Closest Access Point: Shall Lake (Access Point #17)
Distance To Access Point: 7.5 KM (1.5-2 hours)
Difficulty of Travel From Access Point: Easy.
Maintenance Level: Regular
Date of Visit: September, 2019
Dear Booth Lake, Site 6, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: 1. You’re awesome. 2. You’re super awesome. 3. You are so wonderfully awesomely awesome that it’s hard to comprehend just how awesome you are. 4. You are spectacularly, fantastically … you get the idea.
Terrain: Flat as an Algonquin pancake. The site is about 100 feet long along the shoreline, and maybe 50 deep at its deepest. It’s separated from the water by one of the longest, awesomest, private beaches I’ve found in the Park. I have no idea how you could possibly trip walking around this site, unless your legs give out from the sheer joy of the place. There is a very slight two/three foot slope from the beach to the site. So, maybe there? But probably not.
Canoe Landing: Here’s a secret about beaches that beaches don’t want you to know: they make for awesome canoe landings. You could land a fleet of canoes on this site and still have room for that lone kayak your weird 2nd cousin insists on bringing with him everywhere he goes.
Fire Pit: This is a very nice fire pit with an absolutely wonderful view of Booth Lake. However, and this is important, that view exists because the pit is about 20 feet from the water’s edge and there are pretty much no trees in between you and the water. On a nice, calm night this is great. If there’s any kind of wind, or God forbid a wind that keeps changing direction on you, you’re going to spend most of the night trying to avoid the smoke and ash getting blown in your face (the benches are on the site side of the pit, meaning an onshore wind blows the smoke directly at them).
Swimability: It’s a beach. The only way it would be more swimmable is if there were a conveyor belt carrying you into the water.
Tent Sites: Remember the part where I said how flat the site was, and how big it was? You can pitch so many tents here. All the tents. There’s even a great spot in the woods for a hammock tent if that’s how you swing. A couple of things: the spot where we pitched our tents is on the north end of the site, past the counters. This was probably the most sheltered part of the site, but it’s not perfect. The best looking part of the flat ground there also turns into small lake in a rain storm. Still, we got three tents up just in this part and none of us got wet (but watch out for the dead birch hanging out nearby).
Thunderbox: The trail to the thunderbox goes straight out the back of the site. It’s a decent enough distance away from the site, but the box is right beside the trail that your buddies may be following in their quest for firewood. Make sure everyone knows where you’re going before you go.
Accessories: It’s got a great counter set up, some really nice benches and a couple of log pole drying racks. And, the beach. The beach also counts as an accessory. An awesome one.
Views: Fantastic views across Booth to the west. We got a nice quasi sunset on one of the nights and a great view of the stars from the beach area.
Notes: I loved this site. In fact, it may very well crack my top five. The only drawback I see to it is that it’s very close to an access point, meaning it probably sees a lot of use over the summer and could be in pretty rough shape by the end of the season. That being said, it was fine for us, and we were there in September. Don’t pay attention to me, I’m probably just trying to keep this site for myself.
Related Trip Report: Booth Lake
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