Silent Lake Provincial Park – September 2020

This is an extremely hilly park, they even have signs in certain spots stating No Trailers Allowed ! Silent Lake is not a very big park, maybe 1610 hectares and has only two campgrounds. They also have some walk-in sites. Our site was okay but none of them look to very level and no privacy really if you want that.

We spent a few hours paddling around Silent Lake, not a big lake maybe 2.5 km in length and no motor boats allowed, which I like. The fall colours on this lake were really nice, lots of reds and oranges.

We saw another Loon with a young one, I feel like the Loons had their young very late this year.

You used to be able to access two other lakes by portage (Quiet and Soft Lakes) but when we went this year, the Warden told me that you aren’t allowed to canoe in either of these lakes anymore. She said something about sensitive environments. But Silent Lake is nice to paddle so that’s okay with us.

They only have three trails, we did two of them. We did the 1.5 km Lakehead Loop Trail following the lakeshore and Bonnie’s Pond Trail, a 3 km walk through a forest and past a large beaver pond. Bonnie’s Pond was named after a workhorse who drowned while dragging logs over the ice on the pond. Kinda sad.

Their last trail, Lakeshore Trail, is 15 km and takes you around the perimeter of Silent Lake. Had we stayed one more night we probably would have done it.

They also have a Bike Trail, which we didn’t do, they have a two loop trails – 11 km and 17 km; the 11 km is moderately difficult and the 17 km is difficult.

All in all, it was a nice park, not much to do but we still enjoyed it and really enjoyed the canoeing. We may be back.

Off to Algonquin for 2 1/2 weeks now !