Hi GrahamLine, this year the Park has restricted access to the back country to a short list of predefined access points.  No longer can you venture anywhere you want in the back country.  Off the top of my head the access points are: teh two backpacking trails, Minnessing Trail, Source Lake, Mew Lake Airfield (those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head)...The Park website has more details so you'd be best to check that out.  

For whatever it's worth, I chatted with a guy on MyCCR. He camped away from Hwy 60 this year, and just wrote in his access point.

Last couple of years, I accessed the park through Kmog (access 1). This is crown land, there are lots of cottages and it's definitely plowed in the winter. there is logging activity too... 2018, we camped on Wet Lake. There are snowmobile trails (not used heavily) and we actually daytripped all the way to NTL.

2019 we went Kmog along south side of Amable all the way to NTL. Deep powder, fine with large Trad snowshoes, but definitely not MSR shoes or XC skiis. There is one tricky crossing of Amable - it's at the dam, on the west side of the portage. Rivers are always tricky. be careful.

Kmog, wet Lake and Amable to NTL are crown land, so even if there was an outright ban on winter camping in APP, these would still be fine.

This year, I'm gonna go to Kiosk for 5 days in Feb and probably a week in March. if the rail trail is accessible, I will try and do an East-West traverse in 2022.

Cheers!
Marko 

Last edited by Marko_Mrko (1/19/2021 10:23 am)

Just to be clear, we went right along Amable, not 50 yards away. The banks are very clear, with a good clear path. More pics:

Crossing Kmog, bit of a blizzard:




Mouth of the Amable - you can see where the open water starts, due to the current. Just stay on the south (right side on the picture), the ice was fine. Also, remember Kmog is a very shallow lake, the ice forms quickly in the absence of the current. 



The first part of the Amable was the trickiest, as we had MRS shoes on, not the trad shoes. Once we switched to the trad shoes, it was reasonable. Still 3' of powder and the front person had to do a bit of work. But reasonable. 

Here's flotation with trad shoes: 


Versus the largest MSR snowshoe:


Crossing the dam before the portage:


NTL is well worth it:




 

Marko_Mrko wrote:

For whatever it's worth, I chatted with a guy on MyCCR. He camped away from Hwy 60 this year, and just wrote in his access point.

Wrote in his access point where? There isn't a spot in the online reservation system to add an alternate access point. I called in to the east gate over the Christmas holidays to inquire about getting a permit the old fashioned way.They told me they couldn't issue the permit. It had to be done through the reservation system.
 
My plan was to just get a reservation for the airfield or wherever then go up to Kiosk and leave my reservation number and planned destination on my dash board.

Now, with the lockdown, I have no plans

Steve E wrote:

Hi GrahamLine, this year the Park has restricted access to the back country to a short list of predefined access points.  No longer can you venture anywhere you want in the back country.  Off the top of my head the access points are: teh two backpacking trails, Minnessing Trail, Source Lake, Mew Lake Airfield (those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head)...The Park website has more details so you'd be best to check that out.  

 
Thanks Steve. Getting lots of good input from the post. I’ll let everyone know where I decided to venture.

MartinG wrote:

Marko_Mrko wrote:

For whatever it's worth, I chatted with a guy on MyCCR. He camped away from Hwy 60 this year, and just wrote in his access point.

Wrote in his access point where? There isn't a spot in the online reservation system to add an alternate access point. I called in to the east gate over the Christmas holidays to inquire about getting a permit the old fashioned way.They told me they couldn't issue the permit. It had to be done through the reservation system.
 
My plan was to just get a reservation for the airfield or wherever then go up to Kiosk and leave my reservation number and planned destination on my dash board.

Now, with the lockdown, I have no plans

 
Thanks Martin.

MartinG wrote:

My plan was not meant as advice from the park. It's just what I personally planned to do inspite of the new process. A frustrated reaction to this ridiculous bureacracy.

 
Martin, that's the most sensible thing to do.

I suspect the lockdown will be over Feb 11. just in time for my Feb 13-17 trip... On Kiosk. With my modified reservation.

Cheers!
M

great pics, suggestions and ideas awesome!  If Kiosk is not officially open though- is the road plowed there to the parking lot?   funny the mention of the Kiosk rail trail- i recently watched a video of some folks who did it via fatbike and my first thought was....this is a winter trip route i need to do.  here's the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O23Qyonzf8&t=939s