Round Lake to Beaverdam Lake

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After fighting unsuccessfully with the Ontario Parks reservation system to book a canoe trip in northern Algonquin Park, I gave up and looked elsewhere. The Bonnechere River Provincial park is classed as non-operating, which means that no reservations are required, saving that headache. Most people spend two days descending the river from Basin Depot to Round Lake. We had four days to kill, so I came up with the hair brained idea of paddling up the river for two days, spending a night at Basin Lake in Algonquin Park (no problems reserving here), and then return the way we came on the final two days. Given we were taking a kevlar canoe on a moving water river with two days of travel in the wrong direction, I figured we had a very low chance of success. Adventure however, was almost a guarantee.

August 30, 2024

We drove up to Rosi and Spencers' cottage Friday morning ahead of the long weekend and set out for a glassy smooth paddle for two kilometers across Round Lake to the mouth of the Bonnechere. The paddle of the meandering waterway through Bonnechere Provincial Park we have done before and travel went easily as we were greeted by the many car campers set up along the waterway. After about forty five minutes we passed under the highway, leaving Bonnechere Provincial Park and entered Bonechere River Provincial Park where the true adventure began.

A bit of morning fog as we set out on Round Lake

The meanders continued, but fallen tree obstacles lay in the water. Almost all obstacles had a way around with some delicate canoe manouvering. A couple huge trees taken down by a beaver completely blocked the river and an impromptu and awkward portage had to be made along the shore. Most of the way was quite beautiful though as the river wound its way through hardwood forests and past numerous cottages. The last section approaching Stevenson Lake had a few sections of rapids. There was usually a portage trail, however most of these portages were difficult to find, and even more difficult to follow as they were very overgrown. One short rapid we managed to heave upwards with a burst of speed and a few grunting pushes of the paddles on the river bottom, while another we simply waded up the shallow rapid pushing the canoe along and lifting over rocks as necessary. Perserverence paid off though, and we arrived reasonably unscathed at Stevenson Lake.

The next long section of river was fortunately wider and easily paddled. The meanders smoothed out, and instead of going a few hundred meters before turning a 180 and heading the opposite direction, this section made a gradual turn every kilometer or two. One area past a whole neighbourhood of cottages and an old air cadet camp, the river even managed to do a full 270 degree turn over the space of two kilometers before finally straightening out for a three kilometer paddle to a long chain of lakes situated about the midpoint of our journey.

Though we had only been paddling for a little under six hours at this point, we both were fairly tired now. This being the first paddling trip for me of the year, my arms were protesting at this untrained activity. We decided to camp at one of the first lakes, where after bypassing the designated spot along the sandy beach due to there being several RVs parked there, we found a primitive unmarked site a little bit further on and settled in.

Camp Beaverdam

Travel time: 6 hours

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