For this year's trip, I decided to head into the park from the west side, using the less frequently used route that starts at Beresford Lake, MB and reaches the park boundary 10.5 miles later at Garner Lake.

Our route ran from Garner Lake to Donald Lake (modified from the original plan mostly due to weather conditions).
The route includes:  Garner River, Jester Lake, Garner River, no-name lakes, Garner River, Haggart Lake, Haggart River, Bulging Lake, Haggart River, no-name lakes, Donald Lake (and reverse on the way out).

Portages along the route (one way):  19 (some not so easy to find)
Distance from Beresford Lake (one way): 38

Bugs:  Only early and late during the day; a variety of biting flies and mosquitoes at and after dusk until dawn.  Ticks:  0

Fishing:  Fair to Good.  Caught a number of walleye over 28 inches, some sizable (~34 inch) lakers and the ever-present pike (nothing special here; several above 30 inches).  These waters do not hold smallmouth.

Weather:  This was the major factor for this trip, so the table below represents the stats from the nearest reporting station (Great Falls, MB) for which I could find historical reports.  (This station is less than 70 km from the put-in.)  Some of our on-site temperature readings were slightly higher than those indicated here.

Day      Max      Min      Mean     Wind      Avg       Max Gust          Avg         Bar.
          Temp      Temp   Temp     Dir       Spd        Dir      Spd        Hum        Press.
July      °F           °F        °F                       m/h                 m/h          %              in.
10      83.5      57.6      70.5      WSW      5.67      W      24.23      53.25      28.80
11      66.4      55.4      61.0      W          7.56      WNW 24.23      74.00      29.02
12      72.1      47.3      59.7      S           4.77            < 19.25      61.25      29.27
13      76.5      52.2      64.4      SSE      10.43      S       20.51      57.21      29.22
14      79.9      60.6      70.3      S            7.6             < 19.25      58.42      29.01
15      82.9      65.5      74.3      S            6.4             < 19.25      74.88      28.86
16      90.5      65.3      77.9      SSW        5.3      WSW  19.88      64.79      28.91
17      87.3      64.8      76.1      W           3.2             < 19.25      60.58      29.04
18      90.3      60.6      75.6      W           1.9             < 19.25      57.29      29.08
19      94.8      68.0      81.5      SSE         7.1      N       22.99      60.21      28.86
20      87.1      70.9      79.0      S           6.8      WNW   27.34      69.25      28.56
21      79.7      61.0      70.3      W         11.9*      NW   42.87      45.88      28.73

* During the window between 8:00am and 3:00 pm, the average wind speed was 17 mph.

So, we had 80 degree days from the 14 though the end of the trip, with a high reading of 95.  Our last day we were paddling west into a pretty stiff wind.  This made our exit paddle about twice as long as our entry paddle (Garner is a relatively open lake (east/west) so we did a lot of shore hugging and island hopping.

Solitude:  Sporatic: a duo on a day trip to Jester from Garner, a group of 9 Boy Scouts and leaders on Bulging, a young couple that we crossed paths with 4 times over several days (Haggart River & Donald)  and a group of 6 that joined us on our campsite on Donald.  This group included Jerry Ameis (see trip reports on WCPP at canoestories.com), who I'd shared several e-mails with pre-trip.  I also was one motor boat with 2 passengers on Donald.  (There is a lot of float plane traffic in and out of Donald, but I did not encounter any other people.)  On our exit, we also ran into a park portage clearing crew of 2 members (first no-name lake west of Haggart).

More later.

dd

Mixed emotions DD. I really enjoyed your slide show.....nicely done (what, no fish pics!) but I must admit to having to suppress a bit of emotion......just a smidge mind you. Hopefully I'll get another crack at it, looks nice.

Very nice!
Did you hang or hide your pack?
Looks like a lot more Jack Pine, scrub type country.
If you hid it, did you go the Blue Barrel route.

Thanks for sharing the pics DD. Were you guys independent, self sufficient or did you always travel together and share?

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) is a brief video of a part of this trip entitled "Moving Water."

dd