McKaskill Ranger Cabin

The McKaskill Ranger Cabin is located on McKaskill Lake’s south shore. It’s perched at the top of a small hill, which gives you a fantastic view north over McKaskill and an opportunity for some mild leg work every time you go down to the lake. Fortunately, someone has built a helpful little ladder up from the water that you can use if you want to access the steepest part of the hill. Otherwise, the canoe landing is on the western side of the cabin, tucked towards the bottom of the bay.

The cabin is set up with two bunk beds (so four bunks total) and comfortably fits two people (both times I’ve been here I’ve been with one other person). I can say quite confidently that the cabin stays warm when the weather is awful and stays bug proof when the mosquitoes are swarming. 

Apart from the bunks, the cabin hosts a table with a couple of chairs, a wood stove and a couple of smaller counter surfaces. In other words, there’s plenty of room to spread out your gear. It also has a couple of shelves full of leave-behinds (read: things people didn’t want to bother packing out). Some of these are useful (Yahtzee!), some are just garbage (no one needs your broken clothes pegs). 

The exterior area is quite nice as well. It’s got a solid porch and there is a picnic table beside the outdoor fire pit. Crucially, there are plenty of free standing pine that are spaced just the right amount apart to set up a solid bug tent. The swimming here was phenomenal. At the bottom of that ladder I mentioned the underwater terrain is fairly flat and, if I’m remembering right, mostly sand? Whatever it was, it was nice to walk on.

Finally, the cabin is a short walk down a driveway away from Major Lake road. This means that it’s accessible by (authorized) vehicle. Just to be clear, you are probably not the owner of an authorized vehicle. The cabin is not meant as a drive in destination. However, the road is handy if you get caught in a snow storm and decide to walk out.