Mississauga River
Information for planning a canoe trip down the Mississauga River in Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, north of Peterborough Ontario.
The Mississauga River (no where near Mississauga) is a great little weekend run near Peterborough Ontario in the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park. It's a nice tight river with a bunch of fun whitewater. Some of it is pretty big though and if you're not running those, it's quite a bit of portaging—the kind where you can see the next portage while you're loading your boat at the end of another portage.
One caveat though, is that it can be difficult to get a sense of the water levels before going and it can run dry. It may be a good idea to pop over to Canadian Canoe Routes forum and ask about water levels in a post before heading out. It's not as seasonably predictable since it's dam controlled so local knowledge is key.
This is the only runnable section, as far as we understand.
Nights: 1 or 2 nights.
Paddling distance: 16 km
Shuttle distance: 15 km
Put in: There is a boat launch parking lot at the dam at the south end of Mississauga Lake, but you'll need to portage around the dam. Last time we were there we asked some cottagers if we could launch from their property. That worked great, but I'm not sure where the best public access is. Don't put in before the dam though.
Take out: The park provides a nice little take-out parking lot here. You can add a few more kilometres to your trip and keep going to where Hwy 36 crosses the river again, but you'll need to be more creative with where to leave your car.
Outfitter: We shuttle ourselves. 🤷
River data: No water metres available.