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.