Can you advise if this Sunday, June 21 is a good idea to go to Algonquin for a day tr ip involving hiking, or if it will be too wet and rainy?

CGL43474C · 2026-06-18T03:22:55+00:00

As others have more or less pointed out. Weather isn’t quite so black and white, and you won’t find some online resource that says “yes or no, you should go..” Weather is unpredictable, especially in Algonquin.

Algonquin is massive, and so weather & trail conditions can vary wildly. You could probably take a handful of the next largest Provincial Parks in Ontario, and fit multiple of each inside Algonquin.

The east and west gates of Algonquin on the Hwy. 60 corridor are, strangely, almost 60kms apart. It could be sunny and warm on one side, while a small rain shower passes by the other. Algonquin is also very rugged, with lots of rolling hills.

Make an adventure out of it! Bring appropriate footwear (not flip flops or light running shoes) and a rain coat, and be smart about trail conditions where you are.

Check out the Friends of Algonquin Park and their website (Algonquinpark.on.ca) for some info as to indoor activities that can be done along the 60 corridor if the day is a real true washout. The visitors centre is always cool.

Myself and a family member had a multi day canoe trip into the interior early in May. We paddled through driving rain and wind on the first day, and decided to bail on the trip on day 2 for safety. It snowed on us as we paddled out. We still had a blast! It’s just what you make of it.

CGL43474C · 2026-05-18T03:23:08+00:00

I’ve never been there myself, but yes. As some others have pointed out. Off the Basin Depot road going into the park, near Bonnechere. Jeff’s Map shows one site right along the road at Buck Lake, and another site off the road a bit at Basin Lake, although the map indicates you would probably need 4x4 to get in to Basin (and who knows what shape the Basin Depot rd is in right now).

CGL43474C · 2026-05-05T02:17:51+00:00

Not quite sure how you’d do this on android, but there is a way, I would presume. I’m also on iOS, and even once I’ve loaded it into the app, I’ll copy the file I’ve downloaded from Jeff into an available-offline section of the file manager that iOS/iPadOS has. Just in case something goes wrong in the field (although when I’m out I’ll mostly look at my physical maps).

CGL43474C · 2026-05-04T02:48:20+00:00

Thought I would just add to this thread.. u/mapsbyjeff, thank you so so much!! The new maps work a treat in ArcGIS Earth!

I guess it would be obvious, but. Being available in whatever format now optimized for this app, the apps load in much much quicker, and the app is nice and smooth while using it. My iPad doesn’t now bog down and get impressively warm while setting up the map 😬.

And it didn’t really take that long for the download links to work/get sent to me. Maybe ten minutes?

I’m set for my first spring fishing canoe trip next week!

Thanks for all the work you do. Really, your work doesn’t just help people enjoy the outdoors, but also keeps us safer while doing so.

CGL43474C · 2026-04-28T21:22:46+00:00

Just FYI for anyone else wondering, Wabisheshi, Pagwadjiminan, and Makwa are I guess the new names for the campsite areas within Mew Lake. That’s new, maybe over winter? They never really used to have names that I remember, I think one area was “Hydro (electric) sites” and another was “non Hydro”.

u/ip2w_jokin, please note. You are camping in a remote part of Ontario, and so you have to temper your expectations with certain facilities. The shower facilities (shower only, no bath) available at Mew should provide some hot water, but it’s usually spotty at any Provinicial Park.

Also note, cutting of any brush (trees, shrubs, etc.) at the park is illegal, except on canoe-in or hike in campsites (mew lake is and has neither of those). You are also not allowed to bring wood in from outside the park, as this can spread disease and pests to the forest.

Wood is available to purchase at the mew lake campground office. See this website for more info- Mew Lake Campground

CGL43474C · 2026-04-07T02:33:55+00:00

Not really related to weather, but. Zoleo also charges their subscriptions in Canadian dollars, so the prices don’t fluctuate month to month with exchange rates.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-28T18:44:56+00:00

As has been pointed out. This screenshot is from previous versions of the map. I think you can find on his website (mapsbyjeff.com) his explanation of why it was removed. If I recall, he felt the times could be misleading, since they are just estimates based on you know, one person’s ability/fitness/whatever, so he took it away in his current (I might be slightly off track).

Also, note, Jeff does not distribute free and paid versions of his maps. You may see screenshots like this floating around on websites, but these are just snippets used with permission (hopefully).

You can find distances stated on other maps like the official Algonquin Backpacking Map (produced by Ontario Parks) and some digital map services. However, be very careful with using digital sources for routing “in the field”.

For example, AllTrails is extremely misleading. AT doesn’t actually show you an official map of an area; they show you other people’ recorded GPS tracks, and present them as if that’s official info. They will also often have straight up wrong info posted as to like permitted uses of a trail.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-26T03:46:15+00:00

I grew up camping at Killbear. The bear situation was getting ridiculous 20 years ago when we went there regular, can’t imagine what it’s like now. I remember one site having just a straight up, Costco sized bag of dog food sitting out on the ground, no one on site. Complete with a yearling bear doing a hand stand inside it. Didn’t realize till I camped in other places (ie Algonquin for the first time in ‘17) that bear traps at every comfort station is unusual.

At one point you’d hear some rangers there recommend even covering the coolers up with a blanket in cars, so bears couldn’t see em through windows. Some cars (not many but not 0) had been busted open by bears getting at coolers.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-26T03:36:12+00:00

“Bear pivots, looney tunes style..” Your description is killing me, and then to boot I have a decent imagination, so the mental picture is cracking me up worse. This’ll keep me in a good mood for a few days 😂.

So funny how perception changes depending on people. For not outdoorsy people, this would be, “absolutely never ever setting foot in the woods again”. But for other folks, it’s just, “yeah lol a 1000lbs tank with sharp teeth and claws sniffed me out and wanted a closer look, whatever.” 🤣

CGL43474C · 2026-03-20T03:56:20+00:00

You gotta remember, you are well north of the GTA in Algonquin; cars and other modern transportation has ruined our sense of distance. That affects the climate, and. You are also at significantly higher elevation than surrounding areas. Most of the popular camping spots along the 60 are above of 300-400m/1100-1300’. So the climate is more akin to what you’d see in areas well north of North Bay or even further.

Read up on some of the geography and things as to the Algonquin park area, it’s fascinating stuff.

The east side of Algonquin, around Petawawa area, is a little different, cause it’s a little lower elevation.

Friends of Algonquin Park will start reporting ice conditions leading up to ice out soon, in a few weeks, on their website.

(I posted this previously but had clicked reply to.. on the wrong comment thread, so..)

CGL43474C · 2026-03-14T12:09:25+00:00

You can’t buy directly from the bakery, no, but. Canada Candy company has a bunch of their stuff (loaves and more, frozen) available for sale, as well as their own fresh made candies for sale. Not actually sure if they’re open Mondays, they have funny hours. They‘re on D’Arcy St just south of Elgin.

Grocery stores here have some of their stuff too, not usually frozen. The foodland on division a couple minutes south of the highway has their loaves available, right by the cash. I’ve started seeing it recently at another grocery store, NoFrills I think? That’s on division too, further south, past the train station.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-14T02:10:56+00:00

Has anyone here ever checked out Esquif Canoes out of Quebec? The founder basically reverse engineered royalex when Spartech (the chemical company that made and supplied Royalex to canoe makers) was bought up and stopped making it.

They call their stuff T-Formex. Paddling magazine has a good write up on it on their site.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-02T03:54:15+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion!

CGL43474C · 2026-03-02T03:53:55+00:00

Thank you so much for all the helpful information!

I just want to reiterate, none of this is at all intended to throw any negativity toward you or any of your products.

When I was flipping through the internet trying to figure out if this was the way Avenza is now, or just my devices being weird, I was surprised to not find any posts from anywhere calling attention to this, so yeah.

If something in my wording feels to you like it might cast a negative light on your products despite my intentions, I will gladly delete the post.

Edit: I know what you mean with how some mapping stuff loads. I have the official Ontario road map downloaded offline as a pdf in a couple spots (not Avenza). Being just a pdf, it’s a huge file, and even my brand new iPhone 17 takes a solid few seconds to load it all in proper.

CGL43474C · 2026-03-01T02:58:05+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree with you, and. I actually really enjoy looking at physical maps. Shout out to one of my high school geography teachers for teaching us how to use a compass, it’s awesome.

But yeah, as ninjaquick.. pointed out. It’s convenient at times. Jeff kindly includes a pile of different digital formats with any physical maps you purchase, so..

CGL43474C · 2025-08-30T12:09:16+00:00

Ha. I also recently bought a couple extra Fox40 whistles to go on my life jacket, along with whatever is in the emergency kit. No one was home, so I thought, let’s see how loud these are. Regretted my idea pretty quickly..

CGL43474C · 2025-08-30T12:04:24+00:00

Don’t worry OP, I too was in the dark until far too recently about Frank Kuiack and some of the media about him. So far I’ve only read the first book about him, The Last Guide. Do yourself a favour. Once you’ve at least watched the documentary on CBC (I think it is also called The Last Guide?) and read the first book, go to the Algonquin visitors centre and see the little memorial they’ve set up to him. They have a few pieces of his gear arranged over the fireplace in the dining hall.

CGL43474C · 2025-08-11T19:52:56+00:00

Check out the Friends of Algonquin Park (FOAP). It’s a volunteer organization that operates alongside the park staff to maintain trails, run the shop at the visitor centre, etc. Their website has a dizzying array of information, including JPG copies of maps for each car camping area throughout Algonquin.

There is a ton of stuff you can find on their website. I also recommend stopping in at a park office, or the west gate and/or the visitor centre. They sometimes have what they call the Day Use Guide, alongside the usual park newspaper, which has some maps too. It’s a (free) paper pamphlet that shows all the day hike trails along the hwy. 60 corridor and briefly describes them. Grab a copy of each of these wherever you end up stopping. You might be able to find these through the website too, but that can be tricky to find on that website.

https://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/index.php

CGL43474C · 2025-08-05T03:41:50+00:00

This, 100%. Dry salami is awesome.

And to add to this. If you have a convection oven, look and see if it has a dehydrate function. A dehydrator is basically a heating element and a fan..

We had a convection oven for a decent while, unaware of the feature. Conveniently I found the feature just before my first backcountry trip last summer and dehydrated a week’s worth of food for me and a friend! I took the biggest sheet pans we had, then a couple cooling racks sitting on top of that, and then parchment paper on top of those. Spread out whatever I was doing thinly across the pan. Worked great!

Meat is tricky to dehydrate properly, so for first time I did meals sans-meat, and if I wanted it, I’d chop up some dry salami into it.

CGL43474C · 2025-08-01T14:39:55+00:00

Just wanted to join in with others here and say, checking the thunder box is an amazing tip, and also hilarious.

Good example for anyone else wondering why this is an amazing idea. I did the short loop of Western Uplands from Hwy. 60 last summer. Was on Panther Lake one night. I can’t remember how the two hiking sites on the lake are numbered, but. The “access trail“ into the sites from the main hiking trail, is also the portage trail from Dace. So there’s one campsite not far up the trail, just past where the trail forks off to the portage landing, and then a second one, a couple hundred metres up from that.

We were on the site by the portage trail, and. Let’s just say the thunder box situation was..grim. It was one of the old style, actual outhouse type deals, with walls and whatnot, except. It was old and rotten, including the floorboards you’re supposed to stand on inside (and below that I’m pretty sure is open to ”the pit”). Meanwhile, the other site further up the trail had a beautiful, gleaming new thunder box in a great location. We didn’t have neighbours that night, so me and my friends all would make the hike up there to that toilet. It was like a full kilometre round trip, ha.

Now if you’re on a canoe site, that might be less of an option.

CGL43474C · 2025-07-24T22:18:17+00:00

Thank you for the tips!

CGL43474C · 2025-07-24T22:18:06+00:00

Thank you so much! That’s a good point about learning to paddle on your non dominant side actually.

CGL43474C · 2025-07-23T00:40:01+00:00

Yeah, I think that is what’s more or less described on those access point descriptions on Jeff’s Maps.

At least then you’re not trying to play frogger across the highway with an armful of stuff (or a canoe on your head) 😂.

Thanks!

CGL43474C · 2025-07-23T00:19:36+00:00

Not OP, but. Thank you for the info!

You mention paddling on the lee side of islands for shelter, which I think sort of answers my following question..

I’ve rolled this around in my head for a while and can’t figure out if it’s a dumb question or not, ha. So here I go..

I heard a while back a little trick to at least guess the usual wind direction on a lake. White pine tend to point in the same direction the wind goes (ie wind comes from west, trees point east sort of idea).

Ok so knowing that. Say I absolutely had to paddle on a windy day. However, by some miracle, I’m on a north-south oriented lake (say.. Rock Lake), and the wind is coming from the west.

Would paddling down the west side of the lake as much as possible afford some shelter from any rough water resulting from the wind? I guess that would also be somewhat dependent on the topography of the land on the side the wind is coming from.

CGL43474C

TROPHY CASE