You got dropped off on a different logging road than we did.  I have been in the area a few times all but one time arriving at the washout at point A on this aerial photo. Last summer (2011) I did a solo bushwhacked from Belaire lake to the B on the aerial photo.  At point B there were car-truck tracks.  I assume the washout at A had been repaired.  There is a undrivable logging road between B and C.  The road makes a easy portage path. At the end of the logging road there is a moose path down over the hill to the Wawiag. I measure it on Google as 1.6 miles.  Easiest bushwhack I ever did.

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Bdt, I hope you do a trip report!  sounds like quite an adventure.  I need to get back to writing my own too...

Hi MP--we did actually begin on the Wawiag River, about 4 miles east of where the Obadinaw River joins the Wawiag. We bushwacked a camp on the side of the road after a 4-hour adventure of wilderness road driving (we left Atikokan around 4:45 pm and finally got to the drop-off point near 9 pm) characterized by washed out roads, getting a little disoriented, and some serious off-road 4-wheeling. Day one was about a 28-mile journey down the winding Wawiag River before finally getting to a campsite in Kawa Bay. Long and HOT (this from a Texan!) day. After tipping our canoe early on, we were able to retain almost all of our gear. The worst thing, though, was losing my trusty expedition hat to the rapids. After that episode, I became a true "rag-head" (not a racist comment--the only thing I could find to cover up was a dish rag).

I've attached a satellite view of our starting point. The red X is Powell Lake, the yellow X is Hamlin Lake, and the blue circle is our starting point, on the side of a bridge on a logging road.

Bdt58
I have walked around those rapids on the Wawiag. It is a long portage but mostly an old logging road. It takes you back to the Wawiag at the bottom of the rapids near the edge of the park.  GPS tracks are posted in the Inukshuk forum.  Did Jim drop you at the bridge that crosses Zephira Creek or take you on down to the Wawiag?
MagicPaddler

Yeah-that was us. We were on the final leg of our journey. We began east of the park in the headwaters of the Wawiag River and made a three-quarters loop to exit at Stanton Bay. We experienced a fair amount of misery, with the absolute worst mosquito swarming I have ever encountered on the river, combined with the mandatory flipping of canoes in the area of the Wawiag where we could not portage around rapids--no real injuries but soaking our food pack made for some nasty odors towards the end of the trip. The Kawnipi portion was great but the winds made Sturgeon a bear. We managed a layover day on Dore which was wonderful. The winds kept the bugs down and I got an incredible video of a bald eagle taking out a gull. Managed a good morning of fishing in Stanton Bay. The most entertaining part of the trip was Jim Clark from Canoe Canada driving us around a maze of washed out logging roads trying to get to the predetermined drop off point at the head of the Wawiag. That's a whole other story worthy of a new thread. So, as always, we had a great trip in spite of and partially due to the miseries we experienced.

Lost Again wrote on Sep 25^th, 2012 at 7:46pm:
BDT, thanks for identifying yourself because you're the first QJer I've met in the park!  I hope the rest of you're trip went well.  As I recall you'd been in for quite a good number of days (10?) & covered a lot of miles at that point, or did I confuse your group with another?
-Tom

Mk631 wrote on Sep 17^th, 2012 at 8:28pm:


We crossed paths with you on this portage and had the job of navigating around/over this tree. You're right--the wind was substantial. The more I travel in Quetico, the more careful I have become with respect to trees when setting up camp. I can't say that I've given it much thought on portages though. This one was a little too close for comfort.

Haha! Yeah I think I saw the toss and roll in a Chuck Norris film once!  I've started training a team of beavers to swim behind my canoe and eat through obstructions on trail, but they keep swimming ahead and creating lift overs!  Good work ethic though.

Millhouse,
these sorts of obstructions are all to common place. If I can't leap over them I use the following strategies.......

The most advanced is what I call the "toss and roll". Get a bit of a running start, say 5 or 10 yards and then toss the canoe over the offending obstacle while immediately thereafter performing a diving somersault under the obstruction. The key is in the reengagement of your canoe. It may take some practice.

Less advanced methods include an appropriately placed karate chop or in very tedious cases a 1/2 stick of dynamite can work wonders.

BTW......glad to hear you had a good trip. Be careful, it can be addicting. 

Draper was a beautiful spot.  There is a small space between the two main islands where I fished a bit. It was so quiet and the water was glass... The fish were also quiet but that's okay.
Jumping of the rock at the main campsite was good too it'd been 5 days since my last intentional bath.