End of Day 4 - Go to Day 5

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Beautiful view looking up Greenleaf Lake

Once we got into the main channel of the lake we were hit with a very strong headwind. It was being funneled down the lake and we had to paddle fairly hard just to maintain some speed. It took about 15 minutes to get back to camp and when we did Angela we straight for the tent. Though I was tried, it was my last evening in Algonquin on this trip and I didn’t want to miss anything by taking a nap. I relaxed in my chair for a while and the black flies kept me company. Up to this morning there have been little to no mosquitos, but today they really came out. I didn’t do much, and before I knew it a couple hours had passed and I decided to wake up Angela for dinner. Tonight we were having chili and fresh bannock. I whipped up two loaves of bannock, which took nearly an hour as I only have one stove. Next I heated the chili and moments later we had fresh hot bread to dip in our steaming and spicy chili. I absolutely love chili and fresh bannock while camping – and so does she! After dinner we finished up the last of our whiskey around the fire and pretty much called it a night. We were in the tent and in bed by 10pm and I couldn’t have been happier to lay on that air mattress – I was pooped!

Unmarked and probably closed campsite on Barron Lake

Beautiful hills surround the lake

I’ve crossed this portage once before, but I do not remember it being such a challenge. The landing is covered in large moss-covered boulders and makes exiting the canoe a bit of a challenge. Even worse, is the trail itself. It’s a shallow but constant uphill climb and the trail was littered with even more moss-covered boulders. The safest bet in this situation is to just take it slow. There were 3 large fallen trees, but only one of them required me to drop the canoe. About 25 or 30 minutes later we arrived at breezy Barron Lake. My plan was to circumnavigate the lake, checking out each campsite for a possibly future trip. The wind was up by now but it wasn’t so severe that we couldn’t continue.

The thunderbox is up there... somewhere..

Small & secluded campsite on Barron Lake near the portage to the hydro field

Campsite with big rock out front on Barron Lake

My shelter from the bugs this morning

Evening at camp on Greenleaf Lake

Beautiful view looking down Greenleaf Lake

Best campsite on the lake

Beautiful Barron Lake

I must say, Barron Lake is very beautiful though our visit was somewhat tarnished by the bugs. Oddly they seemed to be much worse here than on Greenleaf. Each time we would check out a campsite, it wouldn’t be long before we jumped back in the boat and moved on to avoid the bugs. While paddling to the middle of the lake to lose the little buggers, I quickly boiled some water and tossed it in the dehydrated meal bag to let it cook while we crossed the lake to visit the final campsite. As we approached the eastern-most campsite on the point we could see that this was definitely the one you would want to stay at. A large point of land covered in red pine, but also sparse in some areas which would allow a nice bug-moving breeze. While at the site, we ate our lunch of Pasta Primavera and decided to head back to Greenleaf. It was getting late in the afternoon and we were both a little tired. It wasn’t long before we landed at the portage and we crossed it about 5 minutes quicker than we did the first time around – which I attribute to the downhill element. I should mention that at the time of writing this report, both the trailhead and trail alignment are not true to Jeff’s Map (v5) and the trail is closer to 1800m in length. We arrived at the landing and carefully launched the canoe onto Greenleaf.

Angela waiting in the boat while I got out to check campsites

High Falls on Carcajou Creek

As I made it to the first campsite on the north shore I looked below me and there were tons of boulders in the area – but I was probably 100 feet from shore. The water was deep, then shallow with rocks then deep and so on. I was reminded of one of MarkInThePark’s trip logs where he mentioned to stay away from this part of the lake in summer / fall water levels. Boy, he wasn’t kidding. We slowly navigated to the campsite and I jumped out to snap a few photos and poke around. The campsite wasn’t overly impressive, just a typical low maintenance site. The view of the lake was nice as the site is situated on a mini point, so you have a near wrap-around view. I got back in the boat and we continued on to the furthest campsite. Angela wasn’t overly keen on paddling in the wind, and there were some dark clouds overhead but I assured her once we landed at the next site, we could take a lunch break and the rest of the trip would be with the wind. Once again we paddled across to the campsite and once again it was nothing impressive. We opted to keep going instead of having lunch there. Our lunch plan was a dehydrated meal and I brought the stove, so it didn’t really matter where we stopped. While crossing Barron Lake to get to the south shore for more campsite exploring, the sky became even darker. Angela commented that she felt a huge rainstorm was coming however I didn’t agree. I’ve spent a lot of time in the outdoors and though the clouds were very dark, they didn’t appear ready to pour. The winds blew them overhead and the worst of it consisted of less than 30 seconds of spitting. We paddled down the south shore, again checking out campsites as we went. I found an old campsite in addition to the three shown on the map. The middle and eastern campsites on the south shore were pretty decent. The middle one having a nice big rock to relax on and the eastern one looking flat and cozy among the pines. Next I wanted to visit the portage leading to the hydro field to mark it on my GPS for Jeff’s Map. The trailhead was easily visible and signed.

Pine and rocky shoreline

Arriving at Barron Lake

The middle campsite on Greenleaf Lake

Grand Lake to Little Carcajou Lake

Today for breakfast we had pancakes and syrup, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Following breakfast, Angela went back to bed as she hadn’t slept very well. While she napped, I cleaned up the campsite, re-hung the food and prepared a day pack to take to Barron Lake. I let Angela sleep for shy of two hours and just after noon I woke her up. She felt much better following her second sleep and not long after we shoved off in the canoe on our way to Barron Lake. We took a leisurely paddle down Greenleaf Lake and stopped by the middle campsite, which was now vacant. Angela suggested we could move here, but I wasn’t down with re-establishing camp only a few hundred meters from where it was already established. I walked the site over and it was just as I had remembered it – many different levels with the main camping area tucked between two ridges. It would provide decent protection from the wind, but in bug season you don’t want protection from the wind – you want the wind! We jumped back in the canoe and headed across the lake to the portage leading to Barron Lake. 

tr 58: ​Little Carcajou - Carcajou - greenleaf 



Day 4: Day trip to Barron Lake

I slept like a baby last night and even managed to sleep in a little bit today. I was up and out of the tent by 8am. Food bag retrieved and a pot of water on the stove for coffee. The bugs were getting noticeably worse as the days progressed. Today was our off day, and we had no immediate plans to do anything. I hung out in the bug shelter and enjoyed two cups of coffee while I looked over the map, retracing our route so far. I had my eye on one of two daytrips for today. I wanted to either bushwhack up and over to Lost Lake or visit Barron Lake. The trip to Lost Lake was something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I made an attempt at this back in 2012 but I turned back as the trip was too risky to undertake while solo (you pretty much have to climb a waterfall to get there). I described the idea to Angela the day before, and she had mentioned that she would prefer to go to Barron Lake. I was okay with this idea because I wanted to have a closer look at Barron Lake myself. I had passed through the lake last year on a long trip – but we stayed one lake further – Loonskin Lake – which was nothing more than I giant, leech-filled swamp. I noted to myself on that trip that next time, I would either stay on Barron or continue through to North Branch Lake – but never Loonskin again. When I passed through Barron previously, I remembered it being a beautiful lake surrounded by giant red pines. There was one campsite in particular I wanted to see. It was on a huge point jetting out into the lake, and looked very inviting. I poured over the map some more and eventually Angela emerged from the tent. I made her a cup of coffee and asked what she wanted to do today. ‘Drink coffee’ she replied. I was okay with that, for now.