View topic - Deer Bay Creek - Kawarthas

Long time lurker and info user of this forum, but looking for some insight on Deer Bay Cr in the Kawarthas.

Provincial Parks opening pending - I have an opportunity to go to a cottage on Catchacoma sometime in mid-late August, and my friend and I are planing a potential canoe loop from the dock. We are considering taking off for 3 nights down the Mississauga river, crossing Lower Buckhorn and re-entering the park via Deer Bay Cr. up through Stoplogg and back into the Catchacoma Narrows where the cottage is.

Both of us are experienced trippers and not afraid of a good old slog if need be. My question is: what are the water levels like going up Deer Bay Cr. in mid August? Are we signing up for a death march? Or will we be able to paddle some/most of it? I've searched the archives and only found limited details, so any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

Ha! Blast from the past...This is a route I have done many times, but over 40 years ago now.

We had a cottage on the Mississauga River and one of the most common routes was just this. At that time the lower part of Deer Bay Creek was slow, winding and swampy. Most of the height was gained in one big portage S of Stoplog. Of course there were others too but my memory is foggy on the details... We were able to to this trip throughout the season, even at low water. There were some cottages on the lower part of the creek, and few campsites until you got a fair ways up.

All this may have changed with beaver activity etc. Maybe someone has done it more recently. In any event ascending the creek as a lot easier than ascending the Miss. would be.

Have fun,

Kinguq.

Thanks @kinguq, the only info I could find on someone travelling this was you advising MartinG to go up Deer Bay vs. Eels cr.

I plan to do the trip if the lock downs lift and parks open no matter what, but still looking for any recent travel info.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I have paddled part of Deer Bay Creek, coming down from Stoplog, then turning off to Coon Lake. I have incorporated that into a few wanderings in the area but not in the last decade. Most often it would be in the Fall. There was always enough water to paddle. In the section that I paddled I have marked 14 portages and beaver dams. The longest portage was 90 metres. I know someone who used to paddle up the creek from the road and they talked of a lot of tees being down. That is also old information.

I've paddled "The Creek" many times, albeit never northbound. We always started at Stoplog and went south, all the way to Deer Bay. Upper end is usually fairly good for water level. The beaver dams were always plentiful and would usually have lots of influence. I've done the Creek in May, top to bottom in under 4 hours. I've done it in August and spent upwards of 9 hours on it. Topography changes as you go south starting out as marshland, and definitely closing in and becoming more creek-feeling. We jokingly referred to this part as "The Amazon". Below Hwy 36, definitely more slogging. There was always a massive beaver dam at the southern end of the property beside the bridge; it held back a lot of water and the property owner counts on it for his "waterfront property". Below that it could get pretty sparse on water.

There's not much flow to it, so a northbound paddle wouldn't be difficult. You may actually find it easy as the water conditions should improve as you go (in theory anyway). Now I've gotta add that I haven't been on the creek in 20 years, so I'm not familiar with it now. But back in the day, it was always one of the highlights of our summer paddling adventures... long before there was ever a park up there.

Hey there,

Word of advice, DO NOT attempt the creek. I just did a similar route with my buddy just last week and could not complete the river. We went 1-2km through the ‘creek’ (though that is a generous name) and had to turn around and do a 6km portage into Coon Lake. Both of us are young but very experienced trippers (over 300 combined days), but that was some of the worst terrain we had seen. Though, the hardest part was navigation. We had the unlostify map and used CanadaTopos for location, but there were many times within the first little bit that the creek split without any hints of where to go. I hope you choose a better route and have a good trip.

Been thinking about running creek myself. I'm local and check it out frequently. Was to the top of creek 2 years ago, looked ok, but not a lot of water and looked at lower part where it crosses highway and it looked swampy.
Mississauga River was bad enough low water in July last year, lots of portaging but great trip.
I'd stick with the Mississauga and a shuttle or just go down stream through Deer Creek.

This is mostly what I was worried about. I'm not afraid of a good up stream slog when needed but the navigational challenges are always the worst without a GPS.

My paddle buddy was able to secure more time off of work and we've moved our trip to Temagami next month. Thanks for the feedback on the area though, I'm sure we will still get out near there some day this year.

Deer bay creek is also surrounded by a lot of private property. There is no issue with trespassing when you are paddling a navigable waterway but almost all of the portages are on private land, and to get from the creek to coon lake it is all on private. You can see where the private property starts and stops on Peterborough GIS. There was never a problem with a few people paddling the creek but now, and I hate to do this, but now that it is spewed on the internet, everyone and their neighbors dog walker have been setting foot on it and making it a liability for proporty owners and not to mention too much human activity in a sensitive ecosystem, So please respect the private property and keep it off the internet so that it doesn't turn into the shit show that is eels creek. It is private property from South of moodys marsh and North ofnthe burnt dam. So basically you can only go up the creek about 4 km from highway 36 and south from.stoplog about 1km. Hope this info helps! Safe travels!