Day 0: Armstrong to Allanwater Bridge

Wabakimi 2012 – 300km from Allen Water to Little Caribou Lake

(Sunday Sept 2, 2012)

The two of us packed up our gear, canoe and our two Jack Russell Terriers and drove to Armstrong to catch the 9:30PM train into Wabakimi Provincial Park.  We arrived early to make sure we had time to scout our take-out location (@ Little Caribou Lake).  We had both worked in and around Armstrong many years ago and were quickly reminded that there still isn’t all that much to do in town. Let the waiting begin…

We visited J&J General store to stock up on junk food for the day/night, had dinner at Chateau North and then parked the truck with some co-workers before heading to the train station/stop (parking lot).  The train was two hours late, of course it then started raining as we waited in the parking lot with no shelter or idea when the train might arrive.

Once the VIA train pulled in we were SO IMPRESSED with the baggage car fellows.  They loaded the passengers based on destination, we were up first (there were a handful of people headed back to Collins) and the VIA staff handled our canoe like pro’s! 

Once canoe, two bags and a dog crate got loaded within 60 seconds; and we jumped on the train to enjoy the ride.

Shortly after midnight the friendly VIA staff came by our seats to advise us we were up next for Allanwater, we were the only people getting off there.  The baggage guys were kind enough to open the left doors (apparently they don’t always do this), to let us out in the large clearing just south of the tracks – our home for the night.

We set up the tent in the cleared area, well off the tracks and crashed for the night.  Sleep was hard to come by as we were woken up by freight trains all night long.

Day 1: Allanwater River

19 km, 10 portages, 2 lines

After a restless sleep we woke early to discover another group of canoeists had been sleeping 100 meters away!  They were just finishing their canoe trip and catching the eastbound train that morning back towards Armstrong.

Instead of cooking breakfast at the clearing (which was pretty buggy), we decided to just get on the water and stop at the first campsite we could find. 

Looking around we couldn’t find any public water access and ended up quickly scooting through the outfitting property north of the tracks.  Jumping in the boat, we were on our way before 8:00AM.  

Paddled about a kilometer and turned up the Allenwater River.  The entire area has been recently burnt, a trend that would continue throughout our trip.  About 500m later was portage #1 (marked “P1” on map), a burnt campsite island.  Portage is located across the middle of the island, through the campsite where we stopped for breakfast. 

This was the start of a very long day of portaging, lifting and lining down the river in our carbon boat (she doesn’t like rocks, lots of shallow moving water in the fall).

 

Rest of the river

-          1.5km later portage 2 (P2), river right (RR)

-          1km P3 river left (RL)

-          2km P4 RR

-          1.5km swift, 500m swifts, 200m swifts

-          3 km P5 RR

-          1.5 km P6 across an island (I think, memory not so good by this point)

-          200 m P7 RR

-          2km P8 RR (up the left channel around the large island)

-          1km P9 RL

-          500m P10 RL

It’ was a gorgeous hot (20+ degrees) and sunny day, unusual for September. In addition to the portages, there were a couple places we lined the boat (in some swifts – we weren’t chancing it with the carbon boat) and by 2 pm we were done.  No sleep the night before, heat and numerous portages had taken their toll and exhausted us. 

Found a beautiful campsite to swim, read, relax and dry out our gear (heavy dew the night before).  Rested up for day 2.

** lost red throw-rope bag, if found – please email (address is on the bag!!)**

Day 2: Allanwater River - Brennan Lake

31 km, 3 portages, 1 line

Woke just before 8AM, cooked a large breakfast and were on the water by 9:30.  Had a quick portage (P11) across an island about a kilometre from the campsite, then into some flat water for ~6 km until P12 (river right, RR) around an awesome “wave train”!!!

Supposedly there are pictographs ~2 km north of this portage as your round into Brennan Lake, we didn’t find any.  We lined a set of moving water and then portaged around (P13) the next set into Brennan Lake and flat water (both the canoe and yours truly love the flat water!).

We did find some pictographs on an island in Brennan Lake (see map).  Also passed 3 outfitting camps, had all sorts of run-ins with motorized boat traffic and sunburnt fishermen wondering how we managed to get there. 

Much to my amusement, one fellow asked us if we too were staying at “the lodge”.  When we explained we were camping, they had a look in our canoe at the two bags of gear and got that wide eyed and confused look on their face… so we paddled on.

Later in the evening a group of exhausted canoeists from Ohio and Illinois passed our site wondering if there were any campsites we knew of close by.  We offered up space on our site, but with two barking jack Russell terriers; they opted for a less than flat, burnt area across the channel.

Day 3: Brennan - Granite - Wabakimi Lake

32 km, 7 portages, 1 line

The old bladder was calling at 4AM, stepping out of the tent I was greeted by a fabulous northern lights show!  A few hours later we were up for the day and on the water by 9:00.

Paddled 3 km to Brennan Falls (upper falls), portage (P14) was clearly marked and well used; took us around the entire segment to the bottom of the falls.  One more kilometre of paddling and we were at the second (lower) falls area, with a portage (P15) right.  2km later we rode through an area of fast water and were in Granite Lake.

From here we headed north out of Granite towards Granite falls and the remainder of the Allenwater River. 

Portaged (P16 – map showed two portages, cannot recall if there was one or two) around Granite falls on the right; 4 km later around Black Beaver Rapids on a good marked portage (P17 river right).  2.5km later at Little Sturgeon Rapids, we completed 2 portages (P 18 and P19 RR) that were around fast water; we then lined the boat for a bit, scouted the river for rocks and decided to run the rest (we should have just run this entire swift, next time!).

At Sturgeon Rapids portaged (P20) river right, easy marked portage.  Saw recent wolf evidence on the portage, was looking forward to hearing wolf howls that night (never happened!).  A few kilometres later and we were on Wabakimi Lake.

 

Lots of float plane and outfitter activity on Wabakimi.  Saw a large moose on the shore as a float plane was flying overhead; moose wasn’t even phased by it (we were).  As we got out of the south bay onto the Lake proper, sky started to close in and cloud over.  We just barely made it to a campsite and set up before the rain came.

Day 4: Wabakimi Lake – Outlet Bay

24 km, 4 portages, 1 line

Route:

Wabakimi Lake

Lower Wabakimi Lake

P21 RR – note proper location

P22 RR

P23 RR

P24 RR around falls

Lined one section of this river – can’t remember where

Smoothrock Lake

Outlet Bay

Lakewater!!! 

We traveled east out of Wabakimi into Lower Wabakimi with the wind at our backs (as a storm rolled through – can’t have it all I suppose). 

The portage out of Lower Wabakimi was marked in the wrong spot on our map – spent a while trying to locate it.  P21 is actually located on the south/west side of the large island, on the mainland – following a trail out the back of a well-used campsite.

Lots of “beach” sites marked on our maps along the east shore of Outlet Bay.  We kept on going until we found some rocks.  You dog owners would understand!!!

Day 5: Outlet Bay – Berg/Ogoki River – Oliver Lake

 28 km, 5 portages, 1 line

Route:

Outlet bay

P25 – west of a well used campsite

Berg River

P26 RL

P27 RL

Portage ?

Ogoki River (upstream)

Lined ~50meters, of fast flowing water

P28 into Oliver Lake

Oliver Lake

Slept in a bit as it was another overcast day.  Paddled north and had a bit of a time trying to find the portage into Berg. 

Ended up finding the portage west (~100m or so) of well used campsite on a “point” along the north shore; about 500m from the mouth of Berg River.

Most of the day was spent navigating the Berg, a gorgeous sandy meandering river.  At the end of Berg I suspect we took a less than popular route paddling upstream to access areas further west – it was worth it though!

There was one area (“P?” on map) that was marked as a portage on the map, can’t remember if we actually encountered a portage here.  Portaging into Oliver (P28) the portage was ~500m west of the falls, several motor boats were cached here, good walking trail.

Campsites on Oliver were difficult to find.  Ended up finding a very nice, large site on the south bank - didn’t look like it had been used much this year.

Day 6: Oliver – Kenoji – Scrag Lake

27 km, 5 portages, 2 line

Route:

Oliver Lake

Ogoki River (upstream)

Lined

P29 – walked on banks for ~500m

Lined ~ 50m

Kenoji Lake

P30 – hard to find

P31

Little Scrag Lake

P32 at pinch

P33 at pinch

Scrag Lake scrag for the night

It was a chilly night with more northern lights.  As we left Oliver Lake we were once again traveling upriver on the Ogoki River.  There were only a couple narrow sections where the current was too much to paddle into.  We lined the boat for one of the areas, found the portage around the next rapid set, walked the shore for a bit, paddled through the forks and lined another 50m or so above the forks before entering Kenoji Lake.

North of Kenoji things got interesting.  We knew there must be a way into the Scrag Lake system – we just didn’t know where!! Portage (noted P30 on map) was through a recent burn area (imagine!!!) into a small unnamed lake/pond.  A second portage (P31 on map) takes you out of the unnamed lake into the Little Scrag area – not sure if was low fall water levels (September trip), but had a difficult time working through a creek area into Little Scrag proper (liftovers and some wading).

Entire Scrag/Little Scrag Lake area has been burnt recently, very open and very windy.  Winds forced us down the east arm of Scag Lake to try and find a campsite as large waves on the lake prevented us from crossing.  Ended up finding a “site” or flat area with good water, access and a flat spot for a tent – all in all it was a good place to rest up!

Day 7: Scrag – Arril – Grayson Lake

20 km, 2 portages, 5 line

Route:

Scrag Lake

P34 RL

P25 RL

Grayson River

Arril Lake

Grayson Lake

Paddled up Scrag and portaged into Grayson River.  Mucky river system but we did see a family of 6 otters, pretty awesome sight!  There were a few campsites and nice placed to stop for lunch on Grayson.  It was finally a hot and sunny day… we spent some time lounging in the sun after a few days of stormy weather.

Paddled across Arril Lake into Grayson.

NOTE: there may have been a good portage – north shore/RL - that we missed from Arril into Grayson.  We took the water route and it was shallow with a fair bit of lifting and lining in shallow areas…. Would suggest trying to find portage!

Couldn’t find too many campsites on Grayson, the point we ended up staying on was very nice though (and the only site we could find).

All day we had been seeing forest fire smoke coming from what looked to be the portage route out of Grayson.  As we were setting up camp, the MNR fire helicopter was circling the forest fire a few Km from our campsite.  We decided we better get up early the next day and book it through the portage before the fire got up and active for the day.

Day 8: Grayson Lake – Whitewater Lake

 24    km, 5 portages, 0 line

Route:

Grayson Lake

P36 – RL out of back bay

P37/lift-over RR?

P38/lift-over RL?

P39 out of north/east bay of the lake

P40 RL into bay off Whitewater Lake

Whitewater Lake

           

Woke up to thick choking smoke at 1AM, confirming the need to stick with our plan to get up and go early.  We reached the portage (P36) out of Grayson around 9 that morning and found the edge of the forest fire burning along the south shore of the unnamed lake.

Took a few pictures and continued on with a small portage/lift at P37 and another small portage at P38 out of the bay.  P39 was out of the north/east bay of the unnamed lake.

One more portage P40 along the north shore brought us into Whitewater Lake.  We stopped in this little bay area to rest and grab lunch before heading out on the big water. 

Sure enough the waves were a couple feet high out on Whitewater.  Fortunately there is enough island cover if you hug the north shore to escape the waves.  We found a really nice campsite complete with picnic table and all (downfall – came with some garbage, we had to clean the site and start up a campfire to burn garbage).

Day 9: Whitewater Lake – McKinley

21 km, 5 portages, 0 line

Route:

Whitewater Lake

P41 – note location!

P42 (west side) – into McKinley

McKinley Lake

P43 (west side) at pinch

P44 (west side) at pinch

P45 (across middle of island)

Woke early to cross Whitewater Lake before the winds picked up.  Stopped at the Wendell Beckwith cabin to look around (http://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Wendell-Beckwith-fonds.pdf) – amazing, a must see location!! 

Portaged (P41) into McKinley Lake area.  This portage is located a good 1.5km from the river mouth, through some mud flats in the SW corner of the bay.  The portage was burnt and very difficult to travel.  Thankfully someone had blazed the trail – would never have found our way through the portage without the blazes!

A few more portaged and we started to look for a camp site.  There was a crappy site at the end of the last portage (P45), however we kept going and found a really nice cozy site on the small island noted (map).

Day 10: McKinley – Smoothrock Lake

18 km, 1 portages, 0 line

Route:

McKinlay Lake

P46 (west) into Lonebreast

Lonebreast

Smoothrock

Was windy from the moment we got up.  So windy we had a difficult time loading and launching the boat off our campsite – not a good sign!  Had one portage out into Lonebreast Bay and were instantly hit with the gale force winds!!!!

We fought the head winds for a bit (wind was funnelling up the narrow bay); once the waves started to breach the bow of our canoe we decided to pull over and wait it out.

WINDBOUND – from 10AM to 6PM……..longest – day – of – my – life!

Around 5PM we noticed the winds were starting to die off, so we made some dinner in the hopes we could get on the water and go until dark.  By 6PM the waves had calmed and we were on the water.  We paddled till dusk (~9:30) and were able to find a sandy beach on Smoothrock Lake to call home for the night.

Set up camp in the dark and called it a night.  Thankfully winds had totally calmed setting us up for an easier paddling day to come.

 

Day 11: Smoothrock Lake – Caribou Lake

40 km, 4 portages, 0 line

 

Route:

Smoothrock

Caribou Bay

Funger Lake

P47 well used

P48

Caribou River

P49 (north)

P50 (south)

Caribou Lake

  

Woke at 6:30 to get an early start for the day, worried about the prospect of being windbound again and not making our take out time (not that we really had one – we had just promised to call home Friday night).

  

We back-tracked (westward) a few kilometres to check out the prescribed burn from last fall.  Poked around on this island for a little while then turned around and headed east towards Caribou Bay.

Passed through Funger Lake around the noon hour, were making really good time with a slight tail wind. 

Portages along Caribou River are clearly well used, all in good condition, well marked and easy to spot from a ways out.

By 3:30PM we were at the Caribou Lake.

 Winds were in our favour and the lake relatively calm – so we decided to cross it vs. risking weather the next day.  We wove our way through the islands to keep out of the wind, ended up finding an amazing campsite just across from the portage we would be taking the next morning.