Rock-Welcome-Louisa Route

CanadaOntarioAlgonquin
Submitter & Author Information
Route submitted by: 
Admin
Trip Date : 
Route Author: 
Unknown
Additional Route Information
Distance: 
35 km
Duration: 
3 days
Loop Trip: 
Yes
Portage Information
No. of portages: 
6
Total Portage Distance: 
6313 m
Longest Portage: 
3455 m
Difficulty Ratings
River Travel: 
Novice
Lake Travel: 
Novice
Portaging: 
Difficult
Remoteness: 
Novice
Background Trip Info
Water Levels: 
Route Description
Technical Guide: 

Rock lake Access Point
Rock lake S. to Pen lake (portage 375m.)
Pen lake S.W. to marshy bay leading to Galipo river (portage 295m.)
Galipo river to Welcome lake (portage 1870m.)
Welcome lake, thru Harry and Rence lakes,
back onto Galipo river to Frank lake (portage 320m.)
Frank lake, thru Florence, to Lake Louisa (*choice in portage - 1725m. or 3455m.)
Louisa to Rock lake (portage 2895m.)
*the choice here lies in the fact that their are two portages heading to Louisa. The shorter of the two leaves a much longer paddle to the Rock Lake portage.

Maps Required
Other Maps: 
Algonquin Provincial Park map published by Friends of Algoqnuin Park

Comments

Post date: Mon, 01/05/2009 - 15:27

Comments: 

This is the trip that me and Mike did. I know it is only 3 days however The site on Frank lake we could spend more than 1 day also Pond weed is an awesome site too that we can spend a day or 2 at.

It was a really nice loop.

Post date: Mon, 09/01/2008 - 17:06

Comments: 

Just returned from this trip with my 14 year old son Bryan. We rented a ultralight canoe (42 lbs)for this trip as my sturdy coleman canoe is too heavy (85 lbs) for the long portages this route has.
We left Tues Aug 26th from Rock Lake at around 10:00 am and made it to Harry Lake for our first nights stop around 5:30 pm. We both found the 1870 metre portage from Galipo River to Welcome Lake the most challenging of this trip. Not sure if it was the fact our packs were at their heaviest being the first day or the fact that we had never portaged that kind of distance before. The trail seemed tougher overall than the next two large portages.
Wed morning we left camp at 9:30 am and headed through Florence Lake and the 1725 meter portage which seemed wider and easier than the previous days portage. We made camp on Lake Louisa around 2:30 pm and we stayed on this lake for 3 nights. The purpose of our trip was for R&R and we just checked out the many streams and inlets of Lake Louisa over the next 3 days.
Left camp on Sat around 9:30 and had to paddle against the wind all the way down the lake to the portage point. Started the portage and we had decided to carry everything in one trip as opposed to our doubling back for packs and gear on the way in. This is almost a 3 km portage out to Rock Lake and doubling back for another load of gear would mean walking 9 kms. We made it out without stopping once as the trail is easy walking and mostly downhill. We passed a lot of people coming in for the labour day weekend who were struggling with carrying in too much gear and bottled water. On the subject of water - we boiled our drinking and cooking water for 10 mins and also had the pristine purifying system as back up if we didn't or couldn't boil the water. We found the water had a mineral taste to it but we had brought flavour packages that we added to our drinking bottles and we got along fine!
Didn't see any moose or deer. No problems with bears or racoons.
Great weather made this a great relaxing time with my son.

Post date: Sat, 01/01/2000 - 07:00

Comments: 

Did this trip in august of 04. I really enjoyed it. The portages may be long but they are flat and very well kept. Along the way we had some beautiful campsites and saw some great wildlife. I recomend this trip to anyone that can handle long prtages and shalow creeks

Post date: Sat, 01/01/2000 - 07:00

Comments: 

Four of us did this same route in July 2003, but added an extra 2 days to the trip.

Rather than cut back to Rock Lake from Louisa, we continued North into Rod&Gun, Lawrence, Pardee, Harness, Head. We then took the Head Creek over into the Lake of Two River and then back to Rock Lake through Whitefish.

The whole trip took 4 nights, we camped as follows: Day 1 - Welcome Lake, Day 2 - Lake Louisa (the island near to Rod&Gun), Day 3 - Head Lake, Day 4 - Whitefish Lake.

Adding the extra loop onto the trip made was well worth it. The waterfall on Head Lake was a great shower after 3 days of paddling. The creek from Head to Lake of Two Rivers added some nice river travel that we had not yet seen on this route.