Hiking and "bushcraft" in the McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve

Description

Hiking and "bushcraft" in the McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve

In addition to hiking around McCrae Lake, I spend time collecting dry firewood after two days of heavy rain and make lunch on my Kelly Kettle.

The McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve is a 2,039 hectare managed area of crown land located in the Muskoka District of Ontario, Canada. It's a very popular semi-wilderness area that is used for a variety of outdoor recreational activities, including hiking, camping, canoeing, fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and photography. There are several kilometres of maintained trails for each activity, and the relatively open terrain offers countless opportunities for off-trail exploration. Extending from McDonald Lake in the east, adjacent to Highway 400, to Georgian Bay on the west and the Gibson River to the north, canoeing opportunities are endless. McCrae Lake is completely contained within the Reserve.

The Reserve is located 19 kms north of Port Severn, Ontario. Parking is located off the Highway 400 southbound ramp, at the Georgian Bay Road/Crooked Bay Road exit.

Canoeing and Kayaking

My first trip to McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve was with the high school Outdoors Club in the mid 1980s when I was fourteen. We stayed at a campsite located at the far south-east end of McCrae Lake for three days, and I was hooked on the area. The following year, three friends and I set out on our first multi-day canoe trip through the reserve. We loaded two canoes in the back of my Dad's Chevy Suburban, along with our ridiculous amount of gear, and he dropped us off at Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, picking us back up seven days later. We travelled up through Gibson Lake, down the Gibson River and the Musquash River to Georgian Bay and back up through McCrae Lake and McDonald River to Six Mile Lake.

For four fifteen year olds, it was an epic trip and a real learning experience. We foolishly thought that we could supplement every meal with fresh fish caught along the way. We didn't know at the time that acid rain had decimated aquatic life in much of the system, and we had a hard time catching enough to eat. By the end of the week, we were subsisting on merganser duck eggs, snapping turtle meat, freshwater mussels and panfish.

Flash forward to 2015. After a thirty-year absence, my wife and I returned to McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve in January 2015 to snowshoe. McCrae is very busy on weekends, but we have the luxury of working from home and scheduling our day trips to busy areas for weekdays when crowds are reduced. On this day, we didn't see anyone else, and vowed to return again in February, which we did (see below - Snowshoeing and Hiking McCrae Lake).

In September, we returned to canoe and kayak the length of McCrae Lake to the outflow to Georgian Bay, an area we know well from our years of boating on the big bay. It was a perfect sunny late summer weekday, and again we had the lake to ourselves.

In November, craving one last day on the water and wanting to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, D and I went back to McDonald Lake for the day, this time in my old canvas and wood canoe. We had a perfect day, paddling and exploring every inch of shoreline and enjoying a campfire lunch of stew, wine, cheese and baguette - again without interruption.

The McCrae Lake Conservation Reserve is located in the lee of Georgian Bay where the landscape is comprised of thin soiled, rolling bedrock with knolls of white oak, red oak and white pine trees. As such, the forest is short and open, not densely forested like areas found further inland. This open landscape is ideal for hiking and snowshoeing off-trail, although there are good multi-purpose trails as well.

There is a well marked hiking trail that starts from the southwest side of the parking area, goes around the south end of McCrae Lake and crosses the waterfall between McCrae Lake and Georgian Bay at the Crows Cliffs. Reports vary on the length and time required to do this hike, but this past fall I hiked to the waterfall in about two hours. It looks to be about 6 to 7 kilometres one way, and there is a loop option that splits off about two kilometres from the parking lot. Along the trail, there are several spots to stop for a break at the water's edge - either McCrae Lake, Stuart Lake, Georgian Bay or one of the beaver ponds.

The Five Winds Backcountry Ski Club maintains approximately 125 km of trails on scenic Crown land and Mohawk Territory in the Gibson River area between Georgian Bay and Gravenhurst, Ontario. These trails can be difficult to follow in some areas where they cross bedrock substrate, but they're well worth seeking out. If you hike or snowshoe here during the winter, respect the trail by not walking in the main tracks if possible. Post-holing with boots or snowshoes creates a rough cross-country ski trail.

Tags: hiking,bushcraft,lake,trail,ontario,canada,kelly kettle,self reliance

Video Transcription

just got to the end of mccurry lake near Georgian Bay left the truck two and a half hours hours of hiking and have a quick lunch - let's say 2:30 and then get back at 4:30 or 5:00 gets dark at this is a few showers with the tongue yesterday

it poured rain all day and six tremely high winds so could be challenging to find dry wood when you're using wood to cook but there's always something Lord branches are almost always dead and dry that really just little the finer twigs most of this stuff probably won't even burn it mr. Kelly Kettle need so little fuel debris forest floor was dark I just be using all of this stuff dead leaves little branches especially fine fine meals

all of that would be fine see all the dead dead branches on the bottom this tree so they bought the tree protects oh yeah

stops as much water from falling on leaves and some pine needles but it's been pouring rain for a few days this section the lake doesn't get much Sun anyway so not a lot of dry stuff Kelly Kettle only needs a few twigs and actually it's raining today I would use my saw cut some of these so cut some bigger dried logs and then put on them with the knife which is why carry a bigger knife so that the I can use the split wood and the center of the wood is actually going to be drawing about how wide it is your toilet ready so I'm gonna do two this one on the roll holds about 500 milliliters which is that's 2 cups which is about the right amount for one of these southwestern Cusco organic yeah very expand them that's the cooking vessel only so like I said because this because it's only holds two cups of water the whole of that went to there and then 40 I'll just pull another kettle full of water but it only takes a few minutes and I don't have to carry any stole it's now up to 41 let's finish lunch getting ready to pack up so it's gonna leave two hours get back to the truck look at the scenery soon have to head straight back I am prepared I was stuck out here overnight if I fell down and got hurt and couldn't walk it or something not overly prepared but I was going to demonstrate demonstrate this a new water filter that I just picked off because I got Giardia a few weeks ago from the faulty filter water treatment so have three liters in the bladder here probably gonna finish that just hiking just drinking while I hike and this would have come in handy to refill it or in I also have these micro Frankel pure tablets here as well but if I was stuck here for the night I've got a little bit of extra food of two energy bars maybe three f3 so there's 750 calories some vitamin C which I find helps on trip like this you're wearing down your vitamins and minerals got a black diamond headlamp tell that's moist towelettes wet wipes neck warmer and icky that can also go over my head as they had it a minute here about my Eddie Bauer 350 filled down down vest and then a Mountain Equipment co-op raincoat in there as well that has it hood so if I was stuck out here for the night if I put that got my warm sweater on got a wool shirt underneath that you know a wool sweater on down jacket down vest the rain jacket to hold the heat in got a hat I've got some gloves she got some first aid kit and the saw in there as well so I could make an emergency shelter fairly quickly anyway if I was in the right spot with or without a fire fire would be nice but even without a fire to all that extra clothing on it would be quite fine and the temperatures only going down to plus two or three tonight so I wouldn't found that too difficult to deal with anyway shouldn't have to figure something I carefully and slip on any rocks I should make it back to the truck by dark one a little bit later

he's the headlamp yeah red light on the headlamps good for hiking that was the fourth grouse rough grouse that took off from right beside the trail as I walked by I just wanted to see what he was in here eating I guess it's the the juniper berries which I like to eat quite a few berries left on the junipers that's a good winter food for rough grouse and other birds sign down there says shortcut and I'll written above it says shortcut to narrows so that trail goes loop south but if you take that shortcut which is what I did the narrows are talking about is where crate Lake empties out into Georgian Bay so that's where I was headed I went had lunch on the shore of a great lake but pretty much free ware joins Georgian Bay so I'm not sure how long a long name loop adds on to the time to get out there I'll have to check that