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When you head up to the spill out on the right side, you'll see a steep trail that goes straight to the put-in on Russell. The problem there is a poor landing area to get your gear out and room for one canoe at a time at best.

  Much easier to go up as far as you can paddle to a nice flat rock landing area. Room for a couple of canoes there too. You might have to unload one then the other depending on the water level but much better and safer than the little bit shorter/steeper portage.

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  The INFAMOUS Staircase portage!
One of those portages you do to say you did it but if you have an option you don't want to ever do again.

  You fall on that steep climb out of Sturgeon Lk you're not going to stop rolling until you hit the water. 

  Russell side is just as steep but it's "terraced" so you have a chance to recoup if you need too.

Yes, the Orange circle is the Staircase Portage. No current there.

  The purple is Sturgeon Narrows, there IS pretty strong current thru there heading West to the Maligne River.

  Those 2 campsites are a possibility you'd have to check out in person or with the Paddle Planner?

   Do you have a CHRISMAR ADVENTURE map? If not get one. It's a smaller scale map of the whole park. Shows the LATEST portage info and is good to use to plan a route. It doesn't show campsites but it's easier to work with for planning than bigger McKenzie/Fisher type maps.

Once you have a route, use the bigger maps and Paddle Planner to mark campsites you might want to stay at.

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I did the stairway portage in 2017 at the end of a long travel day with no lunch.  I was running on empty while setting up on Russell.  I'd do that portage early in the day if you go that route.  Russell is a gorgeous lake although I was there before the fire in 2018.

db wrote on Feb 7^th, 2020 at 6:11pm:


Looks like a screen shot of paddle planner