Opeongo Lake to Big Crow Lake, Algonquin Park

August 1991

Bill & Kirk

We paddled the whole length of Opeongo, the largest lake in Algonquin. Maybe we should have taken the water taxi, as the waves can get pretty large.

We had a strong tailwind which pushed us right along, but how were we going to land? Well, the only way was to head into a bay, paddle close to shore and jump out. Whew! We lined around the point to an excellent campsite.

After that exciting start, our next challenge was the 1390-m Proulx Lake portage. We struggled a bit to get our canoe and packs across. We paddled up Proulx and into the Crow River. At a bend in the river, we came upon a cow moose. Wow. That was special.

We carried on through Little Crow and into Big Crow. We could see the fire tower that we would visit later.

We set up on a point on Big Crow Lake.

We paddled across to check out the huge white pines.

We paddled down the Crow River a short way to check out this famous trout stream. Wouldn't you know it, we saw another moose!

The next day, we hiked up to the fire tower.

We were up early the next morning, in time for the sunrise.

We had a long day of paddling and portaging back onto Opeongo Lake, where we set up for our last night.

Kirk had a swim and we witnessed the most amazing sunset of all time!

In the morning, we paddled back to our car. We got a bit confused at one point and had to use our compass skills to find the correct route. Always bring a compass and topo maps!