Date Completed : May 31 to June 2, 2025
Total Distance Traveled: 48.9km Portages : 15 Portage Distance : 5760m
Table of Contents
Introduction
With only 3 weeks left before my attempt of the Brent Run, I decided to step up my training by doing a tough canoe camping route. I initially thought about doing the Lake Louisa loop in 3 days instead of the suggested 4 to 5 but I eventually settled on the Rosebary Loop in the suggested 3 days. I figured that doing a difficult 3 day trip was better than doing a moderate 4 day trip. Plus the Rosebary Loop involved mostly river travel – something I could use practice on.
My partner for this trip was an ex-colleague, Victor who was an ultra marathon runner with canoe camping experience. My partner for the Brent Run was unavailable until the actual run but Victor offered to train with me which was great because he’d be able to give me an honest opinion regarding my progress.
Day 1 – Tim Lake (Access Point 2) to Nipissing River
May 31, 2025
Distance Covered : 12.8km
Portages : 8 (340m, 290m, 820m, 810m, 200m, 90m, 80m, 60m)
Day one was the shortest of the three. I planned it that way to take the driving time into account and as expected, we arrived at the access point by 11am and were on the water by around 11:40am.
Since there was rain in the forecast, I decided to wear my semi dry drysuit for this trip. Despite the hassles of putting it on and off, it really paid off in the end. Not only because of the unintentional dumps I’d make into the water but because of the mosquitos and black flies we’d encounter later in the trip.
In order to push myself for the Brent Run, I decided to do all of the portages on this day which totaled around 2.6km. I found it a little easier to manage the portages since it was my second trip with this canoe. By tying the bow and stern painter lines, I was able to create a loop which allowed me to sort of manage the canoe with one hand lowered to my side. This small hack made a noticeable difference but I’ll have to perfect it for the Brent run.
The 4th portage of the day brought us to Big Bob Lake, the headwaters of the Nipissing River and one portage later, we were finally paddling the river. After 2 more short portages, we came to the first of two campsites along the Nipissing which happened to be along the portages. The first one was perhaps the better of the two and was occupied by a solo canoeist so we moved onto the second which was acceptable. It was bigger than the first one but was fully surrounded by trees and water access was via a short but steep incline to the portage.
It was still 4pm which meant we had another 5 hours of daylight. The rain was holding out, the bugs were almost non existent and we still felt great. We even joked about continuing on and turning this hard route into a 2 day trip. Thankfully, we decided to set up camp for the night.
Day 2 – Nipissing River to Rosebary Lake
June 1, 2025
Distance Covered : 22km
Portages : 6 (190m, 110m, 150m, 810m, 1320m, 370m)
After a fairly cold evening which had Hana jumping into my sleeping bag, we departed at a fairly relaxed 10am. We figured the first part of the day would be leisurely paddle along a river followed by a few big portages into our final lake for the trip.
The Nipissing started off as a fun narrow river bursting with foliage and hairpin turns. And much like the first time I drove through the Prairies, the first 30 min was great. After that, it felt like an infinite loop with no signs of progress. And to make things worse, the morning alternated between heavy mosquitos/black flies and rain with a bunch of beaver dams thrown in for good measure. While getting out of the canoe for one of these beaver dams, my foot placement gave way as the embankment crumbled and I ended up going chest deep in the water. Not only was I grateful for my PFD but definitely grateful for my drysuit!
The Nipissing river eventually opened up to where we didn’t have to essentially bushwhack in our canoes. But that section took up so much time that we spent nearly 5 hours just to get to turnoff into Loontail Creek. We agreed that we were lucky that we didn’t continue on further the previous night.
Once at the confluence of the Nipissing and Loontail creek, we quickly made it to the first of the 2 long portage of the day. Thankfully, my partner offered to share the load as he started each portage before handing the canoe to me. I say thankfully because the start of the portages were quite steep.
We eventually entered the waters of Rosebary Lake at around 6pm where we quickly noticed that the popular NE campsite was already taken. Having heard that the campsite at the mouth of the Tim River was also decent, we paddled over but found it smaller than our first campsite. My partner was willing to set up camp but I convinced him to check out one more to the south.
The campsite just south wasn’t much better but was slightly wider. We also noticed that both sites had significant amounts of animal droppings on the ground.
I would’ve been willing to cross the lake for a west facing campsite but figured it was already close to 7pm and we only needed to stay for a night.
Day 3 – Rosebary Lake to Time Lake (Access Point 2)
June 2, 2025
Distance Covered : 14.1km
Portages : 1 (120m)
The final day was supposed to be easy. A pleasant cool down paddle back to the car with just one puny portage. Upon leaving our campsite around 8:15, we imagined ourselves having a relaxing lunch and even thought about dropping by Swift Outdoors on the way back to look at some paddles.
In reality, it wasn’t too bad but what we didn’t expect were the beaver dams! Because of the high water level, we were able to run a few of them but some were quite impressive. One in particular was like the Great Wall of China in a beaver-esque type of way.
We eventually arrived at the short portage and re-entered Tim Lake before retracing our path down the river to our put in. We finally arrived back at 1:20pm so our cool down paddle ended up taking around 5 hours to complete. A little longer than I expected.
After loading back up, we promptly made our way to Gravenhurst to grab a quick lunch before heading home. The Swift store will have to wait until next time.
Here’s the final pic I have of Hana the Portage Puppy as we near the put in on the Tim River. She somehow knew that we were close to the end and started scanning the shoreline for any sign of my Jeep.
As usual, she was very well behaved in the backcountry but upon coming home, I noticed that her bottom side was covered in bite marks which I’m assuming are from black flies. I’ve taken Hana out in mosquito infested areas and she’s never had those bites. Especially since she’s usually wearing her PFD.
It hurts to say this but I decided not to bring her on the Brent Run. I was on the fence about bringing her due to the extra food and attention I’d have to give her but with the bugs in the picture, I think she’ll understand if I leave her at home.
For my latest thoughts on the Brent Run, you can check my blog post found here.