The Passionate Hiker: On the K&P: North from Sharbot Lake (5)

Thurs. 4 June: On the K&P: North from Sharbot Lake (5): Mile Lake – Calabogie – Shannons Lakes

At Tatty Hill Road

The Kingston and Pembroke (K&P) Railway took its time reaching Calabogie.

Open from Kingston to Sharbot Lake by 1876, it was another eight years before it finally reached Calabogie and Renfrew. Having travelled the whole stretch from Sharbot Lake, I still think this was progress at a snail’s pace. But who’s complaining? Snail’s pace is just the right speed to enjoy the scenery – and particularly on the final approach to Calabogie across the open waters of the wide lake.

Today’s journey took me from Mile Lake northwards all the way past Calabogie and north towards Renfrew. There are some expensive lakeside properties near the Calabogie golf course. Here is Eagle Point, where the line runs out across the lake. It is about a kilometre across the open waters to Bluff Point on the northern side. But you can’t get all the way across.

There were two channels under the line designed to allow the waters of the lake to flow between the two sides of the causeway. The first is bridged by two narrow wooden beams, walkable with care. The more northerly crossing is not bridged. I left my bike at the first of the bridges and enjoyed a stroll out into the lake on a perfect sunny morning. I met a turtle who was in no hurry to do anything energetic, so I stepped carefully around him. The Calabogie Peaks formed a pretty skyline across the lake, rising over 750 vertical feet to their rounded summits. A canoe set out from the southern shore, creating ripples in the still waters.

My journey today was in two separate parts. The first was based at Tatty Hill Road, south of Calabogie, and took me to the northern gap in the causeway on the lake. My second journey started in Calabogie, only a few hundred metres north from where I stood, but requiring about eight or nine kilometres of driving. There is an official K&P trail access point at the rail bridge in town, with some interesting old photos of steam trains.

Before heading north, I biked south onto Bluff Point Road to see if I could reach the northern end of the causeway across the lake. Sadly, this neck of land has been developed into a sub-division many years ago, with some beautiful homes hidden in the trees. The line would have skirted the edge of the lake, but if it still exists, it is now lost in the trees, and beneath manicured lawns sloping down to the water’s edge.

I biked the short distance back into Calabogie. The line continues north over two bridges crossing the two arms of the Madawaska River. It quickly plunges back into the countryside on a long straight stretch of line. The western end of Norway Lake gives grand views out across the waters.

The countryside was changing. I was starting to leave the Canadian Shield country behind and was approaching the Ottawa Valley. Open fields seemed to stand out as novelties after days of travel through remote swampland and low hills. I turned around at lonely Shannon’s Lake, with one leg remaining to reach Renfrew. This stretch of line north of Calabogie was nicely maintained, and I made a much faster pace on my hybrid bike.

Returning to Calabogie, I sat under a leafy tree beside the rippling waters of the lake, and dreamed of endless abandoned railway lines stretching out into the remote landscape of Eastern Ontario, keeping me occupied for years to come!

Note: single-click on the first picture above to scroll through the photos separately

Statistics:

Total Distance: 34.0 km (bike) + 1.0 (hike) = 35.0 km

Height Gain: 335 ft.

Time on Trail: 3 hrs. 13 mins.

Leg 1

Tatty Hill Rd: 7.52 am

End point trip (4): 8.13 am

Tatty Hill Rd: 8.24 am

Eagle Point: 8.52 am

Tatty Hill Rd: 9.21 am

Leg 2

Calabogie: 10.21 am