By Dan Hanson, FOW member.   Photos by Jessie & Dan  (see pdf below for full report and pictures) 

I drove from St Louis Missouri to Kansas City where I met with Terry, Darla, Mike, Jessie, Barry And Regan at 7am on Saturday 13 July 2019 and then began north. After changing a flat on a narrow under construction section of I-35 & tracking down a replacement trailer spare tire in Ames Iowa, we continued north to pick up Sherry at MSP. Had a nice dinner at Rustic Inn Café on L. Superior before continuing on to The Cliff Dweller in Tofte for the evening.

Sunday we picked up 4 Northstar Northwind 17 canoes from Sawtooth Outfitters in Tofte, cleared Canada customs and continued to the Four Winds in Savant Lake. No one was home at the Four Winds or the store across the street and there was a for sale sign in the motel window, but after talking with a very helpful highway employee that was staying there for the summer, we learned the hotel has been for sale since 1970’s and the owners were fishing. They returned soon enough and got us fed and settled in.

Now on Monday we originally planned to take the train from Savant lake to Flindt Landing, but after checking the Viarail app Sunday evening and Monday morning we decided to change our shuttle. The app showed an 8 hr delay on Sunday evening and 9 hours on Monday morning, so the 8am Savant Lake stop was looking like it was going to be mid afternoon at best.

Our extraction flight was scheduled with Rusty Meyer’s, so Ennis at the 4 Winds suggested we stop at Rusty Meyer’s, pick up a driver, put in at Vista Road and have the driver take the van back to Rusty’s so that’s what we did after Ennis made a phone call for us. A day of paddling was much better than a day waiting for a train.

We paddled and fished for only 5 days and got flown out on Saturday 20 July. The return drive was pretty much the same as the way up in reverse.

I prefer to paddle more days than I drive, but hadn’t been to this park and jumped on the invite. Glad I did and look forward to returning.

Before leaving home and guessing our route I had quilted some 1:50000 topo’s together and attempted to add campsites and portage data from Ontario’s Park map. I didn’t have any of the FOW maps until Terry distributed 2 pages from one of the volumes on Saturday or Sunday morning. I only knew we planned to put in at Flindt Landing. With Terry’s maps, I was able to add some added info to my maps before we paddled, but would have preferred to have had some better maps ahead of time. Since then I’ve typed the FOW data on to my quilted topos, reprinted and appended to this trip report so that the reader can see where we went.

- Rusty Meyer’s base. (Chart E1 note #1)

-Put in at 2nd bridge past Rusty Meyer’s. There is a trail next to the bridge but take the portage up the road to clear the rapids. (E2 #2)

-Campsite 1st night on small island on Heathcote Lake (F2 #3). Tight for 6 tents, fly and hammock.

-Nice Lunch spot by small falls (G3 #4)

-Missed portage (G3 #5) and lined rapids (G3 #6). The Ontario Parks map didn’t detail the portage start/finish and only lists a 612.

-Campsite 2nd night (G3 #7).

-Campsite 3rd night (G3 #8). Nice spot with loons and good fishing.

-Lined rapid downstream (H3 #10), saw old sign for portage (picture of a canoe on a stick) (H3 #9) but no way to get thru so decided to turn around and line back upstream at #10 since there were more narrow sections showing on map ahead.

-Held up here for wind/lightning/rain storm and Thursday lunch. (H3 #12).

-Campsite 4th and 5th night. (H3 #11) Plane couldn’t come in until 2nd morning due to winds.