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Porcupine Lake is an easily accessible location for a afternoon canoe trip.
To get to Porcupine Lake, travel east from the Schumacher Information Centre and follow Highway 101 for about 6.5 km. to South Porcupine and turn right at the first traffic lights onto Main Street. Turn left at the first traffic lights onto Bruce Avenue, and follow this street down to the waterfront park where there is a boat launching area and parking. Porcupine Lake is about 3 km. long and about 1 km. wide. Loons, ducks and cormorants are seen on the lake. Although the lake is relatively shallow, it has a good population of pike for fishing. Pickerel were reintroduced a few years ago and they are making a comeback. There is a special slot size for pickerel to conserve the fishery.
Porcupine Lake has a float plane base with hanger facilities near the waterfront park. For years it was a busy location with planes taking supplies in to mining operations and remote fishing lakes across the north. It was the location that Toronto Maple Leaf hockey great, Bill Barilko, took off from on his ill-fated fishing trip in 1951. On the far side of the lake is Deadman's Point where over 40 people were buried following the great fire of 1911. A cenotaph was erected by the Toronto Board of Trade commemorating the tragedy and donations of food and shelter were sent by Toronto businesses to the burned out community. The Whitney cemetery is now located on this scenic property overlooking the lake.
Gold was first discovered here in 1909. As you look around the lake, signs of mining activity are numerous. The south end of the lake has man-made mountains that resemble plateaus, the result of the superpit at the Dome. Millions of tons of rock have been removed from the open-pit operations of Placer-Dome in its ongoing operations to extract gold from the earth's crust. At the north end of the lake is the outlet into Porcupine Creek which eventually empties into the Nighthawk Lake near Hoyle. This creek was an early access route to the Porcupine before roads were used. The creek has been dredged to allow for faster drainage and prevent the flooding which threatens homes along the river in South Porcupine.
Along the west shore of the lake is Northern College. Built in the mid 70s the college has served as an important education facility for youth of the Porcupine and surrounding area. The extensive grounds of the college complement its lakeside location. You will probably see people walking the trail system between the college and the South Porcupine waterfront. It is a favourite place to take a stroll for many local residents. The trail completely encircles the lake and can be walked in about an hour and a half to two hours.
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