Site Details
Closest Access Point: Opeongo Lake (Access #11)
Distance to Access Point: 37 KM (2 days)
Difficulty of Travel From Access Point: Moderate
Maintenance Level: Regular
Date Visited: September 2022
This site is set on the river almost exactly halfway between Big Crow and Crow Bay. It makes for a great break spot, but wouldn’t necessarily be a place I’d want to spend the night. Not that there’s anything wrong with the site, it’s certainly serviceable, it just wouldn’t be my first choice.
Terrain: The site is at the top of the northern bank along the river. This means climbing a short but steep hill (probably 20 feet above the river). Once you get up top, the rest of the site is quite flat. Tree coverage is fairly consistent.
Canoe Landing: The river bends in front of the site, and the landing is a very wet patch of sand/mud. It’s firm, so no worries about sinking in as you’re getting out of the canoe, but it’s mucky. There were no significant underwater obstructions that I can recall, but the river is shallow here. You may find your canoe has beached itself before you actually reach land.
Fire Pit: The fire pit is towards the front of the site where the path comes up from the water. The pit area is well defined, although you might consider finding some more rocks to build the pit up a bit if you’re staying here. Views out to the river are semi-obstructed from up here.
Tent Sites: There’s room on this site for two or three mid sized tents. It’s a relatively compact site. Once you get past the site proper there aren’t a lot of auxiliary tent spots. Ground looks solid. I wonder how it might pool during a hard rain. It’s the kind of ground that looks like it might take a while to soak up.
Swimmability: I dunno. I probably wouldn’t swim here. It’s shallow and I’ve got to imagine there are a few leeches around given the sandy bottom. You could certainly wade in to cool off on a hot day, but this wouldn’t be a destination if swimming was your main priority.
Thunderbox: The thunderbox looked very new and in good shape. It’s down a short path out the back of the site.
Accessories: There are some log benches around the fire pit. Other than that, it was a basic site.
Views: The view from the site proper is semi-obstructed, but quite nice regardless. You can see a good distance down the river heading west. Given the location, I bet you’d get a shot at seeing some wildlife around sunrise or sunset as well.
Notes: This site is fine, but I don’t think I’d choose to stay here under most circumstances. The Crow River in between Crow Bay and Big Crow isn’t long enough that you’d need to break up the trip into two days, and there are much better sites on both Big Crow and Crow Bay.
Related Trip Report: Crow River Loop(ish): Proulx to Dickson and Everything in Between