The Passionate Hiker: Frontenac Park

Sat. 15 November: Frontenac Provincial Park – Tetsmine Lake Loop

First light snowfall last night

The low sun shone through the bare trees as we set off from the car park, the lightest skiff of snow at our feet. This was an ideal day to explore the northern part of Frontenac Provincial Park.

Our journey today took us around the Tetsmine Lake Loop, in an anticlockwise direction, from our trailhead at the Kingsford Lake dam.

This is the “back door” into the park, but a popular access point. We saw several people on the trail, and a family group heading out to a nearby campsite.

Frontenac Park is only about eight kilometres across by ten from north to south. But in that space is an amazing wilderness of lakes and ridges. There are eleven loops, totaling 160 kilometres of trail. Each Fall, hikers are invited to travel all these trails, in the “Frontenac Challenge”. I have this on my list for next year.

Our small team of six hikers was well matched. We made good progress over the first exciting ridge, down to a well-maintained boardwalk across a beaver pond, and past small lakes which were rapidly freezing over. This is part of the Canadian Shield, so we expected a rugged landscape. At this time of year, with the trees now bare, we had a good view of the land: some steep-sided gorges, and rocky outcrops grazed by passing glaciers.

Little blue trail signs kept us on track – although every one of the eleven loops uses the same sign! There were good signposts at the junctions. We crossed over a small bridge below a broken beaver dam. There was once a large lake here, but it is now an open meadow. Here we met a couple of dogs following the scent of a wild animal. They seemed to be all alone. For some time afterwards, we could hear the barking as they crossed a far ridge.

Our lunch stop above Lynch Lake allowed us to enjoy the sunlight glinting on the water, which was turning to ice as we watched. The cloudless morning sky had partially clouded over, and the cold westerly wind threatened more snow later on. Luckily the contours of the land sheltered us for most of our journey.

After crossing the end of Tetsmine Lake, we soon came to the mica mine. The pit was filled with water. Nearby were the remains of a bunkhouse, complete with bedstead and rusty bedsprings. On the ground glittered tiny pieces of mica.

We decided to explore the short portage route up to Moulton Lake, and quickly agreed that we would not want to be carrying a canoe up that slippery trail. The reward was a beautiful, yet lonely, lake, surrounded by low forested hillsides. There must be a reason why this isolated lake has a portage access, and we enjoyed some idle speculation without coming to any good conclusion.

In the silent woods we could hear the sound of a woodpecker. He was quickly identified as a male hairy woodpecker, by the red patch on the back of his head.

We were soon back at the trailhead, after what we agreed was just about the perfect hike. The only disappointment was the discovery, on the way home, that both Westport bakeries were closed for the season!

Statistics:

Total Distance: 13.0 km (hike)

Height Gain: Say 500 ft.

Time on Trail: 4 hrs. 45 mins.

Start hike (Dam): 10.50 am

Birch Lake Jn: 11.52 am

Tetsmine L (lunch): 1.02 pm

Mine site: 2.19 pm

Moulton Lake: 2.44 pm

Ret. to cars: 3.35 pm

Temp: Around Zero C

Weather: Cloudless, then variable cloud, brisk W. breeze