The following is a brief day-by-day report from my trip journal:

Friday 5/19/06
I was up early on only a few hours sleep, catching the first flight from Denver to Minneapolis. Once at MSP I had a few hours to kill before catching the second leg of my journey, from MSP to Thunder Bay. I didn’t mind the layover, as I thought it would increase the chances of my checked bag making the connection. The plane from MSP to Thunder Bay is an old Saab prop-job; a rackety bastard to be sure. The DeHavilland Beaver was much quieter, by comparison. Once we landed in TB we were herded like cattle into the Customs office to gather our bags. You can imagine my grief when the baggage conveyor stopped and I didn’t have my bag! That’s a nauseating feeling. The handler leaned into the office and asked, “everyone have their bags?!” This was not the way I hoped to start my trip. Apparently, despite being no more than three quarters full, the flight from MSP was “overweight”. So to cut weight, they (Northworst Airlines) simply removed baggage from the hold at random. My only hope was that they would put my bag on the late flight, scheduled to arrive at 11:30pm. Having traveled on NWA before, and being less than optimistic on their abilities, I had Gil drive me to the Wal-Mart in town. Thankfully, I had the foresight (unique to frequent NWA fliers) to pack my essentials in my carry-on, which lessened the potential disaster. I bought some clothes and such as an insurance policy of sorts. As it would turn out, I was finally reunited with my lost bag sometime around 12:30am. The flight was late, of course. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to see it!

Saturday 5/20/06
We used Mattice Lake Outfitters near Armstrong for our flights. We arrived at MLO on Saturday to find that we would not be flying for a few more hours, until the pending storm had passed. The wind was blowing hard out of the north. After leaving breakfast in Armstrong, it started to snow hard. I caught a nap in Phil’s van and we waited it out in the MLO office for a while. As it would turn out, we would not be flying today. The snow flew constantly well into the evening. The MLO staff very graciously gave us cots to sleep on in their office, saving us the three hour drive back to TB, or the spendy motel stay in town.

We were scheduled to meet a Park portage crew on our first day, and would travel with them up the Ogoki River to provide some additional man power in clearing four portages. We figured that they would understand our delay given the weather.

Sunday 5/21/06
The temperature was 25* when we woke at 6:30am. By the time we left breakfast in Armstrong around 8am, the temp was right at 32*. The steps of the diner were covered in a thin coating of frost and snow. Shortly after 9am they told us to bring our gear down, and they started to load the first plane. Phil and Gil flew with Don Elliott, half of the equipment and one canoe. Ryan and I flew with Wendell and the rest of our stuff. Our plane was right behind Phil’s as we circled our intended route and landed on Oliver Lake. Our Moneyeen Lake entry was scratched in favor of Oliver Lake, due to there being no suitable landing areas on Moneyeen.

We landed and made camp across from a fishing outpost cabin. It was cold making camp as a north wind was whipping across the lake. By late afternoon the weather started to break some, still cold, but calmer now. We paddled up to the Moneyeen portage to investigate. The heavy cutting on the portage is done by Mike Henry, the outfitter that owns the outpost camp. He also has two cached boats on the Moneyeen side of the portage. We brushed out the trail, made improvements as necessary, and measured. This portage measured in at 1220m, just past Gil’s eerily close estimate of 1200m.

From there it was back to our camp on Oliver and a quick dinner. No sign of the portage crew, and we were camped on the predetermined meeting site. It was a damn cold night in the bag this night!

Monday 5/22/06
Still no sign of the chainsaw-wielding MNR team. We could only assume that they were delayed by the same weather that cost us our first day. But the weather had broken nice and sunny today, and we were already behind schedule, so we left a note on an obvious branch with some flagging tape and paddled west to the Ogoki River. The first portage of 70m was a dense mess of tangled underbrush. We opted to track our loaded canoes up the south shore of the River.

The second portage featured rapids that eliminated any tracking option. The work involved cutting through log after log that blocked the portage, then lifting those cut sections aside. Often all four of us would have to team up to try and push a fallen tree aside that was too large for cutting. We also made a log bridge over a small creek crossing the trail. This portage took us well into the evening to clear, consuming our entire day. The work was tough and the trail measured in at only 420m – far shorter than we had estimated. Afterwards we paddled across the bay to a site at the start of the next portage and made a quick camp.

Thursday 5/25/06
Jonathon planned to attempt to travel upstream again today, cutting portages as needed in order to reach Kenoji. Our group took a vote between two options: A. attempt to forge ahead behind the MNR team to Kenoji, clearing at least two more portages, or B. paddle back to Oliver and base camp the remainder of the trip. The vote was not unanimous, but option B won. I think the group had had enough by this point. Our original itinerary was already shot, and we were worn out from the heavy lifting of the previous three days. Plus we were skeptical that we would even make it to Kenoji, based on the extent of the dead fall in the area and slow pace of our prior work.

With that we broke camp and headed east, back downstream to Oliver. It was a gray day and a steady rain fell all day. We were met by 12-18” waves rolling west as we paddled out onto Oliver. Fortunately, Phil spotted a very nice site only a few km’s east of the river mouth. We made camp and rested under the tarp in the rain. Phil lifted spirits some in the evening with a four course meal.

Friday 5/26/06
Friday broke cloudy and gray. The group had only spent a few minutes fishing all week, so we figured we’d get out and try to catch some walleyes. Ryan and I went fishing in the morning but were held to one small walleye that he jigged up. A slightly larger one was lost at the boat. After lunch we all went out in the canoes to try to fulfill the goal of an evening fish fry. Several hours later none of us had caught anything. Ironically, as Gil and Phil glided their canoe over to ours, a fish swirled right between us. I threw a spinnerbait right into the swirl and caught a small northern pike.

Defeated, we paddled back to camp to start dinner – beef stew. The rain finally stopped though, and the clouds broke revealing a starry night. We stayed up late chatting and looking for the constellations. It was 3am by the time I got into the tent. I always find it tough to turn in on the last night. I find myself looking up at the stars, watching satellites soar overhead, wishing I could get up there more often.

Saturday 5/27/06
Sometime during the early morning hours a substantial flock of geese was heard noisily flying overhead, migrating north for the summer. Shortly thereafter, Gil and Phil believe that a wolf (or wolves) walked right through our camp. They heard an animal immediately outside of their tent, accompanied by what they described as quiet dog-like panting. Whatever the animal was, it had briefly stopped outside of their tent before moving on. Ryan and I slept oblivious to both the geese and apparent wolves.

Saturday morning brought more rain, and the inbound plane was expected to be delayed. We packed up our personal gear and sorted out what of Phil’s would be staying or going. We said our good-byes with Phil before shoving off in the canoes. By 1:15pm we were floating in the middle of Oliver Lake. Sometime around 1:45pm the sound of a floatplane was heard in the distance. Soon Don Elliott was doing his cursory loop of the lake and coming in for his landing.

We quickly paddled over to the plane and tied the canoes off to the floats. The unloading and loading was quick, and we handed over the paddles to trip A2. They remembered the beer, so none of them had to take the long walk off the short float. Soon they were paddling away, and we were taxied down the lake for take-off. The flight back to Mattice Lake was smooth and quick. The Blues, although a tad warm, hit the spot.

We saw a few more bears on the drive home, bringing the trip total to eight bears. The largest was a huge boar that we saw on the way up to Armstrong. Every other bear bolted upon seeing us – not this one. He sat right down and stared at us, which makes for easy picture taking!

nice report - clear and concise.  guess I'll put Wabakimi on the back burner till I get my own float plane though.

Ranger

Good job on the report,I think it would be nice to do a trip in just to be able to say" I did it back when". I didQuetico "back then" in 1977, wow fun to think back. Wabakimi is on y must do list. thanks for the info.

Cedarboy

Ranger,

I checked out your photos...very nice. I realize it was early spring up there but was still struck by the starkness of the land. Very wild looking. 
How accurate did you find maps as far as portage locations, etc.?

The Beaver