115 km map distance, including 14.5 km of portages (but I double carried all portages, so it wound up closer to 145 km of actual travel)
Day 1 (Gamble – South Fork Lady Evelyn)
Shuttled to Gamble by Francis from Smoothwater after spending the night there
Rain and headwinds began almost immediately (foreshadowing!), and though the rain let up after half an hour or so a headwind just stiff enough to blow me upriver if I stopped paddling persisted.
Made my way down the North fork, to/through the portages to the portages to the South fork. Portages had been very recently cleared – clean chainsaw shavings which still had a strong aroma present on 2nd portage.
Was struggling lining up white rock rapids when I realized I had barely had any water that day due to it being cool and cloudy – sat down for a rest and a bunch of water and things immediately got easier after that.
Camped at the site 1km or so south of white rock – it’s in a massive blueberry patch, which made my day (and the next, as it turned out).
Day 2 (no travel)
Light rain in the morning almost baited me into moving on, but I decided to trust the forecast of thunderstorms and stay put which wound up being the right choice.
Blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
Spent the day reading, and wandering out during breaks in the weather to pick blueberries.
Day 3 (South Fork Lady Evelyn – Florence)
Waited out the rain in the morning, pushed off around 10 and headed to Florence.
Headwind made me work for it, though it shifted to an almost-tailwind once I made it to the lake.
Met a couple headed the opposite direction on the Florence River doing the big loop starting/ending at the Sturgeon River access. Didn’t know it then, but I would not see anyone else until Obabika.
Camped on the little peninsula on the W shore 2km south of the cabin. Absolute gem of a campsite, one of my favorites of the trip. I did carry over the narrow isthmus so I could approach the site from the south, because by that point the wind had made the N side of that peninsula the choppiest part of the lake.
Day 4 (Florence – Bluesucker)
Finally fully mentally and physically settled into the trip. Doubts and apprehensions melted away, replaced by genuine happiness and gratitude to be so fully immersed in such a beautiful place. Didn’t even mind the headwind that continued building as I paddled down Florence.
So of course I immediately fell waist deep into a bog on the first portage. But I had a good laugh about it once I managed to extricate myself. (If you’re headed from Florence to Bluesucker, when you get to the ludicrously pretty open bog section and there’s 3 logs across the small flow of water, the log on the left has *far* more flex/give than the 2 logs on the right).
Finished the other 2 portages and paddled across Bluesucker to the campsite at the mouth of the outlet. Not the best campsite for a tent, but more than nice enough and nicer than the one directly opposite it on the lake. Also has a really nice view and a blueberry patch. Would be a perfect site for hammock campers.
Due to the constant stiff headwind, my bog dip, and other factors, it somehow took me longer to travel Florence-Bluesucker this year than it did for me to travel Florence-Pilgrim last year.
Day 5 (Bluesucker – Pine)
At the obstacle between the first 2 portages (the 2 little rips at the twin peninsulas), while I was pretty sure I could run the first one and then duck into the deadwater between the peninsulas, I wasn’t positive I would execute it as needed, and decided to instead just carry over all of it since I was so remote and on my own. This took a while, as there’s no easy path to do so, but there’s also no risk of pinning the boat so it was the much more attractive option in my mind.
Just enough water to float through the lower 2 10m portages, and enough water in Mudchannel Lake so that it did not live up to the name. Very thick with aquatic vegetation, though.
Opted to skip Talking Falls due to losing a day earlier to weather, and because I was already realizing that I’d be back in this region for my next Temagami trip, whenever that might happen.
Could not locate portage from Mudchannel to Bowler, but wound up not needing it. I did see something that may have been an old blaze, but it was further North than I was expecting so was going to come back to it if I needed to, but while poking around the inlet I saw a submerged cut log and some other evidence that it had been navigated previously and decided to send it. It is very serpentine and eventually gets very narrow, to the point that the blade of my paddle spent more time pushing land than it did water, but it remains deep the entire way through. Other than needing to lift over 3 beaver dams, I was able to stay in the boat the entire way through. Did see the portage marker on the East side, but did not investigate to see where it led.
Bowler/Unnamed/Bitty/Akick are all very pretty little lakes. While the portages from Bowler over to Pinetorch were the most obstructed I encountered on my trip, they were all passable with a little work with the saw, and the Bowler to Upper Pinetorch region was my hands down favorite. An even more beautiful (to me, anyway) little corner of an already beautiful region, with the obstructed portages giving me the sense (accurate or not) that I was one of the first/few to travel through it this year.
Stopped to camp on Pine Lake.
Day 6 (Pine – Pinetorch)
Was treated to a misty morning sunrise. The mouth of Ames Creek is incredibly pretty – I was tempted to paddle up it but I knew I didn’t have the time, so decided that my next trip will be planned around paddling up there to camp at Ames Lake.
By this point in the trip, my feet were shredded. The insoles in my shoes for some reason had little wing wall type deals along the inner edge at the arch, and by the time I had noticed what was happening (somewhere around Bowler), they had worn open sores on my feet. So I took the morning to cut the wingdings off and then use some of the 80 grit sandpaper from my repair kit to really smooth them out to a more sensible profile. My feet started slowly healing after this modification, but they would bother me for the rest of the trip, and I had to really take care to frequently clean and monitor them to make sure they didn’t get infected and make an unpleasant situation a bad one. I’m not sure if it was stupid design on the insole, or my abnormally wide/flat feet causing the issue, or some combination thereof, but the shoes (Astral Techyak) performed really well aside from that.
The portage from Pine – Pinetorch was heavily obstructed, and it took me a couple hours to clear a path and get through it. By the time I made it to the campsite on Pinetorch where I thought I might have lunch, I could see that rain was headed my way and the campsite was so nice that I knew I’d be spending the night there despite how little progress I’d made. This was my favorite campsite of the trip – just a textbook perfect example of a backcountry campsite. Big trees, nice bed of pine needles on the ground, plenty of clear flat spots of ground to choose from, pretty lake, easy water access, the works. I loved it. Spent the rest of the day under the tarp alternating between reading and just soaking it all in, all the while giving my feet a much needed rest.
Again, just really pretty country from Pinetorch – Upper Pinetorch. Upper Pinetorch in particular is very pretty, to the point that I’m shocked there’s not a campsite on it. The topography might make campsite impossible (I didn’t investigate to find out), but the lake seems destination-worthy. There was a fire ring where the portage reaches the lake, so maybe that’s the de facto social campsite there?
Took some poking around and educated guessing to follow portions of the portage from Upper Pinetorch – Beaver, but nothing crazy. Cut logs and footprints (haven’t seen those in a few days!) left a heavy enough breadcrumb trail to follow, but I was sure to turn around from time to time to get a mental image in spots so I could easily find my way back for the second load.
Looking at the map, I could tell that the portage from Beaver – Livingston was going to be a rough one, but woof. Just straight uphill for 2/3rds of the way, but the trail was in great shape with just some small trees down in spots). From here to Nasmith Creek, I started seeing flagging in the most bizarre spots on portages though – like spots where the trail is unequivocably obvious both in front of and behind you, someone left flagging. Very strange, especially after working my way through the Mudchannel – Pinetorch section where things were occasionally unclear.
In any case, the entire chain of lakes leading to Chapin was enjoyable, with each lake pretty but with a distinct character from the other lakes in the chain, and offering just enough of a respite paddling to get you ready for the next portage (many of the portages were very easy too, which helps).
Chapin is pretty bonkers. I didn’t take any pictures here because it requires the full view to convey, but it really feels like you’re on top of the world. If I hadn’t done all the work to get there, you could have told me that I was on a lake levitating in the sky and I’d have believed you.
I didn’t investigate the campsite in the old burn to see if it still exists – one of the most optimism-inducing things I’ve seen over my years is nature roaring back and reclaiming a burned area, so I was happy to not trample any regrowth and instead just guerilla camp on a flat-ish spot just off trail near the take out.
Day 8 (Chapin – Dorothy)
Woke to hear distant rumblings of thunder, and hurriedly packed up and ate because I could not think of anywhere I would less like to be in a thunderstorm than somewhere that feels like the top of the world.
It began raining once I got both loads down to what felt like a safer elevation, and it continued raining for my entire descent. Thunderstorm never materialized, thankfully, but the rain was very unwelcome on a steep downhill portage that had already been the section of the trip I had been most concerned about. Still, the thought of some Canadian trickster god telling me “I got your tariffs right here, American!” kept my spirits relatively high as I carefully and slowly navigated my way down. This was the only portage that I leapfrogged my gear on, both because the thought of doing it all at once three times was very unappealing, and because frequently changing loads helped me maintain my focus on footing.
Full disclosure: eff this portage. Coming down it in the rain was one of the few times in my life I have ever been genuinely stressed about my safety while in the woods. If I were ever to go to Chapin again, I would both enter and exit from the west. Also, once you’re down the descent, the portage morphs into one of the boggier bog slogs I encountered. This portage really has it all!
Nasmith Creek was very shallow (as advertised) for a good long while after portaging over the old road. Gifted some gelcoat to the rocks, but my feet were killing me after the descent and I opted to stay in the boat whenever possible. It’s very pretty through the shallow section as well, so I was happy to enjoy the scenery whenever possible.
Eventually made my way to the portage to Dorothy Lake, where my feet helped me cement my decision to bypass the planned Obabika River section of my trip, just in case they worsened and I needed to get myself out. I had bought (potentially extraneous) permits that allowed me the flexibility to do so, and was glad that I did.
Heard thunderstorms rolling in when I reached Dorothy and decided to camp there. Did laundry and had a swim before things got too close, because boy was I tired of my stink by this point. Tons of trash at this campsite, more than I could possibly pack out or even clean up myself, so I consolidated what I could near the fire ring before the storm hit. It sounded like the brunt of the storm went south of me, but it was a big one.
Day 9 (Dorothy – Wakimika)
Some tough portages in this stretch, some steep, some soupy (including 1 stretch that was so soupy and had so little solid footing that I just pulled the canoe through it rather than trying to carry the boat and not fall in), most of them long. Pretty woods, though, and some big old trees. There’s some concerning trees down/partially down on the portage to Wakimika that will take a competent sawyer to handle safely.
Camped on the point on Wakimika. Very little flat ground, which is why I assume the campsite hadn’t seen much use (the fire ring had just as much of a bed of needles as did the surrounding forest floor), but very nice other than that. Killer spot for hammock camping, not so great for a tent, but I managed to find a decent spot to pitch my tent.
Day 10 (Wakimika – Obabika)
Woke to a pleasant sunrise, and an absolutely still lake. The stillness wouldn’t last, as the wind picked up shortly after I started paddling. Not crazy windy, but as I would learn on Obabika, windy enough. But: no portages!
Took a wandering scenic route down Wakimika, checking out the islands. The upper section of the Wakimika River was a ton of fun to paddle down. Enough current and enough obstacles that you were constantly making 1 move while trying to set up your next one. Saw a family (?) of otters playing in such a tangle that I couldn’t even tell how many there were other than “somewhere between 2 and 6”.
Obabika was already very choppy by the time I reached it, with plenty of whitecaps and swells of 12” before too long. I stuck near the Western shore, mostly just steering and letting the wind and swells push me down the lake. Saw a couple motorboats and got big friendly waves from both of them, my first human interaction in over a week.
Eventually the chop got to be more than I wanted to handle, and I pulled over at the campsite south of the big bay to wait things out. Swells got up to 18” or so while I waited – I even saw a motorboat trying to make it up the lake give up and turn around, so I was happy to be on land. Once things calmed down some in early evening I made my way a couple more km down the lake to a campsite across the lake from the portage to Temagami, opting to save the crossing for morning.
Day 11 (Obabika – Temagami)
Woke again to a pleasant sunrise and an absolutely still lake. Unlike the previous day, today the stillness would last and I’d be treated to the easiest paddling day of the trip, but it was a hot day with unrelenting sun that had me constantly seeking out the next patch of shade.
The portage from Obabika to Temagami has got to be the easiest significant portage in all of Temagami. What a treat for my final (and 32nd) portage of the trip.
Paddled to early afternoon, and camped on a point North of Bear Island. Marveled at the bustle of the lake – the middle of nowhere is much more my scene, but it’s still kinda neat how there’s basically an entire town out in the middle of the lake.
Day 12
Not much to report here. Paddled the last 5 or 6 km to the takeout, waited for my shuttle at noon, and went back to Smoothwater for a shower, a good meal, and to rest up for my long drive home.
