I'm considering a nothern entry to the park this summer for my trip. All  I know about the northern part of the park comes from what I have read on here. My father will be coming with me on this trip and although he is a canoe camping veteran, he has put on some years. We both want to explore this part of the park, but since I'll be the work horse, killer portages need to be kept to a minimum (read at most 2 every other day, killer meaning anything over a 1/4 mile or anything with severe elevation changes such as the Louisa Falls portage.)

I hear there are some pretty good fishing lakes up on that side and I'm eager to see more of the park.

Any advice?

"Seeking Northern Q entry, vast amounts of water, good fishing with minimal portaging."
Sounds like my last trip! (family trip - easy on wife & kids - Stanton Bay - Rawn - Buckingham - French)  

Entry options:
French
Stanton Bay
Nym
Beaverhouse

Pro's:
French: NO portgate at entry. You can paddle ~40km to the west with NO portaging.  From central Pickerel, you can paddle ~10 km s / SE to Rawn which, NO portaging or add 3 short portages to Buckingham, which was empty for us.  From the west of Pickerel, paddle N to Batchewaung Bay & Lake, NO portaging.

Stanton Bay: 400m put-in portage puts you in central Pickerel as a starting point.  Nice if you're going somewhere or don't want to fight the wind on Pickerel out of French.

Nym: 800m portage near put-in (Nym-Batchewaung).  After that you can take out at French, NO more portaging.  Wind more at your back (does that ever really happen?)

Beaverhouse: small carry to put-in.  Most people bypass this put-in, but good fishing lake.  Small portage to Quetico - paddle 20k + to the East -lots of water to explore with NO portaging.  Or take short portages to Cirrus - another 20k long lake.

Cons:
French: fighting wind to paddle west; lots of people on the no-portage water!
Stanton Bay: need outfitter drop off; road may wash out again (out 2009, but fixed now); you'll see people.
Nym: 800m is not trivial; popular - many people.
BH: you'll see people near the entry, but the western part maybe not.  

Something to chew on...enjoy.

-Tom

PS: I clicked on your handle - you're 26, so how old's dad?  I was thinking 70 or something.  I'm 48 & my plan for next year (may get changed) is Stanton - B-chain - Ram -Antoine - bushwack to no-names NE of Lonely - Lonely - Walter - Eliz - Jesse - Maria - Pickerel - Batch Bay - Batch Lake - Nym.  
74 km route w/20 portages, 7km total portage length.  I'm not in the best shape - maybe your dad can do more than you think!

wrote on Nov 20^th, 2009 at 6:23pm:

PS: I clicked on your handle - you're 26, so how old's dad?  I was thinking 70 or something.  I'm 48 & my plan for next year (may get changed) is Stanton - B-chain - Ram -Antoine - bushwack to no-names NE of Lonely - Lonely - Walter - Eliz - Jesse - Maria - Pickerel - Batch Bay - Batch Lake - Nym.   74 km route w/20 portages, 7km total portage length.  I'm not in the best shape - maybe your dad can do more than you think!

I'm 63 and I'll either be doing a good chunk of that route or something in Woodland Caribou PP as a SOLO next season.  BTW:  Last year's Quetico trip--up the Falls Chain to McKenzie Lake and out via Kenny/McEwen ... Louisa/Agnes ... Meadows, etc.  (Although accompanied by another person, I TRAVEL solo ... meaning I carried a canoe across every portage w/pack.)

Don't count "old dad" too short!

dd

Shorter time trip, you could stay on Pickeral with no  portages;

5 to 7 days would make a nice liesurely one-way trip from Beaverhouse across the northern tier of lakes, and exit at either Nym or French - that would require a shuttle though.  Beaverhouse to Nym is maybe 2 to 3 days travel, doing it in a week would leave lots of time for fishing and an easy pace.

My personal choice would be Start at French, down thru the "B's to Oliphaunt and Sturgeon, and return via Dieux Riviers (or however its spelled)  Most portages are reasonably short, with only the one long portage between Fern and Oliphaunt - if you make that a one day trip - i.e. camp on Fern one night, and on Oliphaunt the next, you could take your time on the portage.

IF you are planning on late summer, then some of the small creek travel may be a poor choice, such as Dieux Riviere, which can get too low for easy travel.

Drewfus,

Mk631 has provided a good summary of the pros & cons of the various northern entry points.  

Also, ditto on what both he & Dd had to say re: age.  On the other hand, if you don't care care of yourself, the aging process certainly compounds other issues you may have.  The older you get, the harder you need to work at it to stay in shape due to muscle & bone atrophy as well as changing metabolism issues.  Mainly, you just need regular vigorous exercise if your doctor allows it.  The reason I workout nearly 2 hours daily EVERY day is to stay in reasonable shape for Canoe Country (& because health care as a retiree ain't cheap; I want to minimize my need after retirement).  Knock on wood but, at age 55, I haven't backed off much on my tripping practices from 20+ years ago.

Also, I would elaborate on Mk631's info re: Beaverhouse.  Technically, of course, BH is NOT an entry point.  However, when you LEAVE BH, you can reach 3-4 different entry points.  They include: Quetico, Cirrus, Three Mile (just east of it, really), & LLC.  Frankly, BH is NOT the best way to reach either Three Mile or LLC.

The put-in portage to BH is mostly flat, sometimes featuring a mud hole or two & about a 1/4 mile in length.  If you head to Cirrus, you have a very flat 1/2 carry to No Name, then a somewhat short but twisty-turny portate with ankle-buster rocks to take you into Cirrus.  From there, you're golden; LOTS of water to cover with absolutely NO portaging.

The Quetico portage climbs a small hill parallel to the rapids but it's no big deal & very short.

Make sure your dad is getting in some regular exercise a minimum of six weeks prior to your trip.  Then follow Mk631's advice on routing & you should be fine.

Jimbo   8-)

Thanks folks for the speedy advice!! My dad just turned 60 and certainly isn't in the best shape. He isn't the type to exercise daily, but he does start a program prior to the trips to prepare himself. I'll see if I can get him to start exercising, just for his own good let alone the trip.  Oh, one more thing. He doesn't want a short trip lol. He likes his 10 days in the wilderness, but likes a little bit of a slower pace. I'm willing to do the extra work to make it fun for him to see new places and not work as hard so that he can enjoy himself. Mad_Mat, the trip would be late summer/early fall.

Thankfully I still have a lot of time before the trip to plan things out, but I'm just trying to get a feel for where I should start my planning.

I have entered at BH twice, and made one trip to French and one to Nym. I would say, as a 65 year-old, that either is doable, with the French way harder by virtue of the Olifaunt-Fern 1-miler being uphill towards French.

As someone else said, you could easily enter BH and/or Cirrus and have a ton of water to paddle without significant portages. If it were me I would enter Cirrus from BH, explore it, move down to Q, explore it, then come back to BH and out. (I may do this solo in 2010, 9-10 days.)

If you do decide to go across the park, in either direction, I'd allow one or more days for wind issues, and remember that wind USUALLY favors west to east travel. 10 days would be ideal, I'd think.

Finally, I had not heard that Stanton Bay had re-opened. If it was open, I would prefer entering there for a Pickerel-Rawn-French trip. (By all means try to fish for smallmouth in the narrows between Stanton Bay and Pickerel!)

I too am considering a Northern entry. Any one ever used the Beaverhouse parking lot? is it safe to leave valuables locked in the car there?

We came in from the gunflint last year (and the 20 years before) so we are looking for a little more adventure. The Falls chain is beautiful but when you have been there enough that you don't need a map any longer  a new vista is demanded. Hopefully there is some walleye up on the northern side too.

Any body with first hand expereince would be helpful.

I used the BH parking lot in Sept. I went in Saturday afternoon and had a hard time finding a place to park. No touble for me leaving the car there, but I would not risk leaving anything you could not stand to loose.

Lots of Walleye in the areas suggested, not many small ones though. ;D
Might be a little slow later in the summer.

You could easily spend 10 days exploring/fishing either Cirrus or Quetico and burn a few of them with short day trips to good nearby lakes.

I'm planning to enter Nym next year and work my way through Pickerel down to Sturgeon then back out through Lonely, Walter, etc.

Dead_Dog_Paddler wrote on Dec 11^th, 2009 at 2:37pm:

I too am considering a Northern entry. Any one ever used the Beaverhouse parking lot? is it safe to leave valuables locked in the car there .

I almost always use BH for an entry point. I have outfitter bring me in and pick me up. That's a personal choice, the result of a incident involving my vehicle years ago, that I never forgot.

BH has had vehicles broken into in the past. So has Nym. The culprits were travelers heading west/east and stopped in to hit the 4-wheel ATM'S that had their "Assets" on display.

One of my ways of passing time waiting for my pickup on BH, is to look into parked vehicles for "easy" pickings ;) I would say that more than half of the vehicles I look into, have valuables that would spark a thieves interest. Cell phones/luggage/lap tops/GPS and loose change or bills in center consoles :o

Lets not forget the 4 legged bandits. I would say the same percentage or higher leave food items in vehicle. Donuts/Fast food leftovers/cookies/chips, and once even a half eaten bucket of chicken.
I've seen more than a few vehicles with bear prints on the hood to the trunk where Yogi was taking a peek/sniff for goodies.

I'd lock any/all items in trunk or at least hide under seat well. I'd also leave no food of any kind in vehicle and if you can, use a cooler and lock any items you want on takeout in your trunk.

For some reason people think there is NO crime "Up North" :question
They wouldn't leave valuables out at home, they shouldn't do it up there either.  Highway 11 is a popular route across Canada. Thieves target places like that, remote, yet easily driven into. They sell the items at truck stops for gas and drug money. Common sense applies EVEN up in God's country ;)

Drewfus,

For the last 3 yrs I've gone in with my father who is in his late 60s.  He is not in the best shape either, but he is smart, tough, and knows his limitations (sort of).  Don't discount the extra toll it will take on you as the mule of the team.  After my last trip, which was my father, my brother and I, I realized that putting too much pressure on myself to accomodate the other members of the team presented as much risk as overworking or expecting too much out of the old man.  If he can carry one pack over a portage you and your group should be fine pacing yourselves.  

One thing I would be careful of is making sure he doesn't get stuck in suck mud.  That happened to my father on day one last year coming out of the Mack creek when it was a little low.   It took an awful toll on him way too early in the trip.

If he loves the woods, and knows himself then you will be fine.

thanks for the info... it is appreciated.  road condition back to the parking lot is okay?

My last time was 2002 or 03 so maybe someone can offer an update. the road's great until you turn off the main road. After that it gets narrower as you go. At some points past Dinner Lake it's just an overgrown, two wheel path at some point. (Fun when you approach the crest of a hill.) I take my car but more ground clearance would certainly be helpful. After heavy rains I'll get out and check the depth of any washouts to pick the safest route.

As far as safety aspects go, the only vehicle damage I've witnessed was at the French lot when a tree fell on a friend's car - so don't park within reach of any trees that look evil if you can help it.  :D

Dead_Dog_Paddler wrote on Dec 11^th, 2009 at 2:37pm:

I too am considering a Northern entry. Any one ever used the Beaverhouse parking lot? is it safe to leave valuables locked in the car there? Any body with first hand expereince would be helpful.

I've parked at the Beaverhouse portage for three 7-10 day trips, and never had any problem.  

prouboy

I have probably used the Beaverhouse parking lot 15 times or so beginning with 1975.  I have never had a problem.  The road is actually quite good and most passenger cars and van will have no problem.  There certainly is no guarantee that your car won't be damaged, but there is no guarantee that your parked car won't be damaged in Ely, Chicago or Duluth.

Westwood

Somewhat related story...(stay with me on this...)

Last year I parked my vehicle at the Nym Lake entry, for a 12-day trip.  Two days in, I couldn't find my fishing license, (along with my passport, driver's license, RABC permit, and QP permit).  Couldn't go back to retrace portages, etc.  Stuck it out and cursed myself for all the unnecessary drama involved with losing this stuff!  Tried to put it out of my mind, but I couldn't help but wonder how I'd get back into the States without a passport.  After a good trip, got back to the rig and found my packet of permits, id's, etc, sitting on the dashboard of my truck.  Unbelievable.  This might be a good segue to a new thread...the most stupid things you've done in canoe country.  


prouboy

 You SHOULD of bought a Lotto Ticket for sure ;)

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