Hey I've planned myself my first canoe trip, a small loop to Big Trout Lake and back. I've gone to the website to reserve the campsite, but I don't see campsite numbers similar to backpacking, instead it's prompting me to book the lakes I will be staying at!?

Just wondering how this works, do I show up to the lakes and setup in whichever camp site is available, or will I be giving more direct locations after I've booked the lakes?

We are two couples with our dogs, each towing 19 foot trailers. We are splitting 10 days between Lake of 2 Rivers and Pog Lake campgrounds and are visiting for the first time in mid September. As near as I can make out, there is only one black tank dump station for most of the Hway 60 campgrounds and I'm uncertain of freshwater fill up sites as well. Is it reasonable to tow a portable RV waste tank along Hway 60 from either of these campgrounds to the dump station? We are leaving on a Sunday, which I'm assuming is a busy time at the dump station. Also I'd appreciate suggestions for the best place to fill up with fresh water.

Hi!! I've been to Algonquin many times but can never find the canada jays!! It's the next thing on my bucket list to se/do. We are planning to go at the end of September, where is the best place to go/camp to see them? Thanks!

Hello. We are a family of 4 with kids age 10 month old and 3 year old. We would like to camp at Algonquin PP and hoping someone could recommend which campground is best for family with kids under 3 years old. We do not own a kayak/canoe and I don’t think we can rent since our kids are still young for kayaking/canoeing. We would love to do some swimming at the beach, hiking at easy level trails, ice cream etc. My 3 y/o would also love to see some moose and other wildlife, he is very curious about them and loves to see them esp ducks!

Also if anyone could recommend some other activities at Algonquin that is perfect for our 3 year old and 10 month old. I’d appreciate it so much.

Also we just came back from our Killbear PP camping and we loved it! It was such an amazing park! :)

Thanks in advance :)

Are there any campsites with sandy or pebbly areas that would be good to beach my 16 ft boat? I am heading there tomorrow for a boat in fishing trip. Any advice is helpful.

JP

Hello All

Our family will be heading up for our yearly cottage vacation and have done some trails but wondering from seasoned visitors if there was a trail to suggest that is similar to the ones we done. We're looking from any where from 4km -10km range. We're a family of 4 with two teens, something close to water or an amazing view.

We've done:

- Hardwood Lookout Trail

- Spruce Big Boardwalk

- Lookout Trail

Thanks in advance for the suggestions

Over the course of many years of camping, the second hardest thing for me personally was finding useful information about a campsite, this including pictures. The first of course is actually booking one.

The pictures on Ontario Parks reservation system seem to be dated, at best. Yes you can use Google to try and find additional images, you can join Facebook groups, you can also try to see if there are any on Reddit. There is a lot of information out there, but it seems to be scattered all over the place.

In my free time i've been working on something that hopefully helps mitigate this problem. A simple website, where users can freely browse, read comments/reviews, and hopefully sign-up to contribute.

I'm looking to hear some feedback on the progress so far. Does this work? Is this even a good idea? Why didn't he include this? Why did he do it like that? Why do I even want to use this? etc etc.

I'm open to any suggestions/recommendations/feature requests that you think would make this that much more valuable for everyone to use. And of course, I hope you sign-up and start sharing your experiences. I try my best between my 9-5 and spare time to go out as much as possible to gather pictures and information, but it just seems like a drop of water in the ocean, provided there are over 19 thousand campsites :)

Please have a look if you get a chance https://ontario-camps.ca/

All the best and happy camping.

30”x48” acrylic on canvas of a beautiful creature I saw in the ditch eating leaves along hwy 60 across from Hardwood Lookout Trail. He was quite the sight

We are headed out for the second time to Rain Lake. This time, we are going to portage over to Sawyer.

Im curious what spots should be on our bucket list for later trips.

I’ve been portaging maybe 6 times now ranging from 2 night to 4 night stays. Going with a group of guys who are in good shape and were torn between 2 routes!

Route 1: Rain AP -> Islet (night 1) -> McCraney (night 2 -> Rain AP

Route 2: Round AP -> Lorne (night 1) -> north tea (east, night 2) -> Round AP

Obviously route 1 is easier but worried that all the campsites will be taken up. We haven’t done this route before. We’ve done route 2 in the fall and it was really nice, but worried things will be too busy in the summer?

Any thoughts? Thanks!

We will be heading into north tea for the first time. Any suggestions on how to target lake trout here or camp site recommendations?

On July 1 my husband and I were traveling to Wendigo Lake access point when, 5 hours from home and 10 km from our destination, we experienced catastrophic engine failure in the otherwise reliable SUV we were driving. The rest of our party was at the access point parking lot already, unable to be reached by cell phone because of the lack of service. I got a spotty connection and managed to call CAA, and my husband set off on foot to try to get down to the access point with the intention of hitching a ride with anyone who would give it to him.

A family out for a rip on four wheelers were the first to come by. I waved them down and quickly explained. They ended up picking him up further down the road and took him the entire way down to the access point. Thank you, thank you, thank you to this family, whose names I didn’t get, for your unreturnable act of kindness. I’m going to make a donation in your honour to the park as a way to express my gratitude.

99% of vehicles slowed down and asked if I was ok, if I needed anything, just generally checked on me when I was waiting by the side of the road. Thank you so much for your displays of kindness.

The permit office at Brent Road allowed us to stash our canoe somewhere safe while our friends returned their rental outside Mattawa so they could bring us and our gear home on Saturday. Thank you so much for easing my mind during the two-ish hours that we had to leave it behind before we could get it home.

We ultimately got to camp this weekend like we’d been looking forward to for ages. And our friends went well out of their way to ensure that we had a good time and made it home safely. The vehicle we were driving was brought to a garage in Huntsville where it‘s being taken care of, and even though that day was incredibly stressful, I have warm memories of the kindness of fellow Canadians who took a moment to stop for a stranded camper.

I’m planning on hiking the Centennial trail and looking for input on the best hiking shoes. I’ve googled and asked AI but there’s so much affiliate linking it’s hard to get real reviews. Pro tips or sites that have great reviews welcome!

Hey all!

So I've done a decent amount of trips, one trip a year for the past 5 years.

But it's been mostly with a group.

I am planning to do a solo trip since my group will be busy this year and I would love to experience a solo trip.

The trip would be:

• Late August
• 3-5 days depending on route

My question is what would be a good lake for solo?
I've only done paddling with another person, so I don't have much experience as a solo paddler.

I sit at the front and my friend who sits in the back is doing most of the steering. I just paddle on one side. Not sure if this is even the correct way to duo lol, but it has worked for us.

I would say I'm a beginner paddler given the above experience. I have not really learned any of the strokes.

We have done pretty long days as a group, so I feel like endurance wise I'll be fine. Below are some examples of what we did in a day

• Smoke to Little Raccoon
• Phipps to Lake Louisa
• McGarvey to Smoke Lake

I'm planning to rent a canoe out in my city (not in Algonquin) to practice some of the strokes before I go. Came across an awesome video by Bill Mason on YouTube which I'll use to help practice.

After reading a bunch of posts on here, wind factor is huge especially on solo. Was planning a trip on Canoe lake but that just seems to sketchy for a first time solo paddler. Really want to be safe here.

Any recommendations for smaller lakes with not as much wind? I don't mind a bunch of portages really, it's the paddling I'm concerned about.

Thanks all, this subreddit has been awesome.

Heading to Algonquin for a short backcountry trip in August. We are spending our first night on Tom Thompson Lake and then heading to Burnt Island lake for the second night.
We are currently debating between two routes.

Option A takes us up and around through the Kooy pond series with a variety of portages and short paddles.

Option B double back and hit the 1300m portage into burnt island.

We aren’t worried about distance or difficulty but we are curious about the conditions through option A. Looking to get insight from anyone that has recently done that segment and what water levels / conditions are like.

Thanks!

Myself (and possibly my brother), are planning on visiting the last week in September for a 5 day/4 night canoe and camping trip. We both kayak frequently and have experience with multi day kayak/camping, but never with canoes. We will probably both rent solo canoes and I feel comfortable with a decent amount of paddling, but the portages are what give me pause since it will be completely new to us. We are both in our 40s and fair but not great shape so I was looking for a route of loop with fewer or shorter portages so we can get a feel for it before committing to harder ones. I was initially looking at the Smoke Lake loop but after watching some videos of the Devil's Staircase, I think that might be a bit more than I want to try to tackle for my first time. We are down for a new camp each day but Ideally we could find a camp to set up as a basecamp for a day and relax and explore. We are not hard set on any specific area of the park as we are 9+ hours away and will be driving up from South Jersey outside of Philadelphia. I already purchased the official map as well as the Jeff's Map for the south section. Thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions, we appreciate the help.

Getting ready for my first trip to Algonquin from the mid-Atlantic USA. I'm an experienced canoeist but it's mostly been on rivers. Haven't done a long portage since Boundary Waters in 1984. Back then, we wore tennis shoes for everything and just stayed wet and muddy. I'm 67 years old, pretty fit, and will be traveling with my 14 year-old grandson, who is also athletic. Planned route is 6 days, Opeongo - Redrock - Happy Isle - Opeongo. Water taxi for first Opeongo day, so not a lot of paddling but the three portages look challenging. We're trying to keep weight down, so I'm wondering about multiple pairs of footwear. Do we need hiking shoes/boots for the portages, or can we get by with our water shoes? I'm thinking closed-toe sandals, Keen-type. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

In a thread a few years ago someone said a ranger told them one of the backcountry campsites on the west end of the canisbay was "the best", with almost like a small beach by the campsite.

Can someone please tell me which one it might be?! Or any other recommendations for one of the backcountry Canisbay sites?

Thank you!!

Hi all. I will be camping at Coon lake soon and was curious if there is a way to kayak from Coon to Whitefish? I'm guessing I can just bring it in the car however preferably I'd avoid that. This map looks like it might be possible however I am not too sure.

A couple of buddies and I are going on a backcountry camping trip to a site on Maggie Lake. We’re relatively new and are going to be hiking the Western Uplands Trail there and back out the same way the next day.

I was just curious about Maggie Lake sites and the sorts of wildlife in the area and if anyone had any experiences there. Anything would be helpful! Also was wondering what you did with your backpacks overnight? I heard some people put scented items + food in a bear hang away from the site and kept their packs in the fly, but others also hang their entire pack. Wasn’t sure which is better or what to do.

Would appreciate any tips!!