I'm taking an armful of young boys (7 thru 13) into Tim Lake in a couple of weeks (thanks Mike B). We plan to spend 5 nights. I intend to base camp on Tim and explore the area day tripping with them. I know there have been a few regulars through that area in recent months or years. Can anyone suggest a preferred site on Tim L and/or any interesting day side trips? A rocky point good for swimming would be perfect. Hopefully the weather will be good and we can check out the beach on Rosebary. I've looked at all of the posted trip logs but comments on specific sites are scarce. Any info not covered in the TLs would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.

Happy Paddles,

Fred

Fred I would go for the island site on the north east side, or the site on the point on the South east side, those are the 2 sites I posted earlier, the site in the little bay on the south east side has some old ruins and a can/bottle dump.

If you're planning on spending 5 nights in the park, I would suggest going to Rosebarry Lake instead. You can do side trips there and also hike along an old road from the south shore. The campsites are big enough at the beach area for your group.

Thanks Mel.. I still have time to consider that and it's a good idea. I'm trying to find a balance between giving them an interior experience and being mindful of the fact that I am the only adult. I know they would love being on the beach. Do you think it's 3-4 hrs from the Tim L put in to Rosebary or maybe a bit less?

3 or 4 hard hours, Its a long trudge bouncing from bank to bank, I will post some pics tommorow of the sites and river, but thats a hard haul for a 7 year old. You would not want to day trip it. you would need an overnighter for sure.

I agree with the Rosebary Lake idea. I've gone there with our kids starting at age 4 without any problem (2 canoes for 2 adults, 3 kids all beneath age of 7). I would bank on 4 hours start to finish. I like the fact there is only one short (but steep at one point) portage. The river can get tedious but there usualy is some kind of wild life to interest to the kids. The idea of a day trip from Tim Lake to Rosebary sounds long. There is a great variety of day trips, which can be shorter in nature, from Rosebary itself. The beach is obviously a fantastic draw.

Portage




River






Beach



Rosebary Camp




Tim lake Ruins




Nice area to trip, cant go wrong either way.

Thanks Mike.. I'm trying to resist the urge to overcomplicate things since, as far as the 'work' is concerned, I'll be pretty much soloing. I appreciate the pics. If I change the plan I may decide to head to Rosebary first for a few nights then trip back to Tim for the last bit. I like the ease of setting up on Tim and perhaps just paddling the Tim R for some moose spotting and exploring around Tim L. As you say, I can't go wrong either way. Thanks again.

In the spirit of leveraging community knowledge to maximize the Park experience I've decided to spend the first three nights on Rosebary and the last two on Tim L. Following a full and frank discussion with the mini-men about the work and effort required to get to Rosebary and back they have elected that option nonetheless and the reservation is changed. I suspect they will enjoy the Tim R between Tim L and Rosebary including the lifts over the dams if there are any.
I think the spots Mike B pointed to on Tim L sound/look excellent and we'll look for them on Day 4(Wed). Any sites recommended on Rosebary? Where's the beach?

Thanks in advance for all the input and pics, awesome!

Fred

The beach is to the left when you enter form the Tim. Nice large campsite, Pictures above from the beach campsite. Check out the 230 portage from Longbow to the Nip the are some interesting ruins to check out there.

Thanks Mike.. I think it'll be a fun trip.. appreciate all your input and pics! Have a great weekend..

There are a number of nice sites on Rosebary. As mentioned the site beside the beach is great (I've never been able to stay there, always full). I have stayed at the southern most site on the west shore and the site on the south east point (a few times). Each are good offering nice views and space. There is a site on the west side close to the "entrance" to the lake which always seems too close to the marsh and mosquitoes but is looks decent.

Thanks Andrew. We're heading into Rosebary on Sunday and likely hit the lake early afternoon so I appreciate knowing which sites to try for. Alternatively, if the site near the beach is taken and the weather is nice.. we just may have to head for the beach to do some swimming.. unless Mr. Leech and his family are also there!

The beach is well worth the paddle (not many leeches).
On a nice day it can even get a bit "busy"!


This is the site on the south east point.

WOW!.. what a lovely beach. I know the boys will love it. Hope we have some beach weather. Is the site pic of the site adjacent to the beach?

Thanks to all for info and pics on Rosebary as i am also heading up here for a few nights in Aug. I have just been to rosebury once for one night when came up from David creek though the 3375p (really not a bad portage as most of it is an old over grown road so mostly a wide flat path)and I am looking forword to having more time to explore and seems a good easy place to take a friends dad for his first trip to Algonquin.

Marshall

No, that's the site on the south east point. The site beside the beach would be my first choice, as has been of everyone else when I have been up there...

Hi FredF,

Just came out of that area on leg one of a solo trip and was in there last year for 8 days (4 on Rosebary) with my two young kids.

Time: Last year from access 2 it took us (me and 2 young kids) 3 hours to get to Rosebary L, with one paddler, including the short 120m portage plus a beaver damn pullover shortly after paddling through Tim L. 20 minutes to Tim L from the access, 20 minutes to canoe through Tim then roughly 2.2 hours to get to Rosebary. The mainly gravel access road up to Tim is in excellent condition (60km/hr). Look out for snappers nest building and egg laying on your drive up, tis their time of year.





From Kearney Permit Office Access 2 is about a 25 minute drive. Access is a small pebbly/sandy beach + a short 12 (partially submerged) dock.



Dark tanic-stained water til u hit Tim Lake, which has ~10 clarity. Rosebary/Longbow has a 5-6 clarity. No real discernable current to the river until after that first portage - and even then its just in a few spots til u hit Rosebary(tight S turns, over beaver dams, at the base of the portage below the falls, etc). Water levels are low this year, so the number of obstructions/current areas may have changed.



Campsites:
Tim Lake: I stayed at the site marked on the map above for a few nites last week and it has room for 3 tents, has a small (2x2) table, decent firepit with a small sandy landing area (although there are about 2-3 landing areas for this site, some along a steep bank). Can't vouch on the island sites, never stayed there.

Rosebary: IMO the site right next to the sandy beach is crappy. Dark, uneven ground + small. We stayed there last year and were very disappointed with it. The beach is a short path walk from that campsite, and we kept our canoe on the beach and walked our stuff up. We enjoyed staying at the one on the east shore, south of the beach marked on the above map while on Tim. Flat, nice sandy landing, very spacious, lots of chippies/squirrels to entertain the kids, grassy, wildflowers, open, sunny, decent firepit if memory serves.





Its a short 2 minute paddle to the sandy beach from there, and the beach is available for anyone to use irregardless if the site next to it is occupied or not.

Longbow: Check the PCI database for site info on this campsite, if you havent done so already. Good sight, historic artifacts, open field behind the campsite with many wildflowers + hide and seek opportunities, very spacious, paths down to the river between campsite and Tim R, fun swimming/wading in the slight current at the canoe landing, sandy/rocky bottom.

Blood suckers
Like most lakes in the Park (and all over Ontario for that matter), lots of leeches in there. Tons seen along the beach on Rosebary and Tim L, River too of course. You can see them coming though, and my son enjoyed playing and collecting them during our stay last year (18 here in his nalgene). This pict taken at the portage, upriver (e.g. west side).



Blackflies are swarming along the lakeshores (e.g. boat landings) and wind-protected side of islands but arent bad at the campsites. Mosquitos are out in force too, and the deerflies and no-seeums were also encountered last week, although still few in number. Did not encounter any horseflies or stable flies yet, likely more towards early July for those. We never do or need bug jackets, but to each their own.

Fishing: Not sure if youre interested in fishing, let me know and Ill post info about it. Should still be lakers catchable in Tim L up close to the surface for another week or so. Brookies too of course.



Wildlife: Lots of moose in the lakes and along the Tim R. Last week when I entered Tim L there were a pair on the island campsite, the one on the south-west shoreline. They (mom + teenager) swam across back to shore towards my site at dusk and wandered up the shallow/weedy bay there. Another mom and her young baby waded/swam just off my site headed south 30 minutes later.



Lots of painted turtles along the Tim R between access 2 and Tim Lake. Paddle slowly and have the kids watch out for them along the marshy/floating banks.





Lots of carnivorous plants in that stretch of the river as well: picture plants + sundews worth it to check those out with the kids.



Bull and leopard frogs abound as well. Seagull babies have now hatched and are little grey fluffballs floating and peeping around their birth places (normally emergent rocks/islands). Watch out for their dive bombing parents.

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks Steve. Great info and thanks for the pics and tips. The boys have fishing fever so they'll definitely have their lines in the water. We'll be on the water on the 28th around 10am so I think we should be in good shape to be on Rosebary by mid afternoon. Lots of time to get set up and dinner going. We seem to be following each other around the park this season! I have one more trip to work in in the first 2 weeks of August. Feel free to email me if you have any other info. Thanks again..

Hey Fred,

LOL ya, the way things are going don't count your snacks out yet, we may indeed cross paths. You'll have plenty of time if you're there that early. We arrived (from Ottawa) at 2 pm at Access2, boat packed and on the water by 3, got to Rosebary by 6 and had camp setup by 7 pm.

I'll be in the park on the 28th, start of my next trip, but on Opeongo heading to Merchant then ever northwards, out on the 14th.

That sandy beach on Rosebary is nice, here is the view of the entire beach in two shots I took last year:

View is north west - the trail to the 'beach' campsite starts at that last sandy stretch on the left of the photo:


View is South east - the campsite I preferred is the one at the mouth of the bay, just visible in the background of this photo. Likely you could wade from that campsite to the beach, it's all one long sandy basin along the shore.


We did a fair amount of swimming there during our stay, but looked ourselves over for leeches after each dip. The sandy beach was full of dragonflies as well, which help keep the deerflies at bay, although a few got through their hungry defenses, lol.

Last year the kids fished from shore @ the campsite where we stayed at Longbow Lake, maybe 30 minutes worth the entire trip. There were fallfish and perch close to shore and amongst the lily pads. Rosebary/Longbow has brookies as well so if the kids you go with are more keen on fishing you can try trolling the shorelines in the evening/early morning to increase the chance of hooking up with one of them (small spinners with worms your best bet with kids). Try the same techniques on Tim Lake for brookies, although the lakers will likely be suspended or on bottom over their deeper water haunts in 40-60 feet of water by end of June - they were in pre-Summer locations/depths when I was there last week. Deepest spot on Tim L was the water between the crescent shaped island points, on the north east side, although the north side and north west side of the island holds adequate deep water volumes as well. Kids can try jigging for them with heavy spoons/jigs (1/2 ounce), although that technique may test their patience if the fishing is slow. Lakers may still make late-day excursions to the shallows (15-20 feet) that time of year, so you can also try trolling crankbaits (e.g. Rapala #9 Deep Tail Dancers) that run at 10-15 feet depths over their deep water locations (fish are likely to be close to thermocline if they are actively foraging). There are rainbow smelt in Tim Lake (likely brought in by careless ice fisherman), so you'll have to compete with that forage and entice them to hit.

Have fun!

Back after an abbreviated stay. Four days of rain with three more forecast was enough to chase us out! Unfortunate as the beach area on Rosebary was quite nice, we ended up staying at the site. We also saw a big bull feeding in the shallows at the entrance to Longbow. The Tim River had lots of shallows to push through and ten beaver dams to lift over (kids were counting) though they actually thought that was fun calling out 'ramming speed' every few minutes.
We left the Rosebary Beach at 10:00am Wednesday morning and were at the other side of the P150M at 1:30pm. It rained pretty steadily until about 1:25pm just in time for us to have a bit of a rest and snack. The flies weren't too bad except when it stopped raining which wasn't very often. The sites recommended above were all quite nice and I would add the site on Rosebary at the entrance to Longbow, on the point, which we lunched at during our foray out on Monday when it wasn't raining.
On our return, the sites recommended on Tim L were occupied but were also quite nice.
The Tim R was pretty tedious compounded by what would be reduced water levels and the constant rain on both the way in and out. No swamp donkeys in either direction, which might have spiced things up a bit. There were lots of herons which were a pleasure to watch.
Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge.