Dates : September 6 to 8, 2026
Total Distance Traveled: 25km Portages : 7 Total Portage Distance : 4190m
Introduction
After completing two relatively tough trips during the month of August which totaled over 21km of portages, I decided to take it easy for a change and do a 3 day canoe camping trip which would involve less travel and more relaxation time at camp. (Not to mention that my canoe yoke is still in need of a permanent repair.) My partner for this trip was my colleague, Chris. We talked about doing a trip many times throughout the summer, so it was great to finally make it happen. Of course Momo, the portage puppy would be joining us as well. She wouldn’t have it any other way!
Our destination would be McCraney Lake, partly out of necessity (due to the bookings on Labour Day), but I was also curious because people seem to rave about it.
In order to add some variety to this trip, we decided to return via Islet Lake and turn this into a loop versus an out and back. Although this isn’t an established loop, I decided to call it McCraney Islet Loop for this report.
September 6,, 2026
Day 1 – Rain Lake (Access Point #4) to McCraney Lake
Distance Covered : 9km
Portages : 1 (1680m)
Total Portage Distance : 1680m
Total Time : 2:13hrs
Rain Lake happens to be one of my favorite access points into the park. Not only is the lake dotted with many good campsites, but in terms of driving time, it is almost identical to Canoe/Smoke Lake. As a bonus, the drive from the Kearney park office into Rain Lake is far more scenic than driving from Huntsville into the park.
After leaving Toronto at 8am, we arrived at Rain Lake just before noon, and it became quite apparent that many others agreed with my taste in access points since since the parking lot was completely packed with maybe 100 cars. Thankfully, we arrived just as some paddlers were returning, so we were able to grab their parking spot.
Shortly after we started paddling, I remembered leaving Momo’s breakfast sandwich in my Jeep, so we quickly turned around to grab that. A McDonald’s Sausage & Egg Muffin for Momo’s first dinner has become our tradition on canoe trips.
A mere thirty minutes later, we were at our first and only portage of the day. While the portage into Little McCraney is fairly long at 1680m, the trail itself is quite flat and well maintained.
I decided to single carry this myself but found myself struggling to keep my canoe balanced front to back. Upon completing the portage, I took a quick look at the yoke and noticed that it was missing a nut which caused it to move around. I was making some minor adjustments to stabilize the yoke during the previous day and had apparently forgotten one of the nuts.
We decided to fix this later and continued to move on so that we could grab a good campsite. We knew the lake was fairly packed, so we’d be competing for a good spot.
Upon entering McCraney Lake, we quickly realized why it was so poular. The lake was quite stunning with some of the clearest water I’ve seen in the park. In addition to that, the lake looked to have some great campsites.
Since it was a long weekend, we didn’t expect much of a selection, even though we arrived at 1pm. Luckily, we chatted up a couple who were returning to their campsite near the northern end, and they mentioned that the campsite on the east shore located on a point, was available. They mentioned it was very nice, so upon seeing another canoe in the distance heading towards the site, we paddled hard and beat the other canoe by a few minutes.
And what a nice site it was! It was located on a point with several rocky outcrops which allowed for great exposure to the sun and wind. The site was a little cozy, with maybe enough space for two tents, but apart from that, this would probably make my top 10 campsite list.
Since we arrived shortly after 1pm, we had plenty of time to relax. Once we set up our tents, we explored the area around our campsite and collected firewood, which was quite abundant. Chris even took a quick swim before we jumped into the canoe and went for a paddle while leaving a trolley line for fish. The island campsites on McCraney were supposed to be good and as expected, the center island with two campsites were taken. The island site near the bottom was vacant, so we decided to explore it and found it quite impressive as well. Not as good as ours, but a perfect spot for a large group since it had tons of space and even a small sandy beach with a separate fire pit on its west shore.
We ended the day under a cloudless sky with no moon, thus dazzling us with countless stars and the Milky Way.
September 7,, 2026
Day 2 – McCraney Lake to Islet Lake
Distance Covered : 7.1km
Portages : 4 (70m, 570m, 600m, 40m)
Total Portage Distance : 1280m
Total Time : 2:27hrs
The second day of our leisurely trip started quite early. Unlike my other partners, Chris was a morning person who woke up at 6am, at least in the backcountry. Since I tend to wake up early as well, we were up and sipping our first coffee by 7am. By 9:30am, we were on our way towards the first portage at the north end of the lake.
The first portage was simple enough at 70m but the second one was rated intermediate due to the sharp incline at the start. To make it easier on us, we decided to carry our bags to the top before Chris walked down to bring the canoe back up. From there point, I’d portage the canoe to the end.
The portage was fairly straightforward until the end, as I had a wee mishap while dismounting my canoe on Wee Lake. While rock hopping along the shore, one of the rocks shifted and thew me to the ground as the canoe came smashing down on another large rock. I was relatively unscathed but my canoe will forever have a memory of this Wee incident as it put a large dent in the gunwale.
A few portages later brought us to Islet Lake, where Chris immediately set up a trolley line. Within minutes, he had pulled out a sizeable smallmouth bass, which we let back into the water.
Compared to McCraney, Islet was significantly smaller and although the water was clean, it had a greenish tinge. Chris noted that the lakebed on McCraney appeared to be rockier, which would explain the clearer water since it’d have less vegetation.
Islet Lake had 6 canoe camping site along with 4 campsites along the Western Uplands backpacking trail, which ran across its eastern shore. Since the island site was vacant, we decided to explore that first. A few minutes was all it took to convince us to stay on the island overnight. It had almost everything one could ask for. Tons of space to set up tents, a spacious common area and of course views in all directions. The island was fairly distant from the shore, so we found it interesting that there was a large amount of moose droppings on the ground.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about this island was a large, curious snapping turtle which kept on watching us from the shore like a submarine watching us from its periscope. Momo had a close call when the turtle quickly approached her as she was drinking water. She leapt from the water and growled at the turtle – one of the only times she made any noise during the entire three days.
For this trip, I brought along frozen chicken wings along with my cast aluminum sandwich maker. I made one batch using my MSR Pocket Rocket deluxe and it came out amazing. For the second batch, I used the campfire, which led to me burning all the wings. That was disappointing to me, but Momo ate really well that night. She better not expect chicken wings on every camp trip moving forward!
September 8,, 2026
Day 3 – Islet Lake to Rain Lake (Access Point #4)
Distance Covered : 9km
Portages : 2 (500m, 730m)
Total Portage Distance : 1230m
Total Time : 2:19hrs
Our final day was quite short and involved two flat portages to Rain Lake before we paddled back to the access point.
During our paddle out, I pointed out the campsite I stayed on during Canada Day earlier this year. That was Momo’s first camping trip so it’s hard to imagine that she’s now spent 19 days in the backcountry across 6 trips. That is essentially 10% of her lifetime. A true portage puppy!
We eventually left the park at 11:30am only to get caught in construction traffic along Highway 11.After three days of quiet lakes and empty portages, stop-and-go traffic all the way home was a particularly rude reintroduction to civilization.
Final Thoughts
After two tougher trips in August, this was exactly the kind of trip I needed. We barely travelled compared to my previous trips, but McCraney and Islet turned out to be beautiful enough that I didn’t miss the constant movement at all. Between the campsites, exploring the lake, Momo’s snapping turtle encounter and Chris’s fishing, there was plenty to do without having to cover kilometres of portages every day.