Magnetewan River: Wahwashkesh Lake Loop (4 days / 75 km)
In July 2020, my brother, a friend and I decided to check out the Magnetewan River. I found the route in my “Backroad Map Book”, did some reading online, and then found a way to shove this trip into 4 days / 3 nights of fun-filled adventure. Although there are plenty of rapids, and I’m sure some of them could have been run, we didn’t have any white-water experience and chose to walk around all the fast water. This route has plenty of portages to get around all rapids. The route is a healthy mix of lake and river travel that offers peaceful paddling, beautiful scenery, and some pretty cool waterfalls and rapids to take photos of!
This area is well travelled and many lakes are shared by hunt camps, cottages and campers. Thanks to some well-equipped fishing groups many sites are very open and well set up. That being said, this is crown land camping and the sites and portages aren’t always marked… we also found that the portages were laced with ATV tracks so one has to be aware of where they’re going, and how far the portages are supposed to take.
Trip Completed: August 2020
Trip Summary
Location: Magnetewan River Provincial Park (Non-operating provincial park)
Traditional Territory: This route takes place on the traditional territory of the Anishinabewaki.
Maps & Resources
Map + Guidebook: Backroad Mapbooks – Cottage Country Ontario
Permits & Reservations
Campsite Reservations: Sites aren’t all marked. Sites are first come first serve. The route is part of a non-operating park, so campsite reservations are not needed.
Permits: As this is a non-operating park, permits are not required.
Know Before You Go
Season: Not having any whitewater experience I prefer to go later in the season when water levels are lower, however, I’m sure the early season would be more of a whitewater adventure if you know what you’re doing. Either way, the summer is the time to check out this great section of rivers and lakes
Cell Reception: Cell reception was pretty good. Cottages on the lakes mean more cell towers nearby.
Water: We filtered all our water from the lakes and river.
Wildlife: This area does have black bears; we didn’t see any though.
Waste: The sites were all equipped with thunder boxes, but as it is a non-operating park, there are no garbage facilities at the various entrances. Garbage should be carried out and disposed of outside the park.
Outfitters & Shuttles
Outfitter: We did not use an outfitter and I’m not sure if there are any that service this park.
Shuttle: We did not use a shuttle. The trip is designed to be a loop. I’m aware of 3 different access points, 2 of which (Harris Lake Marina and Naiscoot Lake Marina) are paid parking. We went with the free public boat launch off of Wahwashkesh Lake.
Trip Report
Day 1: Wahwashkesh Lake to Trout Lake (13 km)
We arrived at the public boat launch for Wahwashkesh Lake just before lunch. I’ve heard this parking lot can get busy, this lake is full of cottages and hunt camps whose residents make use of this free place to park and launch. We set out on a Monday which may have helped since there was plenty of space for us to park.
We spent the next few hours winding our way around some islands to the northern edge of the lake before turning west, on approach to the beginning of the river system. As the lake came to an end, it became narrower and the sound of the first and largest set of rapids got louder.
Stay to the right and head for the bay with the hunt camp or you will end up in a huge set of rapids through a canyon with no other way to go but straight. The takeout for the first, and longest, portage (2.7 km) is on your right. There’s a broken-down truck and a nice sandy beach to park the boats and unload. The beginning of the portage takes you right through a hunting camp at the end of the lake.
The day we went, it was fully occupied with a few families. To be sure, I spoke to the owner first before heading out with all our gear. It was! The trail cuts across the front lawn of this camp and we barrelled through their family time with our gear and canoes. They must have been used to it and there were no issues, we were quick.
This portage was about 2.7 km long and followed a snowmobile trail which takes you over a bridge that spans the canyon with the rapids you’re avoiding. This is a great spot for some photos and a nice excuse to take a break along the way. After about the 2 km mark (just after the bridge) you have an option to paddle a few hundred meters before getting out for another short portage around a second set of rapids or walk the whole 2.7 km. We opted to take a break and paddle. This wasn’t terrible, but the put in / take out (river right) for the 2nd smaller portage wasn’t great and there was not much of a trail, it might have been easier to have just kept walking the whole way to Trout Lake.
After all the portaging we continued through some narrows before the river opened up into Trout Lake. Trout Lake was beautiful! We had great weather and all the sites were large, well kept, and have been maintained by the fishermen who frequent the area with all the signs they often leave behind (such as wood tables, benches, and nice fire pits). We picked the first spot we found along the north side of the lake just as the river began to widen.
Campsite: This first site was large, flat, had great views, easy water access and came with a thunder box and fire pit. All the spots on this lake looked pretty good and I think you couldn’t have gone wrong in picking a place to stay. We enjoyed the fire pit and cooked our sausages and sweet potatoes right on the fire to celebrate day 1.
| Total Distance | 13 km |
| Portaging Distance | 2720 m |
| Number of Portages | 2 |
| Campsite Reservation | Non-operating park, no reservations required |
Day 2: Trout Lake to Wilson Lake (31 km)
Day two was fun but long. We chose to take the shorter version of the 2 potential Magnetewan routes that followed the South Branch of the Magnetwan River. This took us south from Trout Lake to Naiscoot Lake. If you choose to take this route, stay along the south shore as Trout Lake gets narrower (heading west). Tall rocky cliffs tower over on both sides as the river narrows and you need to pay close attention to the southern side, to see the break in the rocks that marks the narrow passage which is the beginning of the South Branch.
We found the turn and the river began to pull us gently downstream. We wound our way from rapid to rapid where we would jump out and portage around them. The first portage (300 m) was the nicest set of rapids to scramble around. It was a short portage (just under 300 meters) that followed a series of waterfalls which emptied into Harris Lake.
As the river intersects Harris Lake, we paddled under some train tracks as the lake opened up. There are several cottages along the shorelines of Harris Lake. They are water access only, and motorboats are common. There were also a few campsites we passed, however, their proximity to the cottages made them less desirable (for me). We stopped for lunch at a nice little beach area just south of the train tracks. We enjoyed some quick couscous and chicken, a swim, and topped up our water before continuing south back into the river system.
The further south we travelled, the fewer people we came across as we left the busier Harris Lake. The river gets narrow again and produces small rapids which require some short portages. Eventually the river kind of ends and it was pond hopping for a bit. These portages and small lakes/ponds offered a pleasant change to the scenery. We paddled and walked through rocky, tree-lined shores that brought about a different kind of calm than that of the river.
The portages were as follows: 150 m to Massagamai Lake, 170 m into Seesee Lake, and then about 80 m into Lone Tree Lake.
I should mention that the drop-in at Lone Tree Lake was almost literally a drop-in because the shore was so steep. Maybe if we took a bit more time, we would have found a better way to launch. Ultimately, we made it work, and safely loaded up our canoes without getting wet.
Heading south through Lone Tree Lake there were 2 small portages (maybe 60 m each) over some rocky areas that took us to Evans Lake. Our last 650 m portage brought us into Naiscoot Lake and marked the end of the day. We were tired, it was late, and we were quick to set up camp and enjoy the whiskey we had been carrying all this way.
Naiscoot Lake does have cottages on it but most of them are sited in the western portion of the lake (towards the highway) but the route took us east. There are a few campsites along the south shore, but we didn’t love them, so we continued travelling all the way to Wilson Lake. Here, we found a small but comfortable site where we chose to spend the night. Wilson Lake only had 1 campsite across from the portage, along the north shore, just as you enter the lake from the west. There are no other campsites, but there were 2 (unoccupied) cottages that share the small lake.
Campsite: The site on Wilson Lake was small but we had room for our 2 tents. There’s plenty of room to lounge around the fire pit and the site had a thunderbox. The site is along the south shore at the western side of the lake, almost directly across from the portage that takes you towards Miskokway Lake.
The site is not marked, however, it was relatively obvious and we saw the clearing from the lake with no problem. I returned to this site in the summer of 2023 for a fishing trip and can tell you that both the portage and campsite have been improved since 2020.
| Total Distance | 31 km |
| Portaging Distance | 1470 m |
| Number of Portages | 7 |
| Campsite Reservation | Non-operating park, no reservations required |
Day 3: Wilson Lake to Maple Lake (23.38 km)
Wilson Lake is pretty much the end of the park. The remainder of this route travels through crown land that is scattered with fishing/hunting camps and cottages. Our day started with a well-travelled 900 m portage up a hill into a smaller lake (not sure of the name). The water is clear blue, really cool!
A short paddle surrounded by the kinds of quartz rocks you would find in a place like Killarney takes you to another, smaller portage (320 meters… ish) into Miskokway Lake where we began to travel east towards our start/end point. There are a few nice places to camp on Miskokway along with a couple of fishing camps or cottages. At the far east end of the lake is the takeout, which is sandy and large. It looked like it’s where people who have the cabins on the lake would park for access and could potentially be a place to access this route as well.
From here we portaged 1.8 km along a dirt road to get to Bolger Lake. The put-in here is a parking lot and boat launch that services the cottages on Bolger Lake.
Bolger Lake had a lot of cottages and traffic on it. If there were campsites, we didn’t notice them and wouldn’t have camped here because of all the activity. It was a longer paddle across the lake and down a small river, under a bridge (welcome to Bolger, Ontario) ending at Portage Bay which is off of the larger Kashegaba Lake. Follow the south / eastern shore here for a little while and you’ll find the next portage.
In 2020 this portage was very much crossed by many ATV trails. We took a guess and followed some flagging tape for about 1 km in the wrong direction. After a heated argument between my brother and me, a time out, and some water, we returned to the beginning and took the correct 1 km portage into Maple Lake. (My GPS trail shows the mistake, stay left at the beginning of the portage!)
Maple Lake was quiet and there weren’t any cottages on it. After a small bay, we entered the main lake which we now had to ourselves. We took the first spot we found, which was sited along the north shore just as we entered the main lake. We swam off the rocky shore and enjoyed our last evening of the trip with some good food, and a healthy fire.
Campsite: This site was awesome! It was large, flat, well cleared and had an abandoned wood stove that must have been dragged in by a snowmobile. 10 / 10 as far as sites go and probably the nicest, we had during the trip.
| Total Distance | 23.38 km |
| Portaging Distance | 4020 m |
| Number of Portages | 4 |
| Campsite Reservation | Non-operating park, no reservations required |
Day 4: Maple Lake to Wahwashkesh Lake (7.6 km)
Our last day was the shortest, which was lucky because it was the only day we had bad weather. We woke up, had breakfast, and hit the water mid-morning under an overcast sky. We took a small stream north from Wilson Lake, through a pond, towards the portage. The sky got darker and the wind picked up around the time we arrived at the last portage of our trip.
After the 120 m portage along a small waterfall into Wahwashkesh Lake we loaded up the canoes one more time, and put on our rain jackets as the skies opened up. This isn’t the best lake to have to fight wind and rain. We hugged the shore and took our time navigating the leeward side of a few islands until we got back to the public landing. We quickly loaded up the truck, celebrated a fantastic trip with a round of high fives, and headed home to start planning the next adventure.
| Total Distance | 7.6 km |
| Portaging Distance | 120 m |
| Number of Portages | 1 |
| Campsite Reservation | N/A |
Reflections
I really enjoyed the Magnetewan River trip. I’ve been back to explore different parts since 2020 and had some success fishing in this area as well. There’s another version of the same route where you bypass the South Branch and continue west from Trout Lake instead of south. Having never gone this way I cannot say if it’s better or worse but I will say that if you retrace my steps, you won’t be disappointed.
Although the cottages and motorboat traffic take away from the typical backcountry experience, it was infrequent enough that I didn’t mind as much as I thought it would. The campsites were all very well kept and were mostly on lakes with fewer people and cottages. Also, remember to pay attention during the portages. The ATV trails created some confusion at times but even just checking your bearing with a compass is enough to ensure you’re going the right way.
Author Bio
I’ve been enjoying the outdoors my entire adult life. Camping, Hiking, and Hunting are how I unwind. Life is busy, but when I can make some time to get away, I enjoy travelling to new areas to explore. I enjoy the challenge of longer or lesser travelled routes that take you to places a little harder to get to. For me, the more challenging the trip the more worthwhile!
Instagram: @outsideeverything