The Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park (KHPP) is a relatively new provincial park, home to 108 back-country camp sites and spread out over nearly 38000 hectares! All sites are accessible by canoe. It’s only about 90min from Toronto so we decided it was time to check it out. We planned an easy route for our first visit, packed up our rental car and hit the road, okay first we stopped at Starbucks, but then we hit the road!
We entered the park via the Long Lake access point. From there, our canoe route took us along Long Lake for about 4km, past a dozen or more cottages and, after about an hour or so of spectacular views of the Canadian shield, to the Buzzard Lake portage. This portage is 340m and with no real hills, is a relatively easy one, as portages go. I love hiking. I love canoeing. Call me crazy but I don’t love hiking with an 80lbs rental canoe on my head with the yoke mounted several inches from where it ought to be. Long story short, rent wisely! And that means renting from a reputable outfitter. We chose the convenient option and had a miserable portage. So do NOT rent from Long Lake Lodge unless you’re just doing a portage-free trip… If you’re going to rent, pick up your canoe on your way to the park with a quick stop in Peterborough at Wild Rock Outfitters or in Lakefield at Adventure Outfitters. We have rented from Wild Rock before and may try them again. Adventure Outfitters in Lakefield appears to be the cheapest option but I’ve never used their services. Of course there’s always Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto. MEC has great weekend rental deals, but I’d forgotten that they rent equipment until just a moment ago. If you know of another spot to rent in the area, or care to comment on an outfitter, please post it in the comments section.
We could see our site, #420, from the end of the portage so we only had a few minutes before it was time to unpack again. Our site had a picnic table, 4 tent pads, a fire ring with a grill and, about 50ft into the woods, a privy box. This is 4-star back-country camping! With day time highs expected near 28C and overnight temperatures dropping to 14C we picked a site facing east to take advantage of the rising sun. This also positioned us to be shaded from the hot afternoon sun so it worked out really well.
If you’re going to spend some time swimming, you might as well have a destination. From our site there was a small island to swim to that was only about 100ft away so we made regular visits to it during our stay.
The sunrise on Buzzard Lake from site 420
We would start each morning with a coffee by the campfire before heading out in the canoe for a tour before breakfast. There was much to explore. I have a short video on youtube highlighting the morning view:
crooked action shot 🙂
Take your camera, take your time and you’re bound to see some wildlife. We saw a number of beavers, lots of loons and, among other things, this turtle about to go for a swim after we got too close.
One morning we did get down to Vixen Lake. The portage is just 207m. It had started to rain so we just walked the trail to check out the view of Vixen before paddling back to camp, where we discovered that it only takes about 40min to get from one end of Buzzard to the other if you’re hungry, getting wet and going in a straight line 🙂
Booking a site in the KHPP is easy now that they’ve added a new online reservation option. You can see where each site is on the map and if it will be available during your intended stay: https://reservations.ontarioparks.com/KawarthaHighlands?Map
The map will look a little something like this:
You can click on a site, get a full description and browse a few photos to help you decide. So, plan your route carefully, choose your site wisely, rent wisely and you too will be a Happy Camper! 🙂
eatpedalpaddle 
Thanks for describing the portage. I’ve already booked my adventure through Copper, Rock and Serpentine Lakes. I couldn’t find details on the terrain in those areas. One thing I would love to know is if any services deliver canoes to the drop-off spots. Adventure Outfitters does not offer this, but their rates and services are excellent. I would recommend them. I’ve also used Wild Rock and had a good experience.
Hey Ahamed,
sorry about the slow reply. I just got back from another SUP camping trip up the Trent-Severn…
I don’t know of any services that deliver canoes to drop offs. It’s too bad really. I guess that’s why so many people just go to Algonquin Park and use Algonquin Outfitters. We went with the Long Lake access and rented from Long Lake Lodge when we went to KHPP. It made things very easy. I did have my complaints about the canoes he rents but this wouldn’t be so bad if two of you were carrying the canoe. So, if you’re going through Copper, Rock and Serpentine, which access point to the park are you using? Anstruther?
Neil
excuse me but the canoe you rented from Long Lake Lodge was a Paluski Fastwater, the very same canoe you will get from Adventure Outfitters, perhaps the yoke on that particular unit was installed incorrectly when the boat was manufactured they also rent Scott Kevlar that weigh only 50 lbs
Phil, my apologies on the incredibly slow response.
Are you still the owner of Long Lake Cottages and Trailer Park? Perhaps I dealt with you personally when I rented from Long Lake Lodge.
Running and maintaining a group of rental cottages must certainly require a very handy and resourceful individual. Should any of that care make it’s way to the fleet of canoes then they would surely be in good working order as well. Perhaps no one had ever brought this issue to your attention before.
It has been a while since my post. Can you confirm that all of the canoes now have yokes that are installed correctly?
Neil