Fall Canoe Trips with the Gang from Port 32

Cathy and I did several fall canoe trips with the gang from Port 32, Bobcaygeon.   The great things about canoe tripping with this group are the amazing food and wine, and a laser focus on as few and as short portages as possible.   Here are two favourite trips – Algonquin Provincial Park and Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park.

Tom Thomson 3 day Looper in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario

 Tom Thomson is a famous Canadian landscape painter who primarily painted in Algonquin.   In fact, he drowned with some mystery on Canoe Lake in 1917 at the age of 39.  Tracing Thomson’s routes around the park was the theme of this trip.  We started at Canoe Lake off Highway 60 that transits the park, went as far north as Tom Thomson Lake and then returned via Arowhan on Joe Lake.  Our initial goal was to canoe back to Canoe Lake, however we ditched that plan as the west wind was impossible to paddle against, and was kicking up large swells that threatened to capsize us.

Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, near Apsley, Ontario

Kawartha Highlands is a newly designated provincial park.  Cathy and I like it because it is adjacent to our cottage on Stoney Lake.  We launched at Long Lake.  To get there, we drove north on Long Lake Road off Highway 28 near Apsley.  On this trip we paddled west the length of Long Lake and then did a short portage into an adjacent small lake where we camped for two nights.