Hmmm well there's next year's trip!

Only question is whether to do it at ice-out, or July. The trout fishing won't be amazing on this part, and I am not a fan of week-long trips in dry suits because I'm fragile.

Either way, gonna portage the class IV rapids on the upper, so I feel like it will be passable. I may do a scout paddle on the upper in July.

Martin, that's really interesting! 

Talking with the shuttle operator, they've been asking for Victoria Road access for years (i.e. including this year), and denied every time - so I think the donation is only for the camp, but the rest of the land is still with the Westons...

You're right about the water level, that's far higher. Ou level was low, but a lot of fun as the features are a bit more prominent. 

@Martin, did you actually get a boat shuttle to the start of Opeongo river? Cause... that would save 2.5 hours of paddling on flat water... 

Went down Opeongo River last weekend. It's a whitewater day trip, from Shall Lake to Aylen Lake. So it starts in Algonquin, but quickly leaves and ends on crown land.

My son paddles a whitewater SUP, I paddle a L'edge.

The run is outlined in George Drought's guide to Madawaska River. Mainly class I/II run, but has a couple of class III (maybe IV) sections. It was still high enough last weekend, but is gonna be pretty rocky the rest of the year (although still paddle able). Would definitely need a royalex boat, not kevlar.

To get there, it's about 10k of flat water. The last lake is Victoria, and apparently most of that land is owned by the Weston family - they prohibit any land use, or use of their private road that accesses the start of Opeongo River... hmmm. not nice.

One question: has anyone fished it? Cause... there's not a lot of pressure, and sure seems like a nice trout stream....


Cheers!
Marko

The quest for brookies continues. This year, we decided to look north of North Tea. Lovely area. 

We put in on the Saturday around 11AM. The weather front had just passed - apparently Friday was miserable on North Tea with rain and wind gusts up to 70 kmh. The weather warmed up through the day, and the paddle was lovely albeit a bit cold. 

We took the portage into Sisco Lake and trolled around a bit, with nothing biting. The next portage into Lorne Lake was quite mucky for the first 400 m, but not terrible. There was one other group on Lorne on the south site (probably the nicest on the lake). We took the site on the other peninsula, I think the second-nicest site on the lake. 

The following day, we decided that Gugger Lake is worth a look - it was not. However, deep trolling on Lorne got us a couple of lakers. Nothing on the surface. Oddly, we saw a group of 9 canoes who visited Lorne fron Sisco Lake. About 18-20 people... They visited the other end of the lake, screamed twice (?!?) and then made their way back to Sisco. Man, that's a large group... 

By the end of the day, it was warm and the black flies started to come out but no biting. Even saw a few mosquitos at dusk. 

On the way out, we took the 2k portage directly to into North Tea - the nicest portage in Algonquin I think. The wind was substantial out of the east, which made us fly down the lake. It would have been brutal for the people going the other way. 

I suspect the bugs will be out for Mother's Day. 









Cheers!
Marko
 

Bampot wrote:

The buoy you found could possibly be an acoustic array buoy for fish research purposes.

 
Interestingly, we saw two sturgeon - one at Whitson, one actually did a rise on Smith and it was large!

Went down the Pet this last week - black flies. were getting better, mosquitos not awful yet.

As we finished 5-mile rapids, came up on a white styrofoam buoy on Whitson Lake. Being curious, I pulled it up... only to find a green cylindrical canister (2" x 12", screw cap at end) attached to the rope. It seemed like it was military, and being worried that it was going to blow my hands off, I let it drop back into the lake.

Does anyone know what this is??!?

Hey Gord,

I've patched the ribs on the Souris River 18" canoes. There is a small drilled vent hole in each rib, and that seems to be a weak point.

The repair was pretty easy - Just the West epoxy and the kevlar. You can definitely see the patch. Also, you can see the frayed fibres of. the kevlar patch. If you wanted to make it look nicer, you could put a piece of fiberglass or carbon on top, then sand it. But it's just more weight.

Lemme know if you have any questions

M

@Martin, I agree...

Except when tripping with kids. It sure is nice knowing that the day will end on a nice spacious site where they can run around. The PCI has been really, really helpful with that over the last 15 years.

Astral Rassler is the best shoe in my opinion.