Redpole, Animoosh & Cisco Bay (Dickson Lk)
July 23, 2024
This hike would take us along the edge of Derek's Lake and Redpole Lake, over to Animoosh Lake and from there onto the portage trail to Cisco Bay on Dickson Lake (see maps below).
Map 1: From the McIntyre's Clearing Trail to Derek's Lake... (maps courtesy of Maps by Jeff).
Map 2: ... and from Derek's Lake to Redpole, Animoosh and Cisco Bay.
We travelled the route to Animoosh six years ago so we knew the trip, which is over 30 km return, would take us a full day. While many of our other hikes have involved a lot of time-consuming bushwhacking, we hoped the trail we had followed the last time in would not be too grown over, which would enable us to cover a lot of distance fairly quickly.
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We were up early and arrived at our starting point in the Park at 6:30 AM -- close to the hydro line where the trail to McIntyre's Clearing begins. Since we last made this hike there has been logging in the Wabe Lake and Prong Lake area, so we had a logging road to travel on for the first stretch. On this kind of road we can usally cover just over 4 km/hour. In preparing for the hike we checked the logging maps and saw that there was summer logging happening in the Teal Lake area but there was no logging scheduled in the direction we were headed.​
After about 30 minutes you cross over the North Bonnechere River.
Wabe Lake to the north; Prong Lake to the south. "Wabe" painted on the tree.
We left the logging road not long after this point. We had to look for the start of the trail we had previously travelled on, and were suprised to see how what had been a fairly decent trail is now almost completely grown over. In the area above Redpole Lake, where a stream flows toward the lake, we had to fight our way through a wall of alders, followed by a stretch of windfall where no sign of the trail was visible (see picture below).
Above Redpole Lk the trail is barely visible.
If conditions didn't improve there was no way we would make it to Cisco Bay. But, thankfully, as we moved forward onto some higher ground remnants of the trail were easier to identify. We started to make up for lost time.
The trail in the foreground -- not great, but for the most part free of obstacles.
In some places, such as this fern-covered area, you have to look ahead for an opening between the trees to determine where the trail goes.
The trail runs south for a distance and then turns west to a point where you cross White Partidge Creek not far from Animoosh Lake. When we first travelled this route there was a narrow, wooden bridge over the creek. The bridge has since been removed; an old square timber being the only remaining sign of the bridge.
White Partridge Creek
After crosing the creek the trail turns to the west and runs parallel to Animoosh Lk. We left the trail and bushwhacked approximately 200m to the lake, and then made our way along the shore to the campsite at the south end of the lake.
Coming onto Animoosh after bushwhacking a short distance.
Campsite on Animoosh and start of the portage to Fairy Lake.
"Animoosh to Fairy 2825m"
Start of the portage to Fairy Lk
After having something to eat and drink we checked our maps for the next leg of the journey, which would take us to Cisco Bay.
A last look at Animoosh before leaving -- looking south
We followed our bushwhacking route back to the trail. The trail runs along a ridge between Animoosh Lk and Cat Lk. This part of the trail is not as grown over as the stretch from Redpole to Animoosh. There are more grassy areas with raspberry bushes and flowering plants. We did see signs that bears had been enjoying the raspberries but did not encounter any bears.
The trail between Annimoosh Lk and Cat Lk
As shown on Jeff's map, the trail from Animoosh runs some distance past the top of the lake, and comes to another trail running north-south. We turned south at that point to get over to the portage trail to Cisco Bay.
On the portage to Cisco Bay. Boardwalks through the rough sections make for easy walking.
It was about a 15-minute walk on the portage to Cisco Bay.
Arrival at Cisco Bay
A sign at the put-in posted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans informing that as part of a fish study some fish in the lake have been tagged, and it asks that if you catch a tagged fish please release it and not remove the tag.
Wading out to try for a fish but no luck.
Time to head back - the portage from Dickson to Amimoosh is 1220m.
During this hike we did see one moose, as well as 5 loons on Animoosh Lk. The loons seemed quite curious and came close to the shore to check us out. On the return journey we took photos of some of the many flowering plants along the way. For those interested in the plants of Algonquin Park we looked up the names of the plants after the hike, and have posted the information below.​ This was a long trip but we made it back to Round Lake in time for a quick swim and a late supper.
Spikenard Eastern Fleabane Saint-John's-Wort Steeplebush
Bunchberry Purple Flowering Raspberry Common Yarrow Evening Primrose