Site Details
Closest Access Point: Honestly? “Closest” access point is a bit of a lie. This is about as remote as you can get in the Park. Tim Access Point (#2) is your best bet.
Distance to Access Point: 36.8 KM (2 Days, minimum)
Difficulty of Travel From Access Point: Hard
Maintenance Level: Low
Date Visited: May 2023
This is a small site that occupies a thin spit of land separating Barred Owl Lake from Nod Lake. It’s the Nod Lake version of The Wall, keeping the hordes of Barred Owl White Walkers from flooding south. Or something. This site used to be missing from the online reservation system, but it looks like the most recent update has fixed that problem. So book away!
Terrain: This is a small site. It’s about twenty meters across at its widest, and is bounded on both sides by water. The ground slopes gently to the water on both sides, and is relatively flat in the middle. It’s an easy to navigate site, there just isn’t that much of it to navigate.
Canoe Landing: There are two canoe landings here, one on the Barred Owl side and one on the Nod side. Why? Because this site is also a portage between the two lakes. Bear that in mind if you stay here. While this isn’t a very busy route, anyone who goes this way is going to pass through this site.
Fire Pit: Is that an aerial shot of the budget version of Stonehenge or is it a very small fire pit that has apparently never been used? The pit is located in the middle of the site and has a nice view of both lakes. Which is good, because the pit itself isn’t much to look at.
Tent Sites: The top of the ridge (ridge is a strong word, let’s call it a bump) separating the two lakes is pretty level. There’s room for at least one tent here, and probably two.
Swimmability: The underwater terrain is a mix of muck and rock if I recall correctly. From a swimming standpoint, I’d probably prefer to swim in Nod over Barred Owl. Either way, I don’t think you’re staying here for the swimming opportunities.
Accessories: This is a very basic site, which is what you should expect on a low maintenance site that’s about as deep into Algonquin as you can go. There are a couple of old logs beside the fire pit if you haven’t brought a camp chair, and that’s about it.
Views: I was a fan of the views from this site. Both Nod and Barred Owl are pretty little lakes (emphasis on little). The shot above is looking back at Barred Owl. The view of Nod is equally pleasant.
Notes: Nod and Barred Owl Lake are reserved together in the reservation system. That gives you three sites to choose from over two lakes. I didn’t make it to Nod’s second site, we were going up to Gibson not down to the Petawawa, but between this site and Barred Owl‘s lone site I would take this one every time.
Related Trip Report: Birchcliffe, The Nip and Some Hills