"Seeking Northern Q entry, vast amounts of water, good fishing with minimal portaging."
Sounds like my last trip! (family trip - easy on wife & kids - Stanton Bay - Rawn - Buckingham - French)  

Entry options:
French
Stanton Bay
Nym
Beaverhouse

Pro's:
French: NO portgate at entry. You can paddle ~40km to the west with NO portaging.  From central Pickerel, you can paddle ~10 km s / SE to Rawn which, NO portaging or add 3 short portages to Buckingham, which was empty for us.  From the west of Pickerel, paddle N to Batchewaung Bay & Lake, NO portaging.

Stanton Bay: 400m put-in portage puts you in central Pickerel as a starting point.  Nice if you're going somewhere or don't want to fight the wind on Pickerel out of French.

Nym: 800m portage near put-in (Nym-Batchewaung).  After that you can take out at French, NO more portaging.  Wind more at your back (does that ever really happen?)

Beaverhouse: small carry to put-in.  Most people bypass this put-in, but good fishing lake.  Small portage to Quetico - paddle 20k + to the East -lots of water to explore with NO portaging.  Or take short portages to Cirrus - another 20k long lake.

Cons:
French: fighting wind to paddle west; lots of people on the no-portage water!
Stanton Bay: need outfitter drop off; road may wash out again (out 2009, but fixed now); you'll see people.
Nym: 800m is not trivial; popular - many people.
BH: you'll see people near the entry, but the western part maybe not. 

Something to chew on...enjoy.

-Tom

PS: I clicked on your handle - you're 26, so how old's dad?  I was thinking 70 or something.  I'm 48 & my plan for next year (may get changed) is Stanton - B-chain - Ram -Antoine - bushwack to no-names NE of Lonely - Lonely - Walter - Eliz - Jesse - Maria - Pickerel - Batch Bay - Batch Lake - Nym.  
74 km route w/20 portages, 7km total portage length.  I'm not in the best shape - maybe your dad can do more than you think!

Shorter time trip, you could stay on Pickeral with no  portages;

5 to 7 days would make a nice liesurely one-way trip from Beaverhouse across the northern tier of lakes, and exit at either Nym or French - that would require a shuttle though.  Beaverhouse to Nym is maybe 2 to 3 days travel, doing it in a week would leave lots of time for fishing and an easy pace.

My personal choice would be Start at French, down thru the "B's to Oliphaunt and Sturgeon, and return via Dieux Riviers (or however its spelled)  Most portages are reasonably short, with only the one long portage between Fern and Oliphaunt - if you make that a one day trip - i.e. camp on Fern one night, and on Oliphaunt the next, you could take your time on the portage.

IF you are planning on late summer, then some of the small creek travel may be a poor choice, such as Dieux Riviere, which can get too low for easy travel.

Thanks folks for the speedy advice!! My dad just turned 60 and certainly isn't in the best shape. He isn't the type to exercise daily, but he does start a program prior to the trips to prepare himself. I'll see if I can get him to start exercising, just for his own good let alone the trip.  Oh, one more thing. He doesn't want a short trip lol. He likes his 10 days in the wilderness, but likes a little bit of a slower pace. I'm willing to do the extra work to make it fun for him to see new places and not work as hard so that he can enjoy himself. Mad_Mat, the trip would be late summer/early fall.

Thankfully I still have a lot of time before the trip to plan things out, but I'm just trying to get a feel for where I should start my planning.

I too am considering a Northern entry. Any one ever used the Beaverhouse parking lot? is it safe to leave valuables locked in the car there?

We came in from the gunflint last year (and the 20 years before) so we are looking for a little more adventure. The Falls chain is beautiful but when you have been there enough that you don't need a map any longer  a new vista is demanded. Hopefully there is some walleye up on the northern side too.

Any body with first hand expereince would be helpful.

Dead_Dog_Paddler wrote on Dec 11^th, 2009 at 2:37pm:


I almost always use BH for an entry point. I have outfitter bring me in and pick me up. That's a personal choice, the result of a incident involving my vehicle years ago, that I never forgot.

BH has had vehicles broken into in the past. So has Nym. The culprits were travelers heading west/east and stopped in to hit the 4-wheel ATM'S that had their "Assets" on display.

One of my ways of passing time waiting for my pickup on BH, is to look into parked vehicles for "easy" pickings I would say that more than half of the vehicles I look into, have valuables that would spark a thieves interest. Cell phones/luggage/lap tops/GPS and loose change or bills in center consoles

Lets not forget the 4 legged bandits. I would say the same percentage or higher leave food items in vehicle. Donuts/Fast food leftovers/cookies/chips, and once even a half eaten bucket of chicken.
I've seen more than a few vehicles with bear prints on the hood to the trunk where Yogi was taking a peek/sniff for goodies.

I'd lock any/all items in trunk or at least hide under seat well. I'd also leave no food of any kind in vehicle and if you can, use a cooler and lock any items you want on takeout in your trunk.

For some reason people think there is NO crime "Up North" :question
They wouldn't leave valuables out at home, they shouldn't do it up there either.  Highway 11 is a popular route across Canada. Thieves target places like that, remote, yet easily driven into. They sell the items at truck stops for gas and drug money. Common sense applies EVEN up in God's country