Well it has been a long time since I have been to QJ due to many thing, but now it is time to start looking forward to the 2018 trip.

My wife and I are starting to firm up plans for our trip this summer and it is going to be wonderful. We will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in Quetico Park. This will be our 40th trip together and we are going to do 40 days to celebrate our 40 years together.

We will be starting out the end of June and coming out in early August. So, like the title suggests, if you had a good chunk of summer to wander around Quetico, where would you go and why, and what are some of your favorite campsites and why.
I am not here to steal fish or peoples secret places, I am just wanting to have some fun dreaming about places to go and fish to see...... We have been to most of Quetico over the years, but it is always fun to compare notes with other experienced trippers to see what they like to do and where they like to go.

We will be starting at Nym Lake and paddling out to Crane Lake via the Namakan River at the end of the trip. Everything in between is up for grabs. Where do we go from here?

I look forward to the input and ideas.

Gene M.

Well it looks like I need to be the one to start off sharing some of my favorite lakes and campsites.

Starting from Nym Lake we are going to hit a couple of favorites right away. We plan to spend a couple of nights on Hamburg and Oriana Lakes. Great fishing and a little off the beaten path enough so that you don't feel like a lot of traffic going by. We also love Lonely Lake for the fishing and wolves.
We tend to camp in smaller sites off the main lake and each of those lakes fits those criteria.

We are hoping to jump into Draper this trip. That is a lake we have never been on. Anyone willing to offer any intel on fishing or campsites?

Next up is Chatterton Lake. Everyone loves Russell, but there is a peninsula site on Chatterton that is awesome for sunsets and sunrises, plus the fishing is good as well right out front. We have never camped on McDougall Lake right next door even though we have been through there a number of times. Anyone have insight into camping / fishing there?

From there we are not sure where we are going. Maybe Kawnipi, Agnes ???? We really don't have any outstanding favorite places there, although there are a lot of nice sites and good fishing, just not best of all time for us.

We will probably wander about some to get to Keefer and Sark Lakes. Fish, sunsets, blueberries..... More wandering hopefully to get to Delahey Lake Olive Jar site. What more needs to be said. We hope to find our notes in the jar from 1993 15th anniversary trip. Has anyone ever caught walleyes in Delahey?

Then it is off to the Death March and some of our all all time favorites - Suzanette, Brent, Ted with stops on ??? Burt, Marg???  We have passed through Burt and Marg many times but never camped there. Hows the fishing / campsites on either of those?

Finally we will paddle Lac La Croix and the Namakan River out to Namakan Lake and then to Crane. I enjoy the Namakan River for the white water and there is a great site on Namakan Lake that we will spend our last night at that has amazing sunset views to cap off our longest trip ever.

Just putting some of these things in writing is getting me excited for our trip. June 29th is coming soon.

GeneM

Congrats, that will be an awesome trip.  I love Burt Lake for the nice site there and clear water.  Marj and Joyce are the same.  Joyce is a lake I've always wanted to get back to.  It's rumored to have blue walleye.  There's a nice site on the island group closest to the Kahsh portages.  It has an open area in the back with a very large white pine right near a very large red pine.  Two sentinals that survived the years.  There's also an old gas can from the 60's 0r 70's in the area. 

Have fun and do a trip report please!

GeneM -

Somehow I missed your original post.  I'll be glad to add a few thoughts now re: your route.

Draper?  Though I've never been there, a good friend of mine tells me that campsite LJ (island site, west side of lake) is the place to camp.  Also, there is a Message Cache/Olive Jar located here.

McDougall is another fine lake, well-known for excellent smallmouth bass fishing; lesser known for lake trout BUT there is a deep hole on the west side of the lake where they can be found.  The peninsula campsites on the west side have great views but are pretty exposed to the elements.  You can find quieter but smaller sites in the east bay... where the smallmouth are abundant.

We'll be headed back to Suzanette, Brent, Burt (& possibly Ted) this year (finally!) after 12 years.  Suzanette holds another Olive Jar/Message Cache (check the high bluff site on the north wall).  Also, we have fared well finding blueberries as you approach Burt Lake from Suzanette (north side of channel). 

It's my 40th anniversary, too, this July.  The wife & I have several trips planned this year to honor the occasion, hopefully including one into Quetico.  I really doubt she could stomach more than 6-7 days at a time, however... and those days MUST be in September (warm water, few bugs).  I'm envious of your longer adventure!

I'll be in a party of seven guys cruising through Darky, Conmee, Suzanette, Burt, Brent, Elk, Argo & Crooked during the last week of June, first week of July.  Perhaps we'll cross paths?  My camps typically have some sort of "flamingo" adornment marking them, so keep your eyes open for "pink" (it sort of jumps out at you).  While my guess is that you won't hit this area until later, we'd welcome a visit should you be in the vicinity!

Jimbo   8-)

To find the message cache on Draper.  It is on the island site near the west side of the lake.  Once on the site go to the south shore and then head east.  Look for a pile of rocks back from the path.  Listen for the music at night.  It will raise the hare on the back of your neck. 

Magicpaddler wrote on May 23^rd, 2018 at 12:18pm:

To find the message cache on Draper.  It is on the island site near the west side of the lake.  Once on the site go to the south shore and then head east.  Look for a pile of rocks back from the path.  Listen for the music at night.  It will raise the hare on the back of your neck.

MP, I know rabbits are prolific, but I’ve never had them on the back of my neck. ;D ;D
The normal bugs are bad enough. ;)

TomT thanks for the input.
As far as Joyce Lake goes, I have camped there 5 or 6 times, each time for a couple of days. The site is XH, but it is really on the very north end of the island. The first time we were there was in '79 or '80 and there were still picnic tables and a number of cement blocks for a fireplace / kitchen area???  The story from Joe Meany at LLC was that they flew the Queen of England into that site back in the '30s or ???
The fishing for W & L & SM is generally good, but the last couple of times we have been really disappointed. I can confirm that there are "blue" walleyes in the lake. I have a couple of old Kodachrome slides somewhere of my wife catching one.
Do you or anyone have any intel on campsites on Marg?
GeneM.

Jimbo and Magicpaddler, Thanks for the info on Draper. I was not aware of the message cache, so that will be a bonus.

Magicpaddler, I hope we hear some music while we are there.
Draper is close enough to Lonely that I bet it is the same wolf pack that we have heard and seen ( up close and personal ) when we have camped on Lonely. That was one of our motivations for going there this time.

Jimbo, I have always known that I lucked out and married the right woman. When we were planning our honeymoon and I said I would like to take her to Brent Lake in Quetico Park for 2 weeks and she didn't even blink, I knew I had a winner. Just to reinforce that, she has never questioned our 2 week trips even when we brought our infants and young children. 10 years ago, we did a 30 day trip for our 30th anniversary and it was HER idea...... So, ya, I am one very lucky guy to have a wife like that. I will do what ever it takes to make sure she is warm, dry, comfortable and well fed, so she never wonders if we should keep doing this.

I will keep my eyes open for any of you folks when we are out there. We paddle a MN II and have red and blue life jackets. Blue in front and Red in back. We always enjoy a chat in the woods with fellow paddlers.
GeneM.

Old Salt, I have not had a "hare" on my neck, but I did experience an "attack rabbit" one time on Kasakokwog Lake.
It came right up to me while I was cooking and was sniffing and nibbling my feet. I wouldn't leave for at least 10 min and I thought something might be wrong with it, so I finally ran it off the property so to speak. It was the weirdest thing I have seen a rabbit do....
GeneM.

Marj is one of my favorite lakes in the park. Probably the clearest water in the Q (just ahead of Argo and Louisa on the last  official Sechi disk study I saw). There is a nice camp for one or two people in the middle west side of the bigger  island  in the main body of the lake. There is a rarely used old camp on a steep rock point in the long fjord like bay- great swimming on that site. There is also a site at the south end of the aforementioned island and a couple of rarely used sites nearr/in the southernmost bay.

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Solus, Thanks for the info on Marg. I have passed through it many times and often thought I should take time to explore the lake, but.... never have. Now I know that I need to spend time checking it out. Thanks also for the campsite locations.
GeneM.