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Good morning everyone,
I just wanted to toss around our trip ideas for the 2022 season.
For a couple of the routes we are hoping to find some good trip reports.
Feel free to pass long something you would recommend.
Firstly, we are normally able to get the following windows of time off:
- 4 Days on the May long weekend
- The first week of August
- 4 Days in either Sept of October
- Any other time we can all sneak away for a quick 1-2 night
Secondly, I look at this map (see below) in my cubicle at work and see where we have not been. We then find two trips of 4 day lengths, and one big trip of 7-8 days that might fit into these gaps.
May or Sept Trip 2022:
Looking to complete the trip we had planned for May 2021, a 4 day loop from Wendigo Lake. It has been some time since we were up this way, and Rich has never seen Cedar Lake or Radiant Lake.
Wendigo Lake Access --> Radiant Lake --> Cedar Lake --> either Merganser Lake or North River Lake --> Wendigo Lake Access.
Notes:
- Looking to perform the non-maintained section towards the end when bag weight is lightest.
- will likely make a sider trip (time permitting) to the store at Brent / check out the Ranger cabins
- Hoping to check out logging remnants / relics / gravesites on Radiant
Questions:
- if you had the choice, which lake is better to camp on? Merganser or North River?
May or Sept Trip 2022:
Looking to complete the trip we had planned for May 2020, a 4 day loop from Rock Lake.
Rock Lake Access --> Clydegale Lake --> West Galipo Lake or South Galipo Lake --> Louisa Lake --> Rock Lake Access.
Notes:
- will be using the unofficial P3160m portage from Little Canoe Lake to East Galipo Lake.
- Rich has never been on Louisa, so we want to rectify that.
- always wanted to fish the Galipo lakes so we are assuming this will be the spring trip
- direction of travel is to reduce weight on the big portages going into and coming out of Louisa
Questions:
- if you had the choice between camping on West Galipo or South Galipo, which is preferred?
- in the late summer / fall, is the Galipo River water levels an issue?
- Depending on wind conditions we will either take the 1725m or 2880m portage into Louisa. If really choppy we will elect to walk more and paddle less, unless there is something other than length that makes the 2880m portage a bad option?
Aug Trip 2022:
We are looking at two options. Time off, physical ailments, other commitments, forum input, are some of the deciding factors.
Option 1: 5 Days, 4 Nights Tim River Loop (can extend to 6-8 days if we can)
Magnetawan Access --> Queer Lake --> Shippagew Lake --> Devine Lake --> Rosebary Lake --> Magnetawan Lake Access.
Notes:
- Always wanted to paddle Ralph Bice
- We elected to not paddle Shippagew or the Tim River last summer, which I regret
- We love this side of the park
- only part of this loop we have done before is Rosebary, Hambone, and Magnetawan. Into the unknown! 
Option 2 : Border to Border (Magnetawan to McManus) in 8 days (7 nights)
Magnetawan Access --> Tim River (Little Trout Creek) --> Shippagew Lake --> Hogan Lake --> Radiant Lake --> Lake Travers --> Petawawa River (Crooked Chute Cabin) --> Whitson Lake --> McManus Lake Access.
Notes:
- Always wanted to paddle Ralph Bice
- We elected to not paddle Shippagew or the Tim River last summer, which I regret
- Never been to La Muir, Hogan, Philip lakes
- only part of this loop we have done before is the section from Big Trout to La Muir, and Radiant
- always wanted to see the radio observatory, Turtle club remains, crooked chute cabin, and natch.
- Always wanted to do this trip, but time off and the logistics of leaving vehicles on opposite sides of the park is daunting.
Questions:
- open for suggestions , tips, etc. but it must seem obvious that the bigger summer trip is what I am leaning towards.
- Now I need to convince Rich that over 31KM of portaging is enjoyable...
We also look forward to seeing and hearing about everyone else's trip plans, so lets see them!
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if you had the choice, which lake is better to camp on? Merganser or North River?
We heard that the most north-westerly site on North River is quite nice but it was occupied when we went at the very end of September this year. Instead, we stayed at the eastern most site which had a couple of decent tent pad options. Someone had constructed a food prep area with wind shield there some time ago, and the firepit was quite nice as a boulder constituted the back of it. Pretty views, but from what I recall it would have very little morning sun (hard to say for sure as the weather wasn't great on the days we camped there). We spoke with a couple who had camped at the first site entering the South Bay from the lake and they thought it was a pleasant/serene spot.
We took a day trip to Merganser and had lunch on the western site. It was small and not overly appealing. We didn't set foot on the eastern site (the one circled on your map), but it looked a bit more inviting. Either way, I would say North River sites on the main lake are larger and have much better views (and likely better swimming), although Merganser has a quiet charm and is quite noticeably calmer on a windy day.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by hiker72 (12/09/2021 11:31 pm)
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hiker72 wrote:
[i]
Hope this helps.
This is excellent information. Sounds like North River is our kind of jam. Thanks for the insight.
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For your Petawawa option keep in mind that a lot of the portages on the Pet below Cedar are really rugged - like near vertical up and down sections. The Upper and Lower Natch are particularly tough and the portage around Rollway has really tough spots too.
Further down the portages around Schooner and Five Mile are really long which can add a lot of time if you get an August where water levels are down to a trickle. I've come up from McManus in early August and got to a point near the bottom of Five Mile where there wasn't enough water to even wade the canoe any further.
That said, it's a beautiful section of river and well worth a trip.
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I've come up from McManus in early August and got to a point near the bottom of Five Mile where there wasn't enough water to even wade the canoe any further.
I assume three days and two nights should be enough time to get from Travers to McManus, but this is purely based on what I see on the map and knowing the distances our group is able to cover. I have wanted to tackle the Pet from Radiant down for some time, so this section is quite intriguing to me.
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Single Malts definitely doesnt shy away from long days. 3 days and 2 nights should be plenty of time for you. I have left late from Crooked Chute and made it to Whitson, including climbing the Natch trail. We usually only portage Rollway and the last section of the chute though, so keep that in mind.
I aim for 3 nights on that section. We like to stay a night at the cabin, one at the Natch and then one either on Traverse or Mcmanus depending on trip arrival/departure times.
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On your May/Sept trip question re: Galipo campsites. I was there at the beginning of October this year (in and out from Pen/Welcome). Water levels were very high, almost spring ice out conditions judging from the vegetation under water. In terms of campsites, the West Galipo site is on the portage, has a poor firepit, and the portage put in and take outs are steep. Lots of deciduous trees so might not be a lot of leaf cover in spring - but on the flip side lots of trunks for hammocks. South Galipo is definitely the nicer site, but it's small. Nice flat spot for 1 tent/hammock, or 2 in a pinch, with firepit offering great views over the lake. You can probably fit some hammocks on trees off the path to the thunder box. I think Peek was there not long ago and might have some input. I didn't fish, but there was a family of otters on Little Galipo so there must be something there. One caution - the 5m portage at the end of North Galipo is really a liftover and then 50m or so wade along the channel heading northwest. Even with high water it was too shallow for me to paddle. Hope this helps - I really enjoyed your Nippissing trip videos!
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Hi Evan,
Thanks again for posting your videos. I've enjoyed watching them. I admire people that on top of taking all the food and gear for the trip, pack all their camera equipment as well.
Your proposed trips look very interesting. Last fall I paddled from Rosebary through Bog,Sittingman,High Dam, Ranger into Devine. I spent one night there and then did the low maintenance portages into the Tim and onwards to Shippagew. I enjoyed this area of the park. As I was a soloist I didn't encounter anyone once I left Rosebary to Devine and I felt very much remote and isolated which I loved.
The two low maintenance portages was a bit of a grind. As there was a fresh carpet of leaves on the ground and no travel from what I saw since. I had difficulty finding/staying on the portage trail. In particular between Stag and Tim River especially moving around blowdowns. Having a gps handy was really helpful in relocating the trail.
Shippagew was really nice, as there are only two sites. Chances are if you've booked the lake you'd probably be alone. That section of the park I didn't see anyone else for 4 days. I certainly intend to paddle in the area again one day.
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I can't comment about your campsite questions and I fully get the trip planning trying to connect lakes but that day from Cedar to North River? 6K on low maintenance portages with a ascent of over 100 m and almost no paddling in between? I would probably do it in Sept. and hope that someone's been through to clean the worst of the winter blowdown. At least the big portage from Glydegale to the Galipos is along a road (if you can manage the couple hundred m of bushwack.
I will commend your choices for most of the circled campsites. I prefer the site on Louisa close to the 1725 portage but there's lots of good sites on that lake.
If you manage to do the cross park trip, please share how you coordinate the cars. Like many I've had a few cross park possibilities on my list but preferring solo for long trips, it's a real pain or really costly.
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I would camp on North River (north shore) over Merganser.
I don't think any of the sites in the Galipos are very good. Maybe camp on Rence (excellent site) and day trip to the Galipos. Yes, late summer Galipo River can dry up.
Site on Shippagew is one of the best summer sites in the park.
I did the west to east route 9 years ago. It's great and pretty easy. Down hill, down wind, down stream. If you can swing the shuttle I highly recommend it. In my opinion, the Pet downstream of Radiant is the most beautiful part of the park. There was a TR here in the old forum, but I think the archive is gone. Here it is on CCR
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Thanks for all the excellent feed back everyone. Looks like galipo trip in the spring, cross the park in the summer and wendigo in late summer / fall is the plan. Not I need to sort out the shuttle for the summer haha
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