Table of Contents:

• Day 4: From Sturgeon Chutes to The Old Voyageur Channel
• Day 5: From The Old Voyageur Channel To the Bustard Islands (CS 900)
• Day 6: A Day In The Bustards/A Visit to the Bustard Rocks Lighthouses
• Day 7: Up Fox Bay/Lake/Creek to Pickerel Bay and CS631
• Day 8: Up the Pickerel River to Smith Marine (Settlers Road)
• Other French River Area Canoe Trip Reports

In early October 2025, we spent eight days in the French River area on the southern edge of north Ontario. It’s only a three or four-hour drive from Toronto to a spot where you can put your canoe in the water. This year, that spot was the Wanapitei River off the Secord Road. See the trip report linked below for the first three days on the Wanapitei River

Down The Lower Wanapitei River From Secord Falls to Hartley Bay

This trip report covers the second half of our mini-adventure, picking up the route at the Sturgeon Chutes on the Wanapitei River and then heading out into Georgian Bay. We then returned to our vehicle at Smith Marine on the Pickerel River by old Hwy 69 (now called Settlers Road).

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Day 4: Sturgeon Chutes to The Old Voyageur Channel

• Date: September 30, 2025
• Distance: 21 km
• Time:  8:30 – 2:30
• Rapids: none
• Portages: none
• Weather: sunny and warm
• Sightings: the occupants of the two tents at CS 647
• Campsite: Nameless Bay, around the corner from La Petite Faucille Rapids
• Caltopo link to our GPS track for the entire 8-day route

We took a last look at the Sturgeon Chutes and the two tents up on the rock.  Our goal for the day was a campsite at the bottom of the Old Voyageur Channel. We had about 20 kilometres of flat water to paddle on yet another sunny day with little wind.

Beyond the Forks of the Wanapitei, we soon came to Thompson Bay, and the start of the Western Channel, one of the many routes paddlers can choose to get to Georgian Bay.  Next to the Main Outlet to the east, the Western Channel was the route preferred by the fur trade convoys on their way to or back from their Lake Superior rendezvous.

A few motorboats zipped by as we headed down Robinson Bay to the start of the Old Voyageur Channel (OVC).  The Channel is at its widest here, and we had to deal with a bit of a crosswind for 5 or 6 kilometres, taking a break for lunch on the west shore before getting to the start of the OVC.

Entering the OVC is magical. Narrow passages, whaleback-like rocks…this has to be one of the most stunning stretches of river we have paddled anywhere on the Canadian Shield. [Of course, we were so in the moment that this would be the very section we did not make a video of. We need to return one more time!]

As we approached La Petite Faucille Rapids, we decided to take a slight detour into the unnamed bay first.  The OVC is such a draw that most, if not all, paddlers probably head straight to the portage around La Petite Faucille.

After three nights of tenting on the side of falls with the constant sound of rushing water, we were struck by how quiet it was in the bay. Noticing a fire ring on the top of a sloped rock, we pulled up our canoe on a rock sliver at the south end. and scampered up. We found a nice view – and a fine campsite.

Since we had already covered 21 kilometres and it was nearing 3:00, we decided to call it a day and set up our tent. The campsite we had booked was at the bottom of the Old Voyageur Channel, but this one was definitely an upgrade. The image below was taken a couple of hours later, after we paddled around the bottom of the bay to see if there were any other signs of campsites.

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Day 5: The Old Voyageur Channel To the Bustards

• Date: October 1, 2025
• Distance: 20 km.
• Time:  8:40 – 3:00
• Rapids: La Petite Faucille; Palmer Rapids; La Dalle Swifts
• Portages: 3 – 1 on Palmer Rapids and 2 on Cross-Channel
• Weather: sunny and warm
• Sightings: no human presence; some bird life.
• Campsite: CS801 rejected for CS900 on the Bustards
• Caltopo link to our GPS track for the entire 8-day route

We were off before 9:00 for the 30-meter portage around La Petite Faucille. When we got there, we decided to haul the loaded canoe over the top and down the narrow chute instead. It would be less of a hassle than the usual empty-haul-reload portage routine. See below for the log-lined slope the canoe skidded down!

Coming up was another complication – Palmer Rapids.  The year before, we had paddled up the rapids with no difficulty. Lower water levels this October meant the rocks we had paddled over were now a meter or more out of the water. In the two images below, you can see our canoe at the take-out spot and the route we chose to get below the waterless rapids.

After Palmer Rapids, the OVC has one more treat in store – the La Dalle Rapids. Actually, swifts might be a better description, though perhaps in May or early June, there is enough water coming down to warrant the name “Rapids”.   This year, we floated down with no issues.  Last October, we had paddled up La Dalle and been so astonished that we could do so that we paddled back down just so we could paddle back up again! Here is a video clip of the trip down –

The OVC’s La Dalle just has to be at the top of the list of probable locations that inspired Frances Anne Hopkins when she painted Canoe Manned by Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall, 1869.

At the bottom of the OVC, the west-bound voyageurs would stop for the day at a large clearing they called La Prairie at the top of Batt Bay on the Voyageur Channel.  We were heading in the opposite direction.  To avoid the maze of islands and rocks on the Georgian Bay shore, we made use of the west cross-channel from Balis Point all the way to the Jameson and Devil’s Door Rapids.

The interior passage provides much calmer paddling; it also means a portage or two and some potential lining if the water level is too low. We dealt with a 130-meter portage, and then, 20 meters after putting back in, another 30-meter stretch of water too shallow to float our canoe. After that, it was easy paddling to the Devil’s Door.

When we got to Devil’s Door Rapids, we were ready for some work. In previous years, we have seen as much as a 1.5-meter drop at this spot and opted to do the portage instead! We were surprised to see a 30 cm drop that we slipped down in a second! That is the Devil’s Door behind Max’s right shoulder in the image below.

We should have continued with the cross-channel, but decided to head out into Georgian Bay.  Navigating the G’Bay’s often-shallow shoreline, with its maze of false channels and smoothed-down rock outcrops, can be quite the challenge. Hats off to the stern paddler for his navigational skills.

As we paddled east, the Henvey Inlet wind turbines came into view. They were about 20 kilometres from where we were.  Much closer were some of the Bustard Islands, the green band in the image below. They were about 2.5 km over a bit of open water.

We were headed for CS 800 on the east side of Sand Bay. Given FRPP’s new policy requiring Park visitors to specify the exact campsite they will occupy each night of their visit, it was the one I had entered when filling out the permit.

CS 800 is a total dud of a site.

Since we were probably the only end-of-season paddlers in the entire Park, we decided to head instead to a site we had camped at before and had booked for the following day.  It would be much better and would be almost certain to be unoccupied.

That site was CS 900 over on the Bustard Islands.  We would just spend two nights there instead of one. There was only one complication – getting over to the Bustards.

On our two previous visits to the delta, we had to give up on paddling over to the islands. Sitting in an open canoe on an exposed expanse of water with a stiff wind and whitecaps rolling at you is not where you want to be. However, we were fortunate to have manageable conditions this early afternoon.

35 minutes later, we had paddled from CS800 to the Coral Channel entrance. Whew! We followed the shoreline to our campsite on Tanvat Island, CS900.

As well as a reasonably sheltered spot to put our tent, the site allows for rambling around its perimeter and provides all sorts of interesting photographic possibilities. It also has a “thunder box” (aka toilet box). This one looked like it had been visited often over the past few months.

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Day 6: A Day In The Bustards / A Visit to the Lighthouses 

• Date: October 2, 2025
• Distance: 13 km.
• Time:  9:30 – 1:15
• Portages: 1 – across Tanvat Island’s narrow neck
• Weather: sunny and warm
• Sightings: no human presence; a few birds
• Campsite: CS900 on Tanvat Island’s east side
• Caltopo link to our GPS track for the entire 8-day route

The Bustards are a collection of islands, large and small. Our campsite was on the eastern tip of the largest of them, Tanvat. To the north of Tanvat are three of the four private properties found on the Bustards. The two northernmost ones are in a bay with names like Highland Home and Meaford Island. The bay was once a fisheries hub. It is still known to sailors as a safe harbour to turn to in case of severe weather.

To the west of the Bustard Islands is a smaller collection of rock slivers known as the Bustard Rocks. We would be heading over there to visit the three lighthouses, with the main one still operational. Until 1951, a lighthouse keeper lived on the Rocks; these days, the operation is automated with only an occasional visit by a Coast Guard Canada helicopter to check up on things. The hut was removed in the late 1960s.

We used a shortcut to get there. Instead of paddling around the south end of the islands and then heading back up, we headed to an 80-meter portage across the island, which also offered more sheltered water to paddle.

The placid water at the put-in on the west side of the portage would end when we came out into the more open water, but conditions were such that 30 minutes later, we were walking up to the main lighthouse on the Bustard Rocks.

The image below shows where the lighthouse keeper’s hut used to be.

The lichen-covered concrete where the hut sat is now used as a helicopter landing pad! Apparently, the couple that took care of the lighthouses for twenty-plus years hauled earth by the bag from the mainland and were able to create a vegetable and flower garden on what had been a barren rock sliver.

The door to the main lighthouse was unlocked. A quick scamper up the lander to the top got me this shot.

Max’s ultra-zoom P&S Sony camera came in handy for this handheld shot of Killarney’s  Lacloche Mountains about 40 kilometres away.

We enjoyed a lazy afternoon on our return to CS 900. Our sleeping bags were draped over an impromptu clothes line and got some sun and wind therapy. The next day would be longer and involve a bit more work.

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Day 7: Up Fox Bay/Lake/Creek to Pickerel Bay

• Date: October 3, 2025
• Distance:  23 km.
• Time:  8:30 – 3:45
• Rapids: none
• Portages: 3 going up Fox Creek to Pickerel Bay
• Weather: 
• Sightings: 
• Campsite: t
• Caltopo link to our GPS track for the entire 8-day route

There are stories told of canoe trippers stranded for days on the Bustards because of unrelenting, fierce winds. Our experience would be far less dramatic.  We set off for the north end of the Bustards before making the 1.5 km crossing of the Northeast Passage to the calm of the mainland shore. What we weren’t expecting was a gentle wind blowing from the SW.  In 15 minutes, we had floated from Northeast Island to the first of the islands along the mainland shore. An hour later, we were crossing Fox Bay.  Back home, Laila took note of our rapid progress.

We had gone up Fox Creek the previous October. We could have chosen another one this time for variety’s sake – Bass Creek or the Pickerel River. Despite the three portages it includes, the Fox has a charm of its own. It is also a plus that not many other paddlers do it, though the portage signs, which have appeared in the past three years, are an indication that might be changing.

The first of the three is the messiest. The visual below shows the two parts of the portage into Fox Lake, with a middle section that we were able to paddle. Total distance: 350 meters.

In 2019, we had paddled down the Fox system from Pickerel Bay to Georgian Bay, curious about the impact of the Henvey Inlet Wildfire of 2018 (see here for more info).  Each year, the new growth is more visible.

After a one-hour break for lunch near the north end of Fox Lake, we paddled the last 1.5 km to the second of our three portages. It is about 230 meters long and starts with a steep climb to a flat spot on the rock ridge. We hauled everything up to the plateau, then finished the carry to the small lake. A leisurely paddle across the lake brought us to the last portage of the trip, a 140-meter haul before setting our canoe into Pickerel Bay.

 

Our favourite French River Delta campsite (CS 634) was just across the bay, but it had already been reserved by the day I got around to getting our camping permit. We paddled the south shore 1.5 kilometres to the east and ended up at the site I had reserved when filling out the ark camping permit – CS631.

CS631 is definitely a fair-weather campsite, with neither of the two tent spots offering any wind protection. The toilet box is located up top, within 20 meters of the top tent spot. We chose the flatter spot right by the shore.  The few raindrops that did fall just as we finished putting up our tent prompted us to put our 14’x10′ tarp up. That was it for the rain.

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Day 8: Up the Pickerel R. to Smith Marine (Settlers Rd.)

• Date: October 4, 2025
• Distance: 16 km.
• Time:  8:30 – 11:30
• Rapids: none
• Portages: none
• Weather: 
• Sightings: a couple of motorboats heading to Hwy 69
• Caltopo link to our GPS track for the entire 8-day route

We were ready to set off a bit earlier this morning. The plan was to get to Smith Marine by noon. The image below shows our tent spot by the shore. The canoe looks loaded and ready to go.

Thanks to the lack of wind this morning, the following three pix will all feature mirror-like water surfaces. As we headed up the Pickerel River, we paddled under the following –

• The rail trestle owned by CN, which dates back to 1900-1910
• The new divided Highway 69 from the early 2020s

East of the rail trestle, the Pickerel has the feel of a grand avenue with vertical rock lining the shore.

It was a Saturday morning when we paddled out. We were pretty happy about the lack of motorboat traffic as we headed east. Maybe it was because it was early October instead of prime summer; maybe it was early enough on a Saturday morning that cottagers hadn’t yet got going.  No complaints here!

As we approached David’s Bay for the big turn to the south, we watched one motorboat head for the North Channel. We turned into the Little Canoe Channel with enough shallow sections to discourage motorboats from ripping through.

Finally, we paddled under the new divided Highway 69, passed a couple of docks and came to the last dock – that of Smith Marine.

Here is an image of the Marina found on their website.

Eight days before, we had left our vehicle in the marina parking lot, while Seb shuttled us in their pickup truck to the start of our canoe trip on the Wanapitei River.  Three days on the Wanapitei were followed by five in French River Provincial Park – and every day had its wow moments.

Spending time in a canoe on the water, walking portage trails through the bush, being off the grid  –  always a great way to re-create, to recharge our batteries.  As the collection of trip reports below shows, the French River area has become our go-to place to see it all happen. Its proximity to Toronto is one major positive.

Site-Specific Reservation Policy:

However, the move to having park visitors reserve the exact campsite they will occupy each night is the one negative that makes a return less likely. Park officials clearly have a different sort of paddler and camper in mind. We just don’t do canoe tripping like that!

Check out Kevin Callan’s December 2024 opinion piece at the Explore website:

Other than Crown Land camping, the Parks Ontario website now lists only five operating Ontario Parks for canoe trippers who do not like being boxed in by the site-specific reservation policy:

We’ve also been to the five listed operating parks. Over the past 15 summers, Wabakimi has been a favourite. Maybe 2026 will be our first descent of the Missinaibi River since 2003!

There are also several non-operating parks, some of which – e.g., the Steel – we have paddled.  St. Raphael Park, to the west of Wabakimi, is another possibility.

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More French River Delta Trip Reports!

October 2024 – 7 days/125 km

Up and Down The French River Delta’s Many Channels And Outlets

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October 2019 – 10 days/215 km.

Canoeing The French River From Top To Bottom: Intro., Logistics, Planning and Maps

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October 2017 – 7 days/110 km

Canoeing Georgian Bay’s French River Delta: Logistics, Maps, & Day 1

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September 2016 – 4 days/55 km

Paddling Around Georgian Bay’s Philip Edward Island – Part One

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