Trip Reports, Campsites & More
Baby Joe Lake
Spotlight Lake - November 2023
Baby Joe Lake is part of the string of lakes with some variation of the name Joe in between Canoe Lake and Burnt Island. Heading north from Canoe Lake, you paddle through Joe Lake, Little Joe Lake, Lost Joe Lake and finally Baby Joe before arriving at Burnt. Baby Joe isn’t a big lake. It’s not the smallest of the Joes, that honour goes to Lost Joe, but it’s not going to be confused with Opeongo any time soon. At less than a kilometer from top to bottom, and much narrower than that from side to side, it doesn’t take long to see as much of Baby Joe as you’d want to see. And it doesn’t take long to write about it, either, which is why it’s the perfect option for a spotlight lake in a month where I’m already 10 days behind in publishing this thing.
Ok, despite what I said in the previous paragraph, there’s a legitimate reason for taking a quick look at Baby Joe beyond the fact that it’s an easy lake to write about. Baby Joe happens to be smack dab in the middle of one of Algonquin’s busiest corridors. In such a busy area, someone might look at Baby Joe with its one campsite and think to themselves “hey, I’m going to get myself some privacy and take the only reservation on Baby Joe”. This would be wrong. Not that you can take the only site on Baby Joe, that’s correct. But if you think you’re going to get some privacy there? That’s a different story.
On any given summer day I would guess that there would be no fewer than 10 trips passing through Baby Joe on their way to or from the Canoe Lake access point, and that’s probably an underestimate. On long weekends, the entire area around Baby Joe is a sea of red triangles on the Park’s reservation system (red triangles mean that all the permits on a given lake have been issued), and many of the trips heading to and from those red triangles are going to be following a route that takes them within fifty feet of Baby Joe’s only campsite.
So, is staying on Baby Joe worth the traffic?
Maybe? (How’s that for a strong and decisive answer?)
Here’s the thing, Baby Joe as a destination is a bit of a mixed bag. The campsite is fine. It’s not spectacular and it’s not a dumpster fire. It’s a smaller site, with room for a couple of tents at most, and it’s located midway up Baby Joe, at one of the narrower spots, so you’re that much closer to canoes going past. There’s a fire pit, there’s a thunderbox, there’s … well, that’s about it. I guess that’s covers the basic definition of everything you want in a campsite, but nothing here stands out. It’s more a place to spend a night on your way to somewhere better than it is a final destination.
Along with the average campsite, Baby Joe is an average lake. It’s small, shallow and narrow. It’s got a sandy bottom and can be a bit weedy in places. Despite this, it’s a pretty enough lake. I love the beach at the north end of the lake that doubles as the start of the portage up to Burnt Island (or over to Little Doe depending on which direction you’re going). The shoreline is mostly dominated by softwood, and it grows pretty thick in places. There’s a small spit of rock poking out from the eastern shore about 2/3 of the way up to Burnt Island that would work for a lunch break spot if you didn’t want to deal with the traffic coming and going on the portage.
Probably the best thing Baby Joe has going for it is that it’s convenient. Getting here from the Canoe Lake access point in decent time is manageable for most trippers. Baby Joe is just over 10 KM from the parking lot, and the only portage you absolutely have to do is the p300 Joe Lake portage that would be the top seed in an “easiest portage in the Park” elimination bracket (there are two other portages between Canoe Lake and Baby Joe, but they’re both skippable if the water on Joe Creek is high enough). The paddle through Joe and Little Joe is quite pretty, and can include a stop at the Joe Lake cliffs for some swimming and cliff jumping if you want a bit of adventure along the way. On top of that, the stretch along Joe Creek (between Little Joe and Baby Joe) is quite nice. I’ve twice seen moose snacking in the shallows where Little Joe turns into Joe Creek, and even if you don’t run into 800 lbs of plant eating forest tank en route, there’s still plenty of pretty scenery along the way.
In fact, let’s talk about that stretch of Joe Creek. One of my favourite things about Baby Joe Lake is how you leave it (heading south), which probably doesn’t speak all that well for the lake itself. To get from Baby Joe to Little Joe you can follow a 435 meter portage, or you can wade/paddle a narrow section of Joe Creek that connects Baby Joe to Little Joe by way of Lost Joe Lake. This is by far the more fun of the two exit options. The creek is rocky, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to put some new racing stripes on the bottom of your canoe, but it’s deep enough to wade beside your boat, and on a hot summer day walking through cool water beside your boat beats the heck out of walking along a hot portage underneath it.
And that’s about it for Baby Joe Lake. It wouldn’t be my first choice in the area. I’d rather stay on any of Burnt Island, Little Doe or Tom Thomson. But it’s not necessarily a bad choice either. On the positive side, if you stay here you’re getting a private lake. Unfortunately, that private lake has a whole lot of traffic passing through it on any given day. The campsite is serviceable, but unspectacular, and my favourite thing about the lake is leaving it (from either end. The creek down to Lost Joe is fun, the portage over to Burnt Island has stairs and goes past some pretty rapids/small falls). Go Baby Joe!
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