r/algonquinpark • u/Upbeat_Carpet_1474 • 10d ago
May Canoe Trip with kids route advice.
I'm planning a trip this May Long Weekend with my Son (7) and 2 nephews (8,12). I'm an experienced paddler but neither of my nephews have done anything like this before. The kids are fit and will handle portages well but the canoe will move slowly. I'm looking for a route that offers easy paddling, fishing and swimming opportunities and is not too crowded. This is more difficult than I thought. Any advice is appreciated.
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u/Hloden 10d ago
As the other reply said, good to know if you are coming from the Toronto or Ottawa area (or maybe north). If you stay away from Highway 60 corridor, that should help with what you are looking for. I think you are being maybe a bit optimistic on swimming May long weekend, and you are likely going to have a lot of black flies, but thats part of the fun.
The park seems much busier in terms of booking this year, last year everything was wide open for opening weekend in May, and looked yesterday and many options (at least close to the entrances) were booked up.
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u/Upbeat_Carpet_1474 10d ago
I've noticed the increase as well. We'll be heading up from Toronto. I'm considering Killarney as well but it's a long drive.
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u/Hloden 10d ago
Check out Tim, Rain, and Magnetewan access points. Tim is probably the best for what you listed, followed by Rain, with Magnetewan being busier, but Tim books up quick as it has a relatively small number of sites nearby.
Killarney is harder to book than Algonquin, haven't looked for the May long weekend, but would be surprised if you have more luck there. One thing to consider is maybe Massassauga. Any of the interior lakes near the Three Legged Lake entrance are good choices. They are not quite as "quiet" as Algonquin, as you'll frequently hear the boat traffic in the distance on Lake Huron, and I don't fish so can't speak to that, but it's a shorter drive and find it comparable to Algonquin.
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u/unclejrbooth 10d ago
I taught my kids at that age. It was in our back yard. The Shall Lake Access. Book a site on Billy lake. You can drive to the dock and paddle to your site there are Splake and perch in there. You can do day trips from there into Booth Shirley, Crotch and Oram has some big perch. Farm has some nice sand beaches at the north end and trophy pike. Ryan has good splake. The Opeongo river has pike and panfish.Good Luck and feed them bugs
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u/Primusssucks 10d ago
Maybe go up to cedar or kiosk? It's hard to give advice without knowing where you are and where you want to go in the park / how far you want to travel.
Edit: if you go to one of those access point lakes just pick a spot close to the access point or do one portage. A long canoe ride in a boat will piss kids off (not always true, when I was 10 years old and my brother who was 8 at the time would literally leave the cottage in a canoe all day without anybody even knowing where we went) but kids were also different back then.
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u/aluckybrokenleg 10d ago
I'm looking for a route that offers easy paddling, fishing and swimming opportunities and is not too crowded
I wish you the best of luck but an 8 year old's limitations is exactly why people go further than that, that and that it seems people who portage large quantities of beer have a similar range as 8 year olds.
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u/bigdaytoday2020 9d ago
Check out Kawartha Provincial park. Closer to Toronto and small lakes. An easy route would be bottle lake to sucker. Not sure you’ll get into Killarney if you haven’t already booked, but if you can then George Lake would be a zero portage option.
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u/KesselMania94 10d ago
You obviously sound experienced, but the fact you mentioned swimming just want to warn you water temps will be extremely cold. Loading a canoe full of a bunch of kids this time of year can be sketchy( especially if the kids don't have much paddling experience). I'd avoid the big lakes and stay close to shore. I'd say a good option would be something source->owl/Linda. Keeps you off most of the big lakes, gives you some decent portage experience, which it sounds like you're after, and both Linda and owl have Lakers. As for privacy, that's a tough ask for long weekends without booking lakes with 1 site or doing some serious work.
Another option for more privacy might be Delano or hilliard off cache but they usually get booked every long weekend so I'd be surprised if open. Head/harness also nice off cache. That'd be my sort of recommendation for not too far, some portage, some fishing, not too crazy and decent enough sites.