Quetico portage Posted by: Edmund and Patricia Mitchell Season/Year: Summer 01 Water Level: low Length: 20,40,50,30 rods Rating: never again

Additional Perspectives: sonicwall Ken Bringe

Portage Description:
Looking at our McKenzie maps, it appeared that the easiest way to get from Kawnipi to Agnes was through Murdock Lake. Going to Agnes via Kewatin had three longer portages, and involved more paddling, so we chose what seemed to be the easy way. This was a big mistake, and the main reason why next time I'll buy Fisher maps. After our trip was over, I was looking at the area on some Fisher maps, and all the mess we went through this day, undocumented on our brand-new McKenzie maps, was detailed on the Fisher maps.

Murdock Lake is beautiful, and the hot weather was just what my wife had hoped for. We paddled in, and kept to the left, as our map showed that there were three places where Murdock narrowed, and small channels were open on the left side of a peninsula and an island. The first narrowing is at the entrance, which was still plenty wide. We were snapping a lot of pictures through here. The first channel, to the left of an island, was exactly as the map showed, and very shallow due to the low water level. The second channel, due to a peninsula coming over from the western shore, didn't look like it would be passable under even normal water levels, and was basically a small set of mini-rapids over some rocks and trees. We were disappointed, but anything can change, so we figured this was a phenomenon too recent to have been documented. It wasn't very difficult, but I was very leery about flipping an ankle as I picked through the rocks. Past this portage, Bert marked that there is great walleye fishing.

The actual Murdock-Agnes Portage:

At the bottom of Murdock, we had the pleasure of a swim by the small rapids before the easy portage, and then we paddled on to the connecting waterways and portages to Agnes. Our map showed that we would paddle through a small, unnamed waterway, portage to another, then portage to Agnes. Bert had told us that the middle waterway was small, and we might as well keep portaging around it. The first portage was small and easy - pure velvet. The portage out of the first waterway was hard to find, and was in a very marshy area, and I got stuck by a few more leeches in the muck. I didn't tell my wife, because I wanted her to enjoy her trip, although I did later make her check her feet carefully. The was fairly difficult and long, about 50 rods, and the absence of the bugs on Kawnipi contrasted sharply with this portage, which had the gamut of nasties, including ticks. Luckily, as the beast of burden in the portages, I walked much slower than my wife, so she got the unenviable task of clearing out all the spider webs from this portage. As we paddled down the waterway, we came around a bend to the right, and the portage is to the left of straight ahead, amidst some rocks. The rough location is as shown on the McKenzie map, but the shoreline has many small ins and outs that made it hard for us to reconcile with the map. The trail twists through a lot of trees, so getting a 17' canoe through was a geometry exercise. It was muddy, and the trial was tough to walk - potholes, rocks, downed trees, undergrowth, etc.

We finally came out the other side, and saw the small middle waterway. There was a large logjam in the center of it, so portaging around it made a lot of sense, but there was no path to follow, and the bush was thick on all sides. We tried to forge our way, but we weren't sure where to go, and the waterway wasn't shaped as the map represented it. That had us guessing as to the location of the portage, even if we could get around the logjam. We were pretty down mentally at this point. I decided to wade through the water rather than bushwhacking, regardless of leeches, preferring them to the heat, scratchy bushes, and bugs. I found what looked like the entry to a portage past the logjam on the right, and so we made a water-portage, with my wife braving her fears of leeches by riding in the canoe over the muddy part while I pushed and sloshed through ankle-deep water. The logjam has a canoe-sized doorway cut out right dead center, so that was a great relief.

Further disappointment as we hiked around my supposed portage entry, only to find that although someone had lost their multi-tool there (it's still there if you want it :>)) no portage could be found. It really looks like it should be the entry to a portage, a small beach, large area clear of growth, even a couple of trials leading into the trees, but they led nowhere. Our new view of the waterway revealed it to be even more unlike our map than before, so we were feeling a bit lost. After all the effort just to get to this point, turning around seemed like punishment, but I took comfort knowing that we weren't lost, because we could always go back. We decided just to follow the waterway. I didn't like the idea that we were guessing at a direction of travel, and my wife was disappointed in our maps, having expected better accuracy from maps costing 6 dollars apiece. My experience is limited to extremely accurate maps from the Auto Club, which are free, so I was disappointed, too. The waterway was at least paddleable, and when it ended we saw what looked like a path. It was at the end of the waterway, on the right. We explored it, and found somebody's footprint, so we figured we were somewhere. It has a lot of small, mossy rocks, and probably comes in at about 50 rods. We scarfed some gorp before the bugs could spread the word, and followed it. It led us to another unnamed waterway, and another portage. By now we were pretty unhappy, and fairly well baked. Fortunately, they were the last obstacles to Agnes. This last portage was no problem - my wife spotted it as we pulled into it, and it was not too difficult. our campsite was on the island about half a mile from the end of that portage, a bit off to the left.

Lake after portage: Agnes
Known campsites: 8+
Lake Description:
Murdock and Agnes were both clear and beautiful, and we had no wind on either, although Agnes is pretty wide open along the north-south axis, so I'd hate to see what might happen...

Portage from Agnes into:
Unnamed* *en route to Keewatin
Louisa
Oyster River
East* *SE Portage
Dack
Bird
Silence