Pleasant nighttime conditions made for perfect sleeping conditions, and we woke up refreshed and ready for a much longer day of paddling. A cloak of ground fog was just starting to burn away from the waters of Cedar Lake as we rubbed the sandmen from our eyes. After a fairly quick breakfast routine, we were ready to start the journey into the Algonquin backcountry. Destination: Catfish Lake.
In order to get from Cedar Lake to Catfish Lake, there are two options: paddle up the Petawawa River, or paddle up the Nippissing River. As in 2014, we chose to paddle up to Catfish on the Petawawa, and return on the Nippissing.
The Petawawa empties into Cedar Lake just a few hundred metres from our campsite, so it was a short 15 minute paddle to reach it. The river empties into the lake over a set of rapids, and a 715-metre portage provided the way around them.
Above the first portage, we began our paddle up the Petawawa River itself. With summer well-advanced, the river was lush with water plants of various sorts: fields of lilypads, river grasses and thrushes.
Approaching another placid stretch
A short and easy portage around a waterfall brought us to the next navigable section of the Petawawa. Half an hour of further paddling brought us to the challenge of the day: a 2.4 kilometer uphill portage around a long stretch of un-navigable river. I found this to be harder than two years ago, and I wasn't quite sure why. I had a very hard time getting my rental canoe to balance properly, both longitudinally and laterally. I was glad when I saw the waters of the Petawawa reappear in front of me.
The World above and Below
A short hop across the river and another tiny portage brought us to long and thin Narrowbag Lake. It too was well-filled with all manner of aquatic vegetation, and there were several spots where we canoed across large mats of it.
A final 80 metre portage brought us to Catfish Lake, our destination body of water for the day. There was some uncertainty about which campsites would be available to us (seven out of the thirteen campsites had been reserved, and we weren't sure which). In order to secure one of the preferred sites, we sent the speed team of Arn and Gosia ahead, equipped with a two-way radio that we could use to keep in touch. We could then simulataneously look for two sites and communicate back and forth as to which was better.
Arriving Catfish L Campsite
Back in 2014, we had scouted a very nice campsite situated on an island in Catfish Lake. The island, called Shangri-La, seemed like the ideal spot for us to try and get. The latest Jeff's Algonquin canoe map, however, showed Shangri-La as "reported to be infested with cockroaches". I was skeptical, and the folks at the park's Brent office had also stated that they had recently been on the island and not seen any, but the mood among some in our group was of disgust.
As a result of this "roach rumor", Arn and Gosia decided to park themselves at our 2014 campsite (which they found unoccupied), and radioed for us to join them there). Just for kicks, Kai and I (Kai was my co-pilot at this point) decided to head over to check out Shangri-La for ourselves. Another canoe party beat us to the island by literally thirty seconds, so the option to camp there was unavailable. It was clear that the rest had decided that Shangri-La was unacceptable, so this wasn't a big deal. We turned the canoe around (after first scanning the rocky shoreline for big bugs, and not seeing any), and paddled back to the campsite where everyone else had landed.
