The Brent Run Trip Report: A weekend attempt with great wildlife sightings
The Brent Run. It's a legendary race through Algonquin Park that Steve and I have been wanting to give a go since December 2022. If you're unfamiliar with the lore behind this race, here's a write-up for the current record setting run.
Map of our Brent Run Attempt
In a nutshell: we paddled from Canoe Lake to Lost Joe Lake on Friday night. Saturday we touched the waters of Perley Lake, but knew we had hit a wall so turned back down Burntroot Lake. Sunday we paddled from Burntroot Lake all the way back to Canoe lake. In total, we paddled 11+50+45=106km, 2+12+11=25hr over the weekend!
The map shows each day's paddling segment, where we camped, as well as our turn around point and the incomplete portion of the Brent Run. I've also included the locations of our significant wildlife encounters, and good campsites/lunch spots that we didn't use but would love to come back for!
Trip Prep
Prep mostly consisted of packing up everything we thought we would need for camping this weekend, while trying our best to minimize the weight. We managed to get everything into my large backpack, Steve's small daybag, and our 30L barrel. In retrospect, there were definitely items we could have left behind (looking at you, 2 books and journal that we were too exhausted to use).
- - Rented lightweight canoe
- - Rented wooden paddles
- - Drybags, backpacks, barrel and harness
- - 2 lifejackets
- - 2 sleeping bags
- - 2 sleeping pads
- - Tent
- - Stove, pot, lighter, fuel
- - Dishtowel, soap
- - 2 spoons, 1 chopstick, swiss army knife
- - Toilet Paper, hand sanitizer
- - Sunscreen
- - Water filter
- - Map and compass
- - 12 cliff bars
- - 4 apples
- - 4 carrots - cut into sticks
- - 4 packs of dehydrated meals
- - 8 mini-gatorades
- - Electrolyte Powder
- - Emergency rations: 2 instant oatmeal sachets, 1 instant noodle pack, 1 sidekicks sachet
- - Toothbrush/Toothpaste
- - Headlamp
- - Waterbottle
- - Long underwear, sweater
- - Socks/underwear/buff
- - Rain Jacket/Pants
- - Hat/Sunglasses
- - Book/Journal/Pen
- - Shirt and pants (wearing)
- - Saw a moose on Longer Lake in the pre-dawn
- - Paddled between two loons at the base of Longer Lake at golden hour
- - Large heron sighting in Otter creek
- - Incredible encounter with a mother moose and her baby in Otter creek
- - Saw two otters playing in the channel between the Otterslide lakes
- - Ran the mini rapids between Baby Joe and Lost Joe
- - Raced some other paddlers on the way out down Canoe Lake and won
- - Ate a delicious post-paddle meal at The Mad Musher
- - Made it home in time for a good nights sleep before Monday work!
With this set of gear, we were able to run the portages in a single trip. Steve took the canoe and barrel, and I took the two packs and our paddles.
Day 1: Canoe Lake to Lost Joe Lake
Our trip started on Friday, with us leaving Ottawa at 3pm to drive to the Algonquin Outfitters store on Canoe Lake. We got to the outfitters at 6:15pm, and picked up the featherweight kevlar Swift Keewaydin 16' canoe and two wooden paddles that we were renting. We were into the water at about 6:30pm, and immediately ran into a slog: we fought headwinds up Canoe Lake, while a pervasive drizzle kept us fully zipped up in our raingear.
As we continued into the wet headwind, I was grumbling because I'd been hoping that we'd be able to leave Ottawa earlier than we had. The goal was to make it to Burnt Island Lake on the first night, but as the light faded and the wind pushed us back, it was becoming apparent that we weren't going to make it.
In the sodden grey evening on Little Joe Lake, an encounter with a moose distracted me for a moment from our woes. It was our first time seeing a moose from a canoe, and we gave it a wide berth - amazed at the sheer size of the animal.
Alas, I was soon back to grumbling as we tackled our first portage. It was by now fully dark, and with a new moon, there was almost no light to see by. We briefly contemplated camping along the portage, but decided to go for one more paddle up the creek. In the darkness, we got lodged on some rocks in the creek and had to get out to wade the canoe up. I'm ashamed to say there was a small meltdown on my part with rather snappish remarks uttered.
Despite this, we soldiered on and made it to Lost Joe Lake, where miraculously we found an empty campsite! We hurriedly put up our tent, boiled water to rehydrate our dinner, and Steve cheered me up with many flattering compliments. With a dry place to sleep and food in our bellies, I was feeling much better about the day ahead.
Day 2: Lost Joe Lake to Perley Lake and back down Burntroot
Day 2 began with a 5:30am wake-up. We packed up camp, ate a cliff bar and an apple, and were out on the water by about 6:30. There's a small creek from Lost Joe to Baby Joe Lake, and we tried wading up it. Waters were high though, and as we paddled away from the creek with pants soaked past the knees, we eyed the short 100m portage, made eye contact and said, "Yeah... I don't know if that was worth it".
The rain had stopped and the skies were clear, and we were treated to a beautiful paddle across Burnt Island Lake. Lilacs pinks and blues streaked across the horizons and reflected back up at us in the waters. We made good time, then were through the muddy portage to Otterslide Lake. This was the jumping point into the unknown for us - travelling now into areas of the park we had never been before!
The Otterslides passed fairly uneventfully. The rest of the park started to wake up as we went through Otterslide Creek, and we encountered a few groups paddling the creek in the other direction. This was a fun section to paddle, as dancing through the twists and turns of the creek requires both skill and co-ordination between each paddler. Steve and I were in sync, slicing the canoe around the bends with total precision, using that silent communication that can only be earned from many hours spent paddling together.
We got to Big Trout lake just before 11am, and this is where we faced our biggest challenge. There was a wicked headwind on the Lake, which was whipping up significant waves. There were whitecaps, and in some areas the waves were at least a foot high, with plenty of water splashing into the hull.
At a small island at the beginning of Big Trout Lake we took a break to have some snacks and gatorade, and it was Steve's turn to be a bit cranky. He was antsy to tackle the winds head on and get it over with, but I knew that I would need some fuel to get through it. We quickly got back out on the water and were teeth to the wind up the lake. We took a slightly diverted route through some islands in order to take advantage of their lee sides, then slogged the last stretch up to the portage. At the end of Big Trout Lake, it was 12:45 pm - about 2 hours of hard paddling into the wind!
We were feeling very accomplished after tackling Big Trout Lake, and at this point in the trip we even dared think we could make it to the Brent Cabin. How optimistic... As we paddled out onto Longer Lake, the same North-South headwind gave us more troubles. We muscled on, and continued to Burntroot Lake.
The south side of Burntroot Lake gave us some reprieve, and we very much enjoyed watching a group of campers cliff jump from their fine island campsite. That would definitely be a site worth coming back to camp on.
As we came around the bend into the long open stretch of Burntroot, the headwind was back to torment us. It was in this stretch that we realized we had hit a wall. Sore muscles were starting to become strained muscles, and we decided to make it to the next portage, then turn back. We got to Perley lake at about 4:30pm, then started the paddle back down Burntroot. Even though our absolute latest turn-around time was 6pm, we figured having a little buffer wouldn't hurt, just in case we had another day of bad headwinds on the way back. The point of this trip was to be foolhardy, not idiotic!
Funnily enough, the wind dropped as soon as we turned around, and we cruised back down Burntroot with a light tailwind. In the S-bend at the bottom of the lake, we had a spectacular encounter with two loons and their young, with haunting calls, silent paddling, and golden afternoon light.
We had a fantastic campsite for the end of the day, pulling up to it at about 6:15pm. This gave us ample time to set up camp, eat dinner, and relax and watch the light fade. Bedtime was at dusk, before the bugs even got that bad!
Day 3: Burntroot back out to Canoe Lake
Day 3 we started even earlier, with a 5am wake-up, because we wanted to be sure we could make it back in case there were headwinds. We were out on the water at 6am, in the silent grey of pre-dawn.
This post is getting long enough, so I'll just drop down the highlights of the return trip here:
And here are some photos:
Lessons Learned
Our main take-aways from our attempt are that if we are dead serious about finishing the run in a weekend, we need to bring less gear, we need to avoid headwinds, and we need to be stronger.
To minimize our gear, the books and journal, as well as mini gatorades would be the first to go. Instead of the water filter, we would do chlorine tablets. Instead of gatorade, electrolyte powder. We also would likely ditch the stove and pot and eat strictly ready-to-go foods: prepped sandwiches and wraps, jerkey, dried fruits/trail mix, and cliff bars. Skipping the barrel, we'd do a bear hang with a drybag, and try to camp for max 5-8 hours. Ideally, we'll fit everything into the large backpack. That way, on the portage Steve can handle the canoe, and I'll take the pack and paddles.
To avoid massive headwinds on Big Trout, we need to get there much earlier in the day, so we can take advantage of calm morning paddling. To do that, we would leave Ottawa at 12 rather than 3pm on the Friday, with the goal of camping on Otterslide Friday night. We'll also need to keep a close eye on the weather forecast - no rains or winds is the ideal.
Finally, we need to do a couple of training trips before our next attempt! We are both SORE after this weekend's activities, with shoulders and arms both needing a lot of recovery. We'll need to have stronger paddling muscles to be able to handle that extra 55km. Having wider paddles with more pulling power, and possibly a lighter weight design would also be a boon. We averaged around 4km/hr of paddling, and I think we need 5km/hr to really make the run feasible in a weekend.
Overall, it was a great weekend, one filled with a healthy dose of suffering, but also many breathtaking and beautiful moments. Brent Run, we'll be back for you yet!