I just got back from a very wet, cold, windy and eventful 10 days. I started at Mag and did Shah, Shippagew, Burntroot, Catfish, Big Crow, Merchant, White Trout, Mcintosh, Timberwolf. Overall amazing trip.

Methye wrote:

Looking forward to a trip report!

Honestly not sure when I'll do one up for this trip, but here are some cliff notes -
day 1 - broke my fishing rod
day 2 - broke my belt. Seen one soloist on this day and didn't see or talk to a single person for the next 6 days. Moose literally almost jumped in the canoe on the tim river
day 3 - strap broke on my dogs backpack, seen more moose on Longer Lake - rained all day
day 4 - COLD morning paddling across burntroot and over to catfish
day 5 - Setup on the southern island on catfish, very cold, windy and rainy. Found very fresh wolf scat right beside the tent pad I chose
day 6 - Today was a LONG day from catfish to big crow. The marsh getting to the first portage towards hogan was a pain to get through. Hogan Lake was the windiest lake i paddled all trip, then I topped it off with the P3.7km to big crow lake... what a portage that is!!
day 7 - Off to merchant lake... red rock is a super nice lake and Id love to spend more time here in the future. Moose orgy (sounded like it) behind camp on Merchant, then a cow and bull were literally playing with eachother out on the beach right beside my campsite which was AMAZING. Just after this I went to use the thunderbox and there was a very fresh pile of bear scat just infront of it (appropriate place I guess?)
day 8 - Took advantage of a powerful tailwind which blew me arosss big trout over to white trout, another cold miserable day. Finally talked to a couple on a 10 day trip today.
day 9 - Super easy day to Mcintosh Lake, i didn't want to end my trip early so I wasn't travelling far today or tomorrow. Worst wind/rain storm ive ever camped in on this night. Very scary night in the tent, even my dog was terrified.
day 10 - I had to dry out literally all my gear after the 30+mm of overnight rain, so for since I had to disassemble camp I decided a change of scenery would be nice so off to Timberwolf I went.
Day 11 - Back to Magnetewan. I left Timberwolf lake just after 7am and arrived back in Kearney just after noon. Stopped in at Algonuin Basecamp and Chris didn't believe me that I traveled that far before noon 

Overall it was an amazing trip. I figure all in all I travelled a little over 200km by canoe/foot. Even considering the weather I wish I would have pushed myself harder, the latest I arrived at camp was the day I went from Catfish to Big crow and I was at my campsite by 3pm, even after checking out some campsites/collecting firewood. I probably could have added at least anoher 50-75km of travel to the trip fairly easily over the 10 days (especaially near the end).

Last edited by ATVenture (10/07/2018 9:20 am)

Sounds like you are just lucky a bull moose didn't see you as competition !
 

Oh man, it sounds like mother nature hammered you pretty hard! Cold and wet are never a great combo. It seems like a switch was thrown back in August that has made the weather totally erratic day to day. I'm planning a 3 day hike in APP this weekend and it promises to be pleasant the first day, absolutely miserable the second day, and frigid on the third. But, some the worst days in the park still beat the better ones at work for sure.

Cheers,
Rich

 I am also considering heading to the park this coming weekend, probably start Thursday and come home Sunday - last real canoe trip of 2018 more than likely. Just simple trips after this.

Good luck with your final excursion! I'll be heading on to the Western Uplands from Rain Lake on Friday and coming back out on Sunday. The last outing of the year is always so bittersweet.