wild and I am thankful that it gave us fair warning
with its rattler. At first I thought the rattle was a Cicada but the
pitch was a little lower which gave me pause, that pause saved us from
walking right over it. The problem with this rattler was that it
seemed quite comfortable sunning itself on the trail while Sara and I
were heavily loaded down with gear, very hot, tired from our long day,
and looking forward to getting to our next campsite in reasonable
time. I ended up having to chuck some sticks at the thing to get it
moving. Finally we got all our gear across and were in the canoe
again looking forward to a nice paddle on the un-named lake.

This lake turned out to be one of the nicest paddles on the trip, it
was a very small lake and had some high cliffs covered with an orange
coloured lichen and thick stands of healthy white pine along the
shore. It was also very quiet as it was protected from the wind. At
the entrance to the next portage was a well utilized clearing with a
large fire pit, sturdy table, and a large stainless steel pot which
seemed like something you would prepare a batch of crawfish in.

Behind this campsite there was a steep drop off down to Lone Pine
Lake, this was a short but treacherous portage and we were fortunate
that the rocks were not too wet. Once on Lone Pine Lake we realized
that the relative calm we had experienced on the last lake was only a
short respite. The wind was up on Lone Pine and our campsite was at
the far end. Reaching our campsite without incident at twilight we
had a refreshing swim, a hearty dinner of Lipton Sidekicks with Tuna,
tea/coffee, then campfire and bed.


DAY 3: Lone Pine Lake to Miskokway Lake

The route from Lone Pine Lake to Little Wilson Lake was a relatively
easy jaunt through small lakes and smaller portages. We met a couple
of guys who were out Bass fishing for the weekend, I found a new
filleting knife at the entrance to one portage. The portage to Little
Wilson Lake was a medium length affair, overall a nice walk.

The paddle from Little Wilson to Wilson Lake was smooth, there were
some cottages and boaters about. We were dreading the next portage
based on multiple accounts we had heard of this trip beforehand. The
portage out of Wilson Lake was 825 meters and steeply uphill most of
the way. It was a lot of chugging up the hill but at the top the
portage plateaued for the remaining 350 meters or so in a beautifully
green, birch filled area of forest. After a short break we headed
through another beautiful un-named lake. This lake had a blue/green
appearance and was oddly clear relative to the browninsh/turbid waters
normally associated with the Magnetawan system, of course at this
point our elevation was well above any Magnetawan inflows.

Next was a very steep and sheer decent into Miskokway Lake, not a
portage you would want to do while the rocks were wet. Miskokway was
a very large, long lake and we were shooting for a campsite on the far
end so we could get an early start on the long portage into Bolger
Lake next morning. Fortunately, the wind was at our backs and we shot
across Miskokway in record time. We spotted a clearing and what
looked like a fire pit on a high rock along the eastern shore. Sara
scouted the location while I waited in the canoe. After a seemingly
long search Sara returned with a large bleached Moose skull in her
hands and said that the area was littered with similar bones. Since
we were tired and didn't want to back track we ignored the bad omen
and set up camp.

The evening on Miskokway turned out to be great, we were treated to
the "Nightbird Duet" starring Whipperwill and Saw-Whet-Owl. Some of
the magic from the performance was mitigated however by a loud and
very out of place "SQWAK!". This happened only once though and
actually had us laughing pretty hard, we suspect it was the nearby
heron being startled out of its sleep by a noisy nocturnal ne'er do
well.

DAY 4: Miskokway to Wah-Wash-Kesh

The day began with a 1400 meter portage into Bolger Lake, this was a
well traveled hunt club route and didn't present any significant
challenges other than sand in my Teva's causing some annoying
abrasions on my feet. Luckily Sara had come prepared with band-aids.

The paddle down Bolger Creek was a highlight, lots of lily pads, old
train bridges, Sara shot a nice video with our camera. Next was a 940
meter portage out of Portage Bay (well marked trailhead with "Portage"
written in large white letters on a rock, likely a local land owner
trying to keep canoeists off their lot).

Two small lakes (some disagreement in naming between the maps I had)
are connected via a Lift Over to Maple Lake. I intend to go back to
these two small lakes sometime and spend the day fishing, there was a
nice big shoal in the middle of the latter of the two lakes which
shouted "Bass!" Maple Lake was a large opening of water which I would
like to explore futher sometime but on this trip we stuck with the
left shoreline, through a marshy area into Mud Lake. It started
raining lightly on Mud Lake, Sara and I sat on the water for a while
and took it all in as we knew that the next portage would be the last
one and would have us back in Wah-Wash-Kesh at the Hogsback.

Back on Wah-Wash-Kesh we were able to view the submerged rail-car and
tracks. I will always be amazed that someone would consider using a
temporarily frozen lake as a base for a rail system!

Up until this point in the trip I had considered myself pretty handy
with my 'map and compass' navigational skills. Aside from local
assistance on Trout Lake we had found our way smoothly. You'd think
we'd be ok on a lake I've been coming to for over 30 years right?
Wrong. Wah-Wash-Kesh looks different from a canoe, it is a lot
bigger, and going off course is more costly than on a small lake. Our
error was to overshoot the entrance to the narrows and head about 400
meters further northeast than necessary. We decided to head back to
the west as it became increasingly clear that we were off course.
Note to canoeists, use the red buildings of Absolute Peace and Quiet
Lodge as a guide and head towards them! Once back on course, getting
comfortable with our last canoe ride, and looking forward to a couple
of idle days on Toggle Point we had one more issue present itself. My
canoe seat broke form its moorings and I plopped down onto the bottom
of the canoe! This unfortunate incident was quickly remedied by using
my backpack as a seat support, next time I'll either bring a repair
kit or a canoe with a better seat design.

We got to Ed's dock around 2 pm and checked in with Ed Jr., whom we
had informed of our schedule. After picking out some choice steaks
and other sundries from the store we dragged the canoe back to Toggle
Point with the boat and basked in the afterglow, so to speak.

See you all at the lake this Summer!

Pat Ferris