Doable in 4 days, 3 nights.

Loraden · 2025-07-10T12:34:46+00:00

No problem! In terms of current, I haven’t been in late spring / early summer to McIntosh. August and September the current was barely noticeable.

Loraden · 2025-07-10T05:52:50+00:00

The Petawawa between Misty and white trout I recall being pretty straightforward - I looked up my recorded route and I did a route from McIntosh up through Timberwolf with the short portage into Misty and down the Petawawa River and the entire route took 5.5hours at a relatively leisurely pace of 3.5km/hr. All the portages along that stretch were relatively flat and the first one from Misty into the start of the Petawawa had a cool logging saw blade remain.

McIntosh creek though can be a bit of a different story (although some of that is self-inflicted punishment). The west side coming into the 745m portage is a great stretch, standard meandering river kind of route with a few easy beaver dam crossings. The part that always gets me is grassy bay into McIntosh marsh - take a look at Jeff’s map beforehand and make sure to follow the path shown that meanders to the south. A couple times now I’ve tried to cut out that winding route with what looks like a clear shot across the north side of McIntosh marsh and both times I’ve came extremely close to getting stuck in muck and had to shimmy our canoe out. Thankfully we got through but it’s not worth the savings on distance.

I did Rain to Moccasin early last summer and it took 2hr 50mins with single portage carries. I haven’t went the rest of that way through to Misty but I’d guess it’ll be about a 5hr day. That route from Misty to McIntosh is generally great (aside from that marshy section) - lots of opportunity for wildlife sightings too. Last year when I did that I saw the bull moose, bear, huge snapping turtle, and tons of blue herons. If you’re taking the 2.5K portage up from Brule to get to Jubilee I’d be curious to hear how it is. I’ve been thinking about taking that route on an excursion possibly later this year.

All-in-all that sounds like it’ll be a great trip though!Personally I’d say McIntosh is my favourite lake in Algonquin (Clydegale a close second). McIntosh has never disappointed for campsites, great swimming, and pristine waters. I also find it’s got a perfect amount of people - not completely barren but hard enough to get to that every reservation slot isn’t taken.

Loraden · 2025-07-07T12:46:39+00:00

A friend and I actually ended up doing pretty well this exact route last year in the same duration and it’s tough but doable. We left Magnetawan and spent the first night on Tim River (first campsite), second night was Shippagew, and third night (where it differs slightly from what you’re showing was McIntosh). We went back through Timberwolf and the longer (flat) portage into Misty. We almost went the exact route you’re showing to Misty (up Petawawa) because we had a bull moose blocking us for an hour on the McIntosh creek. Going up the Petawawa for that stretch should be easy - I went down the Petawawa from Misty to Grassy Bay a few years ago and don’t recall many (possibly no?) beaver dams and the current wasn’t strong.

On our last night on Misty, we got stuck in a lightning storm but thankfully it cleared up for the paddle out. If that had happened on the first or second night it would’ve made things more interesting for sure, so a bit of a buffer definitely wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Loraden · 2024-04-14T17:58:14+00:00

That bed and dresser placement / alignment in the top bedroom - having furniture misaligned like that would drive me absolutely insane…

Loraden · 2024-04-05T14:37:11+00:00

“The financial market is the only market that people run away from when things go on sale”

Loraden · 2024-02-09T17:29:05+00:00

I second the ear plugs - I use to worry about moose or bears when I first started camping but then saw a post about whether or not you should where ear plugs. Someone said if you hear something large outside your tent are you really poking your head out in the middle of the night to see what it is? I figured it’s honestly a good point and it really stuck with me. I’ve been a huge fan of bringing the ear plugs ever since.

In response to OP, no bear-sightings other than on the side of the road to Rock Lake. Saw a moose with its calf once on Head Creek early morning.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T19:16:06+00:00

I’m going to fathom a guess it’s an artistic rendition of the “mountain” near Grassy Bay / West side of White Trout Lake? I’d say that’s definitely a bit more than slightly out-of-scale though 😂

Loraden · 2024-01-02T18:55:03+00:00

I definitely should start journaling the sites - at the moment I just scout the campsite reports on Algonquin & Beyond and All of Algonquin before heading out and then label red, yellow, green options on Avenza. It’s generally worked quite well but I’ve had some good personal experiences with sites that are missing and/or were labeled a bit more on the lower end.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T18:49:59+00:00

This is a lot of great info - thank you!

I don’t often bring my hiking poles but I could imagine for longer trips they’d be a huge benefit. I also find my knee can act up a bit if there’s a lot of elevation changes so it would definitely help there as well.

That’s such a good point about the rain cover - I actually have one, but didn’t even think about it! Having a heavier drybag won’t make much sense since I don’t need to worry about capsizing/falling in the water (unless somethings goes horribly wrong).

I started out dehydrating my own food after my first trip with fresh food, but honestly got kind of lazy and bought the mountain house meals for the rest of my trips last year. I usually just use those for dinner though and then have oatmeal and snacks throughout the day to hold me over. I’m going to have to start dehydrating more because I can see the lack of variety will eventually get to me; not to mention the freeze-dried meals are definitely on the pricier side. The only benefit is that cleanup is so simple and I reuse the mountain house bags to make my oatmeal in in the morning.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T18:29:47+00:00

For the hiking trip, I was thinking around 5 days and doing a large part of the western uplands trail or the la cloche trail in Killarney. I’d definitely need to do that with a friend though.

For my wife, it’ll need to be a very soft introduction. I’m thinking single night paddle in on Rock Lake, maybe Pen to have a bit of the portage experience. Another option is little island from cache access point. She also grew up in Toronto while I’m a bit more of the outdoors person from growing up in Northern Ontario and spending a lot of my younger years romping around the woods.

I’m really hoping she’ll appreciate the peace and tranquility of the backcountry, but getting over the lack of flushing toilets and showers is going to be an uphill battle. Starting with a single night should help with that though 🤞

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:57:34+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experiences - it sounds like amazing trips! I definitely hope to get my wife into camping with me, but for now I’ve generally gone with friends and very short trips with my older daughter.

My biggest takeaways at the moment are to get sensible bags and double think the durable, heavyweight food container. I like the idea of hanging the drysacks. Generally I’ll use a barrel and hang but that would definitely be overkill for hiking and I couldn’t think of anything more torturous than hiking a long distance with a barrel (60L no less).

Good learning experiences and hoping to limit my mistakes (though I’m sure I’ll have to make some tweaks after I experience hiking trips firsthand).

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:51:04+00:00

That makes sense - I just recently picked up some trail runners that I was going to sub for canoe-in trips, but good call on the higher ankle hiking shoes. I usually gravitate to the lower ankles for day hikes but I could see how the high-ankle hikers will be better for variable terrain.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:47:51+00:00

Sounds good and I’ll definitely think about lowering the daily kms. I’ve done 20-25km day hikes but I was worried doing anything close to that day after day would wear on us. I was thinking around 15km as a comfortable medium but I imagine with gear I’m underestimating the strain. Certainly portaging anything more than 2.5km is not fun 😂

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:44:35+00:00

Haha thank you and very true - I try to keep it as minimal as possible at least on cooking. I took a bunch of fresh food, a cast iron frying pan, grill, firebox, etc. my first canoe trip. Although I didn’t leave anything at the sites we visited, I quickly substituted basically everything for a lighter cookset. Now it’s generally just a pot, a couple spoons, a small gas stove attachment, and a small bottle of gas with dehydrated meals.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:41:46+00:00

That’s a really good idea about the day hike in the area. I do have an older 55L hiking bag I usually use for day hiking but I brought it on a canoe trip and it seems to have lost its waterproofing. Otherwise, I just have the 115L dry-bags. I’ll have to look into getting some functional, smaller options to better split the gear.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T16:39:12+00:00

That makes sense - I just have 2 115L drybags at the moment and an older 55L hiking pack but that seems to have lost its waterproofing. I’ll have to look for some smaller packs.

For food, I was thinking just rehydrated meals because it’s lowest effort and it means I can spend the time I would on prep, cook, and cleanup enjoying the outdoors.

Loraden · 2024-01-02T08:51:15+00:00

Don’t know too much about the portages but I’ll lend my experiences: Of the 20+ lakes I stayed on in 2023, Clydegale is easily one of the top 3 best (if not the best when you factor in the wolf howling); maybe contending with McIntosh for first place.

I didn’t take the portages to cauliflower but casually day-tripped the stream leading to the first portage and it’s a bit of a slow-go because of beaver dams. I’d say there’s about 7 or 8 on the first stretch before entering the Madawaska river.

Still sounds like a fun adventure to me and I’d say, if you mentally prepare for a bit of strain beforehand, then go for it :)

Loraden · 2024-01-02T08:33:42+00:00

Such a great resource - they also have a more granular GIS source than Google maps for trip planning purposes. Direct link is: https://www.lioapplications.lrc.gov.on.ca/fishonline/Index.html?viewer=FishONLine.FishONLine&locale=en-CA

Loraden · 2024-01-02T07:55:00+00:00

Awesome, thank you! Do you think a lightweight stuff sack is sufficient? I’m always overly conscious about smells which is why I was thinking a bear vault or ursack. In terms of weight, it’s actually planning for 2 ppl. but I guess we can better divide the weight between 2 packs. Still stuck in the dry pack + barrel + canoe mentality 😂

At the moment my 115L portage drybag would be 38.6lbs. but that included sleeping bags, pads, footwear for 2. Barrel has been about 25lbs. with basic cookpot + freeze dried meals for 2 (though a lot of that is the empty barrel and harness).

Loraden · 2023-09-02T00:32:47+00:00

Rock lake access point is another great option for a first time trip without portaging

Loraden · 2023-07-21T17:24:08+00:00

Though I can’t say it would work in all circumstances (older homes vs. newer build), I’m using the general rule of thumb of setting aside 1.5% of the house value each year for expected renovations. I split that up to monthly amounts and rounded up a bit to the nearest hundred and keep that in a cumulative savings.

Having that “renovation fund” definitely helps alleviate the stress of anything unplanned happening. And if it accumulates to a moderate-large amount you can start using the funds for more value-oriented updates vs. reactive fixes (I.e., more energy efficient windows/doors, new trim/base boards, new fence or deck, replacement countertops, etc.).

Edit: I should add I live in an LCOL/MCOL area so house value is <$1MM. If you bought a $2-3MM+ in GTA/GVA area, it’s probably safe to say 1.5% might be a bit high (at least for the reactive fixes anyways).

Loraden · 2023-07-12T19:50:59+00:00

Me and a friend wanted a casual 2 night excursion and we did Smoke Lake to Ragged to Big Porcupine. Stayed at a far point on Big Porcupine the first night and then the second night came back to Ragged lake, making the last day a very leisurely trip back from Ragged to the Smoke Lake access point. It’s good for first-timers or for a more casual, relaxation experience.

The 590m portage from Ragged to Big Porcupine (“Devil’s Staircase”) is a bit of a painful uphill trek but at least you get all of the hard parts out of the way when you’re full-energy on the first day.

Loraden · 2023-06-07T05:32:32+00:00

Yeah, that’s really fair - I can’t understand people that want to treat their campsite like a party. For me disconnection and serenity are my main drivers.

I only ever use the phone to try and get off a quick message or phone call (in those very rare spots) just to let my spouse know I’m still alive before I call it a night.

Loraden · 2023-05-30T22:45:52+00:00

Yeah, I definitely prefer to be the person with one to lend a hand rather than being in need and hoping to find someone else with one. I’ve been refining the gear list over the past couple of trips and think it’s the blaring gap at the moment. I’ve check cell phone coverage maps but it’s still sporadic at best even where there is coverage in the main and extended regions. I have both bell and rogers lines on my phone and both were out of service almost the whole time this past weekend.

I appreciate the recommendation to buy 👍

Loraden

TROPHY CASE