Day 1 - Big Salmon Lake to Little Salmon Lake
Our first day was definitely the easiest, so the less experienced could get eased into what was about to happen! We got off too a little bit of a rocky start on day 1, we missed the portage trail and accidentally headed down the hiker's trail (to be fair, when we went back to discover the sign, it was almost behind the tree so it was hard to spot.) Luckily this was our shortest day so it didn't put too much of a damper on our trip.
Day 1 consisted of a brief paddle across the point to our first portage - 974 metres which is listed as easy/moderate with 1 hill on Frontenac Park's website. We then had a 15 minute paddle to our site.
View from our campsite on day 1
Lunch on Day 1 consisted of peanut butter and jam sandwiches and some fruit. Our dinner on the first night was hamburgers and salad.
Day 2 - Little Salmon Lake to Devil Lake
Day 2 tested everyone's limits, it was brutal! The amount of portaging was definitely more than everyone was prepared for. We ended up travelling a total of 15 kilometres on foot and spent about an hour on the water.
Portages for day 2 consisted of and 856 metres listed as moderate with a hill, 503 metres listed as easy, 977 metres listed as easy to moderate with 2 hills and a flat and an 898 metre listed as moderate to difficult with a 3 stage hill. To conserve energy, all portages were done in two trips rather than 1 big overbearing trip. We may have hiked more than necessary but the trek back to the remainder of our gear gave us a chance to enjoy the scenery we missed lugging our stuff past the first time.
The last portage was definitely the worst! We weren't overly sure what a 3 stage hill was, but we quickly discovered it was something we were not mentally prepared for. The entrance to this hill was very jagged and footing was iffy. We typically single portaged the canoes and the other 3 would carry packs and such. With the beginning of this hill we decided to 2 person portage the canoe in order to prevent any injuries. We then traveled the rest of the portage as a group, joking about reach bronze, silver and gold levels as we conquered the various hills throughout this portage. We made it to our campsite exhausted but proud of our accomplishments.
The beginning of the 3 stage hill
Second night's campsite
Day 2's meals were toasted granola with apple and chocolate chips for breakfast, hummus or peanut butter wraps with beef jerky and granola bars and cheese for lunch then pasta with sundried tomatoes, salami and cheese. We snacked throughout the day on trail mix and Clif bars.
Day 3 - Devil Lake to Little Clear Lake
After a somewhat solid night of sleep, we awoke prepared to tackle our 2nd last day of the trip. We were still somewhat exhausted, since in Frontenac Park you must set up your tents on the tent pad, which is essentially a box of dirt packed so hard, concrete is probably softer than what you have to sleep on.
Our third day ended up getting cut short, we had planned on a long paddle down Big Clear Lake then some portaging and paddling to get into Little Clear. However, after one of us got stuck by a bee while portaging the canoe, we decided to stop for lunch at this gorgeous point on Big Salmon Lake, after the portage from Labelle Lake. While we were stopped, one of the girls checked the weather on her phone to ensure we were still going to be dealing with sunshine and cool breezes. We weren't so lucky. There were warnings for a massive storm system coming in, with high speed wind gusts, potential for hail and a substantial amount of rain. We still had about another hour and a half to get to our designated campsite, leaving us with about a 3 hour trek home the next morning in this ridiculous storm. We called the park office and found out there was an available site for us to camp on Big Salmon, leaving us only a paddle in the storm to get home the next morning, so we paddled across to this site and got ready to brave the storm.
Cooking our fresh caught fish over the fire
Day 3's meals consisted of oatmeal, Mr. Noodle soup, and spamburger helper (essentially Kraft Dinner with Spam). This was definitely my least favourite day for meals and I won't ever eat spamburger helper again!
Day 4 - Big Salmon to Home
The storm hit us at 6 a.m. We were woken up by a torrential downpour soaking our tents, so we hightailed it out of there, probably packing in record time! We were on the water by 6:30, not bothering to eat as we only had a short (or so we thought) paddle across the lake. Turns out winds going against you make what could be a short paddle twice as long. We finally got off the water about 2 hours later, soaked to the core. My partner and I had changed in the car before heading into the park so we were super excited to change into these fresh clothes as soon as we hopped in the car to head home and dry out our soggy packs and gear.
All in all, I enjoyed the trip, it was a little tougher than I had expected and I think the newbies were a little overwhelmed. I don't think I'll go back to Frontenac Park again, simply because of the tent pads. I understand why they are there, but at the same time I can't justify lugging a thicker mat pad just to compensate for the concrete. It was a gorgeous trip, and some of the views alone would make it worth going back for a day hike.
Have you ever visited Frontenac Park?
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