Thanks so much for this detailed account Brad! My partner and I will be heading there shortly. Did you pass any other canoes/see any people? How was the fishing?

You're welcome. I hope it might save you a few minutes here or there.

I didn't see any other canoes when I was there, but there were some people fishing on Duval the day I arrived, and on Big Horseshoe the day I left.

There was also quite the collection of fishing boats on Robb Lake at the camp there, but I don't think anyone was at the camp on the day I was in the lake.

On Kirkpatrick I didn't see anyone for two days I spent there, but I was in the north bay of the lake the whole time because the weather/wind wasn't good for much exploring.

I'm not big on fishing typically, and only fished once for a short time with no luck.

Great thanks! How were water levels? Considering taking the river instead of that deadly 1.7 in kirkpatrick.

Water levels were fine. There really isn't much on the loop that I followed that might be affected too much by water levels, except perhaps the north part when you're in the West Little White River... it's a bit shallow there in parts, so maybe in a severely dry year there might be issues. I'm not sure about the river south out of Robb. From the Jonathan Kelly video it seemed kind of low even in presumably high water, since he was going through in the spring IRRC.

I did this loop a week ago. Spent 8 nights. Also accessed from Duval like Brad, but unlike Brad, I portaged the 500m into Duval from the main road. The main road itself was not bad, although pretty slow going with some rough sections. Wouldn't want a low clearance vehicle though, that's for sure.

I attempted the West Little White river from Robb to Elbow and it was brutal. Being a low water year and in the fall, I'm not sure what I was thinking (well, I was thinking "it can't be THAT bad" - but it was). Forget paddling, I probably spent 10 mins paddling it, mostly in the wide mini-lake-like area. Forget even wading/dragging the canoe. It was mostly following a couple existing portages along the side of the river, and the rest was portaging my gear over the round boulders of the dried up river bed - and sometimes even portaging IN the river (with slimy, slippery rocks). Not even enough water to drag the canoe. Obviously I didn't attempt the lower section of the river (between Elbow and Kirkpatrick) after this ordeal, so I used the portage from Elbow to meet up with the 3k. That was also mostly a bushwhack straight uphill to the 3k, as there were only a couple visible markers of the trail at the start, then it disappeared.

So, at this point, I don't know how much work the 1700 needs, but it feels like that might be the best option to connect the route, especially if it gets a little clearing work. The main 3k itself was fairly clear, but that's looong - and it's pretty hilly.

I also attempted to go around Bluebird and instead headed up into White Bear and look for the portage from the northeast corner of it into Little White Bear. The portage into White Bear was nice (as is the lake itself), but the next portage is extremely rugged and difficult to follow (if it even still fully exists). Not to mention confusing, as it follows some dried up river beds and there are many open boulder-strewn areas where it's not obvious which direction to head next. I made it about 1/3 of the way up it, then turned back and headed back into Kirkpatrick to go through Bluebird. As already mentioned, the Bluebird route is no walk in the park either!

It'd be nice to spend more time connecting the White Bear route though, as that's a really pretty lake and interesting alternative. That said, there weren't any obvious campsites on White Bear (or Elbow for that matter). There is one fairly intersting really old camp close to the portage though. It's not visible from the water, I only noticed it by following the shoreline there and seeing some indication of a structure through the canopy. A pretty elaborate old camp that looked like it hasn't been used in possibly decades.

Only other point worth mentioning is that I attempted to explore up the West Little White river at the far east side of Kirkpatrick. That was a failure. It also was very dry (could not paddle up it) and a couple hundred meters up the river, there was a massive completely impassable log jam - so I gave up and turned around.

It's such a nice area, but it's extremely portage heavy to say the least.

I'll be posting a full trip report in the near future.

Thanks for the additional information Steve. Based on your account, maybe the 1700m portage is the better choice... but I'm still not sure that I'd want to do it again. I guess that 2.5 hours (pond to Kirkpatrick) isn't the end of the world, but it wasn't super fun. Even in the earlier part of the portage, where the snow machine trail could be made out, the bushes/trees were up over 6' tall in a lot of spots and tight.

Yeah, I read your account of that 1700m again and it sounds very unpleasant... Would be good for someone to try the entire river section in early season high water, but I highly doubt it will be enjoyable.

Perhaps the full 3000m is the ticket then, as it's probably the easiest and clearest route. Elbow was really nothing to write home about either - quite a small lake, no campsites or islands.