(Click on photo to enlarge and follow the thin orange line. The beginning of the route is toward the upper left and the end is toward the lower right.)
It won’t be long before Dave Phillips and I will begin our 21 day boreal forest canoe adventure to parts of the “Little North”. I will leave from home on August 14 and drive to Thunder Bay. There I will spend the night before driving the next day the remaining 150 miles or so to Armstrong (Armstrong Station).
I will meet Dave there who would be driving from Virginia. The state, not the city.
We will be staying at one of Mattice Lake Outfitters cabins on the evening of August 15th. The next morning, Sunday August 16th, we will strap the canoe to Don Elliott’s Beaver floatplane and fly NW to Pashkokogan Lake where we will begin our adventure.
We will be paddling in the Caribou Forest, Albany River Provincial Park, Wabakimi Provincial Park and the Ogoki Forest.
Here is the 2009 Wabakimi Itinerary
The following are some of the waterways that we’ll be traveling:
Pashkokogan Lake
East Pashkokogan Lake
Unnamed
Greenbush Lake
Little Metig Lake
Metig Lake
Davies Lake
Rockcliff Lake
Misehkow River
Albany River
Albany River / Mininiska Lake
Albany River / Petawanga Lake
Petawa Creek
Auger Lake
Unnamed
Verterite Bay (Attwood Lake / Attwood River)
Hurst Lake
Felsie Lake
Witchwoood River
Whiteclay Lake
Raymond River
North Annette River
South Annette Lake
Butland Lake
Cliff Lake
Bad Medicine Lake
Ratte Lake
Pititigushi River
End of the trip at the bear camp/road, then shuttle back to Mattice Lake Outfitter’s.
The first of many 1:50,000 topo maps that I'll be carrying. This is the first on showing the beginning of the paddling.)
Dave has a SPOT and we’ll be bringing it along. We’ll have it in tracking mode during our trip. Therefore, if anyone is interested you can Click Here and follow along.
To learn more about the SPOT satellite messenger, Click Here
Once again we will be renting a Iridium Sat Phone from Mobal
Yolanda at Mattice Lake said they haven’t had any summer yet. It’s been rainy and cool. Hopefully, the water levels will be up or normal.
I will be bringing my camera gear and hope to take plenty of photos. I’ll probably document our trip in writing a narrative and posting many photos on another blog.
As mentioned in some other postings and on my Woodland Caribou Solo trip report / blog that I had some problems with my right ankle. I’ve been to the doctor twice for follow-up and I’ve modified some foot inserts, got an ankle support, etc.
I ordered and have received some new boots to replace my NRS Storm boots for this trip. I bought some OTB Odhin boots. So far, after doing some modifications to the inserts that came with the boots plus adding my “modified” SmartFeet inserts I think the boots are ready to go.
I’ve been walking with my portage pack with about 55 pounds inside around the neighborhood and a local park hiking the trails with hills. I’ve been walking anywhere from one hour to one and a half hours with the pack and wearing my new boots. Most of the time my ankle feels pretty good, so the ankle should be fine for the trip.
Most of the longer, up to mile long portages, will be on the last third of the trip. The food pack should be much lighter by then.
Video about the OTB Odhin boot
(The reason for the different color socks. I have my ankle support on my right ankle so I have a thinner wool sock on and a thicker wool sock on my left foot.)
I forgot to rotate this one. Just pretend I'm lying down.
These three photos show the little ski hill at Elm Creek Park where I do some hill work. I walk the trails for about 50 minutes with the portage pack with about 55 lbs. then I come over to this area and walk the hills 5 to 6 times. Total walk time is 1 1/2 hours.
(Another view of the OTB Odhin boots and the different colored socks)
There’s also the unknowns on the Petawa Creek and Witchwood River, so travel south from Petawanga Lake / Albany River will be slower than the first 2/3 of the trip. We will be bringing two 21” Corona Pruning saws and one axe to clear any deadfalls. There also might be the added time needed to locate some areas that will be semi suitable for a campsite and the need to clear the area. We each will have our own MRS Hubba Hubba tents to sleep in.
Here is the link to our Wabakimi trip last year.
If anyone has any points of interest to pass along that’s along our route feel free to do so! We know some, but I’m sure we don’t know them all or if anyone has traveled any portion of this trip and wants to pass along any info.
I've posted my blog to some canoe forums and here are a couple links that have been posted about this trip:
The thread about this trip on bwca.com :
About this trip on bwca
This link is from the tread on mycrr.com : >About this trip on mycrr
Here are some comments on solotripping.com and Rick posted a photo of his canoe on Petawa Creek when he walked the creek in 2007 cutting his way: Click here
I posted my trip info on QuietJourney also.
This link was an earlier thread when Dave and I were looking for two other paddlers for this trip: Click Here
Chuck
Other News!!!!!!!
Today (08-10-09), I posted the 2009 Cross Quetico Canoe Race results over on the right side of this page under links. Here is the link again, 2009 Cross Quetico Canoe Race results .Unfortunally I wasn't able to attend but I was watching the race via SPOT. I really wish I was there. Congratulations to all the racers. I would have posted this info as a separate posting but I wanted to leave my upcoming trip at the top. Thank you Elizabeth Fiore (MNR)for sending the results. You can also visit this site as well Quetico 100
Chuck
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