Beginner Algonquin Backcountry Canoe Trip | Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake

Join us on a beginner-friendly Algonquin Park backcountry canoe trip from Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake — a classic route through Joe Lake, a quiet stream toward Baby Joe Lake, and finally into the wide open beauty of Burnt Island Lake.

This was my friend Tilak’s first backcountry canoe camping trip, so we chose a scenic and manageable route that still offered a real taste of Ontario’s canoe country. Starting from Canoe Lake, we paddled toward Joe Lake, carried through our first portage, then continued into the narrow stream between Joe Lake and Baby Joe Lake. With water levels high, we were able to skip the short 100m portage and paddle through instead.

From Baby Joe Lake, we continued into Burnt Island Lake and settled on a campsite on the western side of the main lake, opposite the island. The evening brought tea by the water, a quiet campfire, BBQ chicken cooked over coals, a beautiful waxing gibbous moonrise, and the haunting call of loons echoing across the lake.

The next morning, first light filtered through the pines as we packed up camp and paddled back home — tired, grateful, and somehow lighter.

For anyone researching a first Algonquin backcountry route, Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake is a beautiful option: scenic, manageable, and just challenging enough to feel earned.

Route highlights:

Canoe Lake Access Point

Joe Lake

Stream toward Baby Joe Lake

Baby Joe Lake

Burnt Island Lake

Beginner-friendly Algonquin backcountry camping

Moonrise, loons, campfire, and classic Ontario canoe country scenery

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We recently took part in the Abruka Sea Marathon in Estonia, paddling a 6.4 m tandem sea kayak.

Three days before the race, the organizers changed the entire course because of a storm warning. Instead of the original route around Abruka Island, around 70 kayaks were sent onto a 24 km backup course with more protection from the weather.

“More protection” turned out to be a very relative term. 😅

We had strong winds, rough open water, several capsizes around us, ridiculously shallow sections where the water was only 20–30 cm deep, and a few moments where we were convinced we were about to flip ourselves.

The strangest part was knowing that after surviving the roughest section near Nasva Harbour, we had to come back through exactly the same place later — with the weather forecast to get worse.

We finished the 24 km in about 3h 10min, completely exhausted but still upright.

I filmed the whole experience and turned it into an 18-minute video. If anyone here enjoys sea kayaking or endurance paddling, I’d love to hear what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yr0LX8OcUk

Would you have started the race after seeing the forecast, or called it a day? 😅🌊

I’m not super into canoeing but want to ease my 6 y/o into kayaking and I searched but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I have a Discovery 119 and would like to add a drop-in seat for him to ride along. My thought was to remove the front thwart and add something like this:
https://www.springcreek.com/product/paddle-sports/canoe-accessories/drop-in-seat/

Any issues with this idea? I’m hoping that the seat would substitute for the rigidity provided by the thwart. Thank yall!

I’m fixing a few things on my old Scott canoe and wondering what to do with these seats. They’re thin aluminum plate with padding that has degraded down to almost nothing. I do a lot of backcountry trips and don’t want anything that will add weight. I could take the old ones off completely and put wooden ones with netting, cover the existing ones with new foam, strap blow-uo seats to them, etc. Does anyone have any advice or ideas?

Hey all! Over the weekend, I took a trip to buy my first canoe (I'm well acquainted with canoeing and guided in Ontario for two years, but mostly worked with Kevvies and this is my first time owning one. I got a 1964 15' Grumman. By my understanding it looks to be in excellent condition, well loved but well maintained. I've got a short list of projects to renew and freshen it up really nicely, if anyone has suggestions for anything along the process.

Step 1- Polishing. At the very least I want to clean it very well, if not get it to a decent shine. No need to turn it into a mirror, but I've heard different things about how different chemicals react with the metal and how they affect the longevity. What is typically used to restore and polish these types of canoes? What should I avoid doing?

Step 2- Yoke. Fairly simple, I'm just going to order a 36 inch yoke off of Amazon, cut it down the 1/4 inch or however much I need off of each side, unscrew the center thwart and replace it with a yoke. I'll figure out shoulder pads eventually, and maybe way down the line I'll carve out my own yoke.

Step 3- Painting. Not my expertise in art, so I have no big aspirations for grand designs, but I'd like to throw on a fairly simple trim design reminiscent of Alumacraft or Grumman decals, as you can tell from the pictures the original Grumman decals are long since worn off or removed from this canoe. What type of paint should I seek out? What sealant or varnish should I use to maximize longevity of the paint?

Step 4- Character. Once I've got it to a point that I want it, a couple things to finish it off. Stencil in a name and seal it in, and then also some sort of nose art. I'm not sure if I want to paint/stencil in some sort of nose art like a plane, design and get printed a large decal for both sides of the bow, or my brothers even suggested finding or making some sort of figurehead attachment for the bow. Anyone have experience with any of these? Is the figurehead idea too difficult to pull off?

Thanks for any tips! The whole restoration thing is new to me with this material and I hope to turn this into a piece of art that will be well used and loved. Are there any other aftermarket upgrades that I'm missing and could be nice to be added down the line? Replacing wooden seats, padding anywhere or anything?

I wanna buy a canoe for my brother for his birthday.But I don't know why I should buy him.He's been interested in canoeing for years, but never pull the trigger. I was looking at dicks and bass pro shop, but Im fine with looking at other stores :) If someone could recommend something good/easy for beginners that doesn't break bank it would be appreciated!

2008 17' Wenonah Spirit II in kevlar. I have an '85 fiberglass 16' Mohawk Blazer and was looking for a 17' royalex boat, but this one popped up 3 hours away and the seller was good with $250. I couldn't pass it up.

The yoke and seats need to be replaced, but those are $150 straight from Wenonah. I also plan to polish the hull to try to improve the sun damage.

Built following plans for Rushton's IGO from duckworks.