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Hi Everyone!,
Planning a trip going through Big Porcupine L (from Smoke L through Big Porcupine L to Bonnechere L and onwards) and had a question... Is it less time to do the 395m portage OR go around (assuming doing portage once)? And same question again if it takes 2 trips along the portage?
Thanks very much!
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Probably quicker doing a single-carry. But closer to the same time doing a double-carry. However, if the bugs are bad it'll probably be better staying out on the water! Also, I gather most people just paddle around, so the portage could be a bit overgrown. Anyone actually walked it?
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Jeffs Map puts it as 30min for the portage (+20 if you're doing a double carry), or 35min to paddle around, for the same relative start/end point.
I'll be doing a trip through that area in the summer and plan on just paddling around.
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There's no way that portage would take 30 min. for a single carry, it's not even 400m. I paddled around the point of land last August just because we didn't want to portage even though we single carry and it took us about 30 min. to paddle. The carry would have been much faster.
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The only time I took this route I just went around. Generally speaking while on a canoe trip less walking and more paddling is the way to go - unless you enjoy carrying a canoe ;)
Tripper, it's not the portage that takes 30 minutes, its the space between the two oranges dots that takes 30 minutes, including paddling, unloading, portaging, loading and paddling again.
Last edited by Peek (3/05/2017 6:24 pm)
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Thanks everyone!
Peek - Definitely agree less walking / more paddling, however am debating soloing this in my tiny kayak (which isn't intended for anything longer than a couple hours on the water lol!) so am unsure whether I can single portage... If we canoe, then always single-carry 😄
I've been by this way once, however it was in the late 90s so don't quite recall lol!
Thank you everyone for the info, much appreciated 😄
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I was on a solo trip last summer and did this portage instead of paddling around. Portage was in pretty good shape as far as I can remember. Mostly I was just grateful it wasn't the Devil's Staircase part two. Definitely faster as a single carry than paddling around.
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I was there last spring and paddled on the way into Bonnechere and took the the portage on the way out. It was really windy on the way out and the way it was blowing it made sense to take the portage. We single carried and it was definately quicker and with the wind I'm sure we saved a lot of wasted effort paddling into the wind.
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Peek wrote:
Tripper, it's not the portage that takes 30 minutes, its the space between the two oranges dots that takes 30 minutes, including paddling, unloading, portaging, loading and paddling again.
^ Exactly, that's what I meant by "...for the same relative start/end points."
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Probably went that direction 20 + times, smoke , ragged Big Pork to Bonnechere, not once did we even consider portaging, one year we did have a group of 4 people 2 decided to portage, we paddled, I would the difference in time to get to the portage heading back down was within 5 minutes. I for one would sooner be paddling than carrying stuff over ANY portage that didn't save me at least 30 minutes. Good Luck and have fun.
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