Introduction
After a successful summer of canoe camping, it was time to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to squeeze in one last trip before the winter.
My partner for this trip was my friend Jared and after some deliberation, we decided on the Lake Louisa loop which started on Rock lake and around Louisa, Welcome and Pen lakes before returning to Rock lake. Compared to the Kevin Callan route, the individual portages were much longer but at least we could divide them into one long portage per day.
Day 1 – Trailhead to Lake Louisa
Upon arriving at the West gate info center to purchase our permits, we were told that the park was pretty much wide open. There were no other groups on any of the lakes in the vicinity which was no surprise since the forecast called for freezing temperatures along with scattered showers.
After departing the boat launch at Rock Lake around 1pm, we promptly made it to the pictographs which were obviously faint but relatively easy to find.
Shortly after, we arrived at the longest portage of the trip which was 2980m. We agreed that it was good to get it over with on the first day. After taking turns carrying the canoe around 700m each, we arrived at Lake Louisa in just over an hour. The lake was beautiful with the sun setting in the background. We paddled towards the west for around a kilometer before setting camp on the north shore.
Day 2 – Lake Louisa to Welcome Lake
The weather forecast for the previous day called for freezing temperatures during the night. It was definitely chilly but not quite sub zero as witnessed by the lack of frozen water around camp.
According to our Jeff’s Map, our campground was located within 500m of some pictographs so upon our departure, we immediately combed the shoreline for these faint paintings. Unfortunately, after around 20 minutes of searching, we gave up and proceeded to paddle to the 1730m portage to Florence Lake.
The portage went by fairly quickly but part of that reason was our discovery of some fresh bear scat which encouraged us to keep moving. Thankfully, we didn’t see any more signs of bear activity for the rest of our trip.
After another 310m portage into Rence Lake, Jared came across an interesting sight near Harry Lake so we doubled back to take several pics. Some reeds happened to spell the letters OK with their reflection and was quite amusing.
Shortly after taking those pictures, things were not OK as we ran into several beaver dams followed by some intense wind and rain. By the time we paddled into Welcome lake, we faced some small waves but thankfully, the paddle to our campsite was only around 10 minutes.
Welcome Lake really lived up to its name.
The campsite we grabbed was not only spacious but it was well equipped with bushcraft furniture including a lazyboy made of rock slabs
The previous campers also left plenty of firewood and even prepared the fire ring such that all we had to do was light a match. (We made sure to return the favor before left.)
Day 3 – Welcome Lake to Rock Lake
Day 3 started off with an interesting encounter. As we were finishing off our breakfast, a pair of river otters ran up to within 3m of the fire pit before they stopped in their tracks. They were obviously surprised to see canoe campers so late into the season and we were surprised to see river otters up close. The silence was eventually broken by Hana as she chased them away. Thankfully, she didn’t come close to catching them or they would’ve evicerated her!
Shortly upon leaving our campsite, we came up to the 2240m portage which was fairly flat and straightforward. We then came across a few beaver dams before we portaged the final 280m into Pen Lake.
Here’s one of the beaver dams we were forced to go around. This one was interesting because you could see the orange “rust” marks from the iron in the beaver teeth on the freshly downed branch.
After a relaxing lunch on the eastern shore of Pen Lake, we promptly made our way to the final 380m portage of our trip. The map indicated the presence of 3 petroglyphs but after almost 30 min of searching, we gave up and proceeded to paddle into Rock Lake.
Rock Lake was scattered with cottages around its perimeter and on its islands and would obviously make for a busy lake during the summer.
Thankfully, the only signs of activity we saw were a few people at one cottage – the first time we saw anyone during our trip.
The campsite we chose for our last night was situated on the southeast end of Rock lake beside an impressive cliff. It might be worth staying at this site for multiple days to explore the area.
Day 4 – Paddle Out
After a relatively quick departure of the campsite at 10am, we quickly paddled out of the lake so that we could beat the traffic back in Toronto.
Although it would’ve been totally possible to do this trip in 3 days or even 2, the weather on the last two days made it worthwhile. Especially with nobody but ourselves and Hana the portage puppy.
Speaking of Hana, here’s a final pic which is quite appropriate considering this trip ended on Halloween day.