Paddle, hike, fish – then relax at rustic island cottages

By Katharine Fletcher | Photos by Eric Fletcher

“W e leased this 140 square kilometres … back in 1993. My father and I had come here fishing for years as guests of the previous owners so when it became available, we jumped at it.”

This is Denis LeBrun talking about the five years of cleaning, renovating, building that came next. “Over time, we updated existing cabins, built new ones plus the main lodge – and everything you see here,”

It’s a broad sweep he describes, taking in tidy outbuildings for boats and machines, a mechanic’s shop, staff accommodations, and large log lodge with game room, stone fireplace, and a shop for tackle and bait, bug repellant, fishing licences, and the like. Lakeside, it’s cabins and their docks, plus a mini-marina.

Later, he and his wife Laurel LeBrun added a treehouse which their kids now share with guests’ youngsters. There’s a playground, a shower house, and the lake which stretches as far as your eye can see, to the horizon.

Truly, we’re in the back of beyond. Located in Pontiac region of the Outaouais (West Quebec), Bryson Lake Lodge is remote – 200 kilometres from Ottawa – with final access a bit of a drive north from Fort Coulonge along a rough gravel road. (Call Denis first before heading up. Road conditions can alter dramatically, and Google Maps got it wrong – there is only one road into the Lodge.) Think adventure, and you’ll be absolutely a-okay, as we were.

The all-important fish house awaits on the lake shore: it’s here fishers go to clean pike, walleye, lake or brook trout. (yes, Bryson Lake has the Big Four – when you get your quota of one species, you can catch and keep others, depending on their size.) I was dubious I’d ever enter the fish house because I never catch fish. Neither does Eric.

Happily, our bad-luck reputations were soon to become past tense.

“Why don’t you settle in, and tomorrow we’ll go fishing?” said Denis. That sounded good and besides, the lake was shrouded in dense fog, so exploring its unknown reaches by canoe didn’t seem wise. We’d fish tomorrow evening. So we unloaded our gear into Cabin 12 and headed outside to capture ethereal photos of the lake with a haunting loon serenade for background.

Fishing from a dock on a misty evening at Bryson Lake Lodge.

The cabins are what I call “rustic.” This means full housekeeping cottages with toilets, fridges and microwaves, but bring your own towels, pillows, bedlinens – and food. No worries: we had a splendid time, and the wood fireplace in the cabin banished the evening chill.

Morning dawned and we hiked in glorious sunshine into what I dubbed “the enchanted forest” with filtered sunlight, lush vegetation, and birdlife combining into something magical. I spotted warblers (black-throated blue, American redstart and others) while red squirrels scolded as we passed by. The forest is rocky, so we were glad of our hiking boots.

That afternoon we piled into the LeBrun boat to tour the cabins dotted about the lake. Now I know which I’d like to rent next: cabin Number 5 is on a long, thin island where Group of Seven, windswept white pines sigh in the lake breezes. Great swimming, I noted, and perfect privacy. All the cabins had their individual charm, and several are big enough for larger groups.

Twilight brought fishing. Out we went with Denis onto a protected bay where our reputations remained intact. There were no fish for us, although he caught three walleye – two too big to keep; one too small. Denis explained that Quebec’s catch and release program means “older, larger fish are protected so we can maintain the gene pool, while younger, smaller fish are allowed to grow.”

In fact, we were hugely impressed with Denis and Laurel’s attention to environmental protection of their land. Their website features hunting, and I had wondered