A couple years ago I day tripped from Catfish (Shangri La Island) to the Brent store, and was back on my site in time for lunch. It's pretty silly the system treats that as an unreasonable single-day travel distance. The last day of a trip is the only one the online system usually won't give you grief over, as it doesn't care if you're within a reasonable distance of your starting access point, just that you're in reasonable distance of any access point. That you're probably not heading for that nearest access point doesn't seem to phase it. It's odd to me that they'd allow that loophole in an otherwise very "nannyish" booking system. Of course you might legitimately be finishing up at a different access point than where you started, but I assume that's a small percentage of bookings.

Unicorn Hill didn't seem that bad to me either, but then again I didn't have most of my gear with me.

Okay, the pic definitely helps me envision 'creepy'. Perfect for a rainy day as Algonquintripper points out, but otherwise I'll take your advice and check out the island site. 

I wrote my reply from a phone so wasn't exactly long on details. To add a bit more info:

I did that loop in early August. I portaged into Lorne from North Tea rather than via Lost Dog - Sisco. Like you, I spent a night on Lorne and one on Fassett. There was another site in use on Lorne, which were the only people I saw until I reached Manitou. The campsites on Lorne, and especially on Fassett, clearly saw little use. On Fassett I stayed on the site nearest the 1080 portage to Shada.

The trip down Fassett creek was interesting. When I was through the portages had been recently cleared, so no issues there. No water level problems. A few beaver dams, including one monster one that had about a 5 foot drop behind it. A section of the 1325 m portage was flooded from the creek - I was wading well past my knees for about 20 meters. 

Regarding the kayak versus canoe thing: I'm pretty much a kayak camping evangelist, but that's not a kayak-friendly route as it's very portage heavy. Without yokes and a lot of thought put into your packing, you wouldn't enjoy lugging kayaks through that route. You'd love having them once you got to Manitou mind you, but everything preceding that would be a painful slog. 

@breed85: My kayak has ~200L of storage space, so sadly I can bring pretty much whatever I want. Not that that translates into 200L of usable storage space of course, unless you're filling it with water. But I have a lot of free room in my hatches still. I could probably fit a case of beer in there along with my gear. You know, if glass was allowed and I wanted to carry it. 

But I tend to have some pretty long travel days, and some really portage heavy ones as well. I travelled from Catfish Lake to the Opeongo access point a couple summers ago as an example. That was about ~9k of portaging that day, so yeah - I definitely do my best to keep pack weight down. 

@PaPaddler: I hear you about comfort versus weight. I upgraded my sleeping pad a few years back to one much thicker, and this year I've added an inflatable pillow. Perhaps a chair isn't a stretch, although I've really never felt the lack of one so far. Perhaps ignorance is bliss!

 

Peek wrote:

Uppa wrote:

I've never even considered taking a chair into the backcountry. What's wrong with a perfectly good rock?

I used to think the exact same thing... then an opportunity to get a Helinox for cheap came up and WOW.. seriously wow. I personally guarantee you would retract that statement after sitting in a chair one, or one of it's competitors.

Hrm - I'd better not sit in one then! Don't really like the idea of adding that much to my pack weight, so I'll stick with the rocks.Weight: 900g

Rock Lake.

Rob already answered far better than I could have, but that lens of mine is (or at least was) around $800, so replacing it for the sake of improved video focus would be a hard pill to swallow regardless. 

But yeah, it's the body that's the problem (fortunately!). Eventually I'll buy a new SLR. Probably. Maybe. We'll see how this point and shoot does on my spring camping trip. 

Thanks for the info Bo. I ended up going with a slightly less aggressive version of this route, but most of what you wrote about is still relevant. 

Holy... not sure how I missed that 80 meter elevation climb on the first portage out of Booth heading towards Round Island. Looks like that's going to be quite the climb. That day (day 2) has me going all the way from Annie Bay into Booth and back up to Round Island - with 8 days' worth of food to carry. I'm thinking maybe I'll water taxi to Annie Bay and then get into Booth for night 1, because otherwise that second day is going to be a doozie. 

I've watched a Youtube video of WP creek travel - I know it's going to be entertaining. My biggest worry is running into creek-blocking obstacles in places where it's too narrow for me to turn my kayak sideways. Not sure exactly how I'll handle that, but I guess I'll have to figure something out. 

Road from Odenback station: Yeah, I watched a video (Larry Hyett) where they took this road as well. I can see how the road would be better than that 3.6 KM portage, but I don't understand why it's advantageous to take it all the way from Radiant, which is adding at least another kilometer. Based on the map it looks like I could paddle up the Little Mad to the portage, take that portage about 700 meters, and it's going to intersect a road that will take me to the other road for the rest of the portage. That's my tentative plan unless someone gives me a reason it's a bad idea. Meaning this, basically:



I've portaged between Hogan and Big Crow many times, and it's out for my blood I swear - I slip once or twice every time I'm on it. The route I ended up with won't take me through McKaskill, but I walked that portage in both directions last Spring and didn't find it too bad.