It’s been too long.

Life has been busy the past couple years so my annual camping trip has been pushed to the side. In 2017, Brian and I explored the ghost town of Biscotasing and surrounding area in late November. We spent a couple nights on a nice little camp site at the end of Deschene Bay. (You can copy-and-paste the following coordinates into a Google search to quickly see the location on Google Maps.)

Deschene Bay Campsite:
N 47° 19.070′
W 082° 11.608′

This year we returned a month earlier and paddle the area.

Day 1: Norton Arm

It’s about a six hour drive from Bracebridge to Bisco so I got up early in the morning, strapped down the canoe, and headed north. I received some strange looks once I got to the Salton side road. Moose season was open and almost everyone I saw was dressed in orange with a pick-up truck with a quad in the back. I don’t think they expected to see an old Escape with a green Langford Nahanni on the roof!

I arrived at the put-in around two o’clock in the afternoon. Fortunately, there was room to park right there. I had a few hours before Brian would arrive (travelling down from Wawa), so I got my gear together and started looking for a campsite.

Put-In:
N 47° 17.997′
W 082° 09.480′

I was surprised to hear a crackling sound as I started paddling across the bay. It was covered in a thin layer of ice! Fortunately, this cleared up when I entered the main channel of the Norton Arm.

The sky was overcast and the whole area place was eerily quiet. The deciduous trees had all lost their leaves, but the tamaracks were boasting their full fall glory. I found a long slab of rocky shoreline about a half hour solo paddle north of the put-in. Here’s where I set up home.

The place was interesting to explore. Once you climbed to the top of the rock that lined the shore, you entered a forest with at least a foot’s worth of thick moss covering the ground. It made a great bed!

Norton Arm Campsite:
N 47° 18.757′
W 082° 08.695′

Since Brian had the tent with him, I strung up a tarp a-frame style over some thick moss at the edge of the woods. Next, I prepared a fire-pit by the water and collected a night’s worth of firewood. This area is not used very often. Despite being the most obvious spot to camp, the only evidence of humans I found were two very old bottles.

I tried to fish, but nothing was biting. This seemed to be the theme of the trip. We caught nothing! Of course, we were more concerned with paddling than fishing (at least that’s the excuse I tell myself). After a bite of pizza I paddled back to the put-in to pick up Brian who was right on time.

We returned to the campsite and got a great fire going which was surprising, given how damp all the wood was. We used a non-stick frying pan I picked up at a thrift store to reheat the take-out pizza I brought for night one. It was a great way to start the trip. After a long evening of catching up, we turned in for the night.

Day 2: Biscotasi Lake

It was a good thing it didn’t rain that night—turns out the tarp I brought was pretty holey! Sleeping outside was worth it. There’s nothing quite like waking up with a view.

Breakfast consisted of thick cut peameal steaks, eggs, and coffee. The great thing about a canoe trip is you can afford to carry more weight then on a backpacking trip. After breakfast we started paddling toward the town of Biscotasing. Even in late fall, the land up here is beautiful.

It was a cool morning—the temperature hovered right around zero degrees for the whole trip. Brian had filled a thermos full of some instant latte drink that I wouldn’t touch at home. It tasted heavenly on the water!

We had planned on paddling under the CP railroad at the first opportunity to get to the main part of Biscotasi Lake, but I misjudged our speed and we overshot, adding a couple extra kilometres to the trip as we traveled around a peninsula further north. Rounding the corner, we headed straight south toward Biscotasing. We were able to see from the water what we saw from shore a year earlier.

We had another navigational hiccup as we entered a main section of Biscotasi Lake. Mistaking the main channel for the bay, we headed east instead of north. Once the landscape didn’t match the topo map, I dug out my GPS to double-check and saw the mistake. From there we headed north and found a place to eat lunch on a well used campsite:

Day 2 Lunch:
N 47° 19.513′
W 082° 04.174′

Only after getting out of the canoe did we realize how cold we were. We layered up and jogged back and forth to the thunderbox while cooking sausages. After we finished lunch we paddled further north to a beautiful campsite by Wind Point:

Day 2 Campsite:
N 47° 21.898′
W 082° 02.936′

If you ever find yourself on Biscotasi Lake, use this site. It’s spacious, covered with white pine needles. There is even a picnic table and fish-cleaning station (luxury)! Since we ate lunch so late, we took some time to explore the island and gather firewood before supper. There was dry driftwood available on the shore. The north point of the island had a beautiful view of Grey Owl Bay.

We tried something new for supper that turned out fantastic—a nacho platter! First we fried up some ground beef. Next we layered jalapeno flavoured nachos on the frying pan and covered them with Donna’s homemade salsa, ground beef, hot Thai chili peppers, green onions, and plenty of cheese. The first batch was difficult to get right. It was so cold, the heat couldn’t get to the top to melt the cheese, even with tin-foil over it. Fortunately Brian had brought his camping-style dutch oven. The second round, cooked in the dutch oven, was perfect.

We went to bed with full bellies, excited to see the Spanish River tomorrow.

Day 3: Spanish River (West Branch)

Breakfast was delicious. Since we had eggs and nacho cheese left over from the day before, we started the morning with omelets instead of the planned pancakes. Fried pancetta added a delicious touch.

As we should have expected, the wind changed direction overnight. After fighting a north wind yesterday afternoon, we paddled into a south wind for the first half of today.

The morning became exciting when we saw a number of Bufflehead ducks flying around the lake. I had brought my 12 gauge with me (with the appropriate licenses and permits, of course). We were fortunate enough to harvest a duck which made for a tasty lunch!

One reason we planned our route this way was to see the start of the West Branch of the Spanish River. We had paddled the East Branch back in 2013 and wanted to see what the other side looked like. We reached the dam that marks the start of the West Branch at lunch.

Day 3 Lunch at the Biscotasi Lake Dam:
N 47° 17.662′
W 081° 59.971′

This had to be the tastiest lunch we have ever had on a trip. We dipped naan bread in Donna’s homemade hummus for a snack while we cooked. I made up a batch of Angry Red Lentil Soup (a staple on our trips) complete with fresh limes. Brian wrapped (very) fresh duck breast in pancetta and sautéed it in butter. (In hindsight, the pancetta made the duck a little too salty, but it was still delicious.)

With our bellies full, we put-in at the base of the dam and started paddling the Spanish. We quickly came to a portage called Little Falls. It was an easy lift-over accessed by a rock in the centre of the channel.

Next we paddled to Little Rapids. Our canoe was made for big water, not whitewater, so we portaged around the rapids (480m). One day we will return earlier in the season with proper whitewater canoes and run this set. The portages were littered with downed trees we had to climb over. The campsite at the bottom of this set of rapids is large and welcoming—a definite consideration for a future trip.

A second length of river brought us to “Stovedoor Rapids” which we also portaged to get to our campsite for the night (70m). The water levels were very high this fall which made the portage a little nerve-wracking. We ran the first gentle swift and prepared to latch on to shore before getting caught in the main rapid.

There was an ominous note hanging over the trip at this point. In order to visit the Spanish River, I planned a 1.6 km portage where none existed that would take us from the campsite at Stovedoor Rapids to Drefal Lake. Satellite imagery showed some logging roads, but none that made a direct connection. After setting up camp we decided to scout the next morning’s portage.

Day 3 Campsite:
N 47° 15.238′
W 082° 00.078′

I set a way-point on the Northeast corner of Drefal Lake and we started walking. Discouragement set in quickly. The terrain was steep and covered in downed trees and thick forest. Before we made it 300m in, I was considering paddling upstream and calling off the second half of the trip. Still, we persevered. We crossed a stream at a beaver dam at the end of a pond. A little more bushwhacking brought us to a logging road. What a welcome sight!

We followed the logging road to an intersection with another logging road which skirted the perimeter of Drefal Lake. Once we realized the road didn’t connect to the lake directly, we headed up the creek that led to the lake. This was another mistake. The creek brought us to a large marsh at the corner of the lake which we had to skirt by pushing through the thick foliage on the shoreline. After a lot of sweat, we finally made it to the shore of Drefal Lake.

Renewed in our commitment to conquer this portage, we set out to find an easier route back to camp. We headed straight north from the lake and met the logging road—a much easier route. We walked through stands of Labrador Tea that Brian identified and pointed out to me. We backtracked on the logging roads and followed the first road further towards the Spanish until it ended about 400m shy of the water. We decided to blaze a trail straight to the Spanish. Upon reaching the shore we headed north to the campsite when we met another obstacle—the creek we forded via beaver dam on the way in.

We had to head back west along the wide creek all the way back to the beaver dam we crossed on the way in. We then headed back east along the north bank of the creek to the Spanish and our campsite.

What an exhausting afternoon! Fortunately, we had a viable path for tomorrow morning’s portage. We could paddle the creek straight to the beaver dam then bushwhack 200m to the logging road.

Back at camp, we collected plenty of firewood for the evening. Dinner was homemade cornbread in the dutch oven along with trail mix and chips. We had chili on the menu, but were too full to eat it. We spent the night watching the fire and telling stories. Life is good.

Day 4: Spanish River to Biscotasi Lake

Morning fires are always a treat. I woke up to put water on for coffee and realized that the fire-pit still held some heat. A curl of birch bark and some twigs brought it back to life.

Breakfast was a classic: prepackaged oatmeal. I tried prepackaged cream of wheat, which was a mistake. It tasted like sugar and artificial flavouring and had the consistency of sand. Lesson learned. We set up camp and prepared ourselves for the big portage.

We paddled up the creek all the way to the beaver dam we crossed twice the afternoon before. It was a cool morning and the snow was soon to arrive.

Two hundred metres doesn’t sound like much when you’re at home, but it felt like the most difficult terrain we have ever portaged. The portage started with an almost vertical climb followed by thick bush and fallen trees we climbed over with our gear. The pictures don’t do it justice!

At one point we got into a stand of young poplar trees so thick I had to stand the canoe on it’s end to change directions! A number of times I had to put the canoe on one shoulder to wedge it through the trees.

We two-tripped the initial 200m of the portage before single tripping it along the logging road. Brian carried the canoe with a pack while I took my pack on the back and the food barrel on the front. We two-tripped the final few hundred metres into Drefal Lake. If anyone dares try this route, I’ve included the final portage map for you to follow (from Brian’s watch).

With the big portage behind us, we set out to paddle. The culvert from Drefal Lake to Houghton Lake was too small to paddle through so we quickly unloaded and portaged over the train tracks, avoiding the signal wires that were lying along the tracks. By the time we started paddling Houghton Lake, it was snowing in earnest, reducing visibility substantially.

The paddling around here is beautiful. The channels are narrow and plentiful, making it an interesting place to navigate. We worked our way southwest through Hogsback Channel before heading northwest and thankfully finding an existing unmarked portage towards Soule Lake. The canoe icon cut out of what I assume was an old aluminum boat was a nice touch!

We paused for some snacks here—chocolate covered almonds and salt and vinegar Crispers. The view behind us was a winter wonderland!

The quick up-and-over portage brought us to a small pond. Another preexisting but unmarked portage brought us across a logging road to Biscotasi Lake where we had lunch. (I forgot to mark this way-point on the GPS at the time so my post-trip coordinates may be slightly off.)

Day 4 Lunch:
N 47° 12.762′
W 082° 05.786′

We had a lunch of Thai chili tuna wraps (complete with smoked cheddar cheese) on an earthen banked dam. The cold was starting to become an issue. You don’t notice it as much when you’re paddling, but after you get out the the canoe, the shivering begins.

We put-in on Biscotasi Lake again and intended to paddle through a north channel to O’Neil Bay. These ideas were quickly dashed when we saw the first of three concrete dams with threatening whitewater below. We changed course and took the southern route that led to a quick lift-over. The channel to O’Neil Bay was fun—the water level was so high we were able to run a series of swifts. Had the water level been any lower it would have been a rock garden.

At O’Neil Bay, we steeled ourselves for a big crossing. The first third of the crossing brought us to a peninsula in the middle of this part of Biscotasi Lake. The second two thirds of the crossing had us aiming at a small island because we couldn’t see the far shore through the snow! We paddled hard into the wind, snow, and ice while singing Tom Petty and Travelling Wilbury songs.

Once we made it into the gentler water of Longspur Bay, we tried to find a campsite. Despite shivering almost uncontrollably, we rejected the first potential spot because there was no shelter from the wind. We paddled to a small island and set up camp on the remains of what I assume was an old hunting camp.

Day 4 Campsite:
N 47° 14.759′
W 082° 09.583′

The view from our final campsite shows the kind of weather we encountered.

The chili we saved the night before hit the spot tonight. We boiled water, rehydrated it, and ate. Neither of us was too hungry, but it’s important to fuel up in order to reheat. We climbed into our sleeping bags while it was still light outside and read some of Margaret Avison’s poetry (Listening) before falling asleep.

I woke up at 10 p.m. and realized that I was warm—blissfully warm, right to my toes! The right gear is so important on trips like this. In the future we would pack some heavier winter gear. Zero degrees isn’t too cold, but when you spend day-after-day in it, it seeps into your bones!

Day 5: Biscotasi Lake to the Vehicles

It snowed even more overnight—everything was covered with an icy crust.

We were so close to our vehicles this morning we choose to skip the coffee and breakfast ritual and head directly for home. We had to be careful loading the canoe on the icy slope!

We paddled north up Longspur Bay towards the road to Biscotasing by the dump. These paddles are always bitter-sweet. We were eager to warm up and see our families, while at the same time sad to be leaving such beautiful country. We eventually found a small trail that led from the end of the bay to the road. Fittingly, we had to break ice to make it to shore.

Our exit point was on the road about 2 km from our original put-in so we set off on a brisk hike to the vehicles. Everything went according to plan. The vehicles were both started fine and we drove back to pick up our gear. Here’s a first: I had to use my ice-scraper to clean the gunnels of the canoe and the roof racks before strapping it down!

After loading our gear we drove back to the Sultan road. Brian turned left for Wawa and I turned right for Bracebridge. We will definitely return—there are seemingly infinite waterways to explore.