King Ridge vs. Ishpatina Ridge

Ephemeral pond on top of the King Ridge

Above and below ~ King Ridge tree fungi

Environment Canada Doppler Radar weather station atop the King Ridge

Photos by Barry Wallace

Early Canadian explorers, in the late 1600s and early 1700s, such as Etienne Brule and Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de LaSalle, went so far as to call the height of  land across the middle of King Township, which they had to portage canoes over, as mountains.   In the 1800s, the mountains were known as the 'Mountains of King' and then more simply as the 'King Ridge' in the 1900s.   Today, in 2012, everyone calls the verdant, almost-1200 ft.-hills the King section of the Oak Ridges Moraine.   For a long time I wondered where the true highest point in Ontario was.   Folks out in Dufferin County bragged for years that they were on the highest point in Ontario.   Almost twenty-two years ago, on Sept. 19, 1992, I climbed aboard a float-plane and flew into Temagami country in northern Ontario.   We landed on a lake at the foot of Ishpatina Ridge, the real highest point in Ontario, at 2,274 ft.   It was an all-day hike up to Ishpatina Ridge and back.   The Ellis fire-tower adds another 60 or 70'.   Ishpatina Ridge is in the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park and is accessible by canoe, float-plane or a very long, 30 km. walk from the nearest highway.   Pictured below left is yours truly prior to the fly-in and on the right is Ishpatina Ridge and the Ellis Fire-tower (Andy Stevens photo).