Day Trippin'
Little Doe Loop
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10 years ago this coming June, I made the first of many poor tripping decisions. It was the start of summer 2016. That was the summer I decided I was going to get to 100 lakes in the Park within 100 days and I cannot stress just how little I had thought this plan through when I started. I didn’t look at routes. I didn’t think about distances or travel times or days of trip I’d need. I literally just thought to myself “100 Lakes in 100 Days, that sounds pretty good” and went from there.
My first official trip for the 100 Lakes was an easy out and back to Tonakela Lake from Canoe Lake. It took a couple of hours and, apart from a hands-on lesson in why you always pack toilet paper even if you’re only going out for a morning, went pretty smoothly. My second trip, also planned as a day trip, was somewhat more ambitious. I decided I was going to loop up to Sunbeam Lake and back. For anyone keeping track at home, this is a 35 kilometer round trip that includes a bunch of portages, the aptly named Vanishing Creek and whatever that hellscape masquerading as a pond is in between Bartlett and Willow Lakes.
And I was not prepared for any of it. I was in decent, but not great shape. I hadn’t done any serious paddling in about ten years, and for the amount of work I was about to do I ate a bowl of granola for breakfast and threw a couple of protein bars into my daypack for snacks.
And that’s it. That is, in case you’re keeping track at home, not enough food. Nowhere near enough.
Long story short (you can read the long story long here), I ended up semi-collapsed on a campsite on Little Joe Lake not sure that I had enough energy to paddle across to Arowhon Pines, let along make it back to Canoe Lake. It was a learning experience on many levels, and one that I drew heavily on as I planned my second day trip of this past August long weekend (nailed it! And you thought this was a wildly irrelevant intro story).
Table of Contents
If you’ve read my last blog post (you have read it, right?) you know that I used the first part of the August long weekend to check out some lakes along Highway 60 that I hadn’t seen before. This was fun, but as these are all dead-end lakes at the end of long-ish portages, it wasn’t exactly an excuse to get out on the water. With the number of summer weekends remaining rapidly dwindling, I desperately wanted to spend some time in the canoe. After looking at the map I decided to retrace my now long ago steps and head north. I didn’t know if I was going to push it all the way to Sunbeam, but I felt reasonably confident that I could manage a loop up to at least Little Doe and back, with the option to go further if I felt like it.
As you may know, I am lucky enough to have access to a cottage lease on Canoe Lake. This means that I’ve got an easy start for any trips in the area, and also means that I can skip most of Canoe Lake when I’m heading north. Which is exactly what I did that morning. After filling my day pack to the brim with snacks (there was zero chance I was going to go hungry on this trip), I towed my canoe down to the Potter Creek junction and started my day.
The Stilson (and into Joe Lake)
It was a good morning to be out on the water. I started with a short warm up paddle to the Joe Lake portage takeout. I love this final stretch of Canoe Lake. The water narrows as you approach the portage and paddle over ancient stumps submerged just below the surface. There’s an unofficial portage takeout on the right just before you reach the actual Joe Lake portage. The only reason you would use that takeout is if you are participating in Camp Ahmek’s Stilson canoe race, which remains one of the most stressful half hours I have ever experienced.
The Stilson is a massive staff race that marks the end of each summer. Racers start from the docks at Camp Ahmek, paddling in pairs for 2.5 kilometers before taking out at that unofficial portage and running with their canoes for about a kilometer (I will tell you right now that running in tandem with a cedar strip canoe on your shoulders is a special kind of awful). The race finishes with a sprint along Ghostwalk Creek back into Canoe Lake and, if you’re me, the vague suspicion that maybe 22 isn’t too young to have a heart attack. The first time I paddled in the Stilson I came in second last and lost to a team that had dumped not once but twice. So, type two fun, I guess.
As I paddled past that takeout with fond (ish) memories swirling in my head, I couldn’t help but be grateful for the much less intense carry I was about to start.
The Joe Lake portage is a wide, flat, 300 meter portage that is among the easiest in the Park. I had it to myself that morning (unusual in the summer) and was across it quickly. Joe Lake was calm, flat and quiet as I paddled under the bridge that separates the portage bay from the rest of the lake. I turned north, paddling past the Joe Lake cliffs and into Tepee Lake.
North from Joe
The stretch from Joe Lake through Tepee Lake, Fawn Lake, the Little Oxtongue River and into Little Doe Lake is one long uninterrupted paddle. There are no portages to slow you down, and it is a lovely way to spend an hour or two. I stopped at Tepee Lake, Site 1 to check it out. The last time I had been on that site as over 20 years ago, as I was shepherding six 8 and 9 year olds on a four day Bantam section canoe trip (hmmm … this report was not meant to be a memoir of my time at Camp Ahmek, but it sure seems to be heading that way. Better change subjects before we get to the invention of Frappe Le Sac). This is a decent spot, but like most of the sites on Tepee, nothing all that special. It’s got room for a couple of tents, a decent beachfront and a nice firepit setup. That said, the location, where Tepee narrows into the Little Oxtongue, is uninspiring and the proximity to Tepee’s other sites and constant through traffic means that peace and quiet might be hard to come by (especially with Camp Arowhon just around the corner). For my money I’d rather continue north to Little Doe or Tom Thomson, which is exactly what I did.
Tepee narrows into the Little Oxtongue River, which leads to a tiny bubble of shoreline known as Fawn Lake. Honestly, it’s really just more river, but it does have the distinction of being one of the best places I’ve found in the Park to see moose. Almost without fail, if I’m paddling through this way in the early-ish morning, I will see a moose grazing at the top of bay right before the river cuts left through some narrows. This morning was no exception. There was a large … I think cow … enjoying her breakfast in that bay. I stopped paddling for a few minutes and watched her from a distance, loving the view, the solitude, really just the entire vibe of the moment. As an added bonus, a shadow flitting past my canoe just below the surface caught my eye. I turned away from the moose in time to see a turtle with a shell the size of a medium pizza swim by (I measure all turtle shell sizes according to the officially recognized TMNT pizza sizeological scale). Not bad for thirty seconds of drifting on a small river in the early morning.
Little Doe Lake
The rest of the paddle into Little Doe passed uneventfully. I started to see signs of life as I passed the cut out to Tom Thomson Lake. There was someone camping on Site 4, and a couple of boats heading south waved hello as we crossed paths.
Little Doe was my decision point. It was still early and I was feeling very good. I’d been paddling for around an hour and a half but felt like I’d just started. There was a universe where I continued on through Little Doe to Blue Jay Lake, Vanishing Pond and Sunbeam before turning down to Burnt Island via Tree Frog and Jay Lakes. This would get me a couple of new lakes (I’d somehow never done that little stretch between Burnt and Sunbeam before) and give me a chance to really stretch my paddling muscles. It was a pretty darn appealing universe.
The thing is, as appealing as that universe was, it also looked a whole lot like the universe I’d visited 9 years before. The one where I ran out of gas with 15 kilometers of work ahead of me and where I swore I’d never overestimate my stamina and abilities again (ha!). It took me much less time than I thought it would to realize that I’d rather just hang out on Little Doe for a while, then make my way home via the portage over to Baby Joe. So that’s what I did.
I’ve paddled through Little Doe more times than I can count (stayed there a couple times too), but there are still sites on that lake I’ve never set foot on. Turns out it can be hard to find free campsites on one of the busiest lakes in the Park, who knew? But, that morning, I was in luck. Four of the sites I hadn’t yet visited were empty, so I stopped at them all. The first, site 14, is a massive site that sits on a small point on Little Doe’s north shore (one of only two sites along this shore). This is a lovely spot that would be great for a big group. It is also right at one of the two points where Little Doe narrows. The tip of the site’s point is maybe 100 meters from the south shore here. This means that anyone paddling through Little Doe is going to be paddling relatively close to the site, which means that it’s a) not going to be all that private and b) be a really obvious choice for anyone looking for a spot on Little Doe.
Once I was finished with site 14 I paddled across the narrows to Site 11. This is a small, grassy site fronted by what I would charitably call a lily pad sanctuary and uncharitably call a swamp. I don’t love mucky shorelines or grass, so this one wouldn’t be high on my return list. Better were the two east shore sites across that final bay, Sites 12 and 13. I stopped at Site 12 first. It’s a smaller spot on a rocky ledge. I liked the vibe of this one, but I’m a sucker for rocky shorelines. However, it was the next site I stopped at, Site 13, that I liked the best.
Site 13 is the first site just to the south of the Burnt Island/Baby Joe portage and it’s another lovely spot. It is a large site with plenty of room for big groups and, as an added bonus, has a great rocky point area that is a perfect spot to stop and have a snack. Which I did.
Back to Canoe Lake
Refueled, I paddled over to the p1160 connecting Little Doe and my next lake, Baby Joe. This is a long-ish portage, but it’s quite nice. For long stretches the trail is flat and well maintained, and while there is a little bit of a climb coming from the Little Doe end, it’s nothing too challenging (says the guy who was carrying an ultralight canoe and a day pack). I arrived the broad steps leading down to Baby Joe still feeling good, and with the welcome sight of a group of red Camp Pathfinder canoes making their way up Baby Joe towards me.
My son is a camper at Pathfinder (and loves it), and I knew he was currently out on trip with them. I allowed myself a few minutes to hope that it might actually be his trip paddling towards me, but as they got close enough to make out details I realized the kids in these boats were a bit older than he was. I called out to them as I paddled past and mentioned that my son was a camper. It turned out that one of the staff on the trip was one of my son’s cabin staff, so while I didn’t get to see him, I did get a quick update on how things were going (awesomely, of course). I am always impressed when I see Pathfinder trips out in the Park. The kids and staff are super polite and helpful. You can also tell that the staff in particular have a love of trip, and they do a great job of passing that love on to their campers (who’d have thought that the guy who runs a blog about canoe tripping would like a camp that focuses on canoe tripping? Weird).
I decided to skip the portage out of Baby Joe by dragging down the creek that runs from Baby Joe through Lost Joe. The water was reasonably high, and I was going the right direction, so I managed to get through the Baby Joe to Lost Joe part without getting out of the canoe. Things were a bit shallower on the other side of Lost Joe, but that just meant I got to splash through some wonderfully cool water while I guided the boat across the really shallow bits.
I came out of Joe Creek and into Little Joe Lake around 11:30, and pulled up onto the same Little Joe Campsite (confusingly considered to be part of Joe Lake for campsite report and site booking purposes) where I’d run out of steam nine years before. Back then, I’d collapsed against a massive pine tree, not really sure if I’d be able to recharge enough to finish the trip. This time I sat down against that same pine feeling great. I had lots of energy and, more importantly, I had a sandwich. A really good one too. I ate my lunch and tried to send some of my residual energy back in time to Past Drew, who probably would have killed for a bite of that sandwich. Who knows, maybe it worked?
I finished off the loop with a leisurely post sandwich paddle through Joe Lake’s east arm and back to the Joe Lake portage. Interestingly enough, this was only the first time I would be heading this way that day. My wife and I had plans to paddle over to Arowhon Pines for dinner that night, meaning I was about to get very familiar with the East Arm’s shoreline (and have a delicious dinner as well).
All told, the trip took just under five hours. It was an awesome little day trip. I saw more wildlife in seven minutes on the Little Oxtongue than I have seen on some seven day trips. I got to check out some new to me campsites, revisit some old memories (good and bad) and, most importantly, eat an awesome sandwich. Can’t really ask for much more.
Next up I’ve got my Labour Day trip with my daughter and our friends, followed by my mid-September buddies’ trip down to Little Raccoon (and beyond). I’m actually optimistic that I might get through all these reports before the next tripping season starts. Stick around to find out!
New Lakes: None
Total Lakes: 9
Total Portages: 3
Total Portage Distance: 1.64 KM
Total Distance: 16.82 KM
