Three Day Canoe Trip to McGregor Falls

Grab your sunscreen and bug cream, this route is a buggy one, with little shade! This scenic beginner canoe route starts at Tulabi Lake beside the rushing waterfall of Tulabi Falls. It winds on to the Bird River then to Elbow Lake to McGregor Lake and continues McGregor Falls. If you have more time and want to extend the trip, you can go on to Snowshoe lake then cross the Manitoba/Ontario border.

Totaling 55 km in length this is a perfect beginner canoe trip because it can be done in a weekend, it is super easy to navigate, there are tons of campsites along the route allowing you the luxury to stop when you are tired, AND all the portages are short and have a well-traveled path to follow.

Quick Facts:

• Route: Tulabi Lake-> Bird River-> Elbow Lake-> McGregor Lake and back
• Distance: 55 km roundtrip
• Recommended time: 2 nights, 3 days
• Campsites:
  • Elbow Lake =15
  • McGregor Lake = 4

Route Prep:

Check the weather before you go! If it is supposed to storm while you’re on the water plan for extra time (you should prolly pull over if there is lightening and wait for half hour, just sayin)

The route is fairly straightforward, but if it is your first time canoeing, plan ahead and bring maps!

We found an old route log from a few guys who had done the route years ago that we followed. We didn’t have any official maps but printed off the river topical maps from Google maps and used the map at the beginning of the route to navigate. This was hilarious because we had no latitude and longitude lines or any idea of how long it would take us to get there. Luckily, time didn’t matter, weather was perfect condition and besides not paying attention once and going too far, it was very easy to navigate.

**Highly recommend bringing a compass, we forget ours, but it would have definitely helped when we got lost. ***

If you are a beginner you may want to invest in better maps. We were just overconfident because we all had lots of canoe tripping experience on more difficult routes in the past.

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Day One:

Tulabi Lake-> Bird River->Elbow Lake

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We left the city around 8am, by the time we got to Tulabi Falls, unpacked at the boat launch beside the falls, ate lunch and left it was 12:30pm. We paddled from beside Tulabi Falls on the Bird River up to Elbow Lake where we stayed. There was 3 portages, the first is 155m, second is 386m and third is 30m. Took us around 4-5 hours with swim and snack breaks to get there.

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There are 15 sites on Elbow Lake all well marked with a white reflective square sign on a pole. We stayed on site 4 which was beautiful, complete with a fire pit, picnic table and thunderbox (aka outdoor biffie, outhouse without the house, toilet in the woods, nonmodern washroom…you get the point)

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Day Two:

Elbow Lake-> McGregor Falls-> Elbow Lake

Day trip!

Since it is an in-out canoe route, instead of packing up the next day to go to McGregor Falls, then turn around to come back and camp somewhere else on Elbow Lake, we left our stuff set up and just went for a day trip. This was a stellar idea because it made our canoes super light and portages extremely easy (not that our canoes were heavy before).

Remember, on day trips you should bring food, first aid kit, water, raincoats and shelter tarp/rope in case of emergency.

We did not, again, overconfident and think we know everything. (Thank god we brought food though, snacks > everything). The sky was clear, sun was hot and lake was calm on the way there. From Elbow Lake to McGregor there are two portages, one was so short though so we just walked with the boat in the water. At the beginning of McGregor Lake there is a beautiful campsite right beside a set of rapids that you have to portage around. If we were staying on the lake for longer, I would have definitely stayed here for a night. There are four campsites total along McGregor Lake.

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We reached McGregor Falls and ate beside the falls, posed for a photo shoot, and swam lots before departing. It took us around 3 hours to get there (including getting lost once). There are two campsites at the falls just off of the portage path; one at the top of the trail the other at the bottom. They both have fire pits and picnic tables and are relatively small. The one at the bottom of the falls is nestled in the shade with a nice swimming spot at the put-in and the campsite at the top has little shade and is on long flat rocks beside the top of the falls. Snowshoe lake connects here at the top of the portage path, beside the campsite, if you are planning on continuing to the Manitoba/Ontario border.

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As we were leaving McGregor Falls the storm hit. Well sort of. We heard a little thunder and ignored it until it got bad and constant. (Don’t do this, please be smarter and pull over wherever you can when you hear thunder, definitely get off the water ASAP if you see lightning.) We pulled over to a campsite on McGregor lake where a family we ran into earlier was camping. We figured it would be safer to be close to people if shit really hit the fan. We set up our canoes on the back half of the island in a way so we could climb under them and lay if it started raining. It thundered for two hours…STRAIGHT. We were resourceful so pulled out our extensive knowledge of low organized games to play. (Yes, we were camp counsellors). When we thought it was about to pour rain, we quickly ran and climbed under the canoes to be nestled in our safe haven. One of the girls from the family brought over granola bars and water…..as we were hiding under the canoes. God, they probably thought we were so incompetent, makes me feel good to think they probably had a good laugh. That wasn’t the moment to flaunt the fact we had all been on 6-week canoes trips. Yikes.

When the thunder had stopped and we didn’t hear any for 30 min, we took off on the water, hoping to get as much distance before it started storming again. We made it back to the site in 1hr 30/1hr 45 minutes.

Day Three:

Elbow Lake-> Bird River-> Tulabi Lake

We woke up semi-earlyish and packed up to head back to Tulabi Falls. We heard there was going to be a thunderstorm in the afternoon, so we wanted to get off the water before then. It took us around four hours to get back to the landing at Tulabi Lake.

We ate lunch besides the falls on a rock. Before we left, we took advantage of the large cliff jumping rock perfect for all skill/comfort levels. There are different heights so you can choose how high you actually want to go. Follow the path on the right-hand side from the canoe put in/beach to get to the rock so you don’t have to swim all the way there. This spot is a hot commodity and there was a bunch of people and families there when we went. Thank goodness for the little kid who we watched jump off the highest rock and then proceeded to count us down to jump. Made us feel super good we were scared to jump, but it was easy for him, ha. But in reality it was very fun and I would highly recommend, no matter what height you choose to jump from.

Overall this is such a beautiful weekend canoe route and so doable for all skill levels. I will definitely be returning to this route!

Treaty 3 Territory