Maps provided courtesy of Toporama which contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. I have marked my route in blue and portages in red. 

Day 6 - Lady Evelyn Lake to Angler Lake (11 km)

Our plan for the day was to paddle through the creek that was around the bend behind our campsite and portage into the Sugar Lakes Conservation Area. The lakes there were fabled to have amazing bass fishing and are known to be very pretty. Although there are some longer portages in and out of them, they allow the paddler the option to get off the massive Lady Evelyn Lake and out of the winds. Just to highlight how large Lady Evelyn is, we would be portaging into the Sugar Lakes from the west, and then portaging out of them the following day from the northeast BACK into Lady Evelyn Lake. Have I mentioned that it's a big lake?

The weather was cloudy as we departed the site, but the sun soon emerged, making the paddle through the creek to the portage very pleasant. 

The creek got shallow in spots right before the portage. From there, it was a fairly easy carry for about 300 metres or so through some dense, but pretty, forest before the trail split into two directions. We had the choice of taking the longer trail for another 800 metres into Goodfish Lake to the left or only another 270 metres toward Carpmor and Sugar Lakes to the right. We were torn because both Goodfish and Angler Lakes were renowned for their excellent bass fishing, but Sugar Lake was supposed to have some fantastic campsites. 

Despite our plan to do some serious fishing that evening, we chose the route into Sugar. It was also supposed to have some decent fishing and we could always portage into Angler without all of our gear if we weren't having any luck on Sugar. 

The take-out was a bit rocky, and once on the water, we weren't paddling long. We continued moving east through a narrow, weedy pond and then were carrying again over a short, rocky portage and into Carpmor Lake. 

The put-in on Carpmor Lake required carrying our gear across a collection of large boulders and precariously placing it into the canoe whilst trying not to dump in the deep water. The lake itself was nice and had a campsite tucked in the woods a few hundred meters from the portage into Sugar. We could see schools of decent-sized fish darting about near the take-out. We would have spent some time fishing there, but wanted to get into Sugar and claim a good campsite. 

The take-out on the north shore of Carpmor was a little tricky. It was a deep-water lift onto the shore and through a narrow path in a cluster of trees. It ascended slightly through a densely wooded area for the entire walk and emerged at a slab of granite on which we put in at a shallow pond. We had a quick lunch wrap before moving north through Sugar. The map showed a lift-over as the pond connected with the lake, but the water was deep enough that we could pole our way through. 

Sugar Lake was divided into two sections by a narrow channel. We passed a nice campsite on an island before moving through the channel, but we were hoping to stay on the larger main part of the lake to the west. As we crossed this bay, the wind came up slightly behind us and helped us along. It was a beautiful lake with high bluffs on both shores. Unfortunately, the prime site on the ridge on the southern shore was occupied, as was the other nice site around the point on the most western bay. It was a Friday, after all. We paddled about this western bay for a bit, looking for a ridge or spot that would make a good site, but the rugged terrain did not lend itself to this purpose. I even hiked a cliff at a spot that I thought might be a good one, but it was too rough to pitch a tent. 

The only other site was the one at the northern tip of the lake next to the portage back into Lady Evelyn Lake. It was not a very pleasant site though and we didn't fancy staying there. It was starting to get a bit late and we wanted to get some fishing in on these lakes. The portage to Angler Lake was right there, so we took our chances and took this 420-meter portage in the hope that one of the two sites on Angler would be available. 

Our gamble paid off, despite the extra portage and nasty, muddy lift-over to get into Angler, we found a very nice site and enjoyed some excellent bass fishing. We paddled around the headland and into the main bay of the lake, where we found a lovely little, west-facing campsite tucked under some pines. It had a huge slab of bedrock, which made a wonderful front porch that sloped gently into the water. There, we set up camp, had a swim, and went fishing.