Wayne D's Blog

Now that the pictures are in I can write about the Explorer canoe trip I went on to the Temagami area of Northern Ontario during the second week of July. The trip took in parts of Obabika River and Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater provincial park. I spent an hour or so with Google maps to create a Temagami 2007 canoe trip route map. I think it's pretty cool, please take a look.

One theme that will be consistently revisited is getting up early. Day 1 saw us rising early to meet at 6:45 a.m. and get on the road to Temagami Ontario where we would pick up our interior permits. 3 canoes, 5 explorers and two leaders left almost on time and headed up Highway 400, then Highway 11. A stop in Sundridge for breakfast at the Blue Roof restaurant, a quick stop for gas, a detour from the outfitters to the Finlayson Provincial Park office for our permits and another 60 kilometres to the Mowat Landing access point and we were ready to hit the water. Another recurrent theme will be size and distance, in Temagami the lakes are large and the distances are long, 10 kilometres is a short paddle. We loaded the canoes for the short trip to Mattawapika dam and our first portage of the trip. It was then that we ran into the other constant of the trip. The mosquitoes and biting flies were quite active anytime we weren't on the water. Even though I had insect repellent I still returned with a large number of itchy red bumps after the trip. We made our down the river to an island campsite on the eastern end of Lady Evelyn Lake. Our plan was to rise at 5:00 a.m. to break camp and get on the water by 6:00 a.m. so we could paddle across the large open section of before the wind came up. We would be heading straight west and a strong western wind would make it very difficult and tiring to paddle. As we made dinner we saw three canoes paddling down the lake into the wind. They seemed to be almost stationary and showed up exactly what we didn't want to get into. After we had made camp and eaten it began to rain and we retired to our tents.

It was 6:03 a.m the next morning as we paddled away from the island, the lake was smooth and we had an uneventful paddle past the Obowanga dunes. Just before we stopped for breakfast we passed Island 10 a large fishing camp. The noise from their diesel generator could be heard before we could see the island. Though we were in the wilderness we weren't really in a wild place. There was only one day we didn't see power boats and that probably only because the rocks in the stream made it difficult for boats to pass through. While trying to fill the kettle at our breakfast stop the other leader slipped on the wet rock and fell flat on his back. This resulted on a funny shape bruise on his back from where the camera in his fanny pack broke his fall. His camera refused to open after that and I was gifted with the spare film he had brought. I had my old, cheap, point and click 35mm camera that I kept in a ziplock bag in my shorts pocket. After breakfast we paddled and paddled and paddled some more until we reached our campsite on Hobart Lake. We were surrounded by rocks and trees and trees and rocks. We made camp, ate and then watched as the clouds descended over Maple Mountain. There was a spectacular thunder and lightening storm that night.

On day 3 we waited to see if the clouds would clear from the top of Maple Mountain. Finally at about 10 a.m. we decided it was going to be clear enough that we could see something when we reached the top of the trail. We made the short paddle to Tupper Lake and the trail to the top of Maple Mountain. The bugs were voracious, the woods were wet and dripping but the view from the top was spectatular. The picture below really doesn't do it justice but it's all I have.

I learned an important lesson, guys with knees like mine shouldn't try to keep up to 14-16 year olds. By the time I made it down from Maple Mountain my knees had almost locked up and I could barely lift my left foot. If I ever do something like that again I'll go slower and use a trekking pole which a couple of people have told me can really help. I also learned that 14-16 year olds will lose anything not permanently attached to their bodies including but not limited to, water bottles, hats, socks and food. Oh, and it rained after we eaten dinner.

Due to the aforementioned 14-16 year olds we didn't make it onto the water until late the next morning on Day 4 because they couldn't find hats and sunscreen. We had two portages as we passed through Willow Island Lake and a lake that isn't named on my map into the south end of Lady Evelyn Lake. We had hoped to make a little more distance but the wind came up and we started to see whitecaps. We decided to not risk the 2 kilometres of open water and stopped on a campsite on a nice rocky point. This was the only night it didn't rain.

Day 5 saw us again getting up before the sunrise and getting on the water slightly after 6 a.m. We had a long paddle both up and across Lady Evelyn Lake, check the map to see what I mean. The trip up Lady Evelyn Lake was uneventful, marred only by the occasional power boat. The other leader had put together a sail from a tarp and some poles that had been left at our campsite in the hopes that we could use it with a following west wind to cross Lady Evelyn Lake. After our breakfast break we east on Lady Evelyn Lake with a strong southern wind. This meant the sail remained stowed. We stuck to the North shore of the lake for most of the trip except for one two kilometre stretch which required hard, consistent paddling just before we reached the river before returning to the river. When we reached the river we decided it was now or never and unfurled our sail. It was the fastest 2.5 kilometres we covered during the whole trip. As we were sailing down the river we went by the campsite of a couple who we met at the take out the next day, I saw the woman on shore watching us as we went by. I ran into her the next day at the take out point and she said she almost didn't believe her eyes as we zoomed by. Eventually we were becalmed and paddled the last kilometre or so to our campsite. The bugs were voracious and it rained, but only after we had eaten and were ready for bed.

We were up relatively early the next day for the short trip to the dam, portage and across the bay to Mowat Landing. The canoes were tied on the vans and off we went. A stop in North Bay at Swiss Chatlet was our first taste of food that didn't come from a barrel since Day one and the Blue Roof restaurant. Even though there was a satellite radio in the van I found that at I preferred to listen to my iPod on the way home. That's the nice thing about your own iPod, you like every song that's on it.

If you like canoeing in the wilderness and don't mind the occasional power boat give Temagami and Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater provincial park a try.