BEWARE!!!!!

You need to do a lot of research into the 2021 Fires in Quetico.

The whole middle of the park has been burned.  The "death march" is dead.   Kashapiwi Creek at the Kawnipi outlet is toast; Cutty creek at Eag and Cub is toast - I assume everything south of there is also blackened.  Call the Atikokan office and discuss your proposed route as to its feasibility - they do have a fire map that they showed me.  Imagine a map of Quetico spread out flat and then a can of ink is dumped onto the center of the map and spreads out to cover the middle "half" of the pack and you get the idea.  Maybe you can find a link to the map online ?    I changed my route a couple of times - had planned on going Cutty creek to Cutty/Sark/Trant/AgnesMurdoch - blew that off after I hit Eag.  The ground has been burned so that there is not much holding up the trees, especially those shallow rooted ones on rock - better sharpen your saw too.  And the burned ground is treacherous with holes where roots have burned out and a consistency like grease where its wet.  The Northern half of the park was untouched - better to route thru there.  Not sure about the border lakes.

Mad_Mat wrote on Jun 20^th, 2022 at 5:59pm:


Yeah, looking at the burn map it looks like that area around Eag and Cub was among the most severely burned areas, along with Alice to Montgomery and Shelley

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I’ve seen the north of the park and it’s easy for me to access. I won’t have too many opportunities to see the south, so I’m set on it this year.

I’ll skirt most of the burn.  From Sturgeon I’ll go down the Maligne and pass through Tanner, which has all burned. Not too keen on that, but there is just a single very short portage there (de Roche Grenovilleus).

Minn and McAree are burned on their east sides. I’ll likely take Crooked eastward and detour into Argo for a look-see (southwest bay is burned, north shore is slightly burned).

Robinson, Tuck, and Sarah are burned on one side only. And McIntyre looks like it got off lightly. So it looks like a passage through there is possible. From Sarah to Side and Kahshahpiwi, or via Irene if it’s not too badly burned there.

From Kahshahpiwi northward, it looks like there is a swath of unburned land that will allow a passage to Keats. The only problem will be the 170m to Heronshaw and the nearby 160m to Metacryst. After that it looks like the 340m to the lake between Meta and Baird is unburned, the 190m to Baird looks iffy, but the 730 to Keats is unburned.

Of course I’ll check with the park staff first. But I wanna also be that Dutch kid. 

Mad_Mat wrote on Jun 24^th, 2022 at 9:29pm:


Outstanding! I’ll keep an eye out for the ‘tunnel’.  You’re my portage hero.  Definitely bringing my bigger saw with me this time.

Looking forward to your trip report and some pictures