Join us on a 3 day canoe trip in Killarney Provincial Park. On this trip we paddle the David Lake Loop and hike to Silver Peak. We travel on Bell Lake, Three Mile Lake, Balsam Lake and camp on David Lake. This is a backcountry camping canoe trip in Onatrio.
We camped the first night on a crown land area about 30min away from Killarney Provincial Park. After checking in with the office at Bell Lake, we started on our trip. The weather was nice on the way in and it took nearly 5 hours to reach our campsite on David Lake. There were two float planes that took off from David Lake while we were heading to our campsite. After getting settled into our site, we hiked to Silver Peak on our second day. We had a rest day around the campsite on our third day, and we left for home on our fourth day. The weather was a mix of everything on this summer trip. We had sun, we had rain, and often both in the same day. Overall, it was cooler than you might expect for mid-summer in Ontario. It was noticeably cooler at the top of Silver Peak, likely due to the elevation and the wind.
This was a fairly easy trip, however the hike to Silver Peak is more work than you might think. There were only two portages to get into David Lake and two to get out to complete the loop. Nothing was too difficult, but there is one 600m + portage on each of these days.
Killarney Provincial Park is on Georgian Bay, in the Canadian province of Ontario. It encompasses a vast wilderness area of wetlands, forests and mountains. La Cloche Silhouette Trail climbs the white quartzite ridges of La Cloche Mountains. Cranberry Bog Trail crosses bogs and swamps. Canoe routes connect the park’s numerous clear lakes and glacier-sculpted pink granite cliffs frame the coastline. The hills comprising the La Cloche Mountains in Killarney are believed to have once been higher than today's Rocky Mountains, and were eroded down to their current altitude of 539 meters at its peak. They remain among the highest altitudes in Ontario.
From Kevin Callan: Killarney Provincial Park is absolutely stunning. There’s no other landscape like it in Ontario, with its aqua blue lakes surrounded by the white quartzite hills of the La Cloche mountain range.
This easy loop can be paddled in two to three days, but a couple of days should be added on for climbing up to Silver Peak-the highest point of the La Cloche mountain range. Begin at the Bell Lake access point, located off Hwy 637 and east of the George Lake campground. The route runs counterclockwise through Three Mile Lake, Balsam Lake and David Lake.
You’ll hook up with the trail leading to Silver Peak from David Lake. Look for signs for the portage into Boundary Lake on the southwest side of the lake. Partway down the portage, you’ll meet the La Cloche Silhouette trail. Follow it east to find the trail junction where the climb up to Silver Peak begins. It’s a full-day hike, so leave early in the morning and bring plenty of water and snacks. You can see the majority of the park from the top, as well as the city of Sudbury.
Content: Backcountry, Camping, Ontario, Adventure, Tent, Hammock, Tarp, Cooking, Fire, Friends, Kids, Hike, Lookout, Mountains, Scenic Location, Swimming, Clear Water, Swimming, Sun, Rain, Fun.
17 сен 2024
