My trip reports are getting too long.
Don’t believe me? Ask the 10,000 word novel that was my most recent write up of a four day trip out of Cedar Lake. Four days! That’s 2,500 words a day. There are only 1,440 minutes in a day, so I’m averaging 1.74 words per minute of trip. That seems excessive.
So, this report is going to be shorter. I promise.
(I can’t make any promises).
As it turns out, a two-night base camping trip to Pen Lake is the perfect option if you’re looking for a relaxing couple of days at the height of Algonquin’s fall colours, and a good way to trim your word count (hopefully). So let’s get to it (125 words for the intro – looking good so far).
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The Route
This trip marked the resumption of what had been an annual fall trip with buddies from work. Those trips got suspended with COVID, and last year’s triumphant return got rained out. But that wasn’t going to be a problem this year. We were heading in for the last weekend of September (also the first weekend of October I suppose) and the forecast was ideal. Mid 20s during the day, mid single digits overnight. Perfect daytime and night-time temperatures as far as I’m concerned.
With me on this trip were my buddies Rob and Todd. Rob and I have done quite a few trips together (with varying results) while this was Todd’s third time into the Park with us. The goal for this trip was to take it easy. Sure, we had enough time to go round the horn from Rock to Pen to Louisa and back, but, and this is the important part, that was also enough time to go down to Pen, set up shop for two days, and relax.
Which is exactly what we did.
Day One
We arrived at the Rock Lake access point at around mid-day on the Friday and found blue skies, gorgeous fall colours and a bustling parking lot. We also found a solo Swift Keewaydin 15 from Algonquin Outfitters that we’d rented and asked them to deliver to the access point for us. We needed the boat since there were three of us, and my days of three-men-in-a-tubbing it ended last year on Wright Lake.
We were quick getting on the water, which was probably a good thing. Thanks in large part to the great forecast and the fact that Algonquin was at the very peak of its first wave of fall colours, the Park was busy that weekend. Pen Lake was fully booked and by the looks of it we weren’t the only ones who’d tried to arrive early to beat the rush.
The good news is that we didn’t have far to go. Pen Lake is one lake south of Rock Lake, which is the home of that bustling parking lot I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago. It’s about 7 KM from the parking lot on Rock to the top of Pen. This includes a single, easy, p375 that takes you around Pen Falls in between the two. In total, I figured we were looking at less than two hours from the lot to our campsite, assuming we could get a site towards the top of Pen.
I said that the access point is on Rock Lake, but I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate. The parking lot sits on the bank of a narrow river that connects Rock Lake to the south and Whitefish Lake to the north. Regardless, whether that strip of water is part of Rock, part of Whitefish or part of the Madawaska River, we pushed off into calm waters and lots of sunshine.
Rock Lake
I was paddling the Keewaydin while Rob and Todd were tandeming my Swift Winisk. I was an instant fan of the Keewaydin. It’s light, it’s well balanced, it moves quickly and it tracks well. For someone who is constantly putting down his paddle to pick up his camera, that’s a huge plus. My biggest complaint about my current solo boat, a Backcountry Custom Canoes Brookie, is that as soon as I stop paddling it hews to the left or right like it’s Neo dodging bullets in the Matrix. That’s awesome if you’re trying to escape a rogue AI intent on destroying what’s left of humanity, less ideal if you want a picture of a pretty leaf. This wasn’t a problem with the Keewaydin. Every time I stopped paddling, it kept going straight. Now if only I can figure out a way to make it do that without me having to start paddling in the first place.
The other good thing about the Keewaydin? Its carrying capacity. And why was this important? Because, I brought everything. And once I’d packed everything, I packed some more. When you’re looking at a short paddle and even shorter portage, weight and bulk considerations kind of go out the window. In fact, you might consider bringing the window with you. Instead of being limited by how much I thought I could carry in a single portage, I was limited by how much I thought my canoe could carry. Which was quite a lot, as it turned out. I ended up with two full canoe packs and a full day pack. Excessive? Sure. But you tell me which of the four changes of clothes for three days, or which of the three sleeping bags (quilt, light weight, heavy weight) I should have left behind … uh, let’s move on.
The paddle down Rock was lovely. The fall colours were in full effect, painting the shorelines red, orange and a bit of yellow (the yellows typically come after the reds and oranges in the colour waves. The weekend we were there was peak maple time). There was a slight breeze coming at us, but nothing strong enough that I’d call it a headwind. Headbreeze I guess? We stopped at the pictobay cliffs (west side of Rock, about halfway down) to check out the pictographs there. It had only been a month since I was there with my daughter, but the frequency of the experience didn’t detract from its novelty (Ugh, I hated that sentence even as I was typing it. Reads like someone gave me a thesaurus for Christmas. But apparently I don’t hate it enough to change it). Those paintings are just so cool. I love thinking about the person who drew them. What they were thinking, what they had just experienced
Once we were done admiring the paintings, we continued south towards Pen. As I paddled away from the cliffs I noticed we weren’t the only boats heading that direction. Fortunately, we were at the front of the pack. We didn’t race the rest of the way down Rock, but we didn’t stop for any sightseeing either. The portage down to Pen is at the bottom of an ever-narrowing bay (can I call it a bay if it ends in a river?) in Rock’s south end. I loved paddling this last part of Rock. The scenery though here was quite pretty, lakeside rock faces and mixed evergreen and colourful maple. There’s a massive cliff that rises up behind the shoreline about a kilometer back on the east side that is on the list for a future visit when I’ve got more time.
And then we were at the portage. We pulled up to the wide rock slope that dominates the portage takeout and got unloaded as quickly as possible. Looking back, I could see four separate trips making their way towards us. The world’s slowest race was still on, and I wanted to make sure we held our lead. Of course, holding our lead would have been a much easier proposition if I hadn’t brought a small sporting goods store worth of equipment with me. Kind of hard to win the portage when you’re double carrying. (FYI, this is a nice portage. It actually climbs a bit more than I remembered, but that makes sense given that it goes around Pen Falls).
Pen Lake
By the time we were over the portage there was one group ahead of us on the water, and a couple others milling about the portage put-in at the same time. I went ahead while Rob and Todd loaded in the hopes of grabbing one of our preferred sites (sites 3, 4 or 5 on this map) if they were open. They were not open. There was a canoe clearly pulled up on one, I could see smoke rising from another, and people were wandering along the shoreline of the third. That left us with two options. Continue south on Pen, racing everyone around us in the hopes of getting to a decent site down there first, or take the only open site in the area, a south facing site near the portage up to Gem Lake that I’d never actually seen in person before but that I’d heard was average at best.
You know what’s worse than getting stuck with an average site? Paddling the entire length of Pen looking for something better only to find out that all the good spots are taken and that the site you passed up was in fact the best option.
Fortunately, that’s not what happened to us. All three of us fell firmly on the bird in the hand side of the equation and we decided to beeline for that open site before any of the trips coming up behind us could beat us to it.
I’m glad we did. My hesitation about that site had been based on a campsite report I’d read in the Algonquin Adventures Portage and Campsite Inventory. The writer hadn’t hated the site, but they hadn’t been that impressed either. The line that stuck out for me was “General description: There’s a narrow view from the firepit. No breeze gets into the tentsite area. Its a small cramped campsite with a steep access to the water.” And, objectively, the author wasn’t really all that wrong. It is a smaller campsite. There’s one level tent pad and a couple others that are oh so gently sloped. The access to the water does require a bit of up and down, and the view from the fire pit is limited. I mean, that doesn’t sound like you’ve found the key to campsite Nirvana, does it?
But, you know what? It all kind of worked.
This site was perfect for our needs. I took one of the slanted tent spots, and honestly, it wasn’t all that bad. The southern exposure meant the front of the site got sun pretty much all day, while the site’s interior was protected from the wind and stayed cooler on what ended up being pretty hot days. The view across that top bay on Pen was beautiful, and the swimming … actually, the swimming wasn’t great. The underwater approach is dominated by large rocks, which makes wading in a bit of an adventure. But, guess what? There’s an awesome beach at the start of the portage up to Gem Lake three minutes to the east, and a set of jumping rocks on the other side of the bay, three minutes to the south. You might not want to spend too much time stubbing your toes in front of your site, but you can definitely swim in the area.
Once we confirmed we’d found our home for the next couple of nights, we got the tents set up and the gear organized. I had brought a new tent with me for this trip. The folks at Napier Outdoors had kindly sent me their Napier Lite Pack Camping Bundle, which included a two person tent and a couple of sleeping bags. I’ve got a full review on the tent and bags here, but long story short I was pretty happy with my accommodations. The tent was larger than I expected for a two-person tent (which also partly explains why it’s much heavier than I expected for a two person tent) and I loved the luxury of having all that extra room.
As night fell, Todd got the fire going and Rob put dinner on. We took some time gathering and sawing wood, then all that was left to do was eat some burgers and hang out around the fire while the sun went down and the stars came out. It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear and filled with stars. At least, it was filled with stars until the very full moon came out, lighting up a good quarter of the sky like the bat signal. Stars or moon, it was a beautiful view.
The temperature dropped as the night wore on, and by the time I crawled into my tent it was down to the mid single digits. That was fine. I had a sleeping bag, a sleeping bag liner and an arctic expedition’s worth of warm clothing with me. I burrowed into my bag, read for about ten minutes and promptly passed out.
Day Two
You know what’s nice? Waking up on trip and not immediately going into the checklist of everything you need to do to break camp and get on the water that morning. That’s nice.
I rarely stay on the same lake for two nights in a row while on trip. My favourite thing about canoe tripping isn’t so much the camping as it is the moving. I love seeing what’s around the next corner, what’s on the next lake. I’ve lived in moderate terror of rest days, convinced that I’ll be bored by 10 am and channelling Tom Hanks in Castaway by noon. But this one? This one was really nice.
I woke up some time after 8, which felt like its own kind of luxury. The site was socked in with mist. Everything was kind of damp, but it didn’t feel like it was going to stay that way for long. By the time I’d made some breakfast (instant s’mores oatmeal with chocolate protein powder and a side of hyperglycemia) the mist had burned off and we were looking at another beautiful day. Blue skies, bright sun and barely any breeze.
Paddling Pen
Todd and I decided to paddle for a bit and check out some of Pen, while Rob hung back to read a book and check out the hammock. We started with a trip across the bay to the set of cliffs that’s visible from the campsite. There was a spot to pull up the canoe, and we hiked up to the top. We weren’t the first people to do this. There’s a clear path from the water up to one of the ledges about 20 feet above the lake, and I would bet that people have jumped from this spot before. From here we followed a much fainter trail across to another ledge that’s a bit higher, has a great view and offers a much higher chance of breaking everything if you tried to jump from it (like, a 100% chance).
Once we were back in the canoe we headed south down Pen, pausing briefly to appreciate the tenacity of a very small fern growing out of the underside of a wall of solid rock. I have no idea how that thing managed it, but it had found a home in the sliver of a crack between two rocks, hanging upside down beneath the cliffs. It’s basically the fern equivalent of someone building a straw hut on Mars. Ian Malcolm was right.
The paddle down Pen was pleasant. We stuck to the east side and took our time. On the far shore, the forest was awash in colour. Beside us, the shoreline was dominated by evergreens. There was a slight breeze now, and it rustled the boughs of the pines that stood out above the rest of the forest. I love that. Seeing those solitary pines swaying in the breeze and hearing the wind rushing through the trees is way up there on my “this is why I carry boats through the woods” list.
We made it to another set of cliffs about a third of the way down Pen. We climbed those too because, why not? The view from up top was great, and the path up and down (that we chose) was good practice for when I decide to start my second career as a mountain goat. (Of course, there was a much easier spot we could have pulled up our boat, complete with a clear and easy path to the top, but we missed that).
Once we’d finished admiring the views from up there (and discussing the feasibility of a rope swing from one of the overhanging trees), we decided to head back to the site. It was getting near midday by the time we arrived. The only other thing on my list for the day that I wanted to do was a hike up to Gem Lake, a small lake at the end of a nearby p615. Rob and Todd were both interested in that one, so we had a lunch (I made the same burritos my wife had made on our recent trip to Shirley Lake and they were just as delicious the second time) and set off for Gem once we were done.
Gem Lake
The portage up to Gem starts on a beach at the eastern end of the bay where we were staying. It was a quick paddle from our site, and a not as quick hike up from Pen. While it’s only 615 meters from Pen to Gem, this is a low maintenance portage that climbs pretty much the entire way. Gem is about 40 meters above Pen, and it wants you to know it.
It was worth the hike though! Gem is a very small lake. There are no campsites, and no canoe routes passing through. If you follow the portage up to Gem, you’re not going anywhere else (sounds like the tagline from a horror movie actually). The portage path actually continues past the portage put-in. We followed it a short distance along Gem’s shoreline and ended up beside a massive boulder perched in the middle of the south shore. This boulder looks like it was put there specifically for people to scramble up on top of it and then sit for about half an hour, watching the water. Which is exactly what we did.
There was room up top for all three of us, and from there we had a nice view of the colours on the other side of the lake. We sat up there for a while, chatting and enjoying the novelty of being somewhere that felt very remote, despite the fact that we were about an hour from one of the busier access points in the Park. It was cool to think about the fact that there very likely could have been someone sitting on that same rock 500 years ago, and there could very well be someone else sitting on that rock 500 years from now, all enjoying the same view (assuming the view for the person 500 years from now isn’t obstructed by all the Giant Space Ants I assume will be ruling the Earth by that point).
Once we’d had our fill of Gem we made our way back down the portage (much easier going down than up) and back to our site. The rest of the afternoon passed easily. Everyone swam, and then I spent some quality time with my hammock. Dinner was a delicious pasta dish that Todd had brought, and the evening passed much the same as the one before. The fire was warm, the stars were bright and the night got cool (but not as cool as the night before).
Day Three
The mist wasn’t as thick the next morning, and the sky wasn’t as blue. Some clouds had rolled in overnight, but they weren’t the kind of clouds that threatened rain. By the time we had packed up the site, even those were breaking up, and we started our trip back up to Rock under intermittent blue and white skies.
We hadn’t stopped to check out Pen Falls on our way down to Pen thanks to our determination to win the Great Pen Lake Race of 2023. This time around we had no such worries, so we took our time wandering down to the falls and checking them out. This is a really pretty spot! The river drops towards Rock Lake in a series of gentle ledges, and even on October 1st there was still a decent amount of water flowing through. The colours framed the river nicely, and there were a couple of wide, flat rocks that looked tailor made for a falls side picnic some other time.
The Return Trip
Nature sufficiently appreciated, we started the last leg towards home. The paddle up Rock Lake went … well, I can’t say quickly. For whatever reason the paddle up Rock never feels like it goes quickly. But it went smoothly. About an hour after we left the Pen portage behind we were pulling up to the access point docks and the trip was over. We left the Keewaydin where we’d found it two days earlier, got our vehicle loaded up and headed for home.
This was a great trip. It was relaxing in a way that I don’t usually get to experience on canoe trip. I kind of liked it. I don’t think I’m going to turn into the Pen Lake Squatter, but I can see the appeal of mixing in a few lower key routes along with the six day portage-a-thons in the future. Pen Lake was the perfect destination for this weekend, and the colours, weather and company were awesome.
And that’s about it for 2023 I think. I’m writing this in mid-October and I’m not expecting any more trips before the snow falls. Hopefully I’m wrong on that, I was last year, but odds are the next time I pick up a paddle will be sometime in May. (Hi! It’s Drew in early February 2024, when I’m finally getting around to posting this. October me was right, I didn’t pick up a paddle again in 2023. But, judging by the semi-tropical winter we’ve been having, I might be picking that paddle back up before May.) Just because the paddling season is over, doesn’t mean there won’t be anymore content coming in the next few months. The Thunderbox is still coming out monthly (February Drew again. This was a flat out lie. I haven’t written a Thunderbox since November. They’ll be back though, just as soon as I get through …), and we’re getting ever closer to the end of year Moosie Awards (… The Moosies. I suppose this was true. Back in October, we were getting ever closer to the 2023 Moosies, and we still are! They’re coming, I promise). I’ve also got a massive backlog of campsite reports to write (actually, this one I’ve been doing well on. There’s still a backlog, but it’s significantly less massive. More of a molehill than a mountain), so stay tuned! Thanks as always to everyone for reading these reports. It blows my mind that so many people keep coming back, and I very much appreciate it! (This is also still true. Thank you!)
Stats
New Lakes: 1
Total Lakes: 3
Total Portages: 2
Total Portage Distance: 760 M
Total Travel Distance: 14 KM
WPMT (Words per Minute of Trip): 0.90 – We did it!
Great report!! I have discovered in my “twilight” years (not the vampire one) that base camping suits my slowly deteriorating metabolism. I love the fact that just a portage or two away from an access you can still get the feel of the deep backcountry. Thanks again!!