Backcountry Camping

On Wednesday August 8th, we (Mehdy, Philip, Charles, Hope, Stephen) drove to Killarney Village, about a 6 hour drive northwest of Toronto, and stayed in cabin at Killarney Mountain Lodge ( http://www.killarneymountainlodge.com ). The next morning, we packed up and drove to Killarney Provincial Park and started our 15km canoe and portage trip to Norway Lake in the middle of the park.

Hiking on the Silver Peak trail. 350 meter high granite hills over looking crystal clear lakes and amazing panoramic views.

We took on of Killarney's most popular routes, passing through lakes rimmed by the La Cloche Mountains, for which this area is so well known. We began the trip from George Lake campground beach, where we picked up our canoes. Even from here, we got a sense of Killarney's incredible landscape.

Paddling northeast on George Lake, we began to see the high white rock cliffs that the park is famous for. Here we are taking advantage of the breeze by rigging up a sail with a tarp.

Our first portage was an easy 80 metre to Freeland Lake. It's a shallow lake choked with aquatic plants. We paddled for about 2km to our next 455 metre portage to Killarney Lake. We navigated our way through small bays and peninsulas before reaching the main body of the lake. After about 6km, we reached our final portage of the day, a grueling 1,400 meters to Norway Lake. As we were finishing this portage, a downpour with thunder and lightning started. Luckily it only lasted 30 minutes.

We finally found our campsite. Along the way, we found freshly smouldering trees that had fallen in the water where the lightning had struck.

Hope is cleaning fish (only 2" long) that we caught in the lake. We ate well on our trip. Here's the menu...

Mehdy trying to tame the wildlife.