Day-trip to Slim Lake
January 11, 2021 - 10:22 AM Filed in: Mini Trip-log
I went into The Park on Thursday January 7th for a quick 2 hour trek in and out of Slim Lake. I had never heard of it. I was browsing thru Jeff’s map and looking for ways in that where off the beaten path and saw Slim Lake and took the chance.
What's really cool is I had to drive down south initially to get there. Most people associate Algonquin Park as being "North". Being a local now is awesome! I have to drive south to get to highway 60. I could say I live 'North of 60'. Lol!
By 11:30am I began preparing for my day-trip and by 12:15pm I headed out, driving over to Limberlost Road and up into the wilderness past the Limberlost forest reserve. I switched over to North camp Rd at Tasso Lake which shortly thereafter became an unassumed road with no plowing service.
I do have winter tires and the road was beaten down with snowmobile tracks and thus easy to drive through. I arrived at a junction where I could drive no more in the direction I needed to go. There were snowmobile tracks and as it was just after 1pm that I set off, walking on top of snowmobile tracks with my snowshoes in my hands.
The walking was quite pleasant and 28 minutes in I was 1.43km distant from my starting point. There were only 2 hills to overcome, if you even want to call them hills, they were quite gentle. It was at this point I had reached a large clearing and saw the snowmobile tracks turnaround. I had been wondering about this in the lead-up to The Park border. Would I find tracks going illegally into The Park or not?
I always fantasize about Algonquin Park being secluded and free of mechanization. I know this is not always the case, but it is still nice to see folks out there prolonging my fantasy, at least in the case of Slim Lake.
It was at this point I put my snowshoes on and trekked across the open area, which appeared to be a flooded clearing (Frozen over). As I left the opening, the trail narrowed and the allure of solitude hit me with a ton of snow on my head and shoulders as I brushed by a snow laden pine.. aww!
The snowshoe thru this section was very pleasing and even the snow depths were quite accommodating - More than 2 feet, but less than 3 feet for sure. The trail had been free of obstructions with the exception of several bent over tree saplings,
that were easily moved aside or moved past by simply going underneath. Twelve minutes later, after 1.85km distance, I reached the Park border as designated by a sign on a tree.
It had taken me roughly 40 minutes to arrive at The Park border. Without all the stopping for photos, I could have easily shaved off five minutes on my journey. The trail became more cluttered with saplings as it began to narrow even further.
I got to a point where the trail began to fade out and I was thinking it would be better going thru the bush as the disappearing trail was leading me away from the lake anyway.
From the border I travelled another 15 minutes for 375m (again, I was taking photos) and arrived exactly where I wanted to be - Halfway down Slim Lake on a point, at the narrowest part of the lake. I was not equipped for ice travel, so I stayed on shore, taking numerous pictures and settling down for a lunch of fresh cold water and a turkey sandwich. I only stuck around for 15 minutes or so, as by that time it was past 2pm and with the sun being so low in the sky, I felt it best to leave when the going was good. The trek out was uneventful.
Lots of hare tracks were seen as well as a few deer tracks and only one set of moose tracks (old). It was great to get out again and even though it was only a few hours of true solitude, it was worth it. The total distance covered was roughly 4.6km with just under 2hrs travel time. I didn’t even snowshoe 1km. Most of the walking was done on top of snowmobile tracks. Still it was a great way to spend a few hours alone and in The Park on a beautiful January day,
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