A ski club had some openings on a BWCA trip and I joined in.  I liked it but wanted more remote area and so the next trip was a group of 4 and into Quetico.  I was hooked.  I have been to WCPP and Wavakimi but prefer Quetico.  That is not to say I would not go back to either of the other two Canadian parks.  If the Canadians decide they don’t want me I would go to BWCA.

I cut my teeth canoeing in Algonquin - it's only a four hour drive from Toronto, where I lived at the time, and pretty much a "standard" destination. I have no idea how I got started canoeing - invited by a buddy probably?

Canoeing took a back seat to backpacking when I moved out west, but Quetico was "on the way" for road trips to visit family in T.O., and one year I decided to rent a canoe and  take a couple of days break from driving. Now it's a destination rather than a stopover, and most years I've been able to fit a Q trip in.

Other recent trips have included WCPP, Nopiming (Manitoba), and Bowron Lakes (BC). This year I hope to make it to Atikaki (MB) and McLellan lakes (northern Saskatchewan). Plus Quetico of course - that's still #1 for me.

Why do I choose one place over another?

Well first I have to find out about them. Quetico got a writeup in Outside mag one year ("world's best canoeing destination"), WCPP I learned about on QJ, Bowron was a third-hand recommendation, McLellan is used by U of Calgary for one of their annual trips, and CCR is always a good source of ideas and trip reports.

Beyond that, anyplace that's wilderness (the less-used the better), new to me (new route if not new park), and closer than Quetico is enough of an excuse to put on the list.

nowadays, its so easy to find new places, but before the internet became such a useful tool, it was only by reading about a place, that I would want to go there

seems like I've always canoed - more than 45 years.  but for the first 15 or so years, just did local rivers and lakes, never a wilderness camping trip or even an overnighter, even though the canoes were parked on what would become the start of the NFCT. 

Saw a full page add in Playboy, for Camel Cigarettes (no, I don't smoke) which had a picture of a canoe flying thru the whitewater of Chase Rapids on the Allagash, adn described the adventur to be had there; I think they were promoting trips ther with an outfitter - that pretty much mcuh gave me the bug to do that trip, though it would be several years later (I still have that page, torn out, and in the photo album ffrom the Allagash trip).

lived in the BIG D for a few years, then decided to move to Colorado, and took time off then to do the Allagash with my Dad, in 82 when the timing was right. 

Somewhere in there, I read an article in Outdoor Life or Field and Stream about a wilderness canoe fishing trip in Ontario - Quetico, and it became a goal to get up there someday - so did the first Quetico trip in 84.

the first half dozen or so trips began at Moose Lake in BWCA, but I never could find a BWCA route that really appealded to me, on top of the campsite issue and more people.  But the B-dub is still on the "someday" list.

Why Quetico and not WCPP or Algonquin, or Bowron Lakes for that matter, is more a matter of logistics - all of those destinations would eat up at least two more days of vacation, or "cost" me two days of paddling, at least - so "someday".  I guess a big part of the deal is that I love Quetico, probably because it fits my style/type of trip I want to do, and until I get tired of it or it becomes a money issue, I'll keep going there.

"someday" is getting closer all the time, and in a couple/few years, I'll likely do a trip in the Adirondaks, and maybe Algonquin - for sure Bowron Lakes and the Yukon R are planned, maybe in '14 or '15 and maybe do the Allagash again - but I don't see myself "abandoning" Quetico for just another pretty face.  In the meantime, there are the local river trips, several overnighters a year in Colorado and Utah that are a lot of fun - wild, but nor real wilderness.

I was always drawn to the fisher maps my dad had in his workshop from the fifties. He never took me paddling, but gave me plenty of other outdoor xperiances... mostly hunting. In my early twenties I got a bug up my butt and in my usuall go all out way, I bought canoes, tents,packs and "all the stuff I'd need" to outfit groups of eight. I think back then you could bring in ten people. So I spent the better part of the next three years doing five to eight day trips bringing in mostly church groups... I had an in with a camp director. Then I got bored bringing in groups so I started going up to what is now Atikaki in Manitoba... Just me and my dog. I still outfitted groups until I met the gal I eventually married and felt I had to get a rea job. I still took groups up for years... Smaller groups. Until my divorce and I then spent almost twenty years working the soft water months building fireplaces and chimneys. Then I got reintroduced back to the B Dub and I was hooked again. Soon after my son told me about Woodland Caribou... I researched it and read Marten's, Jimbo's and others accounts and I was going. My son and I had an awesome magical time and I've been there twice since... The latest was a twenty six day trip. I've been doing plenty of the B Dub too and did a forty day trip there this fall. I'm going to work a lot this year but plan to go back up to WCPP this fall. The funny thing is I've never spent any time in Quetico... I think I'll give er a shot next year. One of my favorite things besides my solo's is the group solo's with the awesome people I've met along the way.

I got my start when I was 16. My Sunday School teacher invited me and some other boys my age to go with him to a place I had never heard of, Quetico. We had several planning meetings where he attempted to get us 'up to speed' on what we needed to bring and how to prepare. One of the meetings was to work out menu. He asked us to write down what we liked to eat & drink, and we discussed it. This was back before the advent of lightweight gear and sugar-free drinks. We had canvas tents, heavy sleeping bags, etc. We brought it all. The funniest part, was he completely ignored our menu choices, including the kool-aid. Beverages were coffee or water. That is where I learned to drink coffee. The coffee was cajun coffee. I think the stir stick stood upright.

On the trip, we flew in to Cabin 16, (on Basswood) to clear customs, and then on to LLC to the old ranger station north of Warrior Hill. We paddled to Black Robe, and then to Minn. It rained every day, and nothing, including our sleeping bags stayed dry. But we caught fish. Some huge northerns, bass, and waldos. Our raingear was cheap plastic ponchos. We did not have a cooking tarp, or any stove, so all of our cooking was over open fire. My job for dinner, was to stand over the fire with my poncho extended to try to keep the rain off the fire. One evening, one of my buds had finished peeling the spuds, and without warning, dumped the wet peelings in our fire, immediately extinguishing it. I had a sudden urge to kill...but resisted.

Why do I come back? Did I mention the fishing? I figured if I could survive that trip, I could survive any trip. Did I mention the fishing?