The Kishkebus Canoe Route- A 16.2 km Paddle in Bon Echo Provincial Park

The Kishkebus Canoe Route has been on my radar for what feels like forever. And this spring I finally got to paddle it!

The route is a 21 km loop in Bon Echo Provincial Park. It brings you alongside, and behind, the massive Mazinaw Rock that sits in Upper/Lower Mazinaw Lake. We paddled through 5 different lakes, and portaged our canoe 4 separate times in order to complete the loop.

It made for a great half-day trip! It’s a perfect way to practice your paddling and portage skills without committing to a full-on backcountry trip.

I think my absolute best tip for this route would be to check which direction the wind is headed in on the day you plan to paddle. We spent almost the entire trip paddling into a headwind, and then for the last leg, over rolling waves on Upper Mazinaw Lake. It’s also a good idea to call the park to check on water levels. Campbell Creek was fairly shallow when we paddled it, so later in the season or during dry years you may have trouble getting through that section without walking.

By the end of our day I was exhausted, so it’s a good thing I had planned ahead and brought my friend (a much stronger paddler) with me!

Quick Facts

Length: 16.2 km according to my GPS, 21 km according to official sources.
# of Portages: 4
Difficulty: Moderate
Trailhead Coordinates: 44°53’46.9″N 77°11’27.9″W – Google Maps
Washroom at Trailhead: Yes
Canoe Rental on Site: Yes
Dogs Allowed: Yes
Cell Reception: Spotty
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Parking: Right at the trailhead.
Cost: $21 for a Provincial Parks day use pass, or the cost of a campsite.
Open in Winter: No (for obvious reasons lol)

Getting There

Wanting to get an early start on the day, my friend and I booked a campsite for Friday night at Bon Echo. We stayed at the Sawmill Bay Campsite and it was quite lovely! The trees were so tall, and most of the campsites looked really big. We set up camp for the night, and then it was a quick drive over to “the lagoon” in the morning where we set off on our paddle.

Bon Echo does rent canoes out at the lagoon, but these boats are designed to be strong and study, standing up to a lot of wear and tear that can come along with rentals. So they’re also quite heavy, and since one of the portages on this route is 1.5 km… I had my friend bring her much lighter canoe along!

There’s parking close by the lagoon, so we didn’t have to walk our canoe too far to the lake.

Our Route

Then we hopped in, having NOT CHECKED THE FORECAST FOR WIND and set off to paddle the loop counterclockwise. I blame people I talked to on the internet for this because they said that the wind typically blows more north to south, so paddling the route counterclockwise would have us paddling with a tail wind (the wind moving in the same direction as us) for the long section of the loop through Upper and Lower Mazinaw Lake.

And I guess technically they were right, because by the end of the day the wind was kicking up, moving north-south. But when we set out in the morning there was no wind, so it was irrelevant. And then we spent the rest of our time paddling into a headwind, leaving the longest portage for last. And THEN on the last leg of our trip we were riding waves caused by the wind- so much so that my friend really could only help steer and my exhausted little arms had to paddle us home.

When we got back to the lagoon there was actually a sign up that rentals were closed due to high winds. So that felt validating, at least.

Anyways! Onto the info you came here for.

Lower Mazinaw Lake to Semicircle Lake

We paddled out of the lagoon, turning to our right, and paddling across to the cliff side on Lower Mazinaw Lake, which we would follow until we reached the short portage to Campbell Creek.

Our map was accessible the whole time because as we paddled along the cliff we had to make sure we didn’t overshoot the first portage. We paddled past one big bay (Snyder Bay) and once we got past the outcropping on the other side, we paddled into a second, smaller bay that would lead us to our first portage.

Looking at our map we knew the portage would be at the very back of the bay, and when we reached it we had already paddled 4.4 km. We paddled a tiny way down the creek that we came to before running into a beaver dam and spotting a big blue portage sign off to our right.

This first portage was super short at only 40 metres. It basically just took us around the beaver dam, and ran right beside the creek. There was a ton of water running down the portage so our feet were wet pretty early into the trip. After being eaten alive by mosquitoes we put our canoe back in the water and paddled furiously up the creek to get rid of them.

600 metres later we came to a short bridge that crossed over the creek. This was Snyder Bay Lane- in my mind before setting out, we’d really be deep in the wilderness on this route, because there’s so little that surrounds Bon Echo Provincial Park when you’re travelling there by road. But really, we were essentially in the midst of cottage country! Which is fine, especially for those a bit newer to paddling and just testing out their portage skills.

We bent ourselves nearly in half and just barely tucked under the bridge. Then we paddled through Semicircle Lake, which was dotted with cottages.

Semicircle Lake to Shabomeka Lake

Semicircle Lake was the smallest of the lakes that we had to paddle. We reached the end of it having paddled 6.6 km in total. There was no way to miss this next portage. At the end of Semicircle Lake was a huge dam, and the road had recently been reconstructed. Getting the boat out of the water here took a bit of good footwork. We had to walk over big, wobbly rocks to get up to the road. On the road, we headed to our left, spotting a trail through the trees that we could use to get to Shabomeka Lake. This portage was approximately 250 metres.

There was actually a public boat launch on the opposite side of Shabomeka Lake. So you could also start and end your loop here if you wanted!

Shabomeka Lake was where the wind started to pick up. We paddled heroically into it, checking our map and sticking to the southwest shoreline to get to our next destination- another portage! Shabomeka Lake also had a bunch of cottages and EVERYONE seemed to have a dock with a motor attached to it. I think a lot of the cottages on the lake may have been boat in only so this was an inexpensive solution? If you have a cottage on Shabomeka, please tell me about your unique dock boat culture!

Shabomeka Lake to Kishkebus Lake

After travelling 9.5 km we arrived at Kishkebus Lake. This was the first lake we had been on all day that didn’t have any cottages on it, nor was there access to motor boats. So it was nice and quiet. The portage from Shabomeka to Kishkebus had been easy to find- it was well marked with the portage sign, and we used our map along the way to figure out approximately where it would be.

This had been another short portage, this time through the forest. Since it was only about 40 metres, and fairly wide, we just carried the canoe underhand to get onto KIshkebus Lake.

Again, we paddled into the wind, along the southwest shoreline. Kishkebus Lake was about 2 km long. We were looking for our last, and longest, portage of the day! Stepping out of the water on the northwest shore of Kishkebus Lake, I registered that we had travelled a total of 11.7 km to get there. It had taken us 3.5 hours to reach this point in our route.

The Longest Portage on the Route

We readied ourselves for the 1.5 km portage ahead of us. Mostly by putting on bug spray and bug jackets.

Our plan was for each person to portage the canoe as far as they could, and then we would switch… And switch and switch again, as it turned out!

This portage was definitely the most technical of all of them. If it had been a hike, I would have said it was quite easy! But since we were walking it with our paddling gear and at times a canoe over top of our heads, it was a bit harder. There were a few rocky sections, and a few small hills that required our focus.

For the most part, the portage was in great shape though. There was only one or two spots where we had to stop and pull small trees off of the trail (or step over them) before we could continue.

Almost Done! (The Portage)

The portage was also really well-worn into the dirt. There were basically no trail markers to follow as we hiked along. But there was also no way to get lost! There were no herd paths or offshoots where we had to wonder if we were going in the right direction- we just followed the trail through the woods.

Our first clue that we were nearing the end of the portage was when we walked under a power line. The portage curved gently to the left, and we began to see tents popping up here and there in the forest. Turns out the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) has a clubhouse right where the portage put us onto Upper Mazinaw Lake.

The ACC had built some steps down to the shoreline. The grade was quite steep for the last 100 metres of the portage. So steep that we decided to carry the canoe down as a team, instead of trying to have one person attempt it.

It took us about 45 minutes to complete the longest portage, but that included readying ourselves, and switching who was portaging the canoe at least four times along the way.

Upper Mazinaw Lake

Looking forward to seeing the pictographs on Mazinaw Rock, and hopefully having the wind at our backs, we set off on Upper Mazinaw Lake.

The wind was certainly a factor, moving north-south. So for the first 500 metres of this section it was coming at us from the side. Then, as we rounded the shoreline on our left hand side, the wind started to hit us from the back. But because it was creating decent sized waves that we had to ride, it wasn’t even helpful!

We struggled our way back towards the narrows (the spot where Upper and Lower Mazinaw Lake meet), and spotted a few pictographs along the way. But you have to have a pretty sharp eye to spot the pictographs, and we were quite focused on keeping our canoe upright and headed in the right direction.

We were able to take a little break in a tiny bay provided by the Mazinaw Rock, where the wind and waves couldn’t reach. That was really fortunate because by this point in our journey I was TIRED.

Paddling Thoughts

The last leg of our journey on Upper Mazinaw Lake took us just under an hour. We pulled back into the lagoon having been paddling and portaging for 5 hours and 10 minutes. Not too shabby!

We were really surprised to see that the GPS had only tracked us as having travelled 16.2 km, because we thought the route was going to be closer to 21 km. But after reading a few additional trip reports, we found others had experienced the same thing. My guess is that when officials at Ontario Provincial Parks decided on a route distance to advertise, they looked at what a longer possible route could be so that folks wouldn’t sign up for something they might not be able to handle. Our route was paddled pretty efficiently- thanks completely to my friend and her paddling skill- and so we clocked fewer kilometres in total.

I was happy to have finally completed this canoe route because it’s been on my radar for so long. And I think it’s a great activity if you’re already camping at Bon Echo Provincial Park. Not to mention it’s a PERFECT route for paddlers who want to challenge their portage skills a bit, without having too much at stake or needing to carry a bunch of additional camping gear. So despite my complaining throughout this entire blog post, I can say that I highly recommend this route! Happy paddling!

Map

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

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Canoe
2x paddles
2x lifejackets
Bailing bucket with rope and whistle (required in Ontario)
Keen hiking boots and socks for the long portage (I’ve since bought new Keen Clearwater sandals for this purpose but haven’t had a chance to test them out!)
Bug spray
Sunscreen
Hats
2x bug jackets
Nalgene water bottle
MSR Water filter
Lunch + extra snacks
Waterproof map
Compass
Rab 4 emergency shelter (this link is for a 2 person, they’re often sold out of different sizes)
Bear bell
Garmin inReach
Kula cloth
30L Decathlon backpack to carry it all during the portages!