| The Wanipigow River had plenty of water as I headed upstream to Siderock Lake where I used the three long portages to Obukowin Lake to enter WCPP at Carroll Lake. The third night I was camped on Craven Lake near the Manitoba-Ontario boundary in WCPP. I planned to revisit a bushwhack route I had worked out in earlier years. Near the north end of Craven I headed through 9 portages to get to the lower end of Walking Stick Lake (Walleye.) After an early lunch on day 6 I headed east a few lakes to Echo Lake (walleye.)Plotted out a better and shorter portage toward Dunstan (Walleye) that I had used in past years. Had a rainy lunch on Dunstan on day 8 and headed through 5 portages but camped on what I call "Dandy" on the way. Dodged wicked thunder cells as I worked around close to shore on Moose Lake (fish??) More "snowdown" damage slowed progress as I headed east to Twin Lakes (fish??) I did not dream that I would be able to get across all those bushwhack portages and still be on Irvine when friends arrived on day 13. I now had two days to find a route and portage the mile over to Larus Creek. I did it but by now I was in a state of shear exhaustion. I base camped on Irvine with two friends who had flown in from Bissett, Manitoba using Bluewater air service (five star operation.) For five days I ate Walleye, burgers and bacon and restored myself physically for the next leg of the trip. On August 7 Bluewater dropped off another friend and 12 days of resupplied food and fuel. One friend left on the plane (poor guy still has to go to work) and three of us headed down the west side of the Irvine Loop to take two nights to reach Splitrock Lake (my name but note it has plenty of Walleye too.) We took a day off to assure a Lake Trout dinner on Royd Lake. Traveled all the way to Carroll in one day so we could layover and eat Walleye a few times. We ended up camped next to an evening hotspot for Walleyes so had up to four boats of blue language fishermen until after dark each night. I usually avoid Donald and Carroll because this is likely to happen on those lakes but it was our last chance to eat Walleye. Enjoyed a beautiful day going up the scenic rapids of the Haggart River. Earlier we had seen one other canoe but saw three on that stretch. Actually two canoes and a kayak. A couple out for 43 days in the canoe and then the solo man from Calgary in a woodstrip canoe and the kayak. That kayak passed our camp in the evening heading north into all those tricky portages of the Haggart River.Since we had decided to layover some extra days we did not paddle down to Haggart Lake and come north on Broken Arrow. Plan B had us camp mid-way to Broken Arrow via the north passage. The next day we used the river to exit Broken Arrow instead of the 850 portage to Crystal. We took a layover day on Crystal and feasted on two meals of boneless Northern Pike. Early on the 17th of August we went downstream on the Wanipigow River to Siderock Lake where we spent our last night. Out last morning required the GPS to guide us through the fog to where the river exited Siderock Lake. Comparing pictures of a rock at the entrance to the river showed that the water was a foot higher than when I had paddled in four weeks earlier. I plan on making several videos of this trip. The Craven to Walking Stick portion is now on my youtube channel. You can click on the link below. |
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Happy Scream Day! 😱
Woodland Caribou P.P. 7/21-8/18
- Thread starter Marten
- Start date
When I went through the portages on 7/21 I only encountered a few wet areas other than the always present floating bogs between portage 1 and 2. The area at the end of 2 was fairly firm. A new beaver dam at the end of #1 shortens the portage but then turns to floating bog where the portage used to end in a shallow and narrow stream. The rock as you enter Siderock Lake only had a foot of space showing when I went in. 28 days later the water almost covered the rock that sports a sign warning boaters of its presense. The highest water I had ever seen on that section. We were able to paddle through the rock gardens between the little no name lake and the portage to Siderock Lake on the Wanipigow. We had numerous small rains up in WCPP during our trip but the Wanipigow must have received a lot more. The Obukowin portages are probably a lot wetter now because of it. The portages to Obukowin are completely clear of any obstructions.
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