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While trying to get caught up on transcribing my trip logs from the past couple of season I realize that I've done some pretty bad portages either due to terrain or not having been cleared in a while or both. So I pose the question: "What is the worst portage you have ever done in Algonquin?"
For me I would have said the Little Dickson to Sundassa as two years ago it was riddled with blowdowns and was just brutal but it has since been cleared and doing it again last year it was a dream compared to the year before.
So I'd have to say White Partridge to May as it's quite a steep climb. The Little Cedar to Bug comes in as a close second for the same reason.
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P940: Roundbush Lake to Creepy Lake. Very steep trail, it was pretty intense and I wasn't even fully loaded (day trip up to Vireo Lake from camp on Alsever Lake).
I'd have to say the most challenging portage I've done fully loaded is P955: Little Nadine Lake to Little Osler Lake. Wow that is one heck of a hill - at the worst point I was only able to take a handful of steps, then having to stop for a few seconds, a few more steps, a few more seconds of rest. The boulder at the peak of the hill made for a nice resting place.
A close second could be P5510: Greenleaf Lake to Grand Lake. In 2012 it was covered in blow downs and I think I was like the 3rd person to go through before they cleared it. Also sheer insanity.
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I'll agree with you Peek, the Roundbush-Creepy portage is intense. Fortunately when I did it I was going downhill.
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I found the P1450 Tim river to Queer lake really hard. Maybe it was because I tweaked my back on the P3480 David cr to Rosebary lake the day before, but hill after hill just wiped me out.
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As Peek said, the 955 from Little Nadine to Little Osler. I booked this route two days ahead of time, while at work and only glancing at Jeff's map long enough to go "yep, those lakes connect".
Night 1, I'm camped out on Erables and finally have time to sit down, relax, and look at my next day's route - Erables to Nadine. I'd already flagged it as a kind of sucky travel day with 7 portages totaling ~5km (kayak, a lot of loading and unloading), but as I sat down and took a good look at the map, I saw "Heart Attack Hill" for the first time. Holy hell, a 90 meter elevation change in 2/3rds of a 955m portage. I got up early and got on the water early, because I had no idea what that portage was going to feel like. I mean, I knew it was going to feel like crap, but I didn't know to what extreme it was going to feel like crap.
I was already through four portages that day when I reached this one. I'd seen it on the map, I knew what was coming, and I went into it with the mindset that it was going to suck - and that was what saved me. I expected it to be terrible, it was terrible, and I came out the other side intact. I started out single portaging, full of confidence. Then I got to where the serious climb began, and I started to wonder if double portaging wasn't going to cut it. I'd struggle up the hill for ~50 feet with my pack, hunched over, gasping for air and feeling the burn in my legs, leaning against every conveniently placed tree, then I'd walk/fall down the hill, pick up my kayak, and struggle it up as far past my backpack as I could manage. Rinse, repeat, for what felt like a damn eternity. The worst part is that the last ~300m of that portage is a steep drop back down the waterline, so you can't even really feel like you accomplished something. You climbed a hill just to go back down.
Then I did two more portages that day. Good thing Nadine Lake turned out to be pretty nice.
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I will agree with Treater. The P1450 from Queer to the Tim was hard. It had rained most of the day and I slipped and went down twice on the first up hill from Queer. I had the canoe and a pack on. Never lost the canoe but it did hurt.
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@ Uppa - my travel day was the same as yours - Erables to Nadine.. and it was killer. The ice cold water from the spring on the final portage sort of gave me a second wind. But still. Killer. You are correct about Nadine though, totally worth it.
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Little Osler is probably the worst, I'm surprised though that nobody mentioned the boulder field/goat path from St.Andrews to Marie.... Only 70m increase but it's done in less than 700m......The incline is so steep at St.Andrews I couldn't get the canoe on my back, had to drag it up a ways before I had enough clearance at each end to start walking....
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