The stairway portage into Rose? or Duncan? (can't remember) is one of my favorites. 

prouboy

Second the Yum Yum, also would include the Kahsh/McNeice and the portage between Earl and the first unnamed lake on the southern route to McIntyre- a long and beautiful walk. In the B-dub the middle portage between Mudro and Fourtown grants a nice vista high above the flow.

db wrote on Mar 30^th, 2012 at 6:50am:



I have done Sturgeon/Russell stair way. I think the Kash to Joyce has got to taller. Maybe it was the end of the day, but I felt that at any moment, I was going to be reach  the pearly gates be able to shake Elvis's hand before I descended back down to Joyce.

For me my favorite portage is Badwater. Badwater was the first "real" portage I did as a skinny 13 year old. Every time I cross that portage since I use it as my measuring stick, to see what kind of shape I am in etc.

That Kests to Baird walk just keeps climbing and climbing. I rate it as one of the toughest portages I've done on the basis of volume of lactic acid generated in the thighs. But as Snowdog said the location worth the price of the trip. Baird to Camel (especially the first segment of Cutty. creek after Baird) is beautiful

Excellent topic S_D, get us back on track.

Argo to Darkwater comes to my mind. Nice landings on both ends, views of the lakes are both nice too.

I keep calling them hikes, but Martha says they're not hiking trails  She may be remembering going to Badwater   
Thinking of visiting Cache with her this spring 

No need to limit this to the BW/Q.  Any portage anywhere can be thrown in as a favorite.

There's a nice one in APP going from Shah to Misty.  Starts with a steep up, get that out of the way early.  Long gentle decline to Misty.  Nice transition from high-ground to a swamp edge to the lake proper.  Near halfway is a grove of cedars that blocks a view to an old tote road, long since decomissioned & overgrown.


Temagami has an intersting one on the Lady Evelyn R., N Chanel.  Going upstream it's the 2nd one from Sucker Gut.  Not long, but follows a set of waterfalls.  About halfway is a 10-15' cliff.  A solo tripper might want to rope the canoe up.  There are solid foot-holds, but the cumbersome canoe + the wrong wind would be interesting.


Dickson/Bonfield in APP for bragging rights.  5.3km/1000 rods - mostly it's long with a couple tricky ankle twisting sections.  It's the portage that broke me, double carry, I got fed up ~500m from the end and camped on the trail at dusk.  Finishing the next morning I just laughed at myself for getting so close & yet being so far.

The portage around the last falls leading out of the pot hole section of the Kopka River- you can hear the river going down, down but the portage stays up until.....

That simply an amazing portage, Solus.  Can't imagine ever doing something like that.

For me, I still recall the feeling I had on that portage from Crooked into the SW arm of Argo.  Heading gently uphill through old forest was like going back in time.  The gound was so soft, the air so damp, and the pines so old.  And then after hitting the peak and heading down to the granite slab diving into that unique tint of Argo's water....I'll never forget it.
 

Any portage where the blueberries are thick and ripe is my favorite.

I'm going to second dd on the Bailey Bay/Burke portage. It was the very first portage I ever did way back when, and I thought it was a damn long trek, carrying a couple of very heavy packs (single portaging back then). When we got through it and our experienced leader said it was the easiest portage we were going to have all week, I thought he was joking!    I learned much about portaging after that    But it's still my favorite!

I think the most memorable portage for me is the swamp portage between Grey and that little unnamed lake on the way to Kash. You have the bog/swamp/marsh in the middle, and then the deceptive fork in the road that takes you back to Grey if you go the wrong way. Slipped off the logs my first time through there and sank up to my armpits in the muck 

Then again, there a lot that have special memories 

Solus wrote on Mar 30^th, 2012 at 7:17pm:

This was the "boardwalk" in 2009.  Does the location match up? 
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-YB

Yeah, that boardwalk is nice but the downside is the portage has significantly less character now.  But it takes some character just to get to it, regardless of your approach.

The portage out of Mcniece toward Shan Walsh. The last time through was in a foggy drizzle. Big cedar and pine, the place is magical!
Basswood to Kett is a nice walk.

Jimbo wrote on Apr 1^st, 2012 at 12:39pm:

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Basswood to Kett ? If you add in the leg to Tuck Lake I'd have to say it is my favorite, NOT  !! Did that in '05 to try and save time to Robinson. Basswood to Kett was partially flooded by beavers. What a misstake ! It was hot and by the time we stopped at Tuck Lake I was all in.

I don't know if it's my fav or not, but it certainly was memorable.  It's the one between Mack and Munro Lakes.  It's a pretty good up/down, but that wasn't it.  It was the ticks.  I had the canoe, so I really couldn't stop, but I could see them all over me, and even on the bushes.  At the end of the portage I had to strip buck nekked and wound up picking something like 70 or 80 of them off me.  The zip offs on my pants worked well as tick traps.  The flaps stopped some of them and there were 15 or so trapped there on each leg.  Apparently I'm a tick magnet...

Quote:


True be that! Holding the canoe on my shoulders with one hand, grabbing a tree root and pulling myself up a muddy hill in the rain with the other? Priceless.

But for me, nothing -- NOTHING -- compares to the Bon Homme and Sauvage portages south of Fern, which we did that same trip. 400 rods and 291 rods, back to back (and double portaged each one). First time we did those I had a 70-plus pound aluminum canoe with NO YOKE -- just some foam wrapped around the middle thwart.

A storm had recently come through, and trees were down across the trail all over the place. In one place, three trees fell on top of each other. And you couldn't go around. I spent a lot of time pushing, pulling and lifting that canoe through the mess.

In addition, there was "the bog". I was walking in two inches of water, a canoe for a hat, when suddenly I was waist deep. They said it was like a cartoon -- half my body suddenly disappeared. Then my foot got wedged under a root in that muck, and I had to be pulled out. Another guy had to "dive" down and get his sandal.

So, "favorite" portage? Hmmm. Certainly one of the most memorable.

(We took the long Fern River portage on the way out.)

-- kypaddler

Years later, we retraced our steps with a slightly different group. We tried to warn the "newcomers" in the one canoe what was ahead, but they laughed at us. After Bonhomme and Sauvage, they didn't talk to us for two days.

Oh, I forgot to mention the guy we thereafter referred to as "The Soothsayer" or "The Prophet."

Driving on the way north on that trip (it's a 950-mile trip), we stopped to get gas. We were running late, so when this ancient-looking guy saw our canoes and tried to make conversation, we gave some short answers, thinking he was just being polite and not realizing he was genuinely interested. We weren't exactly rude, just less friendly than we typically are. In a hurry, you know.

He asked if we were going to Quetico, said he had been there in the spring, couldn't wait to get back, and then asked: "You doing that mile-long portage with the waist-deep mud?"

We had no idea what he was talking about, but just answered "um, sure ... yes" so we could get going. We felt kind of like someone finding out you're from Chicago or New York or somewhere like that and being asked, "Really, well do you know so-and-so?"

Quetico's a big place, you know. Lots of portages.

Lack of engaged responses sealed our fate, I guess.

Because a couple of days later, there we were in waist-deep mud on a mile-long portage.

He must of "sent" us there.

Because what were the odds that we'd be headed to Quetico, entering the park at the same point and taking the same route and ending up on the same portage and finding conditions the same in late fall as in early spring?

-- kypaddler

In the BW, got mesmerized by the hike from Hanson to S. Arm last May.  Traveling solo and doing two trips, I wasted so much time taking pictures of waterfall, etc., I overcooked my exit and stumbled into camp on Carp at almost midnight.

In the Q, most memorable was on our first trip. On the way back to PP from Sarah, we stumbled from an unnamed pond S of Side Lake to Nest Lake.  It was 25 yrs ago, and I still have the maps with the skull and cross-bones drawn over that one.  A true swamp with large hussocks of grass and tight trees, no trail, for a mercifully short distance.  We "surfed" the canoes gunwale side up as best we could.

Will never forget the look of horror on the face of one of my partners when he, walking backwards, lost his balance, let go of the bow of the canoe and landed up to his armpits in muck the color of a pig sty.  He had on what were, up until that moment, white painter's pants.  Guy hasn't signed up for a trip since...

pine_knot wrote on Mar 30^th, 2012 at 5:18pm:

 

I also love that portage.  Did it the end of last June, and when I got to Argo, there were a pair of eagles that greeted me.  It is a bit of a hike uphill, and that granite slab can get a bit slick.  Thanks for reminding me of that  one. 

wally wrote on Mar 30^th, 2012 at 3:58pm:

I tried to warn you. Didn't I? That was you right?

My all time favorite portage is from  the NW corner of Poobah directly north to the Maligne river. It is not on some maps but is on old Fisher maps. I asked Shane Walshe about it when I happened to run into him and he told me it was marked with large blazes every 100 meters or so even though there was not really a trail anymore. A group of 6 of us did it in 1988 by repeatedly sending 2 or 3 scouts to the find the next blaze while the rest of us moved all the gear up to the most recently discovered blaze. The blazes were huge and unmistakable. There is a little lake in the middle with very difficult approaches but it is a charming lake. It dropped us out into wild rapids in the Maligne. It was as fine a day as I have ever had in the wilderness and I would love to do it again but I can't get anyone to agree to go there with me again.
Jon

It is the Enchanted Portage in WCPP coming south off of Dunstan Lake and Headed to Royd.  It is a pleasant walk, trail through a beautiful forest.  Fairly flat and open in some spots and wooded in others.  I just REALLY think that is a special place.  Lots of wild flowers, mushrooms, open area's of grass, blueberries, etc etc.  It is about a 1/2 mile, but a nice half mile.
SunCatcher
Here is a picture of Molly on the Enchanted Portage
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