Killarney Provincial Park - Canoe Trip.

 

 

This past week My wife and I took a trip to paddle around a good section of Killarney Provincial Park, enjoying the early fall season.  We drove up to and stayed at the George Lake campground a day early to make for a fresh start on our canoe trip the next day.  Before settling in at our camp at George Lake, we went into the town of Killarney for lunch.  While walking Channel Street we saw the local General store, a top was a fantastic old sign that read "Jackman: Head quarters for tourists & campers Supplies".  Stepping into this store was like a walk back in time.  Although now filled with modern products like any convenience store, the layout was much the same, the counter was beautifully made hardwood with a number of small apothecary type drawers for dry goods. the shelves along the top of the store had some of the original product displays from the mid 1800's when the store was first established.  I asked the wonderfully kind sales women a bit of the history and was informed that some stuff is still in the attic!  How I would love to see what was up there, to forage around and find some gems.  This really is a rare find here in Ontario, as most places of this age have been destroyed or just abandoned and now vandalized.  It would be something else to bring the store back to a state of an outfitters with all its original woodwork and layout.  I could go on for hours!  Anyhow, back to the canoe trip.

Our itinerary around Killarney was as follows:
- Put in at George Lake
- 1st night: Carlyle Lake Site # 61
- 2nd night: Bell Lake Site # 83, by way of Johnnie lake.
- 3rd night: David Lake Site # 102 with a Hike up to Silver Peak.
- 4th night: Threenarrows Lake Site # 43, by way of Great Mountain Lake down through Little Mountain Lake.
- 5th Night: was suppose to be on Killarney Lake, but we paddled out and spent a night in Sudbury seeing the Big Nickle and other sites.

This was a great trip full of uphill rocky portages and beautiful hardwood forests, amazing purple coloured water to the magnificent Quartzite mountains and cliffs.  Some of the highlights were mucking our way to find the portage between Freeland Lake to Kakakise Lake,  wondering to each other that they really need to take better care of the portages, only to find out after the trip this particular portage was closed!  Facing the 30km headwinds after a day full of about 5km of portages.  Site # 102 on David Lake, recommended by my buddy Colin really was beautiful! Thanks Man!  Sinking knee deep in beaver shit / mud while still trying to walk was great fun.  Most of all, the highlight was sharing this experience with my wife, laughing and loving every amazing minute of the trip.  Killarney really is a magical place.  It really feels untouched, even though some sites are really well used.  The lake travel view and the tight narrow creeks have a "prospector" type feel to them.  Maybe because I have never been to Killarney before, but there is a sense of uneasiness in those woods, but yet you have a feeling that you would love to build a small cabin and spend the rest of your days here living in this uneasiness.  It really is a bizarre feeling, maybe I am not sure how to put it in words, but its amazing.  I really know why it is called Ontario's Crown Jewel.  Also, if you need any info on my trip, route help, or anything drop me a email or leave a comment.


Here is a album with the rest of the photos from the trip.