|
Spring 2004 Trip Log
(4 days)
May 21st - May 24th
Opeongo (Wright Lake)
Above you will find an extrapolated section of the Algonquin Park Canoe Routes Map©, blown up to easily show you where we camped.
I walked out of work on Friday morning and headed home to load up the car for my trip to Algonquin. I was to meet my friend Don at the bus stop and then we were off. It took approximately 5 ˝ hours to make it to the gate of the park.
 Costello Creek
 Water Taxi
When we arrived, we purchased our permits and then headed over to Algonquin Outfitters to rent our canoe and arranged for our water taxi up the lake.
It takes about 20 minutes to cover the entire length of Opeongo. On this day, the weather was nice. We had sun and little wind as we loaded up the taxi and began our trip up the lake. We were staying on Wright Lake for the entire 4 days on this trip, so the taxi dropped us off at the portage in the north arm of the lake. It does not take long to make the short walk down the 285 m portage to Wright. We arrived at the southern part of the lake and loaded up the canoe for the brief paddle top the campsite. Here to deeper depths. Don and I paddled up the lake and headed for the campsite. As we had reserved the site for three nights, we were confident that there would be no one there when we arrived. We came ashore and inspected the site. There is a large clear area here with plenty of room for several tents. The cart trail to Dickson Lake is just meters to the north of the camp and during the four days of our stay, we saw several groups of people pass by. The one problem with this site, however, is that the privy is located up a small hillock across the cart trail. There is a small path from the campsite, that allows access to the cart trail, and if you enter the trees above the cart trail directly in line with this path, you will eventually find the privy.
 Access Point 11 (Opeongo)
 Access to Opeongos South Arm
 Portage Trail to Wright
 Water Taxi Leaving
 Wright Lake's Southern Arm
 Looking North on Wright
and then sat down to relax for a while and have something to eat. We snacked on a few chocolate bars, some pop tarts, and the remains of our bottles of soft drinks. Don is not an angler, so I headed out alone to try my luck. I decided to use an old favourite for trout and tied on a Williams Dartee©. I trolled slowly down the lake towards the narrows and began to turn the canoe slowly for the return trip, when my rod almost yanked from the boat. I frantically grabbed the rod and began to fight what was on the other end. I fought the fish for about 5 minutes before scooping a 3˝ Lake Trout into the net.
 3 lb. Lake Trout
 Cart Trail to Dixon
I cleaned the fish when returning to camp and we ate it later that day for supper with some fried potatoes and beans.
I fished on and off for the next three days, but the combination of wind and steady rain, made going difficult. On the second morning, I managed to land a 2 ˝ lb. smallmouth bass, but threw it back as it was not in season. Don and I decided to take advantage of the heavy winds on the lake and do some exploring ashore. We made several hikes over our four- day stay. The most exhausting was our trip to Dickson Lake via the cart trail that passed by our camp. Round trip time to Dickson and back took just over 5 hours. We saw signs of moose and deer along the way, but none of the animals made an appearance. As we arrived at Dickson, a family of four was just coming down the portage from Bonfield along with the family dog. They stayed to talk for a bit before packing up their canoes and paddled out onto Dickson Lake.
The campsite at the end of the Dickson portage was very disappointing. The campfire pit was filled with bottles, cans and the remains of a canoe cart. It’s a shame that some careless people out there ruin the beauty of Algonquin for the rest of us. PLEASE CARRY OUT YOUR GARBAGE AND HELP KEEP ALGONQUIN BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!
 Dixon Lake from Portage
On our way back to camp, we decided to pass Wright Lake and continue on to Opeongo, adding an additional 1000 meters to the trip. As we walked, we took many pictures. Here are just a few.
 Little Wright Lake
 Night Swamp
 Swamp on Cart Trail
 Stream Crossing Cart Trail
These two pictures (above) were taken while standing on the same rock. The top picture is looking upstream and the bottom shot looks downstream. This stream drains from Wright Lake into Opeongos’ East arm. Notice how the different angle of light changes the colour of he water.
The two pics above shows how the stream widens before entering Opeongo. There were many Blue Herons here.
The rain kept coming off and on for the entire balance of the weekend. I tried to fish again, but I think the fish were still in a state of shock over the recent temperature changes. It was 20 degrees and sunny when we arrived and now, on the last day of our trip, it was 12 degrees and drizzling.
We packed up everything, (I hate packing wet gear) and carried the packs down the cart trail towards Opeongo. As we started to head back for the canoe, we ran into two couples coming out of Dickson. They had been up there for four days fishing. They were surprised to hear about our lousy weather and informed us that they had had nothing but sunshine the entire time. Today was the first time that they had experienced any kind of precipitation. They told us that it had started raining on them on the cart trail as they approached Wright Lake. There must have been a cloud hanging over the lake all weekend. Just our luck.
As we arrived back at the sight, the rain let up and the sky brightened somewhat. We decided to paddle the canoe to the portage instead of carrying it. We made it back to the shores of Opeongo and waited for the taxi to come pick us up.
P.S. I apologize for not remembering your names (I should write things down), but thank you to the couple from Barrie who graciously sold us some cigarettes.
In retrospect, I think Wright is a nice lake. It has some nice fishing possibilities, and there are things you can do, (like walking the cart trail) if it’s lousy weather. The weather was the real bummer on this trip, but THAT’S ALGONQUIN. GOD! I LOVE THIS PLACE.
P.S. On or way out of the park along the Highway 60 corridor we came across a gang of cars parked on the side of the road. “Moose!” Don cried and I pulled the car over. There, some 200 feet from the road, was a young bull moose. People were out of their cars snapping photos furiously. The moose didn’t seem to mind, he just stood there staring at all the humans staring at him. I guess he wanted to move in close to the side of the road for his breakfast. The photo crazy people were stopping him from doing that. Boy did he show patience. We snapped a few pics with my cheap HP Digital camera and off we went for Montreal and home.
 Moose on Highway 60
|
