All,

I just returned from a trip into (and back out) of WCPP from the Lund Lake entry point in early July 2010.  If you have thoughts on using that entry, send me a P.M. for a condition report.  I've contacted Claire and reported conditions, and she indicated that they will be following up on it.

A full story / report is pending, but I want to give WCPP a chance to validate or correct my observations before posting it.  This was, after all, only my first trip to WCPP.  My expectations may be unrealistic.

Woodstripper

Woodstripper,

I just blew through the Lund Lake road yesterday (7/13/10) at a rate of speed Kingfisher & my paddling partner Matt were probably somewhat uncomfortable with (& my wife would have hated, given it was in her Plymouth Voyager).  Very dry & in excellent condition... at least in comparison to what we experienced on the Leano Lake road last year.  When we went in on July 2, there was some water - easily driven through - flowing over the road in one spot; not too surprising after a few days of rain.  

It rained some almost every day we were in the park but deluges happened only once or twice.  I believe this road is very serviceable & dependable but recommend a vehicle with a somewhat higher clearance if you wish to avoid scraping the center of the road where some ruts have developed.

Hope your trip was as good as ours!

Jimbo   8-)  

Glad to hear that all visitos to WCPP got home safely.

As for the road to Leano.  I got to drive the section from Red Lake to Onnie both ways in my F150.  Although there were a few washboard sections, a few rock humps, a few potholes, and water across the road a time or two the overall condition of this section of road was good to very good.  Keep in mind that I'd rarely reach speeds of 40 mph ... mostly 25-30, with occasional slow downs when conditions warranted.  I had no ground clearance issues and no ruts.

The section from Onnie to Mile 51 was a bit more demanding, with water over the road in more sections, but still shallow enough that a vehicle with a bit higher ground clearance would easily make it.  A couple of spots were steeper than on the RL to Onnie section.  We even encounterd a couple of vehicles coming the opposite direction towing somewhat sizable boats behind them.

From Mile 51 to Leano is a single lane road with brush encroaching.  Expect to have branches scraping the side of your vehicle through here unless you are driving a compact.  Other than being narrow with a few potholes, this section produced no other challenges ... it was just slow because of the narrowness of the road.  (I guess slow would also be good because animal life could easily step out right in front of you with NO notice.)

dd

Albert from Goldseekers took me in and back out of the Lund Lake access.  I saw Jimbo's mini-van parked there, and wondered how he managed to get past a couple of steep muddy areas, but apparently it wasn't a problem!

I went in on July 4, but had to cut things short and came back out on the 8th.  The wet conditions earlier in the year certainly made the trail conditions interesting!

WS

woodstripper wrote on Jul 14^th, 2010 at 5:17pm:

The wet conditions earlier in the year certainly made the trail conditions interesting!

Wet conditions?  Hmmm.  Should have been there last season when they were experiencing a 30-year record for high water.  Last year, we did find that several portages looked more like streams and a few others were in and out of running water.  We were actually able to skip a couple of portages north of Aegean toward Streak... one a lift over and one was a paddle thru.

This year, the water depth on portages was at least a few inches less over the same portage.  Water over the road was clearly less when compared to last year.

dd

DD,

I was trying to be discrete.  The Lund Lake entry portages (and from what I hear a good part of the long one over to Knox Lake) are, in my opinion, in bad shape.  Each of these portages cross peat bogs, and this year has also been wet (though certainly not as bad as last year!).

The corduroy on these portages has been broken up by the high waters:  floated out of place in some locations, and stomped down into the peat muck in others.  It makes for difficult footing at best.

I discussed this with Claire after coming out, and I would like to give WCPP a season to scout out the condition of the trails and decide whether to reroute, repair, or leave them as-is before I put much "out there" about them.  

This was my first trip to WCPP, and my expectations may be out of line for such a remote area.  But even if the trails are really no worse than expected, I am concerned about the damage that is being done to the fragile bogs.

TCK

woodstripper wrote on Jul 14^th, 2010 at 6:22pm:

This was my first trip to WCPP, and my expectations may be out of line for such a remote area.  But even if the trails are really no worse than expected, I am concerned about the damage that is being done to the fragile bogs.

I believe you are correct.  My expectations as to the conditions of portages was relatively low for my first trip.  I was actually quite surprised at the condition of the portages.  Although not generally a boulevard, I didn't find any difficulty following them or even finding them.  Based on conversations with both Doug and Claire, it was clear that the park is short on staff and some areas of the park don't get the attention they need.  For example, portages, on average, don't see a portage crew for four years.  (I've been contemplating entry via Garner Lake, Manitoba but it appears that area hasn't seen a portage crew for about 6 years.)  Furthermore, I suspect that the Leano/Onnie areas get more than their fair share of attention.  In these areas, clearly the park is expending a significant amount of their resources.  Compared to last year, the Leano entry was well marked, with new rip-rap through a boggy area just out of the parking lot and a well crafted plank bridge/boardwalk over another stream/boggy area.  And, on my exit, it appears that Onnie received even more resources.  Again, the signage was new and informative, but even more important, they extended what appears to be a brand new boardwalk for perhaps 100 yards from the parking lot over a serious boggy area.  Not only did it make my exit much more pleasurable, it also provided protection to the bog/swamp, which was actually quite beautiful.

dd

I think the road going all the way to Lund Lake is relatively new. It will likely take a couple years to make it okay. I don't know what is going to be done to it in the next years time, but hey, it's part of the adventure. If your coming up late as we did, it might be a good idea to motel it one night and get an early start the next day. If your going in with say four people, the savings of one day out would likely pay for a room. Giving yourself more time keeps you from pushing it to fast on the rough road saving your vehical from to much damage to your suspention or tires. We, in our excitement of being in Red Lake totally blew off the gas gauge. We had less than an eighth of a tank to go 70 kilometers from Leano back to Red Lake on the rough road... We made it, but barely. We likely won't repeat that again.

nctry_Ben wrote on Aug 9^th, 2010 at 7:44pm:

We, in our excitement of being in Red Lake totally blew off the gas gauge. We had less than an eighth of a tank to go 70 kilometers from Leano back to Red Lake on the rough road... We made it, but barely. We likely won't repeat that again.

This is where Jimbo chimes in to tell you our story of a close call.

Hey folks, it's a good idea to fill up whenever you get the chance when travelling beyond the border.

Kingfisher wrote on Aug 9^th, 2010 at 8:26pm:

nctry_Ben wrote on Aug 9th, 2010 at 7:44pm: We, in our excitement of being in Red Lake totally blew off the gas gauge. We had less than an eighth of a tank to go 70 kilometers from Leano back to Red Lake on the rough road... We made it, but barely. We likely won't repeat that again. This is where Jimbo chimes in to tell you our story of a close call.

Hey, we STILL had a cannister or so of the white gas cook stove fuel that might have gotten us down the road a little further!  As it was, the digital fuel gauge showed that we went about 12 miles beyond the tank's capacity.

It's a LONG stretch beteen Dryden & Ft. Frances!!  Fill up when you can!!!

Jimbo   8-)

P.S.  The road to Lund Lake was child's play.  My wife's 1998 Plymouth Voyageur took it at nearly 50 mph most of the way out!  We left in a cloud of dust and a "Hi Ho Silver!!  Away!!!"

P.S.  The road to Lund Lake was child's play.  My wife's 1998 Plymouth Voyageur took it at nearly 50 mph most of the way out!  We left in a cloud of dust and a "Hi Ho Silver!!  Away!!!" [/quote]

Now that's my kind of driving... I think you use twice the gas when you drive real slow, so we kind of pushed it too, just not 50mph. I thought of how I was glad to have a good amount of gas between Dryden and Ft Francis even though gas was quite high in Red Lake. We didn't have any canisters of white gas left...  :P

I just returned home from 30 days in WCPP. The park does not even know this yet but I have fixes and reroutes for the three nasty portages west of Lund Lake. The fix for the Knox 1500 will require 55 meters of riprap. Not a wet foot other than that. Now it will only require money, time and red tape cutting to put an end to the misery up there.

Good news and bad news.  :)The good news is that the portage exiting Lund Lake to the west has been replaced with an all new route. On the Lund side it is about 1100 meters to the NNE of the old portage. UTM using NAD 27 datum- 15U 408255 5662887. The other end is 800 meters NNE of the old portage- 407232-5662887.

:'(The bad news is that the Lund entrance is closed for now because of the RED124 forest fire that started near Larus Creek.

Marten wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 8:24pm:

I just returned home from 30 days in WCPP. The park does not even know this yet but I have fixes and reroutes for the three nasty portages west of Lund Lake. The fix for the Knox 1500 will require 55 meters of riprap. Not a wet foot other than that. Now it will only require money, time and red tape cutting to put an end to the misery up there.

Hurrah for Martin. I say they take one of those unnamed lakes up there and put your name on it. 

I hope that Lund lake entry won't be all pick-up sticks next August. I have some unfinished business to attend to.