Charleston Lake Provincial Park- Tallow Rock Bay Trail

The second hike of the day was in Charleston Lake Provincial Park. The write up of the first hike can be found here. This park is mainly front-country camping but has a few backcountry campsites along this trail. The trail is 10 km long, but due to how busy the trailhead parking lot was, I had to park 600 m away at a different trailhead and walk back to the trailhead.

The first section of the trail is shared with the Quiddity Trail, which is a short 600 m trail that leads to a lookout. The first maybe 400 m or so is wheelchair accessible, as it is a bed of level, smooth gravel with two boardwalk sections. Once you get to the Tallow Rock Bay Trail, it splits in two as the trail is a loop—you can choose either side to go down. I picked the side closest to Charleston Lake to start with, for no other reason than the fact that a couple had picked the opposite side a short while ago and I didn’t want to follow them.

I recommend you pick this side of the trail to start with first, as it is the most difficult side. There are a lot of elevation changes and scrambling over rocks—at one point you go down a crack between two rocks that is rather steep. This side of the trail also has the floating bridge, which is quite interesting. One section is raised to allow canoes and kayaks to pass under, while the rest of the bridge floats on the water.

The trail passes through a variety of forest types, with hardwood being the primary type you pass through. In addition, there are some pine forests and some open rock faces as well.

The trail passes by some cliffs and large drop-offs, so be careful.

At the top of the loop trail, there is a side trail that heads up to Bach’s Lookout, which is not to be missed. Even though the side trail adds roughly 2 km to your hike, it is worth it for the great view of Charleston Lake. When I went, the fall colours were just starting to come out, so by next weekend it should really be quite a show.

The other side of the trail is honestly relatively boring compared to the side you were just on, as it is a straight trail through the hardwood forest with little elevation change and little exciting to see other than one significant rock face that you pass by.

Overall, it was a very nice hike—13.88 km there and back from the parking lot I parked at. I did the trail in 3 hours flat, but if you are actually able to park at the trailhead, you could likely cut it down to about 2.75 hours.

I was able to do this trail because my local library, the Ottawa Public Library, has Ontario Parks Day Passes available to borrow, so I was able to visit the park for free.

This hike was also my first time testing out my new backpack, the Sail-branded Fjord 30L day pack. I bought it because it sits off my back a little and allows air to pass between my back and the pack, which reduces sweat. Overall, I liked the pack a lot as it’s a great size for a day pack. My one complaint was that the metal frame squeaked at the start of the hike, but I think that was mostly due to my water bottle being on one side while the rest of the bag was empty. This was fixed by the time I had drunk half my water, as at that point the bag didn’t make any more sounds.