Last year, we took our daughter canoe camping for the first time. This year, she’s two-and-a-half years old. Ready to handle a portage! But were we? We’re not expert canoe campers by any means, and travelling with a toddler always adds a layer of complexity. So we decided to tackle the easiest portage we could find.
Crab Lake in Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park was perfect! It’s just two short paddles out to the campsites on Crab Lake, and the portage in between Wolf Lake and Crab Lake is only 140 metres. Totally doable!
Crab Lake itself was quiet (no motorized boats) and gorgeous. All the campsites had open rocky outcrops over the water, which helped cut down on the mosquitoes too.
We really enjoyed our first trip to Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park and we’ll definitely be back!
On our way to our campsite on Crab Lake!
Getting There
In order to get to our campsite on Crab Lake (#316), we had to use the Wolf Lake Access Point. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.748968, -78.161444.
It was really easy to find our way because there were Ontario Provincial Parks signs up on the side of the road pointing out the boat launches.
The boat launch had a huge parking lot. The boat launch is only available for “small vessels,” which after some Googling I came to learn means a boat that weighs less than 15 tons. Which was probably part of the reason Wolf Lake was so quiet when it came to motorboats. We saw a lot of folks with canoes and kayaks, but only one or two powerboats. Which suited me just fine!
There was a small outhouse at the parking lot.
Parking and Fees
In 2021, there’s free day use at all Ontario Provincial Parks from Monday to Thursday. And there were no actual fees for parking, but if you’re there on the weekend, then you have to be able to show that you have a permit (day use or otherwise!). We saw the rangers there giving out tickets when we came back.
Because we were camping, we grabbed a form from the bulletin board and simply jotted down our registration number leaving it in our windshield to show that we had a permit. There was also a phone number listed on the bulletin board that you could call, to pay for a day use permit over the phone.
Make sure to have your booking number!
The Launch
This boat launch was really easy and lovely to launch from. It was shallow, and made it easy to load up the canoe with all our gear and the toddler. And then we were on our way! Wolf Lake is a fairly small lake, meaning we had to do basically zero navigation. It was dotted with cottages, but the landscape was still really gorgeous, with rocky outcrops and tiny islands scattered along the shoreline.
We basically just paddled to the opposite end of Wolf Lake, looking for a portage sign. Our paddle from one end of Wolf Lake to the other was roughly 4 km.
My brother, setting off from the launch.
The Portage
The portage sign was easy to find.
Just look for this sign!
And hopping out at the portage was fairly easy. We were able to pull up right next to the shoreline, which wasn’t too high above the water.
We actually portages under a set of power lines, and right beside a cottage!
The mosquitoes were VICIOUS and so we quickly carried our things the 140 metres over a well-worn path in the woods. There were a few rocks and roots here and there, but nothing too treacherous. The portage was so short that no trail markers were needed.
A portage so easy that our two-and-a-half year old had no problem traversing it! Look at her little backpack! So cute.
Crab Lake
Putting in at Crab Lake was also easy, with shallow water that we decided to just step into.
Crab Lake has a very distinct shape, with bays branching off on each side. Having printed our map off ahead of time was super helpful, because we knew exactly where we were headed to get to site #316. Again, we basically headed to the opposite end of the lake! We only had to paddle about a kilometre to get there.
This is actually a picture of Wolf Lake. It was so beautiful that I wanted to make sure I showed you!
Campsite #316
The campsite itself was gorgeous! There was a fire pit with a grill, a bench right beside it, and a picnic table at the top of a rocky hill. There were also two perfect spots for our small tents.
The one thing that wasn’t totally toddler friendly was the thunder box- it was set way, WAY back in the woods and you had to climb up an incredibly steep little hill to get there!
View of campsite #316 from the lake.
At the top of the campsite the rocks also dropped off abruptly over the water. It made for a beautiful site but also meant we had to be quite vigilant about our daughter not getting too close to the edge and taking a tumble.
All in all, though, we thought it was an amazing campsite. Lots of room to run around, enough sun and shade to go around, and lovely level spots for our tents. What more could you ask for?
Two perfect spots for our tents!
Trail (Trip) Thoughts
After a relaxing evening and morning, we packed up our gear and headed back for the easy paddle home. Now I can’t wait to see what else Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park has to offer!
This truly was the perfect trip for us to introduce our toddler to the idea of a portage. And to test ourselves, and make sure we could do it too! Packing to portage is WAY different than packing for a canoe camping trip without a portage. And somehow also more complicated than packing for backpacking? So this little trip was the perfect test. And I think we passed! Here’s to more canoe camping trips in the future.
Our GPS tracked route.
Haha. Sigh… i did this exact same trip today, and after setting up camp while confidently telling myself “im fine” … i tore down not an hour later succumbing to an unbeatable phobia of night-bears and paddled all the way back in darkness to my vehicle. So sad, what is wrong with me! XD
Any thoughts on if this site would be big enough for a larger group? (Around 8 – 9? )