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- Feb 28, 2007
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Joe and I returned to Puzzle Lake this time by canoe. The first time in April we made our way through to Norway Lake (bypassing Puzzle Lake) via a trail and backpacking and we subsequently veered off backcountry following the contour lines until we hit Bear Lake. It rained like crazy.
This time we took my new canoe out with us and did the Gull Creek - Puzzle Lake - Loyst Lake - Mud Lake - Norway Lake chain. The portages were quite easy accept the Gull Creek - Puzzle Lake which wasn't very far distance wise but it had some challenging rocks to navigate over with the canoe, but all told really quite easy. Its the kind of paddle I could bring my wife along on.
The area is a 7 h drive from us and we left mid-Friday afternoon, getting caught through Toronto stop and go traffic which added an hour to our trip. We arrived at Gull Creek at about 10:00 pm and it was pitch black. One forgets that now it gets totally dark by 7:00 pm and that makes planning your day more constrained. After unpacking the truck and setting the canoe, we navigated to a little established campsight on Gull Creek not more than two minutes of paddling. I wasn't all that crazy about paddling in the night into unknown territory, but Joe had scoped out the area earlier in July and he knew where an established camp sight was. We set up camp, didn't bother with a fire and then woke up bright and early the next day, having the whole Saturday to ourselves. In the morning we made a breakfast fire and had the customary oatmeal with coffee. I've taken a fancy to gulping down a cup of Tang in the morning - nothing like getting up to a Full-Tang Cup!
From Gull, we portaged to Puzzle lake which is the namesake of the park. We just paddled right on through Puzzle which has its own road access and quite a few cottages, too developed for our wants, and hit the first portage over to Loyst Lake. Loyst has gorgeous clear water and was surrounded by vibrant coloured hardwood trees including the reds of maple and oak and yellows of birch. We circled Loyst Lake to troll it with spoons as this lake has lake trout in it. Alas, no bites, but its a tough time of year given that its thermostructure is disrupted (fall turnover) and the fish can literally be anywhere in the water mass.
From Loyst we made the very easy portage over to Mud Lake. Mud Lake is this tiny little shallow pond surrounded by hummacks. You wouldn't think much of it, but it is full of decent sized largemouth bass, smallies and northern pike. We fished it for a good hour or so. I picked up 2 good size bucketmouths that we kept and we probably caught 7-8 fish that morning letting the rest go.
Finally we made our way over to Norway Lake, our destination for the night. It was about 12:00 pm. We paddled around the lake and then parked near the north end. From there we took a dayback along with our stringer of fish (two largemouth) and hiked the 600 m of bushwacking through to Bear Lake. Found a soft little white pine grove, made a fire and ate our shore lunch. Bear Lake is gorgeous, but the terrain would really be hell to try and portage over. Again, distance isn't that bad, but the rock and hills, scrub juniper would make it really brutal to do. For now, we are just content walking its shores and looking upon a place that very few people make an effort to go see.
After returning to the canoe we camped at the north end of Norway Lake. Joe and worked on Iz Turley's fire chain challenge which requires you to gather all materials (accept the cord) for bowdrill on site, start a fire, use the fire to char a natural material without using a tin, then start a second fire by flint and steel using the charred material you cooked in the first fire. We were both using cedar which in these parts is doable but has its challenges to it. Joe managed to get his but I didn't complete mine. I got an ember with the cedar but my tinder bundle was a bit wet and then it got too dark to proceed. You can hear me swearing up a storm in Joe's video - rather funny, but by gosh the professor knows his profanity!
Next morning we canoed back to Mud Lake for some Action-Packtion fishing. Joe was pulling in the smallies like a mad man and I wasn't getting anything. After awhile it was just comical, but Joe found the rig that worked which was a little Meps spinner with a yellow Mr. Twister tail. He kept two largemouth bass and also picked up a nice eating size Northern Pike, his first pike. As we returned to camp, we decided to troll Norway Lake. There I picked up a nice size (guess just under three pounds) northern pike and brought him to the boat. I had one of those 3 treble hook rapalas on and the fish managed to shake itself off before I could dawn my glove to grab him. Thats okay, we had a tonne of fish from Joe's catch.
At Norway I completed my Fire Chain challenge while Joe cooked up the fish. We broke camp and paddled back to Loyst for the final camp and making our paddle out the next morning an easy one. At Loyst, we grabbed our topo maps and completed the Turley Navigation challenge - which involves picking a feature on your map and using map and compass to navigate to it off trail. Joe picked a power line due South and I picked a bowl formation 240 degrees. After returning, we set up camp again, relaxed. Joe fished off shore and picked up a couple of small smallmouth bass which he released, biding our time on the last night.
I had brought along a 10x10 Tyvek sheet as a spare rain tarp in case it rained for a sitting area. I decided to put that up instead of my normal silnylon won just for the sake of saying I used all my gear. We had some light rain through the night and that Tyvek made it sound like a bongo drum! Next morning was a rather quick affair. Small fire for breakfast and paddle out. We were back at the truck, packed and canoe secured by 9:40 am and made it home by about 5:00 pm.
Here is the video - its a bit long, but worth it if you watch it in HD.
[youtube]P617rH61qUg[/youtube]
I'll have to populate the thread with pictures later in the day as I now have to run along to work.
This time we took my new canoe out with us and did the Gull Creek - Puzzle Lake - Loyst Lake - Mud Lake - Norway Lake chain. The portages were quite easy accept the Gull Creek - Puzzle Lake which wasn't very far distance wise but it had some challenging rocks to navigate over with the canoe, but all told really quite easy. Its the kind of paddle I could bring my wife along on.
The area is a 7 h drive from us and we left mid-Friday afternoon, getting caught through Toronto stop and go traffic which added an hour to our trip. We arrived at Gull Creek at about 10:00 pm and it was pitch black. One forgets that now it gets totally dark by 7:00 pm and that makes planning your day more constrained. After unpacking the truck and setting the canoe, we navigated to a little established campsight on Gull Creek not more than two minutes of paddling. I wasn't all that crazy about paddling in the night into unknown territory, but Joe had scoped out the area earlier in July and he knew where an established camp sight was. We set up camp, didn't bother with a fire and then woke up bright and early the next day, having the whole Saturday to ourselves. In the morning we made a breakfast fire and had the customary oatmeal with coffee. I've taken a fancy to gulping down a cup of Tang in the morning - nothing like getting up to a Full-Tang Cup!
From Gull, we portaged to Puzzle lake which is the namesake of the park. We just paddled right on through Puzzle which has its own road access and quite a few cottages, too developed for our wants, and hit the first portage over to Loyst Lake. Loyst has gorgeous clear water and was surrounded by vibrant coloured hardwood trees including the reds of maple and oak and yellows of birch. We circled Loyst Lake to troll it with spoons as this lake has lake trout in it. Alas, no bites, but its a tough time of year given that its thermostructure is disrupted (fall turnover) and the fish can literally be anywhere in the water mass.
From Loyst we made the very easy portage over to Mud Lake. Mud Lake is this tiny little shallow pond surrounded by hummacks. You wouldn't think much of it, but it is full of decent sized largemouth bass, smallies and northern pike. We fished it for a good hour or so. I picked up 2 good size bucketmouths that we kept and we probably caught 7-8 fish that morning letting the rest go.
Finally we made our way over to Norway Lake, our destination for the night. It was about 12:00 pm. We paddled around the lake and then parked near the north end. From there we took a dayback along with our stringer of fish (two largemouth) and hiked the 600 m of bushwacking through to Bear Lake. Found a soft little white pine grove, made a fire and ate our shore lunch. Bear Lake is gorgeous, but the terrain would really be hell to try and portage over. Again, distance isn't that bad, but the rock and hills, scrub juniper would make it really brutal to do. For now, we are just content walking its shores and looking upon a place that very few people make an effort to go see.
After returning to the canoe we camped at the north end of Norway Lake. Joe and worked on Iz Turley's fire chain challenge which requires you to gather all materials (accept the cord) for bowdrill on site, start a fire, use the fire to char a natural material without using a tin, then start a second fire by flint and steel using the charred material you cooked in the first fire. We were both using cedar which in these parts is doable but has its challenges to it. Joe managed to get his but I didn't complete mine. I got an ember with the cedar but my tinder bundle was a bit wet and then it got too dark to proceed. You can hear me swearing up a storm in Joe's video - rather funny, but by gosh the professor knows his profanity!
Next morning we canoed back to Mud Lake for some Action-Packtion fishing. Joe was pulling in the smallies like a mad man and I wasn't getting anything. After awhile it was just comical, but Joe found the rig that worked which was a little Meps spinner with a yellow Mr. Twister tail. He kept two largemouth bass and also picked up a nice eating size Northern Pike, his first pike. As we returned to camp, we decided to troll Norway Lake. There I picked up a nice size (guess just under three pounds) northern pike and brought him to the boat. I had one of those 3 treble hook rapalas on and the fish managed to shake itself off before I could dawn my glove to grab him. Thats okay, we had a tonne of fish from Joe's catch.
At Norway I completed my Fire Chain challenge while Joe cooked up the fish. We broke camp and paddled back to Loyst for the final camp and making our paddle out the next morning an easy one. At Loyst, we grabbed our topo maps and completed the Turley Navigation challenge - which involves picking a feature on your map and using map and compass to navigate to it off trail. Joe picked a power line due South and I picked a bowl formation 240 degrees. After returning, we set up camp again, relaxed. Joe fished off shore and picked up a couple of small smallmouth bass which he released, biding our time on the last night.
I had brought along a 10x10 Tyvek sheet as a spare rain tarp in case it rained for a sitting area. I decided to put that up instead of my normal silnylon won just for the sake of saying I used all my gear. We had some light rain through the night and that Tyvek made it sound like a bongo drum! Next morning was a rather quick affair. Small fire for breakfast and paddle out. We were back at the truck, packed and canoe secured by 9:40 am and made it home by about 5:00 pm.
Here is the video - its a bit long, but worth it if you watch it in HD.
[youtube]P617rH61qUg[/youtube]
I'll have to populate the thread with pictures later in the day as I now have to run along to work.
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