Greetings, all.
I leave on the 24th of July for my 33rd annual 2 week Q trip.
We are down to myself, my wife, my bro and my 15 year old.
3 kids getting married in 11 months... let me out of here....
Most of the trip is stuff I have done before, but...
We are finally going to McKenzie and doing the Cache, Trousers portages. This is the last section of the park that I have not done.
Looking forward to hitting some new water.
I have done my homework and looked over the portage database, the campsite database, the BWJ articles and other misc. info.
A few questions...
1 - where is the grave site on McKenzie - just curious - and what is the history behind it?
2 - Do any of the smaller Is in the main part of the Mckenzie have any campsites on them?
3 - I know the fishing is good on McKenzie - not looking for any secret holes - but is the upper or lower lake better, near the Islands or mainland????
4 - Anyone ever do a day trip into Ferguson Lake - how long does it take to paddle the creek?
Finally - the portages - for the sake of comparison - I have done all the other nasty portages in the park multiple times - just give me the straight scoop. Are they hard to follow is one of my concerns. How bad are the swamps? What is the average time to get across each of the portages?
Sorry for so many questions, however, I may consider letting slip a few favorite fishing holes in exchange for some GOOD info.
Thanks so much in advance.
GeneM

PS.... KF I hope my wife isn't as happy as yours was in the picture that you have shared in the past, by the time we get to Trousers Lake.

Bump

Anyone out there????

Has anyone got any current info on the Cache / Trousers portages???

Thanks,
GeneM

I did the Cache portages in a wet July/Aug...about 6 years ago or so?  Trousers to Cahce took us 6 hrs, double portaging.  Camped overnight on Cache.  Cache to Lindsay took us near 8 hours.  3 swamps in 2 days and they were bad, lost the trail several times.  Alot of the trail was near overgrown but doable.  Spent about 1 hour lost on Cache to Lindsay in a swamp.

I believe Paw did it the following year in near 1/2 those times....slightly less water.

Your times will vary given the water levels and beaver activity...for comparisson, we were mostly green and slow.

Sorry GeneM.  I haven't been down that way in 15 years or more so my info would be dated - I wish I could help though.  I think Kingfisher was the most recent member who has been through there.  Snow_dog, O_S and Jimbo were through there 2 summers ago.  Azalea has a recent trip I believe as well.  Maybe a PM to them would garnish something.

In the mean time - here's a Baptism Creek thread from this spring.

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And Snow Dogs trip report:

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OS has not been there, sorry.

Gene,

See my trip report for details on the Cache Portages.  McKenzie to Cache is definitely harder than Cache to Trousers.  There will be plenty of mudholes.  The African Queen section was the only place where the trail was hard to pick out.  It's a maze of channels in there and it's best to scout the way thru before you start trying to carry stuff.  When we hit that section, we loaded the packs back in the canoe and walked the edges of the channels while pushing the canoe along.

I didn't get a lot of time to fish McKenzie, but there are lakers around the pictograph areas.  The wide-open north section seems  much shallower but I wasn't running a depth sounder so I can't be sure.  

Didn't really look for campsites in the north end of McKenzie so I'm not sure what you might find.

There are a couple of nice campsites on the islands in the northern portion of the lake. Caught some nice pike there and around shoals down toward the pictograph site.

A buddy went to Ferguson, but I did not. It was a day trio, over and back.

This is a couple of years ago.

Greetings, and thanks everyone for the replys to my second cry for help.
Sorry for sounding so whiny the second time, howevery after rereading my first post and looking at the replys to my second post, I get it.
I made it sound like I had done ALL my homework, however I complety missed doing a search on this site in the trip reports. DOH...DOH...DOH!!!
Thats is what I get for sounding like mister experienced, so I understand the lack of response the first time. Thanks for humoring me and for so much helpful info on the second try.

When I read your trip report Snow Dog, I realized that I had read this report in the past. It was great!!! And helpful. Lots of good info and last night as I reread it, the thoughts and reflections during and after the trip were good for me to read just before going into our trip. Thanks much for taking the time to write such a good report to share with others.

Everyone else...Thanks for pitching in as well.
This is a great site with a lot of ???wonderful??? people that participate.
I appreciate being able to share common experiences with such a good group of people.
Well,,,4 days to blast off ( or mud slog )
I will let everyone know how it went IF or WHEN we get back.
GeneM  

Hey Gene...dug through the dust and found this gem from 6 yrs ago....the pics are even still there.

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wrote on Jul 19^th, 2010 at 2:16pm:

thanks everyone for the replys to my second cry for help.

Perhaps you gave us too much time to respond so your second request hit a soft spot. I think I may be able to speak for most who have been through there by saying we were hoping to hear something from this year - someone else's pleasure/pain so to speak.

Speaking only for myself, it's not that there are five miles or so of portaging. It's not the distance that makes that route challenging. It's that a lot can happen overland in that distance and it seems when you hit it matters, a lot. And at some point you realize there is just no turning back 'cause it can't get any more challenging. It could and probably will. Or, you may hit it just right. I wore my PFD at times just going back for the second load.

Of all the miles I've traveled in the park, from Kawnipi to French packs a lot of varied challenges and delights into a few days like nowhere else I've been and at some point you realize you've committed.

I went with Tripper. We're both basically solo paddlers at heart but when we considered a trip together, both of us thought, what wouldn't we want to tackle alone. There are places in Q I know better than my own neighborhood. This is not one of them. In fact, has anyone done that route more than once or twice that is willing to comment?

"like nowhere else I've been and at some point you realize you've committed"               --------    or maybe should be "committed" ?