Well, after a long 22 year hiatus I'm finally going to return to Quetico next year with my 11 year old son in tow. Back in the day (which was a Thursday btw  :) ) I spent a lot of time tripping through the park mostly solo and have been longing for a return.

This past year I took my son to Algonquin for 12 nights in May. It was the first canoe trip of substance for me in years and the first ever for my boy. He loved it, even with all the hardships involved and wants to do more. He's been listening to my Quetico stories his whole life and has been pushing me to bring him, and this is the year.

I've managed to block off a large chunk of time in late July and August and the kid and I will be doing an extended 33 night trip.

We are anglers first and that will be the focus of this trip, with a number of extended layovers included. After poring over my maps over the Christmas holiday the kid and I have decided on our tentative route. As always this is just a rough plan, and we'll change on the fly as we fit, but I think it's a good one.

If you're curious here's the tentative itinerary. Bolded lakes are the ones we'll be camping on along with the number of nights on each lake included.

French Lake
Pickerel Lake
Bisk Lake
Beg Lake
Bud Lake
Fern Lake (1)
Olifaunt Lake
Sturgeon Lake
Antoine Lake (2)
Sturgeon Lake (2)
Maligne River
Wink Lake (3)
Poohbah Lake (4)
Conmee Lake (2)
Suzanette Lake
Burt Lake (2)
Marj Lake
Joyce Lake (3)
Kahshapiwi Lake
Keefer Lake
Sark Lake (2)
Cutty Lake (2)
Metacryst Lake
Heronshaw Lake
Kahshapiwi Creek
Kawnipi Lake north end (1)
Kawnipi Lake, Mckenzie Bay (2)
Mckenzie Lake (4)
Cache Lake (2)
Trousers Lake
Baptism Lake
French Lake

What do you think about the plan? Any thoughts or ideas are most welcome.  :)   

Sounds great to me.  8-)

Been to most of those lakes, nice areas and plenty of dandy campsites as well.

I did a 21-day solo a few years back and found the limit to how much food I could haul was about that amount of time.

I don't pack light food wise so if I wanted to go to all freeze dried I could go longer, but I like to eat well so 3 weeks would be about right for just me.

That extra paddler/portager really extends your range. It should a trip you'll both remember for a lifetime.

solotripper wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 2:45pm:

Sounds great to me.  8-) Been to most of those lakes, nice areas and plenty of dandy campsites as well. I did a 21-day solo a few years back and found the limit to how much food I could haul was about that amount of time. I don't pack light food wise so if I wanted to go to all freeze dried I could go longer, but I like to eat well so 3 weeks would be about right for just me. That extra paddler/portager really extends your range. It should a trip you'll both remember for a lifetime.

Will double carry, so will have two large packs and one slightly smaller one. The kid carried a 50 pound pack this year in Algonquin so I know he can do it. (he's a trooper for being only 11).   

I've done a number of really long solo trips up to 4 months in my younger days and never had to resupply my food. Although my diet was admittedly spartan with a heavy emphasis on fish. 

I don't imagine we'll eat like kings on this trip, but we're not going to starve. 

I vividly remember literally craving fat on one of my really long trips in the Wabakimi region years back. I remember coming upon a vacant fly in outpost on around day 60 and inside I found a 1 liter bottle of vegetable oil. I opened the cap and took a small sip. It tasted so good I immediately guzzled back the entire bottle. Could feel the life flowing back into my body LOL!

When I think about that now I can only shudder.   :P

 

I'm curious why three nights on Joyce.  I've been there twice but never fished.  I hear there are blue walleyes in there.  And some trophy like stuff too.  The site I stayed on was an island which had an old 5 gallon gas can on it.  Also towards the back in a relative clearing are a giant white and red pine standing next to each other.  Towering trees with massive trunks. 

TomT wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 5:06pm:

I'm curious why three nights on Joyce.  I've been there twice but never fished.  I hear there are blue walleyes in there.  And some trophy like stuff too.  The site I stayed on was an island which had an old 5 gallon gas can on it.  Also towards the back in a relative clearing are a giant white and red pine standing next to each other.  Towering trees with massive trunks.

It's a lake I've always just blasted through in years past and never really fished. Have always thought it was interesting lake that deserved more attention. 3 nights will give us two full days to fish it. Chances are once we begin the trip plans will change continuously depending on how we feel, but right now that's the plan.  :)   

I think Joyce Lake might be good because of the lack of 5 star sites and it's not the easiest to access.  Will you be bringing a depth finder? 

TomT wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 6:13pm:

I think Joyce Lake might be good because of the lack of 5 star sites and it's not the easiest to access.  Will you be bringing a depth finder?

I have never brought one in the past, but yeah I will this year. That was actually one of my recent purchases. After a fair bit of research I grabbed one of these:   (You need to Login or Register

Hopefully it works.  :)

Solopaddler -

I hope so, too.  I got one under the Christmas tree from my brother.  Guess he wants to be sure we catch some fish next summer!

Jimbo   8-)

solopaddler wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 7:39pm:

TomT wrote on Dec 30th, 2017 at 6:13pm: I think Joyce Lake might be good because of the lack of 5 star sites and it's not the easiest to access.  Will you be bringing a depth finder?  I have never brought one in the past, but yeah I will this year. That was actually one of my recent purchases. After a fair bit of research I grabbed one of these:   (You need to Login or Register Hopefully it works.  :)

Hmmm.  That's looks like a nice upgrade for me.  Did you get any of the accessories?  The waterproof storage locker is what I'm interested in.  But, a pelican case could do the job too. 

I'm impressed with the 4 triple A batteries that give 30 hours of use.  I would save a lot of weight with this rig vs. my 1999 Vexilar Boundary Waters model I currently lug around.  Thanks for the link! :)

I have another question.  This is pretty much a dream trip for me as well but I'm wondering if your son will handle that length of time.  I know all kids are different but how will he do not being "connected" with his friends and other family members?  I know my son had difficulty with an 8 night trip at 16.  And my 2 nephews at 13 and 16 on a different trip were fighting over the solar charger for their phones for the week.  It's a different time these days than when I was a kid.

Sounds like a great trip.  I have a hard time even imagining myself on a 33 day trip.  I would just be happy surviving 10 days or so.  Lucky son you have, and you for having a young man who wants to go.

Working only from memory, I thought there was a 30 day limit in the Quetico without special permission?

Regards,

MossBack

  TomT,

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I'd wait to buy that waterproof case, till you see the pack size of the unit. I think you could do better than $25 unless you dead set on a Pelican case?

TomT wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 8:05pm:

solopaddler wrote on Dec 30th, 2017 at 7:39pm: TomT wrote on Dec 30th, 2017 at 6:13pm: I think Joyce Lake might be good because of the lack of 5 star sites and it's not the easiest to access.  Will you be bringing a depth finder?  I have never brought one in the past, but yeah I will this year. That was actually one of my recent purchases. After a fair bit of research I grabbed one of these:   (You need to Login or Register Hopefully it works.  :) Hmmm.  That's looks like a nice upgrade for me.  Did you get any of the accessories?  The waterproof storage locker is what I'm interested in.  But, a pelican case could do the job too.  I'm impressed with the 4 triple A batteries that give 30 hours of use.  I would save a lot of weight with this rig vs. my 1999 Vexilar Boundary Waters model I currently lug around.  Thanks for the link! :)

No accessories yet, although the unit itself will just go in a small neoprene pouch in my pack. Haven't decided how I'm going to mount the transducer yet.

TomT wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 8:10pm:

I have another question.  This is pretty much a dream trip for me as well but I'm wondering if your son will handle that length of time.  I know all kids are different but how will he do not being "connected" with his friends and other family members?  I know my son had difficulty with an 8 night trip at 16.  And my 2 nephews at 13 and 16 on a different trip were fighting over the solar charger for their phones for the week.  It's a different time these days than when I was a kid.

My son has been in the fortunate position to have been traveling with me since he was really young all over Canada mostly to remote fly in fishing destinations. I'm a writer and documenting these trips is what I do for a living more or less. He's an absolute fanatic and is just as hardcore as me when it comes to fishing so I'm not worried in the slightest. On the Kazan River in Nunavut a couple years back I looked at my watch on our first day of fishing and was shocked to see it was 1:30am LOL! With no darkness that far north in June we lost track of time fishing. He threw a fit when I told him we had to go back to the cabin.  ;D I realize I'm very, very fortunate. Including my son on these trips is the best part of what I do and I'm incredibly grateful that his passion matches mine. A 32 night trip is a lot, but we're a good team, he'll be fine.    

MossBack wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 8:26pm:

Sounds like a great trip.  I have a hard time even imagining myself on a 33 day trip.  I would just be happy surviving 10 days or so.  Lucky son you have, and you for having a young man who wants to go. Working only from memory, I thought there was a 30 day limit in the Quetico without special permission? Regards, MossBack

MossBack, I have no clue about the 30 day limit. If that's true then I've broken the law several times in Quetico.  :) Maybe that's a non resident thing? I'm in Ontario. Regardless, I'll call the park and ask.

Cheers

You may be correct about the non-resident issue.  There are quite a number of limitations for those of us South of the border.

So how might a person access some of your writing?  Magazines, Internet, Newspapers, Books?  There are some others here on QJ who have been published and I have always enjoyed their work. 

MossBack

MossBack wrote on Dec 30^th, 2017 at 11:41pm:

You may be correct about the non-resident issue.  There are quite a number of limitations for those of us South of the border. So how might a person access some of your writing?  Magazines, Internet, Newspapers, Books?  There are some others here on QJ who have been published and I have always enjoyed their work.  MossBack

I wrote freelance for years for a bunch of different publications. Two years ago I dropped a large amount of money in an attempt to launch my own magazine which never got off the ground. (I should have known better  :) ) Currently all the writing I do promoting the different venues I visit is online on my website. It has proven to be way more powerful than pretty much any print magazine when it comes to showcasing fishing lodges and outposts. I just checked a couple of days ago to see what my year end numbers were like and I hit 1.2 million unique views in 2017.  :)  Pretty pleased with that. Anyhow, assuming it's kosher to post the link, here's the site. There's a detailed archive of stories under trip reports in the menu bar, most of the interesting ones are under "fly in trips"  Cheers

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Ok I remember watching some of your trip videos in the past.  Algonquin brook trout, yeah that was amazing.  I'm assuming you will be filming your upcoming trip as well and I look forward to it!  Just don't give away any hot spots ok?  ;)

TomT wrote on Dec 31^st, 2017 at 11:05am:

Just don't give away any hot spots ok?  ;)

No worries there.  :)