Biscotasing Lake loop – part 1
The possible canoe routes I explored south of Biscotasing Lake this past Spring are absolutely endless. I went up to the area this past June and went on a 12 day solo canoe trip with my dog Ellie. What an amazing mix of possible loop or linear routes.
I arrived in the town of Biscotasing, after driving the 70 km gravel road, at around 5:30 p.m. I had stayed at Six Mike Lake Provincial Park on the way up the day before and was subsequently robbed while camped there. That, and re-supplying at White-Squall Outfitters near Parry Sound on the way, made for a late start. But I still had time to have a beer with the store owner at Bisco (Gord) and a past ranger that worked in the area (Cort). I left my vehicle at the store and payed the cheap $5 per day for parking. I then paddled down Biscotasing Lake until 7:00 p.m. and made camp on a small island site.
The site was marked with a government campsite sign. I was surprised to see that. If I had gone east on Bisco Lake I knew the campsites were marked because you needed to pay for them and the West Spanish River route. But west on Bisco needed no permit. The store owner didn’t completely understand why, which is who deals with the permits, but I’m guessing its due to the new extension of the park area having no management plan yet and therefore no fee structure in place. My original plan was to paddle down the West Spanish River and the loop back to Biscotasing through the Pog Lake system. But water levels were down an insane four to five feet. The river would be impossible to run, so I opted for an alternative.
It took me five hours to paddle across Biscotasing Lake to the portage to Indian lake the next day. On the way I stopped to chat with Wayne and Jenny (Virginia) Farrow from Kitchener, Ontario. Their camp was on a point titled “Wayne’s World,” and it definitely was “Wayne’s world”. The couple had been coming to the lake since the 1960s and they knew the area extremely well.
The portage to Indian was easy to find. It had a dock and a rail line system for camp owners to haul their boats over the 200 meter path. Luck would have it, some anglers were using the rail cart at the time, coming back from a week of fishing on Indian Lake, and they hauled my boat and gear over for me. Very cool!
My second night was had on a small island about three-quarters down Indian Lake, near the entrance to Tasker Bay. It was a well used site, with three or four make-shift tables nailed to trees and used rifle shells oddly scattered everywhere, but it was manageable – especially when a nasty storm hit just after dark and lasted through most of the night.
Here’s the first video of the trip. More to come later.
