Killarney - Grace, Nellie, Murray

Sunset on Grace Lake

Day 0 Pinewood Motor Inn Espanola
Julie arrived on Monday July 19th and we set off for Espanola on Tuesday morning of July 20th. We had both honda civics loaded up with camping gear for the 6 of us. Julie, Ian and Alison and Jackie, Sarah and Alan. We had a pleasant drive up to Espanola, although it is quite long from Waterloo ... about 6 hours. Upon arrival we met the Walsh's, Megan is my new sister-in-law and David and Marg are her parents. They were recently in North Bay while Marg was in a Dragon Boat challenge so their drive wasn't as long as ours. We had a wonderful meal at the Pinewood Motor Inn before packing our gear up to get ready to leave early the next morning.


Evening at Pinewood Motor Inn

Day 1 Journey to Grace Lake
We awoke at around 7 am for a wonderful breakfast at the Pinewood Motor Inn. This was the last meal that we would be served for a few days so we enjoyed it very much. We gathered our gear and set off south on Hwy 6 to Widgawa Lodge. This was going to be our put in location for Grace Lake. Most of the members of our group were experienced canoeists. Alison and Sarah have canoed on a number of these family canoe trips. However this was the first canoe trip for Ian Mills. My nephew and Julie's son. I was hoping he would be okay with a couple of hour canoe trip to get to the portage into Grace Lake.

We quickly loaded up the gear and set off down the little river that leaves Widgawa lodge and empties into Charlton Lake. We had a nice tail wind so before long we were passing the little village of Willisville which has a small marina and then we were onto Frood Lake. Frood Lake had a number of pretty sections that were full of lilly pads. Frood is a beautiful gateway to Killarney. After canoeing for 2 hours we made it to the portage point into Grace Lake by about noon. So we decided to have lunch in order to build up our strength for the 1 3/4 km portage. We met a couple who was coming the other way. They had been camping on Grace Lake and mentioned that there was noone left when they left which was a good sign and meant that we had a good shot at getting site 179 (my favourite on Grace).


Loading canoes at Dock's at Widgawa Lodge


Tatoo Tuesday

After lunch we started the portage, pretty gruelling but with the number of adults and Megan's exuberance at portaging again after a long hiatus we managed to complete the portage relatively quickly. I was excited to have the Walsh's and Julie see Grace Lake which is the most beautiful of the Killarney lakes from my experience.

We arrived on Grace and quickly set off for site 179 which was completely vacant.

We unloaded our gear and quickly set off to explore the quartzite bluffs above our campsite. From previous years we'd discovered that these hills are some of the best wild blueberries you can imagine. This year was no exception. The blueberries were out in full force. Those that basked in the sunlight were very sweet whereas the ones that were in the shade were tart but bursting with flavour. Alison and I picked 2 containers full and returned with them for desert.


Group shot while blueberry picking above Grace Lake


More blueberry picking

Day 2 Rest day on Grace Lake

The second day we enjoyed a relaxing day of more blueberry picking and exploring around the lake. In front of our site was a beautiful island which the kids easily swam out to and basked in the sunlight on the rocky point of the island. Ian and Julie set up the fishing rod and Ian spent a good part of his day fishing but unfortunately didn't manage to catch any dinner for us.


Ian catching dinner?


Grace Lake campsite 179

Megan taught us all how to right a canoe from the water which looked so easy. She got under the canoe and did a whip kick and righted the canoe with little to no water in it. It looked very easy but I'm sure in panic mode of attempting to do this in a real situation, it would be much more difficult.


Swimming to the island

After a day full of activities, I fed the group a recipe that Jacques Barrette had given me. It was mango curie vegetable sauce on top of couscous. Couscous is an awesome starch for camping. It was well received by the group.


Tents on Grace


Moonrise on Grace Lake

Day 3 Off to Nellie

We awoke to a wonderful breakfast courtesy of the Walshes which was crepes and nice fillings. Julie had her usual early morning swim. As much as Julie loves Alberta she can't get enough of the swimming in Ontario's pristine lakes. We were regretting the departure from Grace Lake and not really looking forward to the huge portage into Nellie Lake. We packed up our gear and said good-bye to this beautiful campsite while also looking forward to seeing Nellie Lake.


Albertan goes for a swim

On our portage into Nellie we met 2 older women who had just stayed on Nellie. They were doing the same route as we were doing only in reverse. They comforted us by saying that the reverse route was much worse than the way we were going. This made me feel a bit better since David had read the opposite in a book by Hap Wilson.

The portage was tough but luckily not too many hills to climb. Jackie incredibly lugged the "dreaded" CCM bag the full 2.2 kilometers. This was filled to the brim with cooking pots and pans and other heavy items. She certainly doesn't wimp out when it comes to portaging the gear. David and Marg as well were very capable portagers. Megan wouldn't let me take a second canoe. We happily made it through this portage which would be our longest of the trip. We camped out at site 142 which is a beautiful site on a point which separates Carmichael Lake from Nellie Lake. As much as we wanted to stay at this site it was probably not big enough for our 3 tents so we moved on to site 144.

Nellie Lake is known for its incredibly clear water with a visibility of 60 feet. It gives it a rather eerie shipwreck like feeling when looking down to the bottom of the water. The 2 women on the portage mentioned something about one of the campsites on Nellie having a series of signals below the water. On a shelf about 20 feet below the water the people who had camped there had placed white rocks on the bottom signifying the years that they had camped there ... 06,08,10. We canoed to this campsite and found the signals below the water. Megan spotted the lumninescent numbers shining up from the bottom of the lake. It was quite a thing to see.

At campsite 144 we had a great time. David showed us his skill at frisbee by managing to catch a spinning ring on his head. The Walshes made dinner which was another fantastic meal (can't remember what it was though). I attempted to put a tarp up but was put to shame by David's tarping skills and I decided to take mine down and keep David's as the tarp for shelter. We managed to rope up the barrels in a perfect spot off a tree limb about 15 feet off the ground. No bears would crack open our food supplies! This site was the nicest so far in terms of accomodating all 3 tents. Even David with his sleep-apnea couldn't be heard in the evening.


Leaving Nellie Lake Campsite 144

Day 4 Nellie to Murray

We had a wonderful stay at the Nellie Lake campsite but unfortunately the sun didn't come out for most of our time there so we were unable to capture the raw beauty of the clear lake on film (hence the lack of Nellie photos). We ate a nice breakfast and ventured on for our next adventure... the portage to Murray Lake. Murray Lake I'd heard was the most Muskokian of the lakes that we were visiting. I'd also heard that the portage was a killer.

For this portage and most of the portages on the trip, I rigged up the paddles under the front seat and thwart. It gives the portager the ability to bring his/her hands closer to the shoulder while controlling the canoe. Julie enjoyed this as well. We did this again for the Murray portage. This portage was our most challenging. We started off marching up a hill and when we arrived at the top we were alerted by Jackie to some very slippery rocks which were difficult to navigate with a canoe on our shoulders. Then towards the end of the portage the descent was very difficult. You had to avoid having the canoe touch the group while descending the steep bank. At one point I was trying to wedge my canoe in a poorly place V tree and managed to topple over. The canoe hammered the side of my head. While lying still to catch my bearings, my daughter Sarah came back from having unloaded her packs and saw her father pinned under the canoe. It was quite a sight and I think she was quite worried about her poor father who was actually pretty good but just catching his breath.

At the end of the Murray portage we met a group from camp Eco. Out for a 10 day Killarney trip. They weren't too well organized however. The tripper, a smoker, lead the way but a while later we heard some of the campers ask for some help and directions. They had attempted to ascend the portage route beside the water fall rather than on the trail and were thoroughly exhausted.

Upon arriving at Murray we explored the 3 available sites and settled on the only one which would accomodate 3 tents (148). We had a fine meal considering it was our last and had a beautiful evening of swimming and had some family photos in the sunset. We were incredibly amazed at how alive Murray Lake was relative to the acid lake peacefulness of Nellie lake. We were treated to raw nature as we watched a hog snake devour a salamander called a Mud Puppy. This was morbidly fascinating. The mud puppy was about twice the size of the snake's jaws initially but we watched the snake's jaws unhinge to accomodate the much bigger mud puppy. We also saw the mud puppy do a macabre dance as the snake must have been hitting various nerves as he proceeded steadily down the body of the mud puppy. After watching the snake eat the mud puppy we were greeted by a snapping turtle which poked its head out of the water as if to say "Happy Birthday Ian". Oh yes... it was Ian's 6 the birthday. He was quite happy to have all these things occur on his birthday.


Hog snake devours Mud Puppy


Snapper greets Ian for his birthday

On top of these activities, Megan managed to bake an awesome cake. Creating a hearth out of the fireplace she patiently baked the cake using one of my camping frying pans.


Happy 6th bday Ian


Ian holds birthday cake


Sparklers for Ian's birthday (Can you tell Meg was a counselor)

We watched the sunset on Murray. After having a cloudy day the sun poked its head out of the clouds to give us a brilliant sun soaked hill view as seen in the photo below.


Sun-soaked hill tops on Murray Lake

The final night on Murray was spent with some sadness and happiness. Sadness that this was our last day in Killarney and happiness with our accomplishments. This was the longest portage trip of David and Marg's lifetime. Jackie and Julie had also not portaged this much so it was a very physical trip but thoroughly enjoying. Hopefully Jackie doesn't have to continue to take IBU for too long after the holidays!

Day 5 Murray to take out

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise on Murray. Megan was eager to try some white water canoeing and was hoping that the marked water fall at the end of Murray was runnable which it wasn't ... thank-god or else I would have had to do it with her.


Sunrise on Murray


Misty Murray


Murray to Howry Creek

We had a small portage at the end of Murray and then had a great canoe through Howry Creek. This creek meanders its way into Charlton Lake.

Howry Creek into Charlton Lake

We had to manouever over a few beaver dams which was a lot of fun. The beavers were quite busy on Howry Creek. There were at least 2 beaver dams. The damns were very strong and we could easily step on them without getting our feet wet. We lugged the fully loaded canoes over the dams which really wasn't as hard as it looks.


Lugging loaded canoes over beaver dams of Howry Creek

We continued on into Charlton Lake which was a sea of lilly pads. This was a bit annoying to paddle through but quite a beautiful site to see.


Charlton lilly pads


Lilly pad Sarah

We continued down Charlton all the while looking for a suitable spot to have a final swim before exiting our journey in Killarney. We found a beautiful island without cottages on it for our lunch spot and a nice point for swimming.

Pine tree on Charlton


The last swim


Lilly pad lake Charlton

We had a final canoe into the Widgawa river. We unloaded the canoes and said our good-byes. It was a wonderful trip! A great way to get to know your in-laws. Both families are very compatible. I hope we'll be able to do another canoe trip such as this. So until next year over and out!

For a full set of photos click on the following link

2010 Killarney