Beaver Dams – love ’em or hate ’em ……. or both I suppose. Those beavers sure keep busy, so many lakes where we paddle you encounter a dam, or dams. But rarely do you see the beavers!
Here is how this story goes – there is a lake in Algonquin Park I have always wanted to paddle. For years I was thinking of different ways to get into it and we came to the conclusion that we would have to put in at a spot on the highway and go over a beaver dam to get there. Little did we know that we had to scale three dams to get there and then we hit a fourth which was huge so we called it a day lol.
View of our truck on the highway from our canoe 
First and what we thought would be the only dam
We paddled a bit more and there was a 2nd dam!
You can tell they have been here quite a while 
Our canoe sitting on top of the dam, I’m hovering somewhere trying not to fall in the water 
Looks nice, now to get back into the canoe 
Coming back over the 2nd dam 
Worth it…. 
Nice lake to paddle and in the fall it’s particularly lovely
Well finally, over two dams now we can get going! Nope, wait yet another beaver dam…..
Coming up to dam #3 
There it is, a fair sized one, bigger than the last two 
This is a shot of the third dam caming back 
this was not easy, I fell getting out of the canoe and I was like a turtle on his shell trying to get up! 
Finally off the dam and away we go
Finally, we get to paddle West Smith Lake and it’s quite lovely. There was a historic site we wanted to get to but there did not seem to be a way. We had also left later in the day and it was getting late so we thought we should try this another time.
So quiet here 
Beautiful clouds that day 
Otter 
Otter 
We had a really lovely paddle
It was really nice paddling around and we spotted some otters, the pictures quite frankly are crap, the lighting was not good. But I have proof of the otters! We kept going and headed to the end and then……………
Oh for crying out loud! One more dam and the biggest yet. We hit dam number 4 and we decided to call it a day. It was a big dam and we weren’t quite sure how to get over it and drag our canoe and our camera gear so we headed home. We had to go back over 3 dams again to get to our truck. So the photo below shows the 4th dam, we were low in our canoe and could barely see the lake on the other side. This dam has been here a long time, those beavers are very creative and their engineering skills are unparalleled. And trust me, getting in and out of a canoe and clambering over dams is not as easy as one might think. These aren’t the first dams we have went over but normally we just do one a day lol. We are very careful going over dams not to cause damage that would impact on its integrity. We pick spots that are on the outside edges. These dams have been here for years so there is a very minimal chance of doing any damage. One thing of note, lots of dams are full of leeches and if you read my Blog you know that I do not like leeches….at all. And I might add, Clint and I have done a lot of back country canoe trips and there are a lot of dams out there and you have no choice but to get yourself, your canoe and your gear to the other side.
So we had a fun? afternoon and I would like to take another run at this. I need to go further …..
Take care everyone.
Trums Travels 
That’s a lot of work climbing over the dams, I wouldn’t try it! It seems like there would be a proper beach or end of a trail that comes from a parking area to access the lake. The photos are not crap at all, they show the beauty of this lake!
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Thanks John! Algonquin Park is huge and most of it is bush and left natural. Makes it kinda fun sometimes!
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Great shots!!
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Thank you Jyothi!
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Wow! What an adventure! It does look “worth it.” Looks a beautiful and peaceful location. 😍 I love your storytelling too. 😊
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Thanks Michele! I’m glad you appreciate my stories, like the one where I fell and was like a turtle on his shell and couldn’t get up lol. I told Clint I will wear gloves next time some of those sticks on the dam are sharp! Lol 😄
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You are welcome! Yes, that did make me laugh. 😂 I was laughing with you! Be careful. 🙂
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You sure are adventurous Susan. I sure don’t blame you for not crossing that fourth beaver dam – sturdy but still scary. You got some beautiful shots along the way – I see while Algonquin Park is one of your favorite spots to visit. Despite being a Canadian, I’ve never seen a beaver and up until a couple of years ago had never seen a beaver dam nor their handiwork. A park ranger at Lake Erie Metropark saw me meandering around and asked if I’d seen the beaver dam so he pointed me in the right direction. I was amazed at the sight of it. I saw how many of the trees had keeled over thanks to the beaver gnawing them – this was near the dam as well as around the marshland area. Just incredible and they were huge trees, so it makes me wonder why they don’t trap it/them and transport them somewhere so they do not continue their destruction?
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They are quite the little engineers. It sure is amazing what one little beaver can build in such a short time. Yes they can cause some mischief depending where they build their dams. And it can be very annoying to people who canoe lol. And when I wrote that I fell on one of them getting out of the canoe., some of the sticks are quite sharp! I told my husband I should wear gloves next time we go over a beaver dam.
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You are brave, that’s for sure. I had seen cartoon pics or memes of how beavers chewed trees and I guess I thought it was exaggerated until I saw it for myself. I forgot how much wood they could chew in the course of a day – the ranger mentioned it. I am perplexed why they did not try to trap this beaver or any beavers in this park as were very destructive. I follow this park on social media and said to the ranger “why don’t you post about the beaver’s dam and handiwork on your social media sites – people may like to see it?” He said “if we did, someone would come in the middle of the night, set a trap, get the beaver and sell the pelt – better to leave nature alone.” Hmm. I like nature, but what about the trees … maybe I am a tree hugger. 🙂
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They trap them in the city where I live and people get upset about it. The city hires someone to do it, no one knows if they relocate them or what they do with them. I love trees too, I don’t know if they use a lot of trees or if some is deadfall also. I can’t understand why animals are still trapped for their pelts☹️
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Well that is smart of the city to do that because otherwise people would likely be protesting outside City Hall. I guess wherever they locate them, they’ll do damage, but maybe don’t put them in parks where people are hiking/camping/canoeing, etc. … a few of those trees looked like a strong wind and the tree would keel over. Big trees and in one instance one was laying right across the marsh. I don’t understand the pelt trapping either, but I’m no fan of hunting of any sort.
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