North Tea Lake (Kawawaymog) to Cedar Lake (Brent) via Manitiou, Kioshkokwi and Cauchon Lake

CanadaOntarioAlgonquin
Submitter & Author Information
Route submitted by: 
PedlPadl
Trip Date : 
2017-09-18
Additional Route Information
Distance: 
73 km
Duration: 
5 days
Loop Trip: 
No
Portage Information
No. of portages: 
11
Total Portage Distance: 
4700 m
Longest Portage: 
1355 m
Difficulty Ratings
River Travel: 
Novice
Lake Travel: 
Intermediate
Portaging: 
Moderate
Remoteness: 
Intermediate
Background Trip Info
Water Levels: 
High
Route Description
Access to Put-In Information: 

This is a popular route but I don’t see any descriptions of it so I’ll post this brief one for the record.

I completed it easily in 5 days arriving early afternoon at each campsite. Weather was good but a bit too hot which made for some extra time filtering water to guzzle.

Portages are all pretty standard; not too difficult but some muddy and bumpy sections with roots and rocks that are slippery when wet and a few rocky take-outs (second one is really nice though, with a big dock!).

Long stretches of paddling make for a fast trip unless the weather is windy when the larger lakes could get rough.

I went mid-September and there were a couple of large school groups but very few other people and I had my pick of campsites.

Very nice scenery along the Amable du Fond River though perhaps not quite as scenic as the Petawawa or Nippising. Also some nice beaches on the lakes.

The wilderness feeling is somewhat lost when arriving on Kioshkokwi Lake as there is an access point there. A few of the lakes have several cottages on them. Cauchon Lake was also less wild feeling with a couple of motor boats trawling back and forth in front of the campsite for a couple of hours and Little Cauchon had a couple of pontoon boats on the shore. There are a number of options for alternate, more-or-less parallel routes that would be more remote but more strenuous.

A couple of possible points of interest:

The south-east campsite on Cauchon Lake is supposed to be close to a site of tornado damage (noted on Jeff’s Map). I’m not sure if I found it; but there were a lot of logs lying around in one area but it happened over 10 years ago so it’s pretty overgrown now. About 150m east of the campsite on the rail bed there is an unmarked but well-used trail to the south. Several meters into the bush there is a spring into which someone has installed a garden hose to deliver water. Most of the waterfront at Daventry looked like private land so I did not go ashore to see if anything remains to be seen of the historic town site.

Stayed on the first campsite on an island at the north end of Cedar Lake. There is a stone chimney which must have been the centre of a sizeable lodge at one time but there is no sign of any historic site on any map I have seen.

Trip Journal/Log/Report/Diary: 
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