I use a down sleeping bag (Western Mountaineering Sycamore) for the shoulder seasons and an Enlightened Equipment quilt, which I ordered directly from them so I could customize everything, the rest of the time. In colder weather I definitely use the straps - it's as toasty as a sleeping bag when secured around a sleeping pad. Love it. 

oldboyscout wrote:

Totally understand your sentiment here.
However, I really did enjoy your videos and miss seeing them!!
Maybe I'll hit up your youtube channel and rewatch some older ones
 

I appreciate it! And I always loved the making of the videos. Deep in the winter months, dreaming about going camping and unable to, there was nothing that made me happier than spending days watching my camping footage, reliving memories while building a new trip video. That part I still miss. I just couldn't figure out a way to enjoy the "chore" of campsite filming. 

If there's anyone who doesn't already know, The Last Hunt is Altitude Sport's outlet site. It's generally previous year / discontinued stuff, but there are great deals on quality gear and clothing to be found. The one catch, however, is that there are no returns or exchanges unless something arrives defective. 

Anyway, I was looking for a new sleeping pad and last hunt has Exped 1R, 3R and 5R sleeping pads on sale, 40 to 50% off. The 3R medium, for example, is $139.99, regular $279.99. The site also gave me a code to take another 20% off that discounted price, so I ended up ordering a couple sleeping pads at ~60% off. They also have some Sea to Summit and Therm-a-rest pads, although not as deeply discounted. 

3R mummy sleeping mat (medium): https://www.thelasthunt.com/p/exped-ultra-3r-mummy-sleeping-mat-medium-unisex-exp-45454506

iainwf wrote:

Great trip report! Is there any reason you didn't paddle into Little Wabimimi Lake and then take the same logging road/trail towards the Andrews Lake portage and onto Merganser instead of going into No Name and Kabibonoka Lake?

 
That was the original plan! But I expected to have an afternoon on Wabamimi to scout that out and see if it was doable. As I needed to make it back to the car that same day, I decided to play it safe and stick with the marked portages instead of attempting more bushwhacking.

Thanks Drew. Doable, yes, but I think it would be a *much* more challenging experience with the leaves out. I’m not sure I would have even noticed that first logging road, and visibility would have been nonexistent in places.

Early last spring I did my only solo trip of the season (I went camping a ton last summer, but the other trips were all in a canoe with family). The plan was to put in at the North River access point (26) and do a loop east to Allan, south to Shoal, the low maintenance portages through Menona and Wee George to Big George, bushwhack out of the north end of Big George to logging roads, which I would walk to the edge of Wabamimi, bushwhack into Wabamimi and then take the series of low maintenance portages from there back to where I started. When I went looking last year, I could find no reports of anyone having tried this particular bushwhack before, but satellite imagery assured me the logging roads were there so I figured I'd give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen, right?



North River was alder choked and twisty at the access point, making it challenging at times to make the corners - smacking a kayak paddle off alder branches doesn't seem to help turning much, oddly enough. I wasn't the only one having challenges with the alder branches, as it wasn't long before I found a life jacket in the river. It clearly hadn't been there long, so I scooped it up in the hopes of returning it to its owner. A few minutes later I came upon three guys in a heavily laden canoe. Two of them were wearing their life jackets, the third hadn't noticed his was missing. My good deed done for the day, I carried on, secure in the knowledge that good karma was sure to come my way. 


North River alders. The further from the access point you get, the better the river gets

A bonus life jacket in North Tea River, soon to be returned to its owner

A few minutes later, I realized I had a fair bit of water in my cockpit - too much to be explained by my less than graceful maneuvering in the river. I figured I must have a small leak in the boat

I jumped in - twice - on Big George Lake last week. It was "holy crap I need to get out now" cold. 

 

To answer my own questions (now that I’m back):

The bushwhack - logging roads - bushwhack from big George to wabamimi is doable. The stretch of logging road immediately north of big George hasn’t been used in many years and is quickly being reclaimed (I dragged, not portaged, my kayak - overhead foliage made portaging impossible). It connects to a logging road that still is in use after a few hundred meters that takes you to wabamimi. I didn’t try bushwhacking out of wabamimi, I stuck to the official portages. They have blowdowns and occasionally it wasn’t obvious where the trail was but I got through then without too much trouble.

The portage from Menona to Wee George hates you and wants you to die.

Lastly: my bushwhacking took place in primarily deciduous forest in early spring before the leaves were out and I had great visibility to figure out the best path forward. It will likely be considerably more frustrating with full foliage.

Trip report to follow eventually!

Just came out from the north side of the park. Black flies are out in swarms but not yet biting (it wouldn’t surprise me if that changes in the next day or two). Mosquitoes virtually nonexistent still.