Date Completed : May 18 to 20, 2025
Total Distance Traveled: 42.8km Portages : 19 Portage Distance : 5540m
Table of Contents
Introduction
The official 2025 ice out for Algonquin Provincial Park was April 27 which was almost 2 weeks later than last year. With the Brent Run only a month away, I promptly reserved my campsites to kick off the canoe camping season on Victoria day long weekend.
Most canoeists would start off with something like Tommy Thompson or Burnt Island Lake – easy access from Highway 60 with only a few short portages. However, the route I chose was Barron Canyon via the route outlined in Kevin Callans book, “Top 70 Canoe Routes of Ontario”. This would involve 19 portages but I figured it’d be a nice challenging route to get a head start on the season.
My partners for this trip were a mix of 5 friends. Mostly people I met at work but one was a friend I’ve known from before my move to Calgary back in 2003.
Little did they know that they’d be joining me on a warm up for the Brent Run.
Day 1 – Grand Lake (Access Point 22) to St. Andrews Lake
May 18, 2025
Distance covered : 11.8km
Portages : 2 (40m, 60m)
Although Barron Canyon is known for its stunning scenery, it isn’t a popular destination for canoeists in the GTA for one main reason – the long drive. Not only is it over 450km away but over half of it is on rural undivided roads. The drive from Toronto can easily take over 6 hours with breaks which is almost double that of the west gate access on highway 60!
After departing Toronto at 7am, we all converged in Pembroke at around 12:30pm where we did some last minute shopping before registering and unloading our gear at the Achray boat launch. We ended up leaving the launch at a leisurely 4:05pm.
The first day was purposely short since the long drive was taken into account. All we had this day was two short portages and one long lake to cross. Despite making a few wrong turns, we managed to arrive at St. Andrews Lake at around 6pm where we realized we had the entire lake to ourselves. We quickly took the largest site and settled in for the night.
As predicted by the weather forecast, the showers ended this afternoon but the temperatures dropped well into the single digits. At least colder temperatures meant that we wouldn’t be seeing any biting insects.
Day 2 – St. Andrews Lake to Opalescence Lake
May 19, 2025
Distance Covered : 17.5km
Portages : 12 (590m, 430m, 60m, 290m, 330m, 130m, 130m, 120m, 430m, 430m, 120m, 750m)
After a fairly cold evening which forced many of us to wake up and put on another layer, we woke up at a leisurely time and departed our campsite at almost 11:30am. I tried to encourage everyone to leave at 10am the day before but I didn’t want to push everyone too hard. Especially since it was our first outing this year.
The day would involve a total of 12 portages. Most were relatively short but I quickly realized that for me, the tough part wasn’t necessarily the distance but the act of mounting and dismounting the canoe onto and from my shoulders.
The string of portages to the Barron River ran parallel to, “The Cascades” which were a series of waterfalls. Due to the water volume at this time of year, some of the waterfalls were quite spectacular.
Once we arrived at Barron River, one of my group members suggested hiding our packs at the Brigham Lake portage since we’d be doubling back on the same portages on the way back. That was a great idea which took a lot of weight off our backs but in all honesty, I didn’t feel a huge difference. Which probably tells me that the bottleneck to my portaging ability isn’t my pack or my canoe but my personal conditioning. Hmm…
Either way, the canyon was quite impressive for Ontario. Definitely worth at least one visit.
We eventually took a quick break at a campsite near the end of the canyon. By that time, it was almost 5pm so we quickly turned back, retrieved our gear at Brigham Lake and continued onto the portage into Opalescent Lake. This would be the longest portage at 750m but it didn’t seem too difficult because of some long sections where it’d be a flat wide trail.
We knew that there was a sought after campsite on Opalescent Lake which was rumored to be quite spacious. And to our surprise, not only was it available but we were the only ones on this lake! The campsite lived up to its expectations with exquisite rock furniture and enough space for almost a dozen tents. It was certainly the best campsite I’ve ever stayed on in Algonquin.
Day 3 – Opalescent Lake to Grand Lake (Access Point 22)
May 20, 2025
Distance Covered : 13.5km
Portages : 5 (640m, 300m, 590m, 60m, 40m)
Much like the day before, I suggested to the group that we depart at 10am. That way, we’d arrive in Toronto just after rush hour.
And much like the day before, we didn’t come close to reaching that target departure time. But it was ok. The day before was quite tiring and there was no real rush to get back to Toronto. The only negative with our late departure was the fact that it became progressively warmer throughout the day which brought out swarms of mosquitos and black flies. It was almost as though they were trying to make up for the last few days.
We eventually departed shortly after 11am and arrived back at the Achray boat launch at close to 4pm.
As always, here’s a final pic of Hana, the portage puppy on Stratton Lake. Not sure why she’s so exhausted since she didn’t help with a single portage!
Upon arriving back at the Achray dock, we drove into Pembroke for dinner before heading back to Toronto.
What an amazing Victoria day weekend with great company.