Sept. 7 to 16, 2021 my daughter Brianna and I once again paddled Wabakimi; this time in the SE corner of Wabakimi Provincial Park. Armstrong resident Clem Quenville shuttled us in. We took the train back to Armstrong from Schultz's Trail landing. Pdf report below has daily narrative and photos.
FOW Vol. 3 maps 16 & 17 cover this route. I had previously bought several route sets from Laurence Mills (wabakimimaps.com) which included similar maps. Those were were useful with a larger scale, nicely laminated and more easy to follow. The FOW maps indicated more potential campsites. I liked having both!
Here's the YouTube Video report posted previously.
See the PDF for the daily narrative and photos.
This is a wonderful scenic route. Boiling Sands is a small stream in some parts at low water. The "swifts" were rock gardens with a narrow channel through. Smoothrock can rock in the wind, though there were islands/points to shelter behind. Lookout River had much more water and impressive falls/drops. Spring Lake had outstanding fishing for pickerel. There were some fresh log cuts on a few of the Lookout River portages. The long portage had about 20 stepovers-but otherwise a very pleasant walk with camps at both ends. We passed three other groups headed in the opposite direction. Two at least were outfitted by Wabakimi Wildwaters (Bruce Hyer). No activity of any kind at the outposts near Schultz's Trail. If you're looking for an introduction to Wabakimi that can be done in a shorter time, this is a nice route. (We took it easy with three layover days.)
This route could be done in the half the time we took. The portages are clear and in good shape overall, they've seen some use. We did not see any large wildlife this time. Fishing was great in spots. Nice falls and drops on the Lookout River.
For our U.S. friends, we were able to get our PCR Covid tests and cross the border at Pigeon River. CVS got our results to us in 2 days. Taking no chances, since it was Labor Day weekend, we also got tested with immediate results at Minneapolis Airport/Wandertest. Expensive though. And we're fully vaccinated of course.
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