Closest Access Point: Canoe Lake (Access Point #5)
Distance To Access Point: 13 KM (2.5 hours)
Difficulty of Travel From Access Point: Easy
Maintenance Level: Regular (supposedly)
Date of Visit: July, 2021
Ever want to know what Algonquin will look like about 15 years after the apocalypse? Good news! This is the site for you. Everyone else, you can probably do better.
Terrain: This is a very small, very overgrown site on Bartlett’s south shore. It’s just past the narrows that lead over to Tom Thomson and it doesn’t look like it’s been used in a very long time. The ground cover is mostly long grass and is actually reasonably level. Don’t mistake that as being a selling feature, it just means that the grass overgrowth is a relatively uniform knee height.
Canoe Landing: The shoreline is pretty wild and weedy. The canoe landing isn’t bad for all that. You pull up to a mat of pretty consistent green stuff and loading/unloading is fine. The underwater approach is free of obstacles, but I do recall bottoming out pretty quickly.
Fire Pit: Do you mean the grass pit? Because the grass pit is fine. It’s a circle of rocks around a lot of grass. I suppose if you wanted to set fire to the site you could start your campfire here. FWIW, it’s actually a nicely located grass pit if you want to look out at Bartlett.
Swimability: Remember when I said the shoreline was weedy and kind of mucky? I mean, do you want to go swimming in that? I don’t.
Tent Sites: There are two tent spots, both of which are pretty overgrown. That said, they were both flat enough. A few hours with a machete and a weed whipper and you could have a pretty nice spot to crash for the night.
Thunderbox: You know what? The thunderbox is great. It looks new, it hasn’t been used much, it’s in the middle of a nice little clearing. This is by far the highlight of the site. In fact, here’s an idea, if you’re staying on Bartlett but you want an executive bathroom, stay on some other site but make the trip over here to do your business.
Accessories: Ticks, maybe?
Views: Nice view across Bartlett from most of the site.
Notes: Just in case the last 350 words, or the pictures, haven’t made it clear, you don’t need to stay here.
Related Trip Report: Tom Thomson Lake
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