Hogan Lake – Site 9

This is a great little site tucked away in a small bay in the much larger Parks Bay that makes up Hogan’s East end. (That was a long and awkward sentence). The site is fronted by a small  (and quite nice) beach that makes for both a great place to pull up your canoes and to take a swim. The site area itself is average sized. There’s a nice fire pit setup about twenty paces back from the water, with a decent if slightly obstructed view out to the lake. The terrain around the site is basically flat, with room for a few tents. The fire pit area was basic, but decent. The pit is somewhat sheltered from the onshore wind (more on that in a second), but still has a view out to the lake (that’s the second time I’ve talked about the view to the lake. Lake views from the fire pit are important to me. Deal with it).

A highlight of this site isn’t actually on the site itself, but along a short path to the tip of a small point just north of the site. This is a three minute (max) walk along the water and it puts you out on a rocky point with an awesome view of Hogan. I ate lunch here and would highly recommend doing the same if you’re passing through Hogan and looking for a spot to stop.

One thing to think about, Hogan is a huge lake that runs west to east. You know what else runs west to east? The prevailing winds in Algonquin. That means that on a windy day (which it was when I was there) this site gets absolutely pummeled by the wind and waves. Getting off the beach was a bit of a challenge, and I’m glad it was such a warm day. Made the foot bath that accumulated in the bottom of my canoe as we forced our way out nice and warm.