A Quick Overnight Trip to Smith Lake, with a Side Trip to the Barron Canyon

McManus Lake was glass clam on my most recent canoe trip. There wasn't a single bit of breeze, but yet it wasn't too hot either. It was the perfect canoe tripping day.

I started my most recent canoe trip from access point 21: McManus Lake. This was going to be a short trip, with just one night day on Smith Lake before heading home again.

I made to the access point around 10am after a brief 15- minute stop in Pembroke to add a little extra range to my car. The road in was delightful to drive on as it had just been graded recently, so it was smooth sailing. I made the mandatory stop at the Sand Lake Gate to register and was on my way again in no time. After turning off of the Barron Canyon Road onto the McManus Lake road, the road quality went down slightly. The road itself was fine for the most part with only a few washboard sections, but the biggest change was how narrow the road got at times, only wide enough for a single car.

Once I had everything loaded into the canoe, I was off. The paddling conditions could not have been better, with glass-like conditions. Once I was across McManus Lake, I came up to the swift/ripple that separates McManus and Smith Lakes. There is a 140m portage off to the side that bypasses this swift, but it looked like it was possible to walk up the swift on the side instead, which is exactly what I did.

The first site on the lake was taken, so I made my way up the lake to the second site. It wasn't the best looking from the water, so I figured I would try and see if the third site was any good. Unfortunately, it was taken by a couple. So I made the U-turn of shame and paddled back to the second site on the lake.

This site was situated on a peninsula, with a bunch of red pines. It was a very open site, with two tent pads set back into the forest. I made it to the site around 11:50 am. I was hoping that because it was so early I would see the couple on the third site paddle past me with a loaded boat, so I decided before unpacking that I would just have some lunch to buy some time.

This strategy didn't work out, so I ended up unpacking and setting up on the second site. It did end up being quite a nice site, with a decent canoe landing, good swimming rocks, and great views of the lake. The tent pads were good and flat and were protected from the elements (not that there were any). The site had a decent thunder box that had a great view of a huge white pine. As I was setting up camp I kept hearing splashes in the water, so I figured it was just beavers, but it ended up being an osprey diving into the water to catch fish.

Once I was done setting up my camp, I hung my food bag in a tree and paddled up the lake to get into Whitson Lake. There was another swift between these two lakes that had a 480m portage along it, but yet again I opted to paddle and walk my canoe up it.

Whitson Lake isn't that nice of a lake, its very marshy and shallow in parts and has decent moving water in others. The swift between Whitson and Smith was fun to paddle down, there was a fair drop in elevation. Smith Lake is fairly shallow at this end, with a good view of the bottom. You are treated to swaying grasses and a bunch of mussels.

I spent the rest of my afternoon and evening relaxing at camp, reading, swimming and making my dehydrated dinner of pad thai. I ended the evening with another swim and a great fire. I did try to get some star photos, as it was a clear night, but it has been a while since I've done them, so I couldn't figure out my settings and was getting attacked by bugs, so I gave up.

The next morning I slept in until around 7:30. I knew I could take my time this morning, as I only had the short paddle back to the car at the access point, and I knew that I could run the swift between Smith and McManus so it would be a quicker trip down than it was up. I made my breakfast and had two cups of coffee before I started packing up camp.

Unlike the previous day, the weather was high level clouds with a storm predicted later in the afternoon. There was a slight wind, which of course meant that I had a headwind on my trip down the lake. Thankfully, it was still very light.

I was on the water around 9:20 and had a pleasant paddle down the lake. The swift was fun to paddle through, as I don't often get to paddle on moving water. I stopped at a campsite with a sand beach on McManus Lake to check it out, but it was rather underwhelming, with weeds in the water and a small site.

I made it to the access point around 10:30. As I was unloading my canoe, a warden showed up and checked my permit, which was a new experience for me. We had a nice chat about his job and the park. It was good to see that they do in fact check permits and it isn't just based on the honour system.

After I got my bags in the car and the canoe on the roof, I decided that because I was so close to the Barron Canyon and that I've never seen it, I may as well go do the hike.

The trail was great; you walk up into a hemlock forest, that at the time of my trip was covered in a sea of mushrooms. You then emerge at the top of the hill to the stunning views of the canyon. I had never been there before; I had only seen photos of it but wow, it was so much better in person and lived up to its hype.