Oram Lake-Algonquin Park

My most recent trip to Algonquin Provincial Park was a short one-night stay on Oram Lake. This was my third back country trip of the year, but what made this trip important was that it was my wife’s first time going back country camping.

We left Ottawa around 6:45 and, after a quick stop at A&W, hit the road to the park. We got to the Shall Lake access point just before 11 a.m., including a quick stop in Bancroft to charge our EV. The parking lot at the access point was full, so full that there weren’t any spots, and I had to make the trek up to the overflow parking lot. We got on the water around 11:20 a.m. and made it to the portage around 11:45 a.m.

The landing for the 480 m portage into Oram Lake is nothing but mud. My wife sank up to her knees, and I managed to sink up to my mid-calf. The thing with this landing is that the ground looks very solid, but it’s far from it. After a lot of work freeing ourselves, we scrambled onto some rocks and made quick work of unloading the canoe. The portage itself isn’t that bad, it has a decent amount of up and down for what is a relatively short carry, but it goes through a nice bit of forest and isn’t overgrown. However, the bugs were vicious. My wife got thirty-something bites just from the first carry.

We finished the portage around 12:30 after doing a double carry. From there, it was a quick ten-minute paddle across the lake to our campsite. There are two campsites on Oram Lake. One faces east and has a view of the hydro line (thankfully, this one was taken), and the other faces west with a view of the lake and a marsh. We were hoping to snag the one facing west, and luckily it was the free one, as the other was already occupied when we passed by.

The site itself is kind of shaped like a half-pipe. There’s a small semi-flat area in the front of the site where the fireplace and bench are, and from there it’s up a hill to where the two small tent pads are located. We picked the pad in the middle of the red pines, as it was supposed to rain overnight and we thought they would provide a bit of protection.

As we were setting up the site, I couldn’t help but notice how much garbage past users had left. I did my best to pick it all up but undoubtedly missed some. So, if you’re the next one to camp at this site, do your part and leave it better than you found it. Please try to leave no trace, if you pack it in, pack it out and don't be a slob.

We spent the majority of our afternoon hanging out at the site, reading and talking. We would have loved to explore the lake a bit, and I would have loved to get some fishing in to see what I could catch, but the wind started up as soon as we landed and didn’t let up for the rest of the day. The weather forecast said we had gusts up to 40km/h. We did manage to get a swim in. The swimming area isn’t the best as there are a few lily pads, but once you get past them it’s smooth sailing.

The only wildlife we saw was a beaver around sunset and some green frogs.

Since the fire ban was on, we went into the tent around 8:30–8:45 once the sun had set and were asleep around 9:30.

We woke up the next day to a very light mist. It had rained overnight, which meant packing away our tent and bug shelter wet, which is always disappointing. We packed up camp and made our way back to the access point by around 11:30 a.m. On the way back, the portage felt much shorter, and we even managed to stay out of the mud on the Crotch Lake side.

Overall, it was a very nice 24 hours in the park, and my wife seems to have enjoyed it enough that she would do it again—which means I’ll be busy over the winter planning our canoe trips for next year.