It's been fifteen years to the day since I first paddled into Smoky Lk., back then before the popularity of internet message boards & illustrated guide books I basically poked around areas on road maps that had no roads, but looked interesting. It took six years before I saw another canoe that had been ported in on Noganosh, and that really has changed.
Went back again after giving it a few years break from Friday evening to Tuesday morning, over the weekend saw around a dozen canoes going through, then there's the guy who lives on the houseboat with his dog going fishing every day in his tinny, and the fly-in drives in all the lodge supplies on the closed road to the dam so they were ferrying in stuff all the time...so no, it's not exactly solitude in the wilderness. It's actually pretty damn busy, even ran into my first traffic jam on a Smoky Ck. port Tuesday morning as three canoes were coming in as I was going out.

On the plus side, most groups only go for the weekends, Tuesday morning I had Smoky Lk. all to myself, and it is a very pretty lake. There's still tons of wildlife around, and with only four or five motorboats on the whole system it is easy to find an arm or lake to paddle into and not see anybody for most of the day.

On the con side, it sucks when you paddle 10k to get into an out of the way part of the lake and find three motorboats fishing it when you get there. My ex-fav site on the big island between Smoky & Noganosh is trashed, firepit filled with half burned Ziploc goo, cans, punky crap wood scattered about, around a dozen rusting half burned Coghlan's grills are scattered around, no less than three fish cleaning tables nailed into trees. Was just sad.
Also a word of warning, enough people are going through there are camp raccoons, and the one on that island is a bugger that got into & opened literally EVERYTHING not hung or brought into the tent. He ran off with my Gore-Tex rain coat folded into it's pouch, unscrewed my fuel bottles and dumped half my stove gas, he even opened my watertight Pelican case with my GPS, camera, batteries, ID & then even took the batteries out of the camera. Literally, everything that could be shut, he opened. EVERYTHING. Hope that mouthful of sunscreen tasted good Ricky.

Summation, expect people, critters, and motorboats, but other than that ( ) it is still a nice place to chill for the weekend, and the fishing is still decent. But I doubt I will be back until September, and even then probably run into half a dozen people thinking the same thing

What a good read! And when/if I ever go back there again, I'll get that raccoon's autograph!

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“What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?” - Thoreau

It was pretty obvious he was used to some NDP voting weekenders camping there and giving away their stuff, however this through & through Tory refused to support his socialist lifestyle. In a spiteful rage Ricky then staged a weekend long protest with a nightly Chomp-In.
Spent an hour on Saturday walking around the island finding all the crap he ran off with, toilet paper, rain coat, brand new never used Nalgene (with the top 10' away), never did find the bar of soap so I guess he ate that. Got fairly baked when he ran off with the waterproof Coppertone, and he broke my compass trying to get it open.

He was actually kind of skittish, I only caught sight of his fleeing butt a few times.

His name's Ricky - eh?! Smart boy, or maybe it's a girl!
Not sure what he did with your flashlight, but his butt seems to glow in two places.

We should send Kevin up there since he attracts adventure as no other, and he's good to write Chapter 2 of this saga...

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“What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?” - Thoreau

The camera batteries probably gave him a boost.
And I have it on good authority "Noganosh" is an Ojibwe word for "Thieving Raccoon", but don't quote me.

Forgot to mention I did poke up Windy Ck. a bit to see how passable it was, but it turns into more of a slog than I was willing to commit to. Doesn't seem to be any ports on the Smoky side either. Did talk to guys at the lodge and neither of them have travelled or heard of a port into Windy Lk., other than an ATV trail from a hunt camp on the Pickeral R.
The guy on the houseboat was napping both times I went through so I couldn't pick his brain either, so for now Windy looks like a no-go.

The guy on the houseboat ? Right at the entrance to the first port ? When I chatted with him last year he said 2011 would be his last year on the lake and he was giving up the houseboat to folks down the lake. I think he said he was 85.Its still a great bunch of lakes..Im heading there next week after the long week-end.

He's still on his boat with his dog, think he's been saying he's going to quit every year for the last decade, but every opener he's up with his buddy and his collie riding shotgun.
If you bump into him he's a good guy to pick his brain about all the nooks & crannies around there.

We were in Smoky/Noganosh again this past week & Glen's houseboat has finally gone (we spoke to him when we went there in July 2015). Anybody know if he's still out there somewhere or if he's gone to the big houseboat in the sky? He was such an interesting guy to talk to.

While watching Camper Christinas recent vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1yK6Unpoj4 at the 2:10 mark you can see the remnants of Glens small dock to his boat on the right.
news anyone ? I know he also had a home in North Bay.