This was our trip plan for a much longer and more involved trip, and I think this one delivered! This was the trip plan:
Day 1: Magnetawan Lake
Day 2: Magnetawan Lake, Hambone Lake, Acme Pond, Daisy Lake, Petawawa River, Little Misty Lake, Misty Lake
Day 3: Misty Lake, Timberwolf Lake
Day 4: Timberwolf Lake, McIntosh Lake
Day 5: Timberwolf Lake, Misty Lake, Muslim Lake, Wenona Lake, Bandit Lake, Moccasin Lake
Day 6: Moccassin Lake, Addison’s Lake, Petawawa River, Daisy Lake, Acme Pond, Hambone Lake, Magnetawan Lake
Trip Report:
Day 1: The plan was to stay on Magnetawan our first night to give us an early start towards Misty the next day. We read this could take anywhere from 4-6 hours, so did not want the worry about the additional 3 hour drive.

Day 2: We had breakfast and were packed up and leaving the site around 9am to cloudy skies. A short paddle had us at the portage to Hambone. We did this in two carries, but decided to try and single carry the short portages from here on out! This was a nice easy portage and we enjoyed the paddle across the lake – Hambone is very pretty. As per Jeff’s map, we decided to try to skip the 55m portage. There were a few rocks at the mouth of the little river and the winds really picked up, so we kept getting blown into rocks. Shayn decided to get out and steer the front of the canoe past the worst of this. Great idea and we were back on track. Otherwise, this was a very easy “skip.” The portage to Daisy was well used and overall an easy single carry. Shayn took one waterproof bag and the canoe. I took the other bag with the food, our backpack, the tent, and paddles. The river into Daisy was low, but passable. The wind really picked up, and as the lake turned East, it was blowing straight against us. Daisy took us a LONG time. I could still appreciate the nice sites on our way by. After the last campsite, it took us a while to see the opening to continue through the narrows. We knew where it should be, so continued on, but it took a while to actually “see” this one. The 135m portage onto the Petawawa wasn’t too bad and we single carried this one.
On the other side, we took time to check out the “falls” and take pictures. Than we were off down the Petawawa River. The sun started to come out as we arrived at the 450m. We chatted with two guys that had been in for a week with the bad weather and were thinking of leaving early. We did this one in a single carry, but I found it a little more difficult, as there were lots of ups and downs. We relaxed and pumped some more water on the other side from rocks in the middle of the “rapids” along the portage.

Day 3: Today we only planned to go one lake to Timberwolf, so took our time with breakfast and packing up. It finally dawned, sunny and relatively warm, so I took advantage of this by going for a quick dip. It was nice to sit on the rocks and take in some sun, finally! Breakfast was a treat of pancakes.
We left at 10:30 and decided to paddle Misty to take the 130m portage through the creek into Timberwolf. We didn’t particularly feel like doing the 845m portage and hoped this would be a nice paddle. The lake was almost flat and it was an enjoyable paddle in the sun. There looked to be a lot of nice sites on this lake. Through the narrow portion of the lake we came across another pair of loons and a baby. This time I had my camera ready and got a few nice shots! As we approached the bay with the portage we took a moment to pump some water, we also mused that the site in this bay would probably have lots of exploring to do. As we approached the portage sign, we realized it had an arrow pointing right to the actual portage. In this direction it became very boggy and shallow until we finally had to get out and pull the canoe along. It became very deep again before the portage, so although we were close to the portage, we had to get in the canoe, paddle 5 strokes, and get out again…between the deep water and the bog there did not appear to be any other option.

Day 4: This was our rest day, but we were planning to visit McIntosh. We woke up to lots of clouds (surprise). Our breakfast today was OvaEasy eggs and ready crisp bacon. I have to say I was pretty impressed with these eggs considering they were freeze-dried. As it still looked like rain, we decided to attempt to check out the remains of the logging cabin. We bush-wacked over, and just when we felt we would never find it, we came across lots of old barrels, pieces of metal, and old cans of food. There were also two small meadows full of raspberry bushes. I am not sure if there was more to see, but that’s all we found. As we crashed our way back, some canoeists apparently thought they heard wild life. They paddled towards us and seemed particularly excited, but we couldn’t get close enough to shore to tell them we were in fact, nothing exciting.
Day 5: Guess what? We woke up to another overcast day. We had a quick breakfast of OvaEasy eggs and bacon before setting off around 9am. Although we had no particular desire to do the 845m, we elected to do it to cut down time. I didn’t find it particularly difficult just a bit long. We were back on Misty to sunny skies. Misty has such an interesting strip of land across the lake on the south side between the two portages. It almost looks like an old bridge, but upon getting closer it does look naturally occurring. We saw what we thought was probably the father and his sons from earlier in the week still on the island site. I was not looking forward to the 1030m portage, so we decided on two carries. This portage was wide and looked fairly well used. There was only one hill I found particularly difficult and was left in the dust, as Shayn continued on with the canoe. On our second carry, the rain caught up with us. Muslim lake was unremarkable and a quick paddle to the portage into Wenona. We did this in a single carry and didn’t find it too difficult either. It was starting to rain more on the Wenona side and Shayn asked if I wanted to wait it out a bit? I said no, as it wasn’t raining too hard. Apparently this was a bad choice, as we got the worst down pour of the trip and headed for the one campsite to wait it out. It was almost lunchtime, so we watched the rain with chicken fajitas. We both thought this was a lovely site and being the only one on the lake it would be a nice destination for another trip….maybe from Rain Lake Access instead.
We were on Moccasin quickly and were excited to find the sun coming out and the winds dying down. For a small lake, I thought it was a very pretty with two nice rocky sites (my favourite type). We chose the one on the north-west side, as it looked to have a larger camp area with flatter rocks to pull the canoe out. Overall, this was a lovely site with the only down side being the proximity to the site across the channel. We had a dinner of Mountain house white bean chili and freeze-dried crème brule for Shayn’s birthday. As the sun set, we decided to paddle to the other site to catch the last rays of warm sunshine (we had not got much until now!). This site was STEAP. The t-box was up an incredible hill (wouldn’t want to do that at night) and the fire pit was oddly close to the water. It would also be a pain to pull out gear here, but it was a lovely place to enjoy the evening and a birthday cigar for Shayn. Back on our site there was also a huge variety of birds that were all singing – there is something magical about falling asleep and waking to their music.
DAY 6: We had a fair distance to travel today and wanted to do it fast. We had a wedding to attend the next day and just before the trip found out we needed to attend a dinner that night. We were on our way by 8:30 to a sunny day and the birds chirping on our paddle to Addison’s (of course on the last day). As per Jeff’s map, we decided to attempt skipping the 140m portage. We headed down the narrows/river and were just thinking this would be easy when we came across many logs. We were enthusiastically steering around them until we came across a decent log jam. I suggested trying to pull over it like a beaver damn. Shayn got out onto one large log and was looking for a way across it with the canoe when it started to look like a lumberjack log rolling competition! I suggested he get back in the canoe! I’m sure we could have found a way around it, but at this point, we thought it would just waste time. Luckily this portage also crossed the old logging trail and we were at a point where there appears to have been a bridge. We were able to pull out and walk up to the portage – something it seemed many others had done. In about 5 minutes we were back on the water and grumbling about the log jam winning that round. We saw another pair of loons and their baby on Addison’s lake, but continued on to the 805m portage into the Petawawa River.
The 135m into Daisy was easy. As bad luck would have it, the wind had turned, so we had the joy of paddling this lake against the wind again! At least it was not as bad as the first time. We saw one group who were sitting in a canoe; in the middle of the lake….they looked to have 5 people in it!!! Not sure what they were doing, maybe fishing? As we came to the last turn on our way back to the river leading to the portage, we began to hit the ‘insanity’ that was everyone coming in for the long weekend. I was thankful that we were coming out. Of course we saw a few experienced couples, but we also passed a few canoes with three girls in each, in bikinis, with a suspicious lack of packs — I hope they didn’t get too cold at night. The short river was clear, but when we hit the 420m portage it was chaos! There was one family and kids resting while Dad brought over the last of the packs and another few groups going in our direction. We loaded up for the single carrying in hopes of passing everyone mingling about, but as our luck would have it one of the other groups sprung up and decided that they now wanted to do the portage! It was a slow walk to the other side, but this was a nice easy portage. We took off first on the other side and with the other group just behind us. One of the canoes with a young couple seemed to decide that they now wanted to race us across Acme to the 55m portage. They took off, “he-manning” it with the guy in the back throwing his paddle back and forth to steer. As they zig-zagged across the lake, we contemplated telling them in French (that’s what they were speaking) that they could skip this one, but just left it well enough alone and paddled around. It was indeed a much easier “skip” in this direction.
Hambone was a nice easy paddle and we saw several groups heading across the lake to Ralph Bice. This portage again was an easy one and just when we got across, we met around 5 canoes pulling up loaded with an assortment of things for the long weekend. They asked if they could look at our map, as they left there’s with someone coming later in the day. We were at the access point in no time and got to witness a great array of people getting ready to head out. A few groups were with guides and learning the reasons not to load up a canoe on gravel and drag it to the water.
All in all, a lovely trip, although it was a little wet, but we saw some beautiful lakes, and would not trade the experience for the world.

Enjoyed reading this, and viewing the pictures. It would have been a wonderful escape for Shayn and yourself. 🙂
Great job overcoming the challenges of the rain and the portages!
~Carl~
Hi Carl,
It was a wonderful trip, even if it was a little wet! Glad to hear you enjoyed the post and thank you for the kind words.
Maegan 🙂
Cute report! Your loon photos are quite nice – especially the pair looking down into the depths!
It looks and reads like you were washing dishes in the lake that first day – it is never recommended to wash you, your clothes or your dishes in a waterway. Instead, they should be washed at least 50 meters from any water source and any refuse and gray water buried.
I love this post! Magical Algonquin in our backyards. What a gift.
Thank you Cynthia! 🙂 it was a amazing trip!