Wabakimi info

[Art D]

I will have all of next summer free and have a wild dream of circumnavigating Wabakimi. This would be a solo trip. Is this even possible? Does anyone with Wabakimi experience have any idea how long this might take?

Like I said, it’s a wild dream and I haven’t yet started to plan this trip. Just looking for feedback.

Thanks.
Art

 

[Gamma1214]

I haven't been there yet but don't see any reason that it wouldn't be possible to spend a summer out there.

Friends of Wabakimi has maps, campsite and portage info and Paddleplanner has the same info (as in: literally the same info- I'm pretty sure most of the mapping was done by FOW regardless of who provides the maps). PP also allows you to save your route and download it.

PP also calculates travel time (in answer to your "how long will it take" question). You can change parameters such as paddling speed, single vs double portages, etc and it calculates daily travel. I'm taking that with a grain of salt as I expect portages in the lesser-traveled areas to be a bit more sketchy than, say, the BWCA.

What I've done is combine info from both FOW & PP to build my route maps for my trip this coming August. I mapped it out on Garmin's mapshare so that I'll have all of the details on the inReach and then transferred those maps to caltopo for printing in pdf format. (I prefer paper maps for navigation and the Garmin is intended to be back-up only).

I've watched quite a few YouTube videos while following along on the maps and have identified a few additional campsites and some portage info (including one portage that I will not attempt if it's raining as the footing would be poor and a fall would dump me into a deep ravine)

Another thing to consider is exit strategy in the event that you need an extraction. On the West side of the park, there's a First Nations guy named Jonah that runs shuttles and might be able to pick you up at a parking area if you can get there. He's a bit hard to reach, however.

On the East side, Clem Quenville does shuttles and can provide extraction from access points.

Within the park, extraction could be arranged through Don Elliot from Mattice Lake Outfitters. You'd just have to coordinate which lakes his plane could land on and get yourself there. Don also provides outfitting and is willing to provide as much or as little as you need. I've found him to be very helpful in my planning and highly recommend contacting him if you need outfitting for this area.

I'll have contact info for all 3 in my inReach when I push off from the launch.

If you've not yet done it, check with FOW (and consider joining). They have several people who can provide insight into various areas of the park depending on where you're planning to go.

And, finally, remember that Crown Land surrounding the park is about 1/3 the price per day of camping within the park (if that matters).

 

[Art D]

I haven't been there yet but don't see any reason that it wouldn't be possible to spend a summer out there.

Friends of Wabakimi has maps, campsite and portage info and Paddleplanner has the same info (as in: literally the same info- I'm pretty sure most of the mapping was done by FOW regardless of who provides the maps). PP also allows you to save your route and download it.

PP also calculates travel time (in answer to your "how long will it take" question). You can change parameters such as paddling speed, single vs double portages, etc and it calculates daily travel. I'm taking that with a grain of salt as I expect portages in the lesser-traveled areas to be a bit more sketchy than, say, the BWCA.

What I've done is combine info from both FOW & PP to build my route maps for my trip this coming August. I mapped it out on Garmin's mapshare so that I'll have all of the details on the inReach and then transferred those maps to caltopo for printing in pdf format. (I prefer paper maps for navigation and the Garmin is intended to be back-up only).

I've watched quite a few YouTube videos while following along on the maps and have identified a few additional campsites and some portage info (including one portage that I will not attempt if it's raining as the footing would be poor and a fall would dump me into a deep ravine)

Another thing to consider is exit strategy in the event that you need an extraction. On the West side of the park, there's a First Nations guy named Jonah that runs shuttles and might be able to pick you up at a parking area if you can get there. He's a bit hard to reach, however.

On the East side, Clem Quenville does shuttles and can provide extraction from access points.

Within the park, extraction could be arranged through Don Elliot from Mattice Lake Outfitters. You'd just have to coordinate which lakes his plane could land on and get yourself there. Don also provides outfitting and is willing to provide as much or as little as you need. I've found him to be very helpful in my planning and highly recommend contacting him if you need outfitting for this area.

I'll have contact info for all 3 in my inReach when I push off from the launch.

If you've not yet done it, check with FOW (and consider joining). They have several people who can provide insight into various areas of the park depending on where you're planning to go.

And, finally, remember that Crown Land surrounding the park is about 1/3 the price per day of camping within the park (if that matters).

Awesome info. Would you be able to share contact info for Clem, Don and the First Nation shuttle guy? Maybe message me if you don’t want to share publicly. Thanks so much.

 

[jdeerfoot]

As Gamma pointed out, it is highly recommended that you join FOW. The cost is minimal and their trip advisors can answer questions about areas they are familiar with.

The scope of your proposed trip is massive, the park itself is huge and the greater Wabakimi area is very huge. FOW, the successor to the Wabakimi Project, which covered most of the greater Wabakimi area in terms of mapping, campsite and portage locations, etc completed its 15 years of field work in 2018. The greater Wabakimi area is considered to be Hwy 599 on the west, the Albany Rv on the north, the Opichuan Rv on the east and the Kopka Rv on the south. And again as Gamma pointed out, traveling outside the park boundaries on Crown Land is less costly than travel within the park. Non-Canadians will need camping permits in both areas.

In terms of how long your proposed trip would take, in 2017 a buddy and I traveled from the railroad south on the Allanwater Rv to the Kopka Rv and on to Lake Nipigon taking 19 days with 2 of those being layover days at nice campsites. We were also mapping all campsites and portage locations as well as measuring each portage. So I would guess traveling solo it may take you 1-1/2 to 2 weeks to get from Redsand Lk (headwaters of the Kopka Rv) to Lake Nipigon, representing much of the southern boundary of the greater Wabakimi area. So I suppose you could do this trip but the distances involved and the lack of any maintenance on much of the area would likely really slow you down well as wear you out. It would definitely be an epic trip.

The shuttle contact on the west side of the park on Hwy 599 is Jonah Belmore. Contact info for him as well as Clem Quenville, good guy for Armstrong ON area shuttles/info and for Don Elliot - Mattice Lake Outfitters, also of Armstrong is available on the Friends of Wabakimi website. Don has many decades of flying experience and in depth knowledge of the greater Wabakimi area.