A 3-Day Algonquin Park Canoe Trip with Summer Camp Memories

Another 3-day Algonquin Park canoe trip with great friends, a hard route and summer camp memories all wrapped into one weekend.

We left Ottawa Friday evening to get up to the park before dark and thankfully avoid most of the Tornado destruction and bad weather that hit the greater Ottawa area. Our plan was to set off from Cache Lake landing and paddle up to Tanamakoon Lake, set up camp and then head over to my childhood summer camp Tanamakoon for dinner.

Mike had bought us a suspension tent for my birthday but it didn’t arrive in time for our last canoe trip so we brought it along for this one. Needless to say setting it up for the first time was less than an ideal experience but we got it set up. I think the idea of it is great but not entirely practical. It’s supposed to be for 2 people but it was definitely tight. I’m not complaining cause it was quite chilly at night and I only brought my summer sleeping bag so body heat was welcome at 2 am in the morning when it got a bit chilly.

After we got all set up some bad weather set in. We watched from the campsite as it started to rain. You can kind of see it rolling in, in the picture below. We decided to risk it and paddle as fast as humanly possible to get to the camp for dinner before the sun set.

The waves started picking up as we hit the water and we almost didn’t make it over, after getting turned around and hanging out on the rocks in front of our campsite, me muscled it across the water, through mini tornadoes that touched down on the water and whipped across us and finally made it one piece to the camp (though slightly stressed).

I’m so glad we got there before it got dark so I could wander around and be flooded with memories. From the barge that used to take us from the landing to camp (see the tiny one on the right in the picture below), to the theatre where I played in Peter Pan and Colours in the Storm.

I found my old Shawnee & Cree cabins (age groups at the camp were named after Indigenous tribes) and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the dock before an amazing dinner.

After a good night sleep, we headed out on a 1-day paddle trip that could easily have been broken up into 2 days but that’s how we roll. We paddled from Tanamakoon Lake through 5 portages to camp on Parkside Bay Saturday night. Our friend Darren, had a found a really cool campsite on Instagram and for some reason it was open when we got there late on Saturday!

Last canoe trip, I carried our food barrel & a pack with our tent and cooking supplies in it. This trip, I carried more of our stuff in my pack vs. asking Mike to carry it all and carried everyone’s paddles on portages.

Our campsite in Parkside Bay was perfect for sunset and sunrise watching. The water was so calm first thing in the morning. I did my morning meditation with coffee in hand after breakfast watching this reflection on the water.

We packed up camp and headed back the way we came, after getting a little lost around an island in the middle of Ragged lake we were back on track. Once we got back to service we found out that all of Ottawa was still basically without power so we were quite lucky to spend time in Algonquin without power than back in the city. We slowly packed up our trucks, returned the canoes, paddles & lifejackets and headed home stopping in Eganville for dinner. By the time, we got home our power was back on so we were quite fortunate.

Oh and this time we only brought the littlest member of our tribe, Asher LeClair. The cutest little teddy bear you’ve ever seen in a camping chair.