so I was reading Jimmar's trip report and looking at his pictures, and his comment about camping at site LY at west end of Canal Lake popped out at me. 

Generally, when someone uses "Canal Lake" they have been referring to that long west arm off of Batchewaung Bay, and I know that is what they are referring to - but that leads to confusion for a lot of folks, I think.

the maps are really confusing about this "Canal Lake" and there have been other discussions/comments on weather that long west arm of Batchewaung is Canal Lake, as it has been referred to before.

I know one of the maps has the "label" for the name Canal Lake more or less pasted over that long west arm.

Looking at PCD, site LY is posted under "Pickeral (West Arm)" lake

Fisher Maps don't label the west arm, but name that big body of water it is off of as "Batchewaung Bay"

"Bay" of which lake ?  Pickeral or Batchewaung?

logically, to me, I've always considered the always flowing current at that little rapid that seperates Batch Bay from Pickeral Narrows would be the dividing point between Pickeral and Batchewaung lakes - though that does not seem to be a "convention", as there is current most of the time at Sturgeon Narrows at Scripture Island, if not further up the Narrows, and the west end of Kawnipi certainly has a lot of current, and usually there is current at the pinch on McKenzie Bay. 

SO I looked at the online Toporama map.  It apparantly has lake names as a seperate layer of the data - so as you use the arrow keys to scroll left of right, up or down, on a lake - say Pickeral, the name tag moves across the screen over that lake

since this seems to be an official government site - i.e. Georaphy Canada, "dot"CA - I take this to be the "official" naming - of course, it could have errors I suppose, but ?

anyways, doing that scrolling, up and down, also left and right - the lake names are pretty clearly indicated - the body of water called "Batchewaung Bay" on my Fisher map gets labeled as Batchewaung Lake on Toporama - scrolling to the right, just past that little rapid, appears the name Pickeral Lake - same as my thought that the rapid is the divider between those two lakes.  If you keep scrolling to the right, the Pickeral Lake name keeps moving over Pickeral narrows, as you would expect - scroll back left, and it disappears at the rapid, and Batchewaung Lake name appears.

Do the same for that long west arm of Batchewaung Bay, and the lake name label remains "Batchewaung Lake"

Canal Lake is that tiny little lake between McAlpine and the west arm - I believe that in logging days, they cut a canal to float logs between Batch adn McAlpine, using that little lake.  Toporama actually shows the portage coming off of the end of that Canal Lake and not the Garden Walk portage I use (the black dotted lines are really old roads I think - they don't show the portage "trails" - though Ontario Basic Mapping will show both, old roads and portage trails).  I did check out that little canal option once - seemed like too many blowdowns to make it worth the attempt, but it is a logical way to go.

so anyone who likes to play with with maps - use the link below to get the toporama website - in the search box for "Find a location", type in McAlpine Portage and poke the arrow - that gets you a dropdown with all the hits - in this case, only one - click on that and viola, there you are.  use the arrow keys to scroll left and right and you will see that the name "Batchewaung Lake"  floats over Batchewaung Bay, and over the long west arm (and of course, scrolling up, it hangs over the northern part of Batch) - if you scroll right 3 or 4 taps on the arrow key, just right of the rapid you see the start of where the Pickeral Lake name tag is - it never appears left of the rapid, so Batchewaung Bay is not part of Pickeral Lake.

so there - pthhhhh!

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The name Canal lake always confused me too. When talking to Jim Clark at CCO before our trip he pointed to a map and called it Canal, so this time that's what I called it. Previously I've called it part of Batchewaung Lake but I did see where it is sometimes called Pickerel.

I guess I don't care too much what a lake is called as long as I know how to get there.