My 8-year old daughter has been busy planning one of our summer canoe trips for a school project (to the Temigami region), so it's gotten me deeply into canoe-trip-dreaming land. That always seems to start with the old maps of La Verendrye showing obsolete routes, and dreams of exploring them (as LV is my first love). I thought I'd share a few of our brief off-circuit explorations that we have managed to do here.
Circuit 15 connector to Circuit 34 (Baie Des Rapides to Coulonge headwaters). We paddled this old connector route in 2007 for two reasons: we wanted to leave the car somewhere secure for 20 days (Le Domaine), and we wanted to start at the tippy tippy top headwaters of the Coulonge. There's satisfaction in starting at the absolute top, and as far as we could tell, that was the way to do it. The route is actually shown (sort-of) as recently as the April 2005 Circuit Map #2, but not later, and I have portage distances from that map. To get there we paddled north on Jean-Pere, under Rt 117 and down some wonderful rapids on the Riviere Des Rapides. We camped on an old site on a point of land in Baie Des Rapides, and in the morning paddles to the creek that would take us to Lac Taiga and back under 117. We attempted to drag the creek, but that was foolhardy so we easily portaged up the road and into the woods when we could see the lake. 265m, super easy. It was a pleasant paddle through the culvert, into Lac Brotel, over a million beaver dams into lac Chalain, and then a short 95m portage over a road into Lac Laporte. Lac Laporte was a very pretty lake, narrow, with cliffs lining the eastern shore. From there it was an easy 60m portage into Lac Coutelles (with an old visible trail), and then a 215m portage into Lac Alvimare. This was the only tricky one to find, despite being right where is was supposed to be, as you had to cross some marsh to get to the trees. There was an old trail sunk into the boggy ground, and even an old portage sign (in the middle of the woods, on the ground). From there it was a straight forward 125m bushwack portage to Lac Aigny through pretty, open woods, and a 65m portage on a nice trail out to Lac Fada and Circuit 34. All-in-all, it was a very simple and useful alternative cross-over to access the central part of the park from the south. There are two other routes shown on older maps, one from Lac Poulter (which I've seen mentioned on this site) and another one through Baie Des Rapides through Lac Retty.
Creek From Lac Du Portage (Circuit 34) to Lac Camatose (Circuit 37). This route is also partially shown on the 2005 Map #2. I paddled through here with a camp group several years ago out of curiosity. There is a creek that drains Lac Du Portage on it's north-western shore and into small Lac Obel. It was a very runnable creek, with a little bit of adventure. The first chute out of Lac Obel seduced my co-leader into running, and gave the campers the experience of seeing how nicely an ABS boat unfolds after it bends in half. I don't recall any other big excitement, there were some fun runnable rapids, not too many blowdowns, and one huge log jam against an old bridge. I unfortunately twisted my knee badly clearing the portage trail here on the right, only to discover that the left side was the way to go. It was the last day, so no big deal!
Dozios Reservoir to Lac Cawatose, across to Lac Camitogama (Circuit 37), then back to Dozios via Camitogama River. I had noticed these connections from Circuit 37 to the Dozios reservoir, and we included them in a little exploration trip in 2012. We had to keep it tame that year for our 1-year old! We put in at Natagam on Dozios, at the end of Rt 34, at 6pm. We paddled 1.5 km across the bay and easily lined up the creek into the northern bay of Lac Cawatose. We made it to our site by 9pm, (nice large rocky site with picnic table). The next day it was across the portage into Camitogama, then down the river back to Dozios. There is portage about three km into the river that I don't remember at all (odd), my notes say that we had lunch and it was "almost runnable". An old map says RIV, but it was a small river, more of a creek so it couldn't have been massive. Likely just rocky. There is another drop at the end back into the Reservoir that we ran. Both the in and out on this little loop were a piece of cake, and Dozios is an interesting place, so not a bad little loop. Certainly a useful way of accessing the northern part of the park by canoe, or the other way.
Dozios through Baie Mazo to Lac Steton to Lac La Loche to Lac Chartier (Circuit 78). Later in the same trip, we attempted a portage route shown on old maps from Dozios to Lac Chartier on Circuit 78. We successfully navigated to Baie Mazo at the south eastern tip of Dozios - not the easiest thing to do with the fluctuating water levels of the reservoir. Down into Baie Young and up was the way to go, rather than straight across. At the far end of Baie Mazo there is a dam, with a nice little site and picnic table on the left, not part of the campground which is across the bay and north a bit. The next day we portaged the dam and found the marsh at the far end, where we tried in vain to find the trail to Lac Seton. I was made paranoid by the presence of my one-year old, and probably gave up quicker than I would have otherwise. It was a swamp, with fairly easy walking, but the kind of terrain where every direction looks the same. No GPS and limited flagging tape (we did have compass and map though, so no excuses), so we headed back and spend some nice days exploring Dozios instead. Looking at the route on Google Earth, it seems like there is a clear portage trail on the eastern edge of the swamp. Despite finding an old campsite, we did not find the trail, although after looking at Google Maps again I don't think we went east enough. Anyhow, I don't think it would be very hard to push through the swamp trail or no. One day.... Later that year I did explore up the other side of the route with a camp group, we paddled from Lac Chartier up to Lac La Loche. It was a very clear creek, very paddle-able, I don't remember any blow-downs. Some small rocky sections in the middle, easily navigated/dragged. The campers counted something like 95 bends in the creek.I did paddle a few minutes up the creek to Lac Seton, and the thing is narrow! I have no idea if it is navigable all the way through, but according to the old maps, it is. Word of caution, the topo makes it not obvious how to actually get into the creek from Chartier - do not go into the little swamp pond, the mouth of the creek is along the eastern shore of the bay. There is a beautiful, beautiful beach site in the narrow inlet on the eastern shore of Lac La Loche, I'd paddle all the way back up there just to camp there again.
Modification of Circuit 63 - Creek from Lac Yser to Lac Gustave and the Chochocuane River. This, along with the Denain river, is a route I've been looking at for a while. This route is shown on old maps, while the Denain is not (curious!). We had a few extra days at the end of a trip in 2013 that ended just to the north, so we decided to do some creek exploration. We put in on the portage on Circuit 63 between Lac Denain and Lac Ypres, paddled down Ypres and camped at the end. In the morning we portaged to Lac Yser, and paddled to the end of that, where there is a big parking area and several cabins (good to know for the future!). Immediately out of the lake there is a nice little covered footbridge that we paddled under, which began a couple kilometer ride down some fun, easy rapids (water levels seemed slightly high, and were slightly high on the Chochocuane). The only tricky part was immediately under the road bridge, where the kids and my wife walked about 100m while I pinballed the canoe down, somehow staying out of trouble. Coming out of the next lake (Diegem) is the only portage that we had to make, around some falls. An old logging road made for an easy portage. Following this was a fun. long rapid which we scouted around a corner and ran with no issues. After the rapid the creek changed character and became a sandy, windy creek, very beautiful with wooded, instead of swampy, shores. Easy paddling brought us to Lac Gustave and the wonderful beach site there, where we took a day off. We scratched the plan to return via the Denain, and instead took the traditional route, turning left off the Denain and going up to Lac Gladu (Circuit 61). One day we'll paddle the Denain, but I'd rather go downstream. I'd also like to find a way to do it without involving my least favorite portage in all of La Verendrye, the 800m bog fest from Fourmet to Denain. I'm not sure what I have against that portage, but...ug.
Enjoy!
Dave
|