Paddler's Guide to Happy Camping
This is Kevin Callan's blog about his trips, his (mis-)adventures, and his favourite gear.
Island Lake - Magetawan River Loop - Part 3
It sure is handy to have a paddle maker on your trip. Mike made both these paddles and they were definitely works of art.
Wolf Lake was difficult to leave the next morning. It had everything a canoe tripper could ever want. Morning mist shrouded the pine-glad shoreline, loons wailed off in the distance and a fish breakfast could easily be caught by simply casting a line from the campsite. But Mike and I had a lot of "unsolved" portages to search out and we were off before 8:00 am once again.
Boundary Lake, the next lake in the chain, was easily reached by an 80 meter portage located at the end of the first of two bays at the southeast end of Wolf Lake. Another ATV trail crosses the portage to confuse things once again, but it was more straightforward then what we had to deal with the previous day.
Boundary Lake was just as nice as Wolf Lake, and it had more bass to catch as well. Needless to say, it took Mike and I a while to start looking for a way out of the lake.
We first went to where the original portage was marked on Mike’s 1933 map, traveling south from the portage that took us into Boundary, then once through a narrow channel that linked us into a much broader section of the lake, we paddled to the top end of the first northern bay. It was here a portage measuring approximately 1400 meters supposedly went to Four Bass Lake. And from there the plan was to follow a creek out to the Magnetawan River’s Trout Lake, with a side trip to Duck Lake, and then upriver on the Magnetawan back to Wahwashkesh Lake. Simple enough we thought; that is if we could find the portage.
Truth be told, Mike and I did find the portage. It took us a great amount of “mystery solving”, locating old blaze marks, rock cairns, even the odd beer can and a broken paddle to find the trail’s whereabouts. But no mere mortal would ever want to carry a canoe and gear across what we found; that is unless some portage crew came to remark and clear it out. So we searched for an alternative route that some canoeist who posted his trip on-line told us about. He supposedly followed an ATV trail across from the other bay adjacent to the one we were at.
Mike and I paddled around to the other bay, then lifted and dragged our canoe along a dried up creek, to the right of where the survey boundary marker was placed long ago on “Boundary” Lake (that was cool to find). We eventually came to a large beaver dam, some floating logs and then a small, weedy pond. And on the far shore, after some severe bushwacking, we located what seemed to be an old wagon road. Mike and I assumed this was the ATV trail that the other paddler had referred to on his on-line post. The problem was, the trail was grown over with raspberry bushes armed with pencil-sized thorns. To portage along this trail for what seemed to be over two kilometers was not doable at all. The old portage was still an option, and we did return to it and begin unpacking the canoe for the nasty walk ahead of us. But then Mike made a brilliant point. “Kevin, no one is going to want to do this portion of the route until a proper portage is marked. So, why not return to Island Lake through Wolf Lake and call it a trip.” I agreed totally. We repacked the canoe and backtracked to Wolf for our third night out.
That's one of the things I love about the near north...you may be treading where none have before...then you find a can of "Lucky Lager"! (-: That survey marker must have been the geographical boundary between Brown and Burton Townships (and likely the reason the lake is called "Boundary Lake", nice find.
Kevin,
There may be an easier way from Wolf to Island than the 800m? port. If you check google earth you'll see a large 'wet area' to te N of the port. Thta's probably navigable, and I understand that the terrain to the East toward Island quite easy.
In my experience, the area you mention doesn't quite make it to Island Lake, unfortunately you have to go over a small height of land before decending to Island Lake
If you're talking about the area across the creek from the existing portage take-out on Wolf then it does exist. It's the original portage route and leaves Island Lake in the opposite bay from where it is now. However, it goes through a swamp pond and is longer (and it basically not there anymore). So, the 600 meter trail from the bay where the lodge is to Wolf is best - actually its darn easy as long as you don't get lost on the old atv trail that criss-crosses it,.
Kevin
We also saw the online post and tried Boundary to Four Bear with hopes of getting back to the Mag and then back to Wawashkesh. It was later in the day, and Wolf Lake seemed a better option. The next morning five canoes from a girls camp came into Wolf from Island. They too were going to try to get to the Mag, and we compared maps, and info and told them of our findings, no easy portage. We wished them luck.
Depending on dates, my friends and I would assist in a clean up...........
A guy posted posted a Noganosh loop, John-Deep-Little Deep-Finney-Portage then back to Noganosh. If Kelsie and John are connected this adds even more options.....to this excellent area.
I wonder how the girls camp made out. It seems their is a willingness for paddlers to at least re-create more routes in this area. I also saw the post on the alt. loop out of Nogonosh. Maybe we can emphasize this area in the 2010 Grreat Wilderness Clean-up initiative.
Kevin,
The parts of the Island/Mag loop that I have seen need more portage clearing and marking than cleanup. e.g the 20 m port coming up from Trout Lake is to get around the trunk of a large fallen tree. Some work with a chainsaw there would eliminate the port. The next port needs a hatchet or small saw and some flagging tape to clear and blaze the way thru deciduous forest with limited undergrowth as well as thru alders at the beginning..
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