Hey SD, 
Beautifully told! Great! I'll be thinking about it all day!

I did the reverse of your route from French to Cache on a trip a couple of years ago.  I think the description of our journey from Cache to French is on page 9 of the thread.

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Very cool section of the park there.  I'll be back someday.

My son and I took this trip the first of June 2008. For me, it was probably my most enjoyable voyage in Quetico. If you're looking for a remote trip that few people choose to travel, this would be it. The first two days were pretty brutal. This is one of those trips where you continually ask yourself why you are choosing to abuse yourself, but when you have survived it the memories are far better than real life ever was.  We were on the water in French Lake at 6:30 am (with the requisite 1 hour thrown away looking for the way into Baptism Creek) and made camp on the island in Cache Lake at 7:30 pm. The killer portage took us 4 hours double portaging. Early in the season it was very wet and muddy. Day two we were on the water by 7:00 am and spent the day on the Cache River, ending up in Kawnipi 13.5 hours later. The river was spectacular, with abundant waterfalls and lots of wildlife including several moose with calves. Many, many portages on the river (and on day 1 as well!!) The rest of the trip was a loop back through Russell and Pickerel. We saw not a soul for the first two days. Like I said, if remoteness is what you're looking for you will not be disappointed. The main key to this trip is to travel light. Of course with any wilderness travel, but especially on this route that is so remote, you really need to be prepared for everything since it is not likely that someone will be coming behind you to help out. In retrospect, we should have had a sat phone for this trip.

""RIVER RIGHT" is usually oriented from a downstream perspective, so Matt's meaning look to your right as you paddle upstream. I know picky, picky."

Jim's right, not picky -
that's what happens when I don't have enough coffee in the morning - wasn't thinking - it would be "river Left" not right

My 2 cents

"RIVER RIGHT" is usually oriented from a downstream perspective, so Matt's meaning look to your right as you paddle upstream. I know picky, picky. I don't remember the current being real difficult on the French River till you're past your exit to Baptism Ck. I missed it and paddled my 17.5' Voyager all the way to the falls on the French %(%^%(&$ . Yes, I had my hands full. But like Jimbo's story, I saw parts of the park not many have seen  .

You might want to put your hammock up where Jimbo told you to stop and ponder a short-cut. Then the next morning do as he said and continue the portage to Cashe Lake.

I noted 9 portages on the Cashe River From Cashe Lake to Kawnipi, 4 below the portage to Ferguson Lake. The portage to Ferguson Lake might be an option if the traveling is slow or the perch are biting on the Cashe River. Cashe Lake to Kawnipi took me 10 hrs in spring conditions carrying 1# of leaches and way too much stuff. Met Matt that trip and he was like "wow, you got too much stuff"   I did.

You'll like the trip I think. It's remote. Watch your pace & maps, eat & drink. Enjoy it all. The portages aren't a race. You'll be back again.

I do realize I've chosen a loop with the two longest portages in the entire park. In thinking about this journey Northbound, I needed to wonder about possible wind issues. (from other forum reads) and also the great possibility that this would be a solo trip.
Call it a trip of a lifetime. I will remember it for many great things and hopefully, not so many bad things. (i.e. daydreaming, being lost etc.)  
I wanted to stay on smaller lakes, try the river systems in Quetico etc.
I'm not concerned with the timing of the route. From the campground the first day to Trouser, second day to somewhere along the cache river, towards the end of the cache river by day three, up into McKenzie bay for day four, onto Cache lake for day five and then Baptism lake for last night.
I will definitely be checking with the park rangers regarding the flagging tape (and probably a lot of other things too).
Thanks for the tips Mad_Mat, I've heard the creek is a tricky bugger to find. If I end up solo, I'll be bringing my hennessy, campsites shouldn't be a problem along the river then or anywhere.
Hey, if I get lost along one of those brutes to or from Cache lake, I'll sit back, do a little day dreaming about paddling down that river/ creek and cry just a little.  

call me a little nuts. this will no doubt be a challenge.
Hey why else would I drive all the way up from Kitchener (2 days) for an easy walk in the park.

here's a thought, anyone wanna show me the way?
6 nights start Aug 24.

I'll hope for dry portages and wet rivers. (is that an oxymoron?)

Glen

Baptism is first small TRICKLE of water coming into French ...river right (as said...after second bridge).  Just bring your GPS and you can't miss it.  Walk the river and tug your boat along behind...it ain't that far.  Three portages (or more)...river right.

If a dry year it will be reasonably hard...if wet and beavers have been busy...you will be challanged.

Hope the African Queen section is dried up!  Watch Bogart's movie before attempting.

Cache #1 going S took us 5+ hrs...(1 hour lost)
Cache #2 took us almost 7 hrs (lost for 2 hrs)
If wet....you loose all signs of the trail in massive marshes and swamps.  We also sat and cried alot.

PAW went through the next year and with drier conditions cut our portage times in half.

Jimbo wrote on Mar 27^th, 2010 at 6:12pm:


From some one who's been there, and done that...

...and as you near the one mile mark on that 2.5 mile portage into Cache Lake, you'll cross a stream which is really the northern Cache River.  It meanders its way and flows south into the lake.

If, right at that point, you're getting tired of that mucky-old portage sucking you in up to your knees, why don't you simply  set your canoe & heavy loads down for a spell & take a break?  Enjoy a cool sip from your water bottle.  Let the sweat dry off your back.  Cringe a little when you consider picking those heavy packs back up.  Daydream a bit about how nice it would be to simply drop your load right into the canoe and lazily drift your way down that stream all the way to Cache Lake.  Let the temptation fill your mind.  Imagine the adventure, the wildlife, & the simplicity of this solution!   Why kill yourself with another mile & a half of portaging (3 miles more if you're double-portaging!)?

All you have to do is drop the loads back in the canoe where they belong and float effortlessly downstream.  The stream is going the same way you are, isn't it?  Why not hitch a ride?

Quite the daydream, huh?

When you reach that juncture - if the water is flowing - you'll have quite the daydream... I promise you.  

Yep, and when you wake up, be damned sure you pick up your packs & your canoe, march your ass across the sorry stream, and keep shuffling your way along that mucked up portage.  Don't look back!  Don't dare give that stream another thought!!

Jimbo  

"Where is the portage into Baptism proper anyway? Right? Left?"

its "river right" - I think all the portages along Baptism Cr are on the right.

As said above by others, it is hard to see/find the entrance to Baptism Creek - in fact, it is hard to see the entrance to French River out of French Lake - people have missed that and gone paddling the Pickeral River and on into Pickeral Lake. (if you are on a fairly wide section of "river", and the bent grass is showing the current moving with you, that is Pickeral River).  I've only gone up the French River in end of May first week of June timeframe - the current was very strong then, about all we could handle in a tandem. Should be considerable less in August.

You can't see the French River - it enters the lake in a back bay, so just stay along the left shoreline to find it.  

Its easy to miss the entry into Baptism Creek because you'd have to be looking back over your right shoulder to see it - as you are going up the French River, you will pass under TWO bridges (I assume the second one is still there - my Fisher map only shows one bridge, but there were two several year's ago.)  About a hundred yards or so after passing the second bridge, there is a small backset to your right where Baptism Cr comes in - you have to be looking for it, as it isn't obvious.

One of the portages after you leave Baptism Creek was changed by a Beaver Dam - it broke up the portage (the longer, second one I think?) into two distinct pieces - seperated by the new beaver pond - we paddled thru the pond, but it was full of floating logs and not the easiest paddle - just went straight across to find the continuation of the trial.  That would be a good question to ask the rangers, i.e. when those portages last had maintenance work, and if the portage has been re-routed.  In any case, that portage did not match to the map either.

The rangers will advise you about water levels - if its low, they will tell you Cache River is "too low" - not sure how accurate that will be, but with low water, it will be a really really long day to do the whole river.
Even in early June, most of the river is stillwater - no noticeable current, but most likely strong upstream winds - that's been my experience.

Essentially, there are no campsites along the river - it is bog lined almost the entire way unitl you get close to Kawnipi (the last couple of miles or so).  There is one area at the downstream end of one of the portages that had a fire ring, that would be a doable campsite that I recall - there might be one or two more similar spots ot other portages. There are one or two big rock outcrops that could be used in an emergency if you have a free standing tent (I've never checked them out, just noted them in passing) - they are about 2/3 of the way down from Cache Lake as I recall, but don't bet money on that location.  

I'd just plan on a first-light start from Cache Lake, and plan on making it to Kawnipi in one long 12-14 hour push.  In August, you will have more portages than I encounter earlier in the year - there are one or two ports shown on the map that are only needed to get around rocky areas when the water is low that I didn't use.  The map does not show all the portages  (there are maybe 8 or so) - the critical ones are pretty easy to spot.  I recall one of the portages being hard to find in the upper half, due to blowdowns obscuring the landing (that one was a short portage on river left).

there are several old threads on this topic- do some exploring in the old trip reports and use the search feature with the search parameters at max exposure