Camping at Doe Lake in Frontenac Provincial Park (Sites 2A and 2B)

Frontenac Provincial Park has some of the easiest backpacking trails within two hours of Ottawa. And also, MOST of the backpacking trails within two hours of Ottawa!

If you’re a beginner backpacker, or just looking for an easy trip, I can’t recommend Frontenac enough. We recently camped at the Doe Lake campsites (2A and B), and it was perfect for our little group that had a few folks wanting to try out backpacking for the first time!

Quick Facts

Length: 3.7 km one way
Difficulty: Easy (On a scale of easy-moderate-hard)
Trailhead Coordinates: 44.518270, -76.540562
Washroom at Trailhead: Yes (bring your own TP)
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Cell Reception: None (cell reception cuts out even before you get to Frontenac)
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Parking: Free

Booking Our Sites

You can hike any of the trails at Frontenac Provincial Park during the day, and don’t necessarily need to camp. There are tons of loops in Frontenac to explore, and I haven’t hiked even close to all of them. However, the ones that I have seen aren’t stand-alone spectacular, they’re more a lovely walk in the woods. So, I tend to head down to Frontenac only when I feel like camping!

You can reserve a campsite online through Ontario Parks here. Select “backcountry” along the top and “Frontenac Provincial Park” from the drop-down menu.

We chose to stay at the Doe Lake campsites, as they’re some of the closest and easiest to get to.

Getting There

On the day of our trip, we stopped off at the camp office to have our vehicle and campsite permits printed for us. The vehicle permit you leave in your car at the parking lot so that you don’t get ticketed, and the campsite permit you bring with you.

Then, we drove to where the trail out to the Doe Lake campsites actually starts, which is at the Arab Lake parking lot. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.518270, -76.540562.

Figuring out the trail to get there can be a bit confusing at first as there’s a Doe Lake Loop trail that starts near the park office. But the Doe Lake campsites are NOT on that loop, and you do need to start at the Arab Lake parking lot to get to where you’re going.

Getting to the Campsite

To head in the direction of our campsite, we left the parking lot and hopped on the “Corridor Trail.” There were brown and yellow signs pointing us in the right direction, starting in the parking lot. There weren’t too many trail splits along our route, and each one had similar brown signs posted helping to keep us on track.

Along the way there were also the classic Ontario Provincial Park trail markers posted frequently. The trail marking is so well done that we were never at risk of losing the trail. At provincial parks, keep an eye on the colour of the trail markers you see. Blue markers denote hiking trails, whereas a yellow marker lets you know that you’re on a portage.

Terrain Along the Way

The terrain along the way was very typical of Frontenac. Which is to say, the trail was quite well worn, and the hiking was not at all technical. There were a few rocks and roots along the way, but not so many that we had to think very hard about where to put our feet. There also wasn’t much elevation gain, just a few small hills here and there.

In a few spots the ground was super wet and muddy. And in a couple of truly flooded spots, we had to carefully make our way over the water on logs and branches that had been tossed down to help. Still, a very easy hike and with boots on we were able to keep our feet dry.

For the most part, our walk was forested without many views. We got one quick peek over Doe Lake on the way, which let us know we were getting close to our campsite. Which was good, because the mosquitoes were doing their best to eat us alive!

By the time we arrived at our campsite, we had hiked the 3.7 km from the parking lot to sites 2A and B. We were able to cover that distance in an hour and twenty minutes. One the way back from camp the bugs were WORSE, and we hiked it in just over an hour!

First Impressions

All the campsites in Frontenac are clustered, meaning they’re fairly close together. Campsite cluster #2 has three separate sites- A, B, and C. Since our group had originally planned on being a bit bigger, we booked sites A and B.

The campsites themselves were quite lovely. As with most of the sites at Frontenac, they were right by the lake. This afforded us beautiful views across the lake basically everywhere we looked. Plus, it means the wind can get to your campsite, which cools things down a bit AND keeps the mosquitoes at bay. Mostly.

Campsite Amenities

Walking into the campsite, we walked past the shared outhouse. All 3 campsites use this outhouse. It was well built, sturdy, and quite clean. There was no toilet paper, but we had brought our own, so this wasn’t an issue.

We also walked past the food locker for campsite 2A. I LOVE these things. They’re exactly what they sound like- a metal box that animals can’t get into. At the end of the day, it’s so easy to put your food, toiletries, etc. into these boxes and latch it shut. You know that no animals are going to get into your food, and by making sure everything is put away, you know that you aren’t attracting animals to the campsite, which would disturb future visitors. I would say using the food boxes at Frontenac Provincial Park is approximately 1 million times easier than keeping your food away from animals by doing a bear hang.

Each site had a firepit with a bench, a picnic table, and two large areas where we could set up our tents. You could easily fit a 6-man tent on the raised platforms-not that you’d want to carry one out there.

Beside 2C there was a pile of lumber, so I suspect wooden tent platforms will be built at these sites soon. But for now, they were still dirt.

Getting water was super easy because the access to Doe Lake was fairly shallow. The bottom of the lake looked quite sandy, and I thought to myself that these would be great sites to go swimming with kids at. Anyone who has ever tried to help a toddler swim with a rocky lake bottom can relate, I’m sure!

We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing around the campsite, and then built a nice fire as dusk fell. Basically, it was the perfect backpacking trip.

In the morning we made breakfast, packed up and were on our way!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the Indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear We Brought

Since this was a 4-person trip we were lucky enough to be able to share the weight of a lot of our gear. But a lot of gear was still repeated, i.e., multiple backpacks, tents etc. I haven’t bothered listing gear that we brought in multiples, so for those items I’m just listing the specific piece of equipment that I used myself.

For Travelling

Hiking Boots (mine are Keen)
Hiking Poles
North Face 55L Backpack
Compass
Map
Headlamp
Bear Bell
Sunglasses
Hat
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Bug Jacket

For Sleeping

Marmot 2 Person Backpacking Tent
MEC Backpacking Pillow (no longer being made)
Thermarest Sleeping Pad
Mountain Warehouse Sleeping Bag, rated to 11°C
Wireless Headphones (I downloaded The Ultimatum before I left home, don’t judge me!)

For Eating

Platypus 4L Gravity Water Filter
Primus Primetech Stove + Fuel
Lighter
Mug
Spork
MSR Bowl
Camp Suds (biodegradable soap for washing dishes)

For Hanging Out

Backpacking Saw (to cut up deadfall for our campfire)
Fire Starting Kit (lint, lighter and those little fire starters you can buy)
Lantern (for reading at night)

Miscellaneous Gear

Garmin inReach (this is a satellite phone you can use to call for help, and to text when there’s no reception)
Toilet Paper
Hand Sanitizer
First Aid Kit
Solar Charger
Toiletries
Extra Clothes

This is a reminder that you do NOT need top-of-the-line or brand-new gear to get outside and enjoy the outdoors! Check your local Facebook marketplace or Kijiji and look at what you have at home or can borrow before you spend money on gear.

If you use these affiliate links to purchase gear, a portion of the money you spend will go towards supporting the work we do through our Camp Kit Program (where we lend camping gear for free in the Ottawa area- so look there too before you buy!).