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Message started by Mk631 on May 3rd, 2012 at 4:57pm

Title: Re: Covering some new water this trip - Sturgeon
Post by Mad_Mat on May 3rd, 2012 at 6:43pm
coming from Stanton Bay, or French Lake for that matter, I'd
be more likley to take the B-chain down to Fern (more scenic, but more portages), then over thru Oliphaunt - keep that as an option if you find out that Deux Rivieres is too low (the outfitter will likely have an idea on whether its ok or not - I assume you know that you need an outfitter to use Stanton)

for the return, I like Lonely Creek over Jean Creek, just because its easier to get to if the prevailing westerly winds are doing thier thing.  Its "smaller" water overall.  Jean creek is nice, just that you have to make that run all the way down Sturgeon. Travelling Jean Cr will be different than the maps show - a couple of the portages have been flooded out by beaver dams - at the BIG dam, you can pull your boat to the far left end, and slide it over there, rather than trying to negotiate the  5' high dam.

check the portage data base on here for Oraian creek - you'll find references to it being a mud slog in low water, so if you do get into Quetico Lake to Oraina Lake, you may want to portage up into Jesse rather than going Oriana-Hamburg-Maria - those are the sections of Oraina Cr that can get low - not sure that you were planning it, but Oriana to Hamburg to Maria is a nice route.

I have pretty much always gone at end of May into mid-June, and rarely has the water been "too low" anywhere at that time, though there have been exceptions.  so far this year, I think the water is below average ? but that can change with a lot of rain - but as dry and warm as this year has been everywhere, water levels in the small creeks may come into play.  I'd think though, that Lonely Cr and Jean Cr would still be ok.

last year, there wre some fishing boats stashed on Sturgeon, so likely this year it won't be a motorized lake for LLC guides - there is a really nice sand beach peninsula campsite on the south side of Sturgeon, about mid-lake if you go that way - that was where the boats were last year. would be a great sport for swimming

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