It has been a great summer for canoeing in the Greenstone region. The weather has been unbelievable, and as July unfolded, many people from Southern Ontario began to make the trek up here for trips on Crown land. Even a large number of locals began to give canoeing a try.
My buddy and I, Chainsaw Rob, got the go ahead from the Municipality to open up two routes, both fairly close to town.
The first route was from Wildgoose Lake, one of the only lakes around that has a fair number of people living on it. It connects with the Namewaminikan River, and is a great beginners route, with excellent scenery, and enough challenge to make it memorable. Overview is shown below:
The major work on this trip was the two kilometre port from Turkey Lake to Partridge Lake. I last cleared it in 2005, and I remembered it as being a lot of work. It didn’t disappoint this time around either.
Chainsaw Rob at the entrance to 2 K port.
We sweated for around 9 hours. Rob went through 8 tanks of gas in his chainsaw. At the end though, the major obstacle to re-opening this route was completed. Over the next few days, we finished clearing the other short ports. One day after finishing, a group of four women did the trip. If you want to see their pics, and you do the Facebook thing, my Greenstone canoe site is here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2430359543862050/
Next on our list was a long route from Dickison Lake back to Geraldton, and even over to Longlac, if so inclined. An overview is shown at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2430...6586992572636/
This route involved a lot of cutting and many days. We were updating and re-routing several ports to make this into a premier route. For the middle of the route, we had a long way to go to get to where the ports started. Keeping in mind that these are work trips, we often resorted to my 17 foot freighter with the little 2.5 Suzuki.
We pulled a Bell Northsomething behind us until we got into the ports, then started a regular canoe trip type thing.
We cleared 8 ports the day before, and were hoping to do four today, but there was more obstacles than we had anticipated.
Chainsaw Rob halfway through port # 2 of the day.
There is a port past this pile, we just haven’t cut it yet.
We cut through 2 ports then left our get at the old trapper’s shack, which is becoming one with the ground more and ore every year.
Pushing on through the third port, a swampy and wet 500 metres, I was shocked and dismayed to find a logging road pushed through the middle of the port. Last year I joined a local citizens advisory group to the Forest Industry, and after many presentations, it seemed like I had finally persuaded them to respect the canoe routes. I have been fighting with them for 25 years now, and it is mostly a losing battle.
Road through the port
I have been woking on preserving the “Illusion of Wilderness”, whereby the Forestry Companies leave generous buffers around designated canoe routes, so that travellers will never even know that there has been much cutting all around the route. It seemed like we had made a breakthrough last year, so I am hoping that this incursion is merely a mistake, and not a new pattern that has to be fought against again.
By the time we finished cutting the third port, we realized that the forth would have to wait until tomorrow, as it was a longish affair (900 m) through a burn. We returned to camp, and the beer I had on ice went down pretty well.
CS Rob tried out his new twig stove from amazon, and it worked pretty well.
I resorted to my standby, the furnace with the little fan, that thing can boil a pot of water in about a minute.
We had a relaxing evening, but I hit the hay early, in my little coffin tent, and had the worst sleep ever. Think I’m going to give in and try a hammock.
The next morning we got up bright and early and finished off the last port. It was a long trek back out, and I was glad when we made it back to the freighter.
Morning on Keanne Lake
Anyway, two routes are open again, both with unique characteristics, and both worth travelling.
As for the rest of the summer, I have been travelling around in the big freighter. irene and I got invited to a weekend party on a big lake called Chipman, just outside of Longlac. It was a very nice campsite, and lots of fun for three days.
We have a couple of more freighter trips planned, and I’m hoping to run the Steel loop solo, but things are on hold for the moment, as I pushed some of my fingers through a table saw a couple of days ago. I am regenerating like a salamander though, so hopefully i will be mobile by the end of this week, as we are planning on a two freighter trip with my son and his girlfriend.
Stay safe Canoetrippers!
My buddy and I, Chainsaw Rob, got the go ahead from the Municipality to open up two routes, both fairly close to town.
The first route was from Wildgoose Lake, one of the only lakes around that has a fair number of people living on it. It connects with the Namewaminikan River, and is a great beginners route, with excellent scenery, and enough challenge to make it memorable. Overview is shown below:
The major work on this trip was the two kilometre port from Turkey Lake to Partridge Lake. I last cleared it in 2005, and I remembered it as being a lot of work. It didn’t disappoint this time around either.
Chainsaw Rob at the entrance to 2 K port.
We sweated for around 9 hours. Rob went through 8 tanks of gas in his chainsaw. At the end though, the major obstacle to re-opening this route was completed. Over the next few days, we finished clearing the other short ports. One day after finishing, a group of four women did the trip. If you want to see their pics, and you do the Facebook thing, my Greenstone canoe site is here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2430359543862050/
Next on our list was a long route from Dickison Lake back to Geraldton, and even over to Longlac, if so inclined. An overview is shown at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2430...6586992572636/
This route involved a lot of cutting and many days. We were updating and re-routing several ports to make this into a premier route. For the middle of the route, we had a long way to go to get to where the ports started. Keeping in mind that these are work trips, we often resorted to my 17 foot freighter with the little 2.5 Suzuki.
We pulled a Bell Northsomething behind us until we got into the ports, then started a regular canoe trip type thing.
We cleared 8 ports the day before, and were hoping to do four today, but there was more obstacles than we had anticipated.
Chainsaw Rob halfway through port # 2 of the day.
There is a port past this pile, we just haven’t cut it yet.
We cut through 2 ports then left our get at the old trapper’s shack, which is becoming one with the ground more and ore every year.
Pushing on through the third port, a swampy and wet 500 metres, I was shocked and dismayed to find a logging road pushed through the middle of the port. Last year I joined a local citizens advisory group to the Forest Industry, and after many presentations, it seemed like I had finally persuaded them to respect the canoe routes. I have been fighting with them for 25 years now, and it is mostly a losing battle.
Road through the port
I have been woking on preserving the “Illusion of Wilderness”, whereby the Forestry Companies leave generous buffers around designated canoe routes, so that travellers will never even know that there has been much cutting all around the route. It seemed like we had made a breakthrough last year, so I am hoping that this incursion is merely a mistake, and not a new pattern that has to be fought against again.
By the time we finished cutting the third port, we realized that the forth would have to wait until tomorrow, as it was a longish affair (900 m) through a burn. We returned to camp, and the beer I had on ice went down pretty well.
CS Rob tried out his new twig stove from amazon, and it worked pretty well.
I resorted to my standby, the furnace with the little fan, that thing can boil a pot of water in about a minute.
We had a relaxing evening, but I hit the hay early, in my little coffin tent, and had the worst sleep ever. Think I’m going to give in and try a hammock.
The next morning we got up bright and early and finished off the last port. It was a long trek back out, and I was glad when we made it back to the freighter.
Morning on Keanne Lake
Anyway, two routes are open again, both with unique characteristics, and both worth travelling.
As for the rest of the summer, I have been travelling around in the big freighter. irene and I got invited to a weekend party on a big lake called Chipman, just outside of Longlac. It was a very nice campsite, and lots of fun for three days.
We have a couple of more freighter trips planned, and I’m hoping to run the Steel loop solo, but things are on hold for the moment, as I pushed some of my fingers through a table saw a couple of days ago. I am regenerating like a salamander though, so hopefully i will be mobile by the end of this week, as we are planning on a two freighter trip with my son and his girlfriend.
Stay safe Canoetrippers!
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