We're entering through Cirrus (via Beaverhouse) on July 5 and taking out at French Lake on the 11th.  I did this route many (10+) years ago with some buddies and a recall a relaxing, easy trip with good fishing, but I'm pretty sure it was in May, not July.  Also, after many years of just traveling with my wife, our youngest daughter and her husband are joining us this year.  My daughter has had these types of wilderness adventures but her husband is a city guy and this will be new for him.  Any advice, either on the route or on indoctrinating the new son-in-law to the north woods?

I'd have a man to man talk before you even leave home.
Let him know that everyone is a rookie at some point, and that anyone can learn wilderness skills IF they keep a good attitude and ask questions, rather than let their ego get in the way.
Number #1 rule, NO WHINING
I'd also get him involved in the portage/map reading process right from the git-go. Let him feel he's a member of the team, and what he lacks in "skills", he can make up for in attitude and ASKING what he can do too help, rather than standing around WAITING too be told ;)

That's excellent advice ST!  Just making the newbies feel comfortable from the start about their lack of experience is a HUGE step in the right direction.  If you don't know about something, ask.  If you can help but don't know how to, ask.   Then it just becomes the responsibility of everyone else to inform, teach, demonstrate, etc. without negativity.  Inclusion from the get-go will go a long way!

Now if only I had known all that as a teen...

-J.J.

Great advice, folks.  I'm not worried about the whining, I'm pretty sure he'll be a good sport. But I really appreciate the ideas about getting him involved early - reading maps, preparing routes etc.

The hardest part may be for my wife and myself, it's just been the two of us since the kids got out of high school back in the 90's.

Interesting route. McAlphine portage is rather long, a mile I beleive. Once you get to Batch, your portaging is all but over.

Regards to the newbie, involve him as much as possible. If your providing your own equipment, invite him over to help you "inspect" it for your trip. It will allow him to become more familiar with it.

Looks like we'll miss you guys, we are putting in at French on the 5th and out at Nym on the 11th. Going down the B-Chain to Sturgen.

Question, are you using an outfitter? We'll using CCO and staying at their bunk house. If you see 3 father son pairs running around Atikokan on the 4th, that will be us.

Kurt

Kurt,

May see you in Atikokan, we'll be at the White Otter Inn on the 4th.  Mostly using our own gear, but renting one canoe from CCO.

We've done the B-chain a couple of times, nice route. Campsite on a point on the north end of Sturgeon is the only site we've ever had a bear issue.  Not a big problem, just rousted us in the middle of the night, didn't find the food, just moved some stuff around under the camp tarp.Amazing how quickly you can become wide awake, even after a hard day of paddling.

PJ

PJ,

Ok, we'll probably be doing dinner at the White Otter on the evening of the 4th. Don't know what time we will be arriving atikokan as it is dependent on when we are leaving as one of the boys will be coming home from scout camp on Friday and it is a 24 hour drive to Atikokan.

CCO is dropping us off at French, Jim usually likes for us to get an early start, so we'll be leaving CCO around 7am-730am ish on the 5th. Probably do breakfast at the Sportsman.

Have fun and hopefully we'll see you on the 4th.

Kurt

There's one to many PJ's around here.   ::)

When in July....how's the S-I-L with heat and bugs?  Has he had his "man-card" issued yet?

My daughter has been bringing home "boys".  I revoke all their "cards".  Hope this dude works out for ya.

The trip you mentioned is cake, pleasant, and indeed good fishing.

Hey Wally, I am wondering if ya could ablige me and give me a quick run through of your standard operating procedure for a Man-card revocation? Is the garage talk part of the process or does a bakers dozen of 380's do it?

I usually size 'em up...by taking them out on the deck, and then say we shoot some rounds.  Starts of with the 9mm, then on the the .45 ACP...then the big bad Mossberg home defender.  Small talk over lifes plans, his parents, and what I'd dream of doing to anyone who might dishonor my daughter.


More often than not....this is the result.  Turn in your card at the door son.....and don't come back 'round these parts again!

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I bet YOU wearing your special bib overalls while giving the man-talk, scares the hell out of them!
The banjo music in the background is a nice touch too ;D

My Dad taught me that if you want too impress a girl and win over her Dad, you insist on meeting him, even when the daughter is afraid of what he will say and do ;)
I'd walk up, introduce myself, shake his hand and look him in the eye.
When he asked what time I was bringing his daughter home, I say " What time do you want her home?" I'd also admit that there might be beer at the function, and that we might have a few. Then I'd say " I don't drive under the influence, can I call you IF we need a ride?
 Never failed me, I stayed friends with some of the Fathers long after I quit dating their daughters ;D

;D Great! When you get to the dishonor part, Wally, is it just a stare when your holding the home defender? Thanks for the man card link, how in the heck did you ever find that one? So are your daughters shooters too? Dang that man card is a whoot! Thanx for the laugh and the pict. in my nogin of the Mantalk....love it.

Paddler:

I think all the advice you have been given is right on, especially the idea of getting him involved with the planning.  My first trip to the Q was in 1996 with three other men who had all been there before.  I knew absolutely nothing about the park, what to expect, etc.  They were purely fisherman so we entered at Stanton Bay early in the morning and paddled all the way down to Russell in one day if I remember correctly.  I had no map, no idea if we had 1 mile to go or 100 to get to our basecamp.  We were in whitecaps part of that first day, and to that point the only canoeing I had done had been floating down a river.  I was so ignorant.  Obviously the trip didn't ruin me on Quetico, and I ended up loving it, but that first day was not very enjoyable for me.  I think if i had had a marked map it would have helped me considerably to be able to keep track of our progress.  BTW my wife and I travel the park together now, and our ideal trip is almost no fishing and moving each day, but we would have never had the chance to find our own rhythm if not for that first trip.

As to your route, I love it.  Get an early start.  I have entered at Beaverhouse twice and had wind issues both times.  We were able to paddle through some rolling water the first time, but were windbound last year with nine strangers on one campsite not too far from the entrypoint.  They couldn't even make it to the ranger station to pick up their permit, but almost overturned trying to do it.  They ended up paddling back to our campsite.  

Have a great trip!

reyn,

Brought up a good point, I think ALL paddlers should have a map/copy of the route. Besides having another set of eye(s) looking for portages/picto/campsites isn't a bad idea. It also gets Newbies involved.
I don't like riding in a car in a area I don't know when I have no reference in my head of where I'm at.
I've mentioned it before, but I always have my permits before I hit Beaverhouse. I leave my route with Park HQ in Atikokan, and if I can, I check in at BH ranger station.
You can usually work your way up the north shoreline to Q, and IF you get wind bound, there are some nice sites close to portage on west end of BH. You can also spend time fishing the spill out from the Q river while waiting for the wind to die down.
 Last trip BH ranger told me when checking back in before take-out, that she had too rescue 4 people who dumped trying to make it across.
 BH from the north end of Turtle Island to the ranger station, is much shallower than you may think. The wind out of west or east puts a big chop on this shallow section, more than a few paddlers have found out the hard way ;)

ST
I think you meant east end of BH for camp sites.
Westwood

Westwood wrote on Jun 11^th, 2009 at 3:33am:

ST I think you meant east end of BH for camp sites. Westwood

Yup, thanks for the catch :-[