Dates : October 18 to October 19, 2026
Total Distance Traveled: 8.1km Portages : 1 Total Portage Distance: 2070m
Maggie Lake is a well-known destination among backpackers, as it’s a popular place to stay for those hiking the Western Uplands backpacking trail. However, for the vast majority of canoeists, it’s a lake that is rarely known about and even less frequentley visited. And for good reason: starting from the closest official access point at Canoe Lake, getting there involves 9.3km of paddling and a whopping 18.7km of portages. And since Maggie Lake isn’t part of any loop, you’d have to deliberately plan a trip there. It’s no wonder that only four reservations were made at this lake in 2025, placing it among the 3% of lakes with the fewest reservations.
As much as I love challenging canoe trips, Maggie Lake was never of much interest to me. That is, until I realized there was an unofficial access point to the west of the lake that only involved one portage. The notes accompanying Jeff’s Maps indicated that a high clearance 4×4 was required, and since I happened to have one, I decided to give it a try. My partner for this trip was my friend and ex-colleague Cesar.
After leaving Toronto at 8am, we quickly made our way to Huntsville, where we picked up some food for this trip and topped up the fuel tank before continuing to Access Point 5A.
Despite reading about rough roads and even some water crossings, the access road turned out to be surprisingly easy. I didn’t even have to engage 4WD, and I’m pretty sure that any SUV could make it with some careful driving.
Before long, we were at the gate to Algonquin Provincial Park. There was enough room to park maybe three or four cars, but to no surprise, we were the only ones there.
On my previous trip in September, I had rented a three-seat canoe to accommodate my friends. It wasn’t until the night before this trip that I realized I’d returned the rental canoe with my yoke pad still attached. That meant that I had to improvise a solution at the last minute, since my shoulders were unlikely to survive more than 2km of portaging without some padding.
The 2km portage was essentially a 4×4 access road. If there was no gate, I’m sure I could’ve driven my Jeep all the way to Maggie Lake, although I’d probably have have needed 4Low for some steeper sections.
Shortly after joining the Western Uplands trail, we reached the lake and paddled towards our island campsite.
Jeff’s Maps shows two campsites on the island: one on the western end of the island and one on the eastern end. Naturally, we decided to check out both, starting with the western site since it was the closest to us. Unfortunately, it looked to be unnavigable due to a bunch of fallen trees blocking the way. It might of been possible to find a place to squeeze through, but the strong winds and waves convinced us to skip it and paddle straight to the eastern end.
As mentioned earlier, only four reservations were made on this island in 2025. Judging by the condition of the campsite, there was a good chance that we were the first ones to use it this year. The firepit was completely empty, with nothing but dirt at the bottom and no charcoal or ashes. The thunderbox also showed no signs of use. As a bonus, firewood was more than plentiful.
Otherwise, the site was pretty unspectacular and quite small. It had a small fire pit with a boulder forming its back wall, a few benches, and maybe two suitable spots for tents. And because the island was surrounded by a dozen campsites along the lake’s shoreline, we could hear voices and sounds from all around us.
It’s only saving grace (apart from the easy access from the west) was its rocky shoreline, which provided plenty of open, flat rock to sit and relax on. The downside of course was that anyone on the mainline campsites would have a clear view of us.
After setting up our tents, Cesar and I took a walk around the island to see if we could located the other campsite. To our surprise, the island was quite large, with some noticeable elevation gain near its center. We eventually encountered some thick forest which turned us back, so we decided to check out the other campsite the following morning on the way out.
Our dinner that night was AAA Angus Beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, washed down with some Nikka whiskey. Needless to say, it was delicious. Even Cesar, who’d forgotten to bring a fork, found a way to shovel the food into his mouth using a spatula and a fixed knife.
We made sure to bring plenty of beef since we had another member in our group: Momo the Portage Puppy. And what a spoiled puppy she is! McDonalds cheeseburger for brunch, Angus beef for dinner, and a dehydrated chicken breast for desert. And she didn’t carry a single thing on the portage!
The second day of our trip started at a brisk 7am to catch the sunrise, followed by a hot cup of coffee.
There would be no breakfast, since we’d forgotten to buy any food for breakfast the previous day. The only one who had anything to eat, was of course Momo. Luckily for he, she was faster and more agile than Cesar, who made an unsuccessful attempt to grab her dehydrated chicken breast.
Thankfully, our only plan for the day was to paddle back and retrace our portage route to the waiting Jeep. So by around 9am, we’d already left our campsite.
We initially tried to circumnavigating the island but quickly realized that it wasn’t possible due to the fallen trees blocking our way. So we turned around and retraced our original path back to the portage.
Before we shouldered the canoe for the portage back, we took a quick walk along the Western Uplands trail to check out campsite #8. And what an awesome site it was! It had a large, spacious firepit, great views of the lake, and plenty of water access. There wasn’t much in the way of flat ground for pitching a tent, with only one really good spot, but overall, I’d say it was a better campsite than the one we stayed at on the island.
The final 2km along the portage was mostly downhill and before we knew it, we were back at the Jeep where we’d head into Huntsville for a proper breakfast.
A Backdoor to Maggie Lake
Hiking the Western Uplands trail from the Highway 60 trailhead to reach a campsite on Maggie lake would involve around 15km of backpacking. That makes this unofficial access point one of shortest routes to a backcountry campsite in Algonquin.
I debated whether to share this information, since it could lead to more people using this access point. But who am I kidding. It’s not like my site is flooded with visitors. The way I see it, anyone who’s made it this far on my site deserves this little tidbit of information.