In August 2024, I arranged a trip to Killarney, Ontario, to backpack the La Cloche Silhouette Trail with five friends from the Pine Ridge Hiking Club.

The La Cloche Silhouette Trail is a 75 km long challenging backpacking trail in Killarney Provincial Park, with 2,357 m of ascent and descent. It is a single loop with no options to cut the trip short. The only way out is to go back the way you came or keep on going to the end. Extreme athletes trail run it in under 24 hours, but for everyday people, it is a 5 to 10-day hike. We decided to do it in seven hiking days.

The youngest member of the group was 53. Most of us were retirees in our 60s. Between us, we had a great deal of varied outdoor experience, including competing in triathlons, guiding in Tombstone National Park, various caminos in Spain, cycle packing and canoe tripping. I have hiked in 20 countries on all seven continents. So we were a pretty experienced group, but nevertheless, we found this a challenging hike, as we did not have much actual backpacking experience and had never made a trip together.

WHY DO PEOPLE HIKE THE LA CLOCHE SILHOUETTE TRAIL?

It is a genuine wilderness experience only 5 hrs drive from Toronto. Once you start, you do not see houses, roads, cell towers or power lines. All you see is air, trees, rocks and water. You cross a few portage trails, but there are no signs of any motor vehicles.

It is reasonably hilly for Ontario, and you are frequently in rocky areas with good views. You rarely spend hours in a green tunnel of forests with no view.

The campsites are simple, with minimal facilities. There is a “thunder box” (an open-air toilet) and a fire pit at each site. There are also several relatively flat areas to erect tents. Almost all the campsites are on a lake, and often there is only one campsite per lake, so after any day trippers have left, you have the whole lake to yourself.

It exposes you directly to the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The earth underfoot is a well-marked trail. In some places, it is a gentle walk through the woods. In other cases, it is a scramble up a waterfall or down through the “crack”, a rock, a steep and rocky ravine. The water is beautifully clear and warm enough for swimming in August. The air is fresh as there are no nearby sources of pollution. There is plenty of firewood and well-made fire pits, so you can have a campfire every night.

LOGISTICS

A month before we were due to set up, we did a short hike and an overnight camp. This allowed people to compare equipment and decide if any new gear was needed for the trip. Almost everyone had their own tent and stove that they wanted to take, but it would be crazy to carry five tents and five stoves. We eventually planned to take six people in two cars, with three tents, three camping stoves, two water filtration systems, one tarp and one rope for tying our food to a tree.

On Aug 13th, we drove up to the George Lake Campground in Killarney. We set up our tents and did a final run-through of our gear. On the one hand, we needed to cut weight drastically, as one pack weighed 60 lbs, but on the other hand, we would not find a road, a house or a store of any kind for seven days. I put aside a spare long-sleeved shirt. We finally arranged things, so the two heaviest packs were 52 and 46 lbs. Everyone but me decided it was worth carrying a lightweight camping chair. I ended up shamelessly borrowing their chairs whenever possible.

SAFETY

Most people would not drink untreated lake water because of the risk of “beaver fever”, giardiasis. Usually we filtered the water using a Sawyer filer. We brought both the gravity-fed system and a pump-based system. Some of us (including me) felt it was OK to use untreated lake water for cooking as long as it had been brought to a vigorous boil for a few minutes. We also carried water purification tablets, but never used them.

The first two days were hot, and we drank a lot of water. As our packs were heavy, we planned in advance how much water we needed to carry and how long it would be until we came to a lake. The best place to get water was a designated campsite. On a couple of occasions, we detoured onto a portage trail to get water when the trail ended at a lake.

Cell phone coverage is very spotty, so we borrowed a Garmin “In Reach,” but fortunately, we never needed it.

Theoretically, you should hang all food away from your campsite by throwing a rope over a large high tree branch and lifting the food bag out of a bear’s reach. In practice, this is difficult, and we got lazier with this every night. Eventually, all we were doing was lifting it off the ground to prevent rodents from eating our food.

OUR ITINERARY

 August  13, 2024 Wednesday to August 14th  George Lake Campground

 August 14, 2024  Thursday, August 15, 2024   H7 Topaz Lake

 Thursday, August 15, 2024   Friday, August 16, 2024 H19 Three Narrows L.

 Friday, August 16, 2024 Saturday, August 17, 2024   H22 Moose Pass

 Saturday, August 17, 2024   Sunday, August 18, 2024 H34 David Lake

 Sunday, August 18, 2024 Monday, August 19, 2024 H37 Silver Lake

 Monday, August 19, 2024 Tuesday, August 20, 2024    H48 Proulx Lake

PHOTO GALLERY (Click to expand images)

We started hiking on a sunny day, along an easy and fairly level trail, but after an hour or two, we came to the first of many challenges. A bridge had been destroyed in a storm, so we had to find our own way across a stream and onto a steep bank. Shortly afterwards, we got the first of many rewards: a beautiful lakeside clearing where we stopped and took our first break. At the end of the day we got a little lost and it took us a while to find the Topaz Lake campsite, but it was beautiful and worth the effort.

After that, we had a few days of sunny weather and relatively easy trails, apart from a scramble up a waterfall. Then we knew rain was forecast, so we kept a good pace and got to our campsite with time to pitch tents and set up a tarp before it rained. Sitting under the trap and cooking in light rain was quite pleasant, but by the time we went to bed, it was really raining. The following day was damp and misty, and our packs were heavy with wet tents. The weather improved over the next two days, and we had sunshine for the rest of the trip. After David Lake, two people set off early and made it to the summit of Silver Peak. The rest of us were too tired after an eleven-hour day covering 14 km of rocky, uneven ground with many PUDS (pointless ups and downs!).

The final campsite was beautiful, but water access was difficult and there was a biting cold wind. I went to bed early just to keep warm!

Eventually, the last day arrived. We had some great views as we approached the “crack”. The descent was slow and difficult but only took about 30 minutes. For a while, we were surrounded by day hikers. Then, we had a fairly level section until we finally returned to the George Lake campground and our vehicles.

We had a quick shower, changed into some clean clothes we had left in the cars, and headed to Parry Sound for dinner at a waterfront bar, very pleased with ourselves and none the worse for wear, apart from a few blisters. The whole trip went really well, and I don’t think I would change anything if I did it again, except I might bring my own chair!

APPENDIX

APPS, MAPS AND GUIDES

Killarney Outfitters have a good guide at https://killarneyoutfitters.com/trip-planning/la_cloche_silhouette_killarney_trail_guide.php

All trails worked well: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/ontario/la-cloche-silhouette-trail. Download the map for offline use. GPS works even when there is no cell phone coverage.

Jeff’s Map is great and includes distances and walking times, although we were even slower than his times! https://killarneyoutfitters.com/LSTrail/Jeffs_Map.jpg

The mapy.cz app is also great. You can download it so that it will work offline. It will even calculate how far you are from the next campsite (if you really want to know).

Campsites can be booked online five months in advance at https://reservations.ontarioparks.ca/. Once you have booked your first interior campsite (not George Lake), you can then add as many additional days and sites as you want. The campsites are so heavily booked that it is sometimes better to call in your reservation at 1-888-668-7275 (1-888-ONT-PARK). If you want to start hiking on Wednesday, it may be worthwhile to book any random campsites that are available for Monday and Tuesday, then book the campsite you want for Wednesday and the rest of your trip. You can cancel the first two campsites a month later with a small penalty.

We found the hiking was very slow. Between the packs, the gradient and the rough terrain, we sometimes managed less than 1.5 km/hr. When Jeff’s map says it will take 3 hrs to hike one 5 km section of the trail, take this seriously. On our longest day we took 11 hours to hike 14 km, including less than an hour of breaks. We met several hikers who overestimated their ability, could not get to their booked campsites before dark, and were obliged to wild camp. This is difficult as the ground is uneven and covered in trees, shrubs and plants. The official campsites are almost the only bare and level areas.

KILLARNEY CAMPSITES DISTANCES AND COMMENTS

This list of campsites may make it easier for you to plan:

Number	Name	Kms	Comments	Plan
Trailhead	George Lake	0
H1	Lumsden Lake	2
H2	Lumsden Lake	3
H3	Acid Lake	4
H4	Acid Lake	4
H5	Cave Lake	7
H6	Cave Lake	7
H7	Topaz Lake	9
H8	Three Narrows	14
H16	Three Narrows	16
H17	Three Narrows	20
H18	Three Narrows	22
H19	Three Narrows	22
H20	Three Narrows	25
H59	Bodina Lake	25
H21	Three Narrows	28
H22	Moose Pass	32
H23	Moose Pass	33
H31	Shiguag	38
H32	Shiguag	38
H33	Little Mountain	39
H34	David Lake	45
H35	Boundary Lake	45
H37	Silver Lake	51
H38	Silver Lake	51
H45	Bunnyrabbit Lake	56
H46	Bunnyrabbit Lake	56
H47	Heaven Lake	58
H48	Proulx Lake	62
H49	Little Superior	62
H50	Healey’s Lake	68
H51	Wagon Road Lake	71
H52	Wagon Road Lake	71
H53	Little Sheguiandah	72
H54	A.Y. Jackson Lake km	73