We enjoyed Big Crow Lake so much on our trip to Lake La Muir but never got the chance to enjoy all this little gem has to offer due to poor weather conditions. This trip was planned so that we could stay long enough to enjoying the day trips on Big Crow before moving on to the beautiful Lake Lavielle and looping out onto Opeongo.

.: Click to enlarge map :.

May 12th - Day 1
Start: Lake Opeongo access point #11 | End: Big Crow Lake
Lakes covered: Lake Opeongo, Proulx lake, Crow River, Little Crow lake, Big Crow Lake
Portages: 310m, 965m
Distance Paddled: 13km

Comments: We used Algonquin Outfitter's water taxi as usual to bypass Lake Opeongo and went straight into the North Arm. We knocked off the portage into Proulx easily in one shot passing three canoes with so much fishing gear they had to do it in three legs. The quiet paddling up the Crow River into Little Crow was shattered by an smelly gas powered aluminum boat full of fishermen. We arrived Big Crow around noon to find the majority of the campsites occupied by fishing parties and were force to circle the lake hunting down a site. The one we ended up was a little out of the way but turned out to be one of the better sites we'd ever had in Algonquin Park. We set up camp and went to explore the area around the site, when we came back we sat and watched a moose wandering along the beach into our campsite! The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the view over the lake as we sat sheltering under our tarp from rain showers.

Panoramic of Big Crow Lake

Home for the Night	Fire Tower	Sun Showers	Moose Near Camp
	Shhhh..!!	Sunset on Big Crow Lake

Day 2
Lakes covered: none
Portages: 0m
Distance Paddled: 4km

Comments: Today is the day we've been waiting for since we first visited Big Crow Lake in 2005 - we get to climb up to the fire tower and explore the virgin white pine stand. We left mid morning in drizzle and paddled over to the ranger cabin where the trail up to the fire tower begins. The trail is well defined but leads straight up a long steep hill that takes a good half an hour to reach the top. The spectacular view at the top made the climb well worth the effort and made a great spot to stop for lunch. Before returning to the canoe, we searched for the first of two geocaches, Crows Nest, we'd pass by on the trip. After half an hour of searching with clue in hand we came up with nothing and figured the cache must have been disturbed. Next up, the virgin white pine stand at the mouth of the Crow River. We found the trail head without much trouble as I'd marked it on my GPS prior to leaving. The trail was a little muddy in spots due to all the rain but was very pretty with all the trilliums and brilliant green leaves on the trees and plants. The father down the trail we walked the trees started to get bigger to the point where the roots that protruded the ground were much thicker than my chest. We walked to the end of the trail and walked back out to the canoe without passing anyone - what an amazing place. The drizzle continued all day turning to periods of rain later in the evening, after a full day of activity we were happy to sit under the tarp and rest before the big day ahead of us tomorrow.

Panoramic of Big Crow Lake From Fire Tower Cliff

Two canoes entering Big Crow	Taking in the view	I spy..	Can you see the river?
That's kinda steep isn't it?	It's that steep..	Virgin white pines	Standing between the giants
	Red Trillium	Painter Trillium

Day 3
Start: Big Crow Lake | End: Crow Bay
Lakes covered: Crow River, Crow Bay
Portages: 240m, 155m, 1220m, 385m, 170m, 205m, 110m
Distance Paddled: 18km

Comments: Today is a long travel day into Lake Lavielle via the Crow River. The 6:30am alarm went of but we stayed in the sleeping bags for a few extra hours because it was so cold first thing. After packing up camp it was almost 10am by the time we were on the water! The trees lining the Crow River sheltered us for the most part from the moderate winds but provided little protection from the drizzle. Haven't somewhat come to terms with paddling in drizzle, we were rewarded by a large male moose standing in the shallows of river feeding on the tender shoots of the underwater vegetation. The moose seemed unconcerned with us as we slowly drifted past and continued down river. The Crow river, although a very pleasurable paddle through an amazing area, is littered with short portages that skirt around shallow rapids. The constant loading and unloading at short portage points starts to wear you down and it's hard to keep the momentum going from portage to paddling. By the time we were entering the mouth of Crow Bay, the sky was growing much darker with drizzle finally turning into rain. We were already pretty much damp through all of our layers, but still warm, so when we started passing the few unappealing sites in Crow Bay we weren't upset to keep pushing for Lake Lavielle in the rain. It was mid afternoon by the time we reached the mouth of Lake Lavielle and we could clearly see how rough the big lake was through the opening in the narrows. Paddling to any of the sites on the windy lake was pretty much out of the question so we opted to make camp on one of the half dozen sites in the mouth of Lake Lavielle. The rest of the day was spent under the tarp sheltering from the heavy rains, drying clothes, and chatting about the days adventure.

Paddling the Crow River	Portage around shallow rapids	Ankle breaking portage put in	The crew
Another portage around shallow rapids	Entering Crow Bay	Hang drying every chance we get	Mouth of Lake Lavielle

Day 4
Start: Crow Bay | End: Crow Bay
Lakes covered: none
Portages: 0m
Distance Paddled: 2km

Comments: We woke up to the sound of rain on our tent AGAIN. The rain continued until around noon when the weather turned nice for a change. We took this opportunity to head out onto Lake Lavielle to find the final geocache on our route (Lake Lavielle Cache). Lake Lavielle turned out to be as pretty as others had described it in their journals, I really enjoy the lakes surrounded by hills and littered with islands. We found the geocache after a short hunt and took the time to eat lunch on the island. By mid afternoon we were back under our tarp relaxing around a fire as the rain/drizzle settled in for the evening.

Panoramic of Crow Bay (Mouth of Lake Lavielle)

Geocaching on Lake Lavielle	Mouth of Lake Lavielle	Lets rock	Tired and trying to get into the tent

Day 5
Start: Crow Bay | End: Dickson Lake
Lakes covered: Lake Lavielle, Hardy Bay, Dickson Lake
Portages: 90m
Distance Paddled: 15km

Comments: We rose early today knowing we had a lengthy paddle ahead of us if we wanted to stay the night on Dickson Lake. Surprisingly enough the wind was calm and it wasn't raining as we started our paddling under star filled darkness before sunrise. Once the sun appeared, it was obvious more bad weather was in store for us with dark clouds looming on the horizon. Paddling today was very enjoyable as the scenery was amazing. The short 90m portage follows closely a short set rapids and comes out in almost a dock area on Dickson Lake. We sadly noticed the garbage only fishing parties could have dropped at this put in - bait containers, fishing line, beer cans, etc. Shortly after entering Dickson Lake our luck ran out, we were caught in the middle of the lake in a torrential down pour so heavy that the water surface appeared to be bouncing. The rain continued like this for almost half an hour before turning to the rainy drizzle we had spent much of the trip paddling in. Soaked to the skin we continued paddling towards the sites close to the entrance of the 5305m portage in preparation for the following day. Although we settled for an average site, the forest area behind the site made for a great area to walk and explore.

Camp & Shelter on Dickson Lake

Day 6
Start: Dickson Lake | End: East Arm of Lake Opeongo
Lakes covered: Dickson Lake, Bonfield Lake, Wright Lake
Portages: 5305m, 260m, 285m
Distance Paddled: 3.6km

Comments: Today is the day of the trip that I wasn't overly excited about, not only was it the last day of the trip but a 5305m portage stood between us and home. The previous evening we had spent time organizing our gear to burn any extra food and load the packs so the canoe carrier had a substantially lighter pack. We packed up early and were at the portage by dawn to eat a quick breakfast of granola bars. As we sat munching away, we were disgusted by all the garbage scattered around the area and the ruts in the ground where fishing parties had dragged in aluminum boats with wheeled carts. Who goes to all the effort to get to such a beautiful place only to throw 2L empty jugs of motor oil in the woods? The portage itself wasn't difficult, just really long. We polished the 5305 meters off in 2 hours 15 min's single portaging only stopping briefly at the top of some of the climbs to catch our breath. Although we didn't see anyone else on the trail, we could here fishing parties lugging their aluminum boats on the cart trail across from us on Bonfield Lake. As we started paddling across Bonfield, we heard the faint sounds of splashing that could only belong to a moose. We quietly paddled across to the far banks of the lake and silently floated 15 feet away from a moose feeding in the water. The moose let us watch for at least fifteen minutes before lazily disappearing into the forest again - WOW! We sat and enjoyed lunch on the shores of Opeongo's east arm in a light drizzle as we waited for the water taxi. The water taxi appeared right on schedule and were greeted by a cheerful guy from the outfitter store. On the return trip, we noticed the entire lake had turned a shade of yellow apparently from all the pollen while we were out - weird.

Another trip over but never forgotten.

Moose on Bonfield Lake