Dates Completed : October 26 to 28, 2025
Total Distance Traveled : 31.5km Portages : 10 Total Portage Distance : 4610m
Introduction
Despite a late start to the paddling season of 2025 and a six week hiatus due to a damaged canoe, I somehow managed to squeeze in eight canoe camping trips during the spring, summer and fall.
The first was in Algonquin a week or two after ice-out, so it was only fitting that I’d paddle Algonquin again for my 9th and final outing weeks before ice-in. As luck would have it, three of my other paddling friends happened to be free – one with his own canoe and another with a car. Of course Hana the portage puppy would be coming along, and by trips end, she would have spend 27 days in the backcountry. Not bad for a city dog who normally spends 18 hours a day sleeping at the base of my bed.
The route I planned had a bit of everything: a relatively big lake, smaller lakes, a major river, and of course, a good number of portages. A popular route during the summer but one that’s mostly empty by late October.
October 26, 2025
Day 1 – Magnetawan (Access Point #3) to Little Trout Lake
Distance Covered : 10.5km
Portages : 3 (130m, 290m, 450m)
Total Portage Distance : 870m
Total Time : 2:55hrs
Now that the days were much shorter, the plan for this trip was to arrive at our campsite by 4pm, which would give us a few hours to collect firewood – a valuable resource at this time of year when the evenings would dip down to freezing.
To make that happen, I calculated that we should be departing the access point at 1pm. In the end, we started paddling just past 1:40pm but that wasn’t bad considering we had an extended stop in Gravenhurt and another at the park office – which, as it turned out, was closing the following day until spring of 2026.
Fifteen minutes later, we were on Hambone Lake, which was special because it’s where we celebrated Hana’s first birthday just over 2 years earlier. I pointed out the campsite we’d stayed on to Hana, and she took a long look before going back to sleep on the padded yoke pad.
One portage later, we were on Ralph Bice, our biggest lake crossing of the trip. Although we started with a head wind, it had died down by the time we reached the portage on the eastern end.
After completing the portage to Little Trout Lake, we immediately paddled to campsite #10 – our destination for the night. ChatGPT told me that it was the best site on the lake due to its spaciousness, and it was right as it accommodated our four tents with ease.
For this trip, I brought along a new tent called the Horizon 2 by a relatively new Canadian company, Windquester. The tent was provided to me in exchange for a complete and honest review, which I’ll be posting soon.
October 27, 2025
Day 2 – Little Trout Lake to Daisy Lake
Distance Covered : 14.9km
Portages : 4 (180m, 2410m, 430m, 130m)
Total Portage Distance : 3150m
Total Time : 5:25hrs
The previous evening was quite cold, and despite me bringing my -9C sleeping bag, R7.5 sleeping pad, thermal liner and wearing a few layers to bed, I found myself cold during the night. Nothing dangerous, but enough to keep me uncomfortable. Either way, the cold was motivation enough for me to get up at the crack of dawn to move around and warm up.
As I realized on my last trip, the 30 min just before sunrise is an awesome time to take photos.
The second day had a mix of relatively small lakes, a slow flowing river, and a few portages thrown in for good measure. I estimated a travel time of around 5 hours, so I suggested to my group that we depart at 10am to arrive at the campsite by mid afternoon. That would give us time to catch some sunlight while gathering firewood for the night.
We eventually departed at 10:53 but upon nearing the end of Little Trout Lake, I realized that I had forgotten my map at the campsite. We had to double back to grab it – wasting about 30 minutes. At least the conditions were calm. It would’ve sucked to have crossed a very choppy lake twice.
Before long we were in Queer Lake – a nice small lake, though with too many campsites for my taste. Upon arriving at the southern end of the lake, we were greeted with the longest portage of the trip : a 2410m carry into Little Misty Lake. Since I wasn’t packing much gear and because the portage looked relatively flat, I decided to challenge it in one shot – and just like that, I completed my longest portage to date. Beating my previous record in Killarney (a month prior) by 800m. Hana was so impressed she gave me a paw upon arriving at Little Misty Lake.
Once the portage was complete, the only thing left was to take the Petawawa river to our campsite. We proceeded with caution since I knew river paddling could be quite challenging late in the season. Sure enough, we came across many shallow sections and beaver dams, but when we started hearing rumbling noises against the canoe, I quickly realized another challenge – surface ice! Thankfully, the ice hadn’t fully consolidated but if we’d been a day later, it might’ve been a different story.
We eventually paddled into site #1 at around 4:20pm – about 20 minutes earlier than the previous day.
ChatGPT had also recommended this site due to it’s spaciousness and again, it was correct as it easily accommodated our tents. It also offered plenty of firewood, which was a crucial as the temperatures dropped fast. By 10pm, it was below zero – left over liquid in our mugs started freezing. Any water filter that wasn’t in our pockets probably got ruined that evening as well. (Including my Katadyn Befree!)
It was so cold that I sat right next to the fire until it was time to sleep. Sometime around 3am, Hana, who sleeps by my side on top of her sleeping bag had enough and started clawing at my sleeping bag, trying to dig a hole which would allow her in. Since I was cold myself, I figured we could help each other out and unzipped my bag to let her in. Within minutes, we were both toasty warm and it had me thinking… maybe I should get a wide sleeping bag and just sleep with Hana going forward.
October 28, 2025
Day 3 – Daisy Lake to Magnetawan (Access Point #3)
Distance Covered : 6.1km
Portages : 3 (410m, 50m, 130m)
Total Portage Distance : 590m
Total Time : 1:49hrs
The previous evening, I warned my partners that we might have to alter our plans on the final day. The initial plan was to paddle back to Hambone via Acme lake and two short portages. However, after encountering so much ice the previous day, it was possible that our route to those portages could get iced in. If that happened, the backup plan was to take a 1450m portage to Ralph Bice Lake located near our campsite – thus bypassing the shorter sheltered portages.
Upon waking up at 7:30am, I quickly walked over to the shore, half expecting to see our canoes iced in. Thankfully, there was no sign of ice, so after a leisurely breakfast (which even included a campfire), we departed on our original planned route at close to 11am.
Things went smoothly until we reached the northeast end of Daisy Lake, where we noticed that the narrow section leading to the portage was frozen over. The ice was almost 2cm thick in places and although we managed to chop our way through to the portage, it probably would’ve been impassable if we’d arrived a day later.
The next lake, Acme was sheltered ,so we portaged in with crossed fingers. This was one of the few trips where I did all of the portages, and after over 4km of carrying, I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to paddle back toward our campsite and add another 1450m to the tally. Thankfully, despite being in a north facing sheltered area, there was no ice on Acme or on any of the remaining sections of water back to the access point.
The day ended with some awesome fish and chips in Bracebridge. A tribute with one of my partners who was with me on the Brent Run where we agreed to celebrate with fish and chips afterwards but never did. A fitting end to the paddling season. Or is it?
Epilogue
Looking back at this trip, I realize that this was Hana’s final adventure with me. Regardless of whether it was rain or shine, 30C or -2C, she has always embraced every paddle, portage, and campsite with boundless curiosity and joy. Though she’s no longer here, these memories will always stay with me.
For more details of her final day, please check out this entry :