The maps seemed fairly accurate. Portages were generally in the obvious locations - starting in the very back of the bay, etc. They weren't always obvious though, as they're not terribly well traveled. But there were often small markers indicating their presence - a small bit of rope tied to a branch near the water, etc. Caution should be taken when paddling river stretches though. If you missed the portage, the current could prevent any going back. The Ogoki River could be especially dangerous as it is high volume and often deep near shore. Take the photo of the "canoe carnage" (see Inuk' album) below the River as an example!

Ranger

I was involved in this project too, Ranger definitely had one of the toughest routes.  Wabakimi is a great place.  Here is a brief trip report of my trip (June 17-24).
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We did not complete our planned route, on Monday we checked out the
route out of the east end of Takeoff Lake where we were supposed to
go. The park super went through there last September. After the
first portage was supposed to be a bog with a creek to paddle in the
middle. All we found was a pond, two puddles, and a grassy meadow.
A beaver dam had broken and that route was now undoable. Storms and
wind were kicking up so we returned to camp. The next day we tried
to explore the west end of Takeoff, but again wind and rain
prevented us from getting there.

Next we headed into the Metig Lakes and began finding abandoned
Native fishing and hunting camps. These were heavily used up into
the 80s based on the types of trash we found (the evolution of the
soda can was found in the dumps). We spent a lot of time cleaning
two of these. We were supposed to be able to track or paddle the
rapids in the area, but we had to portage. Which meant finding the
long snowmobile trails around the swift water and then clearing
them. We saw 5 moose in these lakes, including one that came into
camp on the night of Sweet and Sour Pork and Walleye.

Finally we made it out to big Greenbush lake and during the Friday
night phone call the sat phone batteries died. So they only had our
approximate location and we only had the friday morning scheduled
time for our rendevouz. Saturday was a lot of waiting, but we were
lucky enough to get a glimpse of a woodland caribou just beyond camp
in the edge of the lake. About 3 hours after we expected them the
plane arrived.

We did not cover a lot of ground, but it was a lot of fun and it was
obvious that this park needs Phil and all of the people that are
helping him. I definitely hope to return.

Here is one of my favorite pics.

Thanks for the great trip report. Brought back memories. I was on the 2005 first trip with Phil exactly a year earlier.  Weather was quite warm, no snow, and the bugs were tolerable. Our trip ended at the same place with about the same results.  Phil must be experiencing deja vu.

Our trip started via train and we worked our way north to the same place just below Kenoji.  To get there we made a long portage from Smoothrock, then went down the Berg River, clearing and measuring portages to the Ogoki River.  There's a beautiful falls where the outflow from Oliver Lake drops into Ogoki.  I think that's the beginning of the Ogoki. Water flow direction gets complicated and it's going to take me a few years to really know. From there it was a clear but hard (for oldsters) portage into Oliver.  From Oliver we headed toward Kenoji, came to a dense blowdown on river right (our left) and opted to track and drag up on the north (our right) side of the river.  From there we made it to within two kilometres of Kenoji by May 24, 2005 and set up camp when it started raining.  We experienced heavy rain but were dry in Phil's 4 person Exp. Timberlines.  Best supper I've had during an all out torrential rain.  Nothing beats a nice big tarp.

Our group of four did not reach an agreement on forward progress but nevertheless turned around on May 26th and went back down river through the rapids we had tracked up. I was quite disappointed to turn around as I was really looking forward to seeing more new country. There's a long story here but I'll condense it to simply say: both canoes swamped.  Phil had the longest swim as he was determined to hold onto our canoe and work it to shore.  Mid May and the water is still fairly cold, so you know Hypothermia was close by. Two of our group elected to fly out from the fishing camp on Oliver Lake, using the sat phone to contact Mr. Elliot for rescue.

Phil and I then spent a day drying out in beautiful weather at that same campsite mentioned by Ranger, across from Moneyeen and the fish camp.  Even enjoyed a beer courtesy of our rescuers from across the lake.  That campsite is a great site in fair weather, too exposed otherwise.  After drying out and regaining our sense of humor Phil and I made our way back up the Berg and across Smoothrock to exit out of Little Caribou a few days later.  Phil related some interesting stories from his London travels. I think you would have been hard-pressed to find two over-50 guys traveling any faster in the hot weather. For Phil this trip had been a loss and he was intent on getting ready for trip #2. On our way out we doused an unattended blazing lunch fire left by fishermen. I didn't think people really still did such idiotic things.  Were they drunk?  After two days of hot dry weather the jack pine it was built next two could easily have caught fire. I helped myself to some of the freshly cooked and excellent breaded fish they had thrown on the rock slope.  It was still warm, but unfortunately gulls got most of it.  (I wasn't too bushed, I only ate the nice full pieces the gulls hadn't been gnawing on). That was the only fish I had on the trip.

Got to laugh about winching down that tree while setting up a taut ridge line.  Phil's Navajo saddle cinch is as tight as you're going to get without a come-along.  I'm using that to stake out my dog team now.  Nice and easy to release too.

Going upstream from our campsite below Kenoji, Phil and I spent considerable time clearing out a portage trail on the south side and we could see the final rapids below Kenoji.  I'm disappointed to hear that section must be blown down again.  I was hoping to head up there this year and reap the benefits of our work.  At any rate my wife and I are starting the 12 hr drive up to Armstrong tomorrow morning, leaving the Wolf River to it's own dryness.