It is currently March 28th, 2024, 2:58 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: September 25th, 2018, 2:58 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 28th, 2008, 2:06 pm
Posts: 436
Location: GTA
Five days solo on the Nabakwasi River Loop near Gogama (Part 1)

The Nabakwasi River Loop can be accessed from the town of Gogama, which is about halfway between the turn-off north on the 144 from HWY 17 (Trans-Canada) and the city of Timmins. There are various sources of information about this loop available online, including one trip report that was posted here about 9 years ago.

Here is a link to the 2003 trip report from Richard Munn, which was published here by admin in 2009: https://www.myccr.com/canoeroutes/nabakwasi-river-loop

And here is a link to an archived version of the same document in case the previous link doesn’t work: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fkOsEwP4hLq_RzRsj5znxpx8GfAt0TGd

Twin-J Outfitters (out of Gogama) also have useful information posted at https://www.twinj.com/nabakwasirivercanoeroute.htm

And here is a link to an archived version of the Twin-J Outfitters information:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cW1P1mipD4_Q1Zh8vluvKKSIX8yXrSfo

Information about this route was also published in Kevin Callan’s book “Ontario’s Lost Canoe Routes” published in 2002.

A marked-up version of the topographical maps I used on this trip can be found at https://caltopo.com/m/ND5S

The same map set is here in PDF form: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12YM9ZZJtFJ4XM3aeKf_GxFsCpYvpTyOe

The above map should be used as a guide only. I certainly did not see every campsite indicated on them, and the portage locations may not be exactly right.

And here is a map published by the town of Gogama:

Image

Day 1 (Friday September 14, 2018) :

Usually I don’t sleep very well on the night before a canoeing trip & this morning was no exception. My alarm was set for 5:00 a.m., but I was awake at 4:00, so I figured I’d get started. The drive to Gogama from the GTA is only about 6 hours, and I intended to camp after paddling less than 2 hours from the public launch, so I didn’t really feel rushed.

By 4:45 I had eaten breakfast, loaded the car and was on my way. Somewhere between Barrie and Parry Sound the sun came up and it continued sunny for the rest of the drive. By around 11:00 a.m. I was at the Watershed 144, where I stopped for diesel before continuing another 37 km to Gogama.

None of the previous trip reports I had read said exactly where the public launch in Gogama was, but they all seemed to make it look pretty straight-forward to find. When I arrived in town, I was expecting to see one of the small blue “boat launch” signs pointing down a road towards Minisinakwa Lake, but none were to be seen. So I drove down a few roads towards the lake, unsuccessfully looking for the launch. Finally, when I pulled into the LCBO and was about to ask someone, I saw a very large blue sign on the front of the store indicating a boat launch just down the road. (The launch and public beach is at the end of Poupore Street.)

Here’s a photo from Google Street View of the LCBO from 2009. The giant blue “boat launch” sign is right about where the fireworks sign is in this photo:

Image

It was only after I started paddling that I realised I was expecting the boat launch to be on the east side of the railway bridge. So apparently there’s another public launch in Gogama somewhere on that side. After I returned home and looked at satellite views more carefully, it appears that the launch might be on Minisinakwa Lake Road, as indicated in the image below.

Image

The boat launch on the west side of the tracks has a very large parking area and no apparent restrictions or charges. This is a photo of the parking area:

Image

When I arrived there was only one other vehicle in the lot, and a group of people were using the launch to take a fishing boat out of the water. It was almost noon, so I ate lunch at my car and waited for the launch to be clear.

After eating, I unloaded my gear and started out. It was a bit of a windy day at that particular location – the railway bridge is mostly a causeway with only a small section that spans the water. Wind near town seems to funnel the water through the small section and create a lot of interesting hydraulics. As I headed east towards the bridge/causeway the wind was mostly at my back, but the waves were doing a lot of things that were hard to predict and had me distracted.

My distraction caused by the strange waves was compounded by a large freight train that started over the bridge and continued for quite some time. I passed/was swept under the bridge as the train was still above me, only to race into the eastern side of the lake just as a fishing boat was pulling up to the causeway creating a wake. Luckily for me the wake wasn’t broadside.

After that bit of excitement, the rest of the paddle down Minisinakwa Lake/Minisinakwa River until the right turn to the Noble River was pretty uneventful. I noticed possible camping areas on the south shore of the lake not far past the railway bridge (this area is all crown land), and it looked like there was possible camping on the west side of large crown land island in the lake at about 47.683070, -81.699439.

I was heading for Duckbreast Lake though, so I didn’t investigate these areas too closely. By around 2:00 p.m. under sunny skies and moderate winds, I found myself on an island in Duckbreast Lake with a decent campsite and good western exposure from a rock look-out. The island is located at 47.665740, -81.625166.

Here’s a view from the island on the sunny afternoon, looking towards the west:

Image

There were supposed to be a number of campsites on Duckbreast Lake, including two on the western side of the lake as I paddled in. I didn’t see either of these. This became a sort of theme for this trip: campsites that were supposed to be in certain locations (as marked on my map) were not there. And often if they were, they were fairly overgrown and would require a bit of work to clear for a large group with tents. I was solo in a hammock so campsite size (or even location) wasn’t the biggest concern to me. The only place that I wouldn’t have been able to set up reasonably easily would have been at the south end of the loop where there were no trees along the marshy river for quite some distance on either side of the series of southern portages.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on Duckbreast Lake setting up camp, making dinner, reading and watching the water. By around 7:30 I was swinging in my hammock, intending to read more. But after a long day I fell asleep in less than five minutes.

Campsite on Duckbreast Lake:

Image

Day 2 (Saturday September 15, 2018) :

After a great night’s sleep, I woke up to a warm and sunny morning. Later in the day it was variable cloudy, but it was a pretty calm canoeing day.

I knew that there was poor weather in the forecast for a few days in the future, so I decided to try to get ahead by a day on my trip plan on this good weather day. My original intention was to stay on Londonderry Lake tonight, but I decided to try for the campsite on Hanover Creek instead.

I left camp around 9:00 a.m. and was down among the series of portages on Hanover Creek by around 3:00 p.m.

Duckbreast Lake Narrows:

Image

The portages into Groves Lake and Hanover Lake were well marked and straight-forward. Somewhere in there was a height-of-land portage, since the water was flowing north into Duckbreast Lake, but by the time I got to Hanover Lake, it was flowing towards the south.

This is the north end of the portage out of Hanover Lake, where I had lunch:

Image

After the portage out of Hanover Lake there’s two lift-overs before Londonderry Lake. The first of these lift-overs (the northern one) is really pretty spectacular. It appears to have once been a very large beaver dam that has grown over into a kind of arching meadow with a small stream flowing over and through the middle of it.

While I had originally intended to stay on Londonderry Lake, the nice weather had me moving on ahead because one of the other coming days was likely to have me layover due to bad weather. So I continued on south down Londonderry Lake.

At the far southeast end of the lake there’s a cabin that Kevin Callan’s map describes as a “fly in outpost.” I was able to see the roof the cabin shimmering in the sunlight as I paddled down the lake. It appeared unoccupied, but there were some colourful items around the outside of it that seemed to be water toys.

When I got home I checked the Ontario Crown Land Use Policy Atlas online to see if the land nearby the cabin was private. It isn’t, as shown in the image below. (The approximate location is where I drew the red circle.) This got me wondering who uses the cabin and if building structures on General Use Area lands is permitted.

Image

It was around 2:30 p.m. when I entered Hanover Creek.

In Kevin Callan’s report of the creek travel he indicated that the lower creek portion took about three hours to navigate through a series of beaver-dam liftovers and five portages. The straight-line linear distance is around 3 km, but the creek winds and loops around in many spots at the start and at the end, so you end up paddling further.

This is that portion of the trip, from Callan’s map:

Image

In Richard Munn’s report, he happily experienced no beaver dams and was able to avoid most of the portages due to high water levels. My trip through this area had no beaver dams, but the portages were necessary. And after the final 30 m portage I had to make another due to a downed tree that wouldn’t cooperate as a lift-over. Like Callan, I was through the creek portion and near the junction of the Donnegana River in a bit more than three hours.

Munn’s report mentions there being only four portages on this section of the river (ignoring the 100 m one); I used the four he mentioned, but I was unable to find the 100 m one that Callan described. Instead I waded through a rapid. (About waist deep.) I would have preferred to portage and probably could have carried the boat through the forest, but it was getting late in the day and wading just seemed easier.

One of the rapids along Hanover Creek:

Image

One of the portage trails along Hanover Creek:

Image

I had been intending to stay at the campsite indicated by Callan immediately after the 30 m portage, but I didn’t see anything in that area. Shortly after the rapid the forest disappears from the shoreline once again, and I was back into swampy, curvy creek. I suppose that I could have camped with the hammock just after the 30 m portage in among the trees, but I was really expecting a legitimate campsite.

Twin-J Outfitters described the area around the 30 m portage this way:

“Located on the left, this portage bypasses a set of rapids. Further along is a possible spot for camping where an old logging road used to cross the creek.”

I didn’t notice anywhere a road used to cross the creek, but I did paddle under a bridge for an active logging road. I suppose that it would be possible to camp there, but it didn’t look that inviting.

Satellite view of the area is shown below. The pink dot is near the area of the final 30 m portage, and the active logging road can be clearly seen crossing a marshy area of the creek more towards the right:

Image

By this time it was getting a bit late in the day (nearing 6:00 p.m.) at a time of year when the sun sets around 7:30. I was paddling through a swampy area and it appeared that rather than getting a day ahead in my trip plan that I’d end up two days ahead by paddling to the first southernmost campsite on the Donnegana River.

Both Richard Munn and Twin-J Outfitters warn about missing the north turn for the Donnegana River.

Twin-J:

“Continue along creek until it joins the Donnegana River which is wider than the creek, it heads to the south and north make sure you head north (to the left).”

Munn:

“There was a little bit on navigation confusion at the exit of the creek into the Donnegana River, but we eventually got into the right channel and began to head north.”

The problem in the area is that you’re so used to going in every which direction that it’s not clear that a north turn should be made when the creek flushes into the slightly wider river. I had a bit of navigational confusion here too, but I eventually got into the right channel, as indicated by the arrow:

Image

By this time it was nearing 6:30 and I was really just looking for anywhere that seemed remotely possible to string up my hammock.

Within about 20 minutes I was approaching two giant pines on the east shoreline of the river, which looked like a campsite. When I got there, it was good enough and the area appeared to be somewhere people had camped at in the past. At this point I wasn’t sure if it was the campsite marked on the map, or just another random stop-over. The next morning after paddling another 15-20 minutes up the river, I saw the large actual campsite on the east shore.

The campsite location where I stayed is at 47.56399,-81.49450, and is shown in the satellite image below:

Image

I think that the campsite another 20 minutes up the river is a better site though.

Here’s a photo of the campsite where I stayed:

Image

With only about an hour before dark, I cleared out some undergrowth so I could access the camping area, set up my hammock, cooked dinner and was soon swinging between the trees.

Day 3 (Sunday September 16, 2018) :

I was up and out of the hammock by around 8:00 this morning, waking to a very light rain and heavy fog/mist.

View across the river from the campsite:

Image

After scrambling eggs and packing up, I was back on the water by a bit past 9:00. The fog remained surprisingly thick until after 10:00, but eventually cleared and the day became sunny and pleasant.

On the way north on the Donnegana River the scenery remained much the same until nearby the 725 m portage around the falls: it was mostly marshy & swampy. In the mist I saw a number of river otters (at various times) poking their heads up out of the water at me on my way to the falls.

Large cliff on the east side of the Donnegana River, south of the 725 m portage:

Image

By about 10:45 I arrived at the portage landing for the 725 m portage. After returning home, I read Richard Munn’s account of this portage more carefully. He mentioned that about half way along that there was a rock ledge, where nearby paddlers could put in and run a few swifts/rapids. When I was through the rock ledge looked more like a tiny campsite; here’s a photo:

Image

Since I hadn’t read his account carefully enough, shortly after the rock ledge (when the trail began to peter out), I thought I had reached the put-in. A few interesting minutes ensued on the river where I unexpectedly ran a few swifts and a small rapid.

In retrospect, the 725 m portage seemed a little too short; had I known that it probably continued, I probably would have continued on and avoided the fast water; when solo I’m always a little wary of running rapids.

My estimate of the portage length was influenced by a delay near the beginning where a clear-cut obliterated the portage for about 150 meters. After only about 30 metres from the take-out, the verdant portage trail enters a clear cut. Carrying the boat through first, I wasn’t able to discern where the trail probably used to go. I started by walking through the clear cut closer to the river, but eventually gave up and put the boat down so I could search around to get better bearings. This is what the clear cut looks like:

Image

When I got back home, I checked the satellite view of the area. It doesn’t appear that there was a clear cut in that location until fairly recently, since the image shows a forest:

Image

After putting down the boat and my gear, and searching around for a while, I found where the trail continued on the other side of the clear cut. The path through the clear cut is not closer to the river- it’s mostly through the lowest part of a kind of gully in the clear cut. I flagged it, but there wasn’t much to leave flagging tape on and I don’t think that the path will be super-obvious for very long unless a lot of people are passing through.

The entrance back into the woodsy part of the portage is shown in the image below, with some extra flagging tape added by me:

Image

The problem with clear cuts ruining portages (apart from the fact that they ruin them), is that there’s flagging tape all over the place and it’s difficult to know if any of it was left by earlier paddlers passing through. It seems as if the lumber companies send people out to flag the clear-cut boundary before the machinery comes in; so the result is that all around the border of the clear cut there’s flagging tape everywhere.

This had me wondering if it’s even legal to ruin portages… it was the second time this season I’d been through a portage partially destroyed by industrial activity – the first time was on the longest portage on the 4M circle route. (Where a quarry partially obliterates the portage.)

So after passing through the clear cut and inadvertently running some swifts and a rapid, I was back on the river and soon reached the 430 m island portage, located on the right side of the island. (If headed north on the Nabakwasi River.) Incidentally, I don’t know when the river name changes from “Donnegana” to Nabakwasi – I’m assuming it’s at the falls.)

Some kind traveler who preceded me had re-hung the portage sign using flagging tape. I had some wire with me, so I used that to secure the sign a little better.

This portage on the island is mostly clear and mostly downhill. About 2/3 of the way through there’s a large area with some flagging tape that’s pretty close to the river that could serve as a decent-sized campsite. Here’s a photo:

Image

It might also be possible to camp at the put-in at the north end of the island, but the space there is more limited.

This is a photo of part of the rapids on the east side of the island:

Image

After eating lunch at the north portage landing on the island, I was back on the river. I soon line/waded through the swift on the west side of another small island, then arrived at the last portage of the day – a 325 m one around another falls.

This was a fairly straight-forward portage with a bit of a climb at the beginning. There’s a campsite at the north end of it that could hold one tent and maybe two. Here’s a photo of it:

Image

After this last portage, I didn’t have long to go and I arrived at my destination by around 3:00 p.m. I was headed about 6 km north to a campsite located near to where there was supposed to be a small swift. Richard Munn mentioned that when he was through there was no swift; it was the same for me. The water had a very slight acceleration through this area, but it seemed to me that it was more due to a narrowing of the river than it was to underwater rocks.

The campsite was located just to the north of the “swift” on the east side of the river with a nice view out towards the north.

Here’s the view:

Image

The site itself wasn’t the best and obviously hadn’t been used in a while. A few metres along the shore towards the east was a tenting/hammock area for one tent. And probably some other parts of the site could be cleared for at least one more tent. Just across the river from the campsite was a little falls that roared louder than its size, lulling me to sleep after I set up camp, went for a swim, dried some clothing, and ate dinner.

Day 4 (Monday September 17, 2018) :

At the campsite yesterday I had internet access on my phone and was able to get an updated forecast. The weather for today was supposed to deteriorate after noon, so I was up fairly early. I was planning on getting to the “scenic portage” on the north side of Togo Rapids (only about 6 km down the river), find a campsite along the rapids, and settle in for the afternoon/evening.

After paddling for about an hour in some minor winds, I arrived at the widening in the Nabakwasi near to where it meets the Minisinakwa River. It was here that I saw people for the first time since I started out: a couple people fishing in the bay.

I continued on past the area where Kevin Callan indicated was an old mill site. My observations were the same as those of Richard Munn: “A quick examination of the old lumber mill site on river left showed that there was nothing suitable at that location - it was all low, bushy and swampy.”

I continued on past a cottage/camp on the western shore just north of the old mill site. From the water I noted that there was a yellow portage sign posted in among the camp buildings, so I assumed that it was the trailhead to the alternate 1500 m southern portage around Togo Rapids.

I wanted to try for the 900 m scenic portage, but I wasn’t super-optimistic about it. In both Callan’s and Munn’s report they passed through the 1500 m portage due to complications associated with the 900 m northern portage. In Munn’s account he mentioned that there was a portage sign for the 900 m portage, so I thought I’d be able to at least check it out.

Turning the corner towards the west just past the camp complex a canoeist can see and hear Togo Rapids. It’s quite a pretty place. My photo of it doesn’t do it justice; Callan has a much better shot in his “Ontario’s Lost Canoe Routes” book:

Image

After arriving at the rapids, I checked all along the northern shore for a portage. I didn’t see anything: no sign, no flagging tape, and no hint of a trail into the woods. This is where I looked (pink line):

Image

I’d be interested in know if anyone has GPS coordinates for the trailhead, or if anyone has actually passed through this portage in the past few years.

Since I couldn’t find the northern portage, I headed back to the camp complex where I had seen the portage sign. In Richard Munn’s account, he seems to have suggested that the 1500 m portage started somewhere around the corner from the camp complex, probably somewhere around the red dot below:

Image

I was attempting to portage from around where the pink dot is above, so I wasn’t really sure if I was in the right spot. But there was definitely a portage sign prominently posted, however, written on it was “Algonquin.” I wasn’t sure if it was just someone’s Algonquin Souvenir proudly displayed, or if it meant to indicate that the portage started there. Here’s a photo:

Image

The camp/cottage complex was vacant, but investigating I found a clear trail headed west into the wood that I assumed was the portage. I carried down this for a while, and noted another “Algonquin” sign posted on a tree about 500 metres down the trail, so I was pretty sure I was on the right path. It turned out that I was, and about 80 minutes later (after two carries), I arrived on the shore of the Minisinakwa River west of Togo Rapids. The trail itself was the easiest, flattest and clearest of the trip. (Though the longest.) In the entire 1500 m, there was only one tree to step over.

Here are a few photos of the camp/cottage complex where the portage starts.

The actual portage begins just to the right of the area in this image:

Image

A larger view of the portage sign posted:

Image

The main cottage/cabin:

Image

There is a campsite at the western landing of the portage that would hold a tent or two. The area looks like this:

Image

Since I had intended to stay along Togo Rapids, I was now even more ahead of schedule. It was still pretty early in the day (before noon), and the weather seemed to be holding out, so I decided to push on a little further. I thought that I’d stay at the campsite marked on Callan’s map that was supposed to be just after the dam – about 3 km upstream.

As I set off, the wind was conspiring against me, but I eventually had the dam (that spans two sides of a small island) in sight:

Image

Paddling up to the dam I noted that on the south side (left side in the photo above) the dam didn’t seem to extend all the way across the river. I was confused about this, since it seemed a misallocation of funds to create a dam that could be set to various depths, only to leave a huge gap that would not allow the water level to be fully controlled. After landing, I confirmed that the dam seemed to have been designed this way. Here is a photo of the south side end of the dam:

Image

I’d be interested to know if anyone can explain why a dam would be designed in this way!

Here are few more photos of the area around the dam:

Image

Image

Image

I had intended to stay at the campsite just past the dam (as indicated by Callan’s map), but after eating lunch on the western landing (just across a road leading to the dam), and paddling out, I couldn’t find any indication of a nearby campsite on the southern shore.

Twin-J outfitters description of the area is equally unclear: ”This portage is to the right of the dam and a large campsite is located here.”

And Richard Munn doesn’t mention any campsite in the area.

The only “camping” I saw was on the island located between the two sections of the dam, but it looked like a pretty desolate campsite located in a parking lot. (You can see a tiny fire pit in this photo.):

Image

There may have been other places to set up a tent nearby – like on the landings at either end of the portage, but it was evident that people sometimes launch boats from both sides, so I really didn’t think I’d like to camp there.

Incidentally, the road leading to the dam looked to be in great shape; it might be possible to start/end a trip from the dam and avoid having to paddle through the cottage/house area around Gogama. The dam is located only about 8 km from HWY 144, so it might be worth trying to drive in:

Image

Since I wasn’t able to find a suitable campsite near the dam, I continued on even further into the wind.

It wasn’t long before I was near the last campsite area indicated on Callan’s map, but I didn’t find any kind of real campsite in that location. Nevertheless, the wind was too strong for me to continue further, so I set up in the area. I was able to hang my hammock in among the trees and make a little fire pit on a very uneven rock. There was still supposed to be bad weather coming (severe thunderstorm watch), so I ate dinner early.

This is one of the views from the campsite:

Image

Just as I finished dinner, the rain came in. It didn’t last very long but was pretty heavy.

Image

Immediately afterwards, a rainbow emerged:

Image

And the clouds were pretty spectacular:

Image

I settled in for a night of more intermittent rain and falling temperatures.

...continues in part 2


Last edited by Brad Thomas on September 25th, 2018, 5:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: September 25th, 2018, 2:59 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 28th, 2008, 2:06 pm
Posts: 436
Location: GTA
Five days solo on the Nabakwasi River Loop near Gogama (Part 2)

Day 5 (Tuesday September 18, 2018) :

I was only about 8 km from my car this morning. I woke up early to attempt to beat any potential wind, I also wanted to be sure to be out since I intended to head down towards Port Loring for more interior camping later in the day.

After a quick breakfast and a quick pack-up, I was able to load and enter the canoe without getting my feet wet on the cold morning and head off towards Gogama.

The misty morning kept the views close, and there was a slight tail wind pushing me on.

As I neared Gogama, I again knew I’d have to deal with the complex hydraulics near the railway bridge. The erratic tailwind waves pushed me under and past the rail line, to the relatively calm waters beyond.

A few minutes later, at about 8:40, I was back at the landing and out of the water:

Image

After loading, I was in Sudbury before noon for lunch and food resupplies and camping near Port Loring on Dollars Lake north of Smith Bay by 4:00 p.m.

A few notes:

- Not all the campsites on the maps supplied seem to be in the locations suggested or even there at all.
- If going in a large group or with multiple tents/shelters, you may have difficulty finding good campsites in some locations.
- Most of the portages are in pretty good shape and marked with portage signs, with the exception of the 100 m portage on Hanover Creek, the 900 m portage around Togo rapids, and the very short 30 m portage around the dam. Portages seem to have only been marked if going in a counter-clockwise direction; I didn’t see any signs on any landings at the end of any portages.
- Consider staying on Londonderry Lake one night so that you can get straight through all the marshy areas down around Hanover Creek and the Donnegana River in one day – in order to avoid having to camp in these areas.
- Be cognizant of the intersection of the Hanover Creek and the Donnegana River. When the creek suddenly seems to widen and you have the option of continuing mostly straight for a bit or turning towards the left (north), turn north.
- The 725 m portage is partially obliterated by a clear cut. And you might consider carrying past the rock ledge/campsite on this portage in order to avoid the lower swifts and rapid.
- You might consider starting (and ending) your trip at the dam in order to avoid most of the populated area around Gogama.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: September 26th, 2018, 4:20 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: April 21st, 2004, 10:52 am
Posts: 1180
Location: Near Ottawa ON
That's an excellent write-up Brad. Thank you.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: September 26th, 2018, 7:51 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: August 29th, 2006, 7:57 pm
Posts: 700
Location: Toronto
Brad, thanks for posting this.

Great mix of commentary, pix and maps. Fellow paddlers now have the most up-to-date and comprehensive info on this short loop and have all their logistics questions answered.

On a technical note, Bravo for uploading all the images directly to the forum instead of posting a link to an external web page that you control like Wordpress or Google Blogger. I find the myccr process - as I understand it - too cumbersome to bother with. How do you do it?

_________________
http://albinger.me/canoe-tripping/


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: September 30th, 2018, 7:49 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 28th, 2008, 2:06 pm
Posts: 436
Location: GTA
Thank you Krusty and True_North.

True_North, I've read some of your excellent trip reports (including your detailed information on the Steel River). I'm thrilled with your response.

As for the photos & the whole report being posted here: whenever I see someone link out for trip reports I find myself less likely to read them, and I miss the interaction/commentary about the trip that might otherwise occur here. So on the (few) trip reports I've posted, I've made an effort to try to post the whole thing here.

This time I tried to use the "attach inline" function, but discovered that it only allows for 10 attachments per post. Since I had around 40 images that I wanted to attach, I didn't like that. So for this report (like my others), I'm using an outside photo-hosting site. This one is just basic google photos. I'm not sure if it matters if the photos are ACTUALLY 800 pixels wide/long (as a maximum) - which is required by the "attachment" function on this site - but I made all 40-or-so of them those maximum dimensions, then uploaded to a special album I created in google photos. Then it's just a matter of getting the photo link from google photos and inserting it using the {img} {/img} tags (with square brackets).

In google photos, the photo first opens into a page that can't be linked directly since there's a bunch of other stuff embedded in the HTML I guess. So I right-clicked on each of the images in google photos, chose "open image in new tab," then copied and pasted the URL of that image between the img tags.

So you end up with URLs for the images that look something like this:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rtyzC ... 00-h144-no

(You'll see the whole gigantic URL if you click on the link above and check out the address bar of the tab that opens.)

If you right-click on my post (above), choose "view page source", then scroll about half way down the tab that opens, you'll see all the (very long) URLs for those images mixed in with my text.

Hosting images on other sites is a bit risky in the long-run I guess (as people who were using photobucket experienced a bit more than a year ago), but I'm betting that google will be around for awhile and hopefully continue to host them.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 1st, 2018, 12:25 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: October 16th, 2008, 9:20 am
Posts: 1543
Location: Warkworth
Just got back from the Groundhog. Drove past Gogama on the way home and it's a beautiful area. I really enjoyed your report!!!

_________________
"It's healthy to be dirty" - Lars Monsen


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 1st, 2018, 9:21 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 6th, 2009, 9:37 am
Posts: 712
Location: Kingston, ON
Really great trip report! Definitely want to learn more about this area. Thanks for sharing.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 2nd, 2018, 6:22 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: August 27th, 2002, 7:00 pm
Posts: 2739
Location: Geraldton, Ontario Can
What you saw at the dam was a spillway. It is designed to prevent the water from backing up too high behind the dam and destroying it.

Depending on the Forestry Management Plan, portages may or may not receive protection. I have been assured in the Ogoki plan that ports will receive a 70 meter buffer on each side, but I don't believe them. When the FMP manager and the MNR rep asked why, I referred them to the several ports that had been cut in my 30 year tenure in the north. The long ports involve too much wood/money for the companies, they would rather pay the fines, if they get fined.

The MNR rep assured me that if the ports were cut, the companies would be fined. I asked if they had ever levelled fines for this before.....the answer was no. So I don't hold out much hope. Not to highjack your excellent report, but I have included a link to a story I did abut a three k port that was destroyed. There are a lot of pics in there for people unfamiliar with the forest industry. http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/for ... -a-portage


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 16th, 2018, 2:45 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 28th, 2008, 2:06 pm
Posts: 436
Location: GTA
RHaslam wrote:
What you saw at the dam was a spillway. It is designed to prevent the water from backing up too high behind the dam and destroying it.


Interesting. That dam is only about 2 feet tall then.

RHaslam wrote:
I have included a link to a story I did abut a three k port that was destroyed. There are a lot of pics in there for people unfamiliar with the forest industry. http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/for ... -a-portage


Thanks for the commentary regarding clear cuts across portages and the link. I remember in the past reading a post by you mentioning that portage being ruined. It really is a shame that the lumber companies don't at least make an attempt clear a path through all the fallen wood where the portage used to be; climbing over all the debris is difficult and dangerous. I can't imagine portaging that way for 3 km.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 20th, 2018, 6:44 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: July 12th, 2016, 3:01 pm
Posts: 324
Great report! I love reading a good trip report almost as much as I love tripping.

Also, I had never heard of Gogama before...


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: August 28th, 2019, 4:37 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: April 29th, 2005, 3:17 pm
Posts: 46
Location: Fonthill, On
Hi Brad... I just returned from doing this trip with 5 other fellows and was going to do a post on it until I found your post. (August 17 - 23rd, 2019) No sense repeating the whole story because your experience was pretty much what we found.
Yes many of the camp sites documented we non-existent and P10 725m prortage with the clear cut was a bit of a fiasco... we needed to discover the re-entry to the portage as well. Thankfully, I think we found your orange flagging tape that marked the way... at first we were attracted by the pink border tape which threw us right off course.
I am almost thinking that no-one has paddled this trip between your trip and ours... every fire pit looked as if it had not seen a fire since last year with no fresh ash.

I have a YouTube Channel that I will be posting a 2 part video of this trip with in the week so feel free to check it out and freshen up your memories of the trip...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DMOqlN9dVQ3vw_KCgsbHQ
Video Part 1 https://youtu.be/fzEBv-7YpVo
Video Part 2 https://youtu.be/BtqTLQuz_8w

Thanks
Dennis, Canoehound Adventures

_________________
Keep your paddle in the water and the wind at your back!!!

Dennis, Canoehound Adventures


Last edited by Canoehound on September 14th, 2019, 5:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: August 30th, 2019, 9:56 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: February 17th, 2014, 11:51 am
Posts: 291
excellent and super informative trip report. Thanks Brad.

Ken


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: July 19th, 2020, 10:08 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: August 19th, 2007, 5:40 pm
Posts: 621
Location: Timmins
We went through this weekend and signed the campsites and portages with missing signs.

Also did some brushing and some minor blowdown removals. Also cleared out a few overgrown campsites. As Brad had noted, many sites were overgrown with minimal tent pads.

Some notes to add:
The 1500m Togo Portage can be accessed on RR below the rapids. We spent some time reopening this section. There was a faint trail, but it was bushy in parts and had a few blowdowns. We have signed this section so folks dont need to start at the camp and can shave off +300m of portraying. It climbs a hill and then enters an open forest with a dense covering of ferns. It joins the main trail 50m after entering the ferns forest. There is a junction with a trail signed Rapids Trail (just off the main trail where the portage joins up), which we did not walk, but we assume it may be a way to just portage the bigger stuff and then hop through the pools, cutting down much of the portage. Would be curious to hear if anyone ventures that way!

We found all the 5 ports on Hanover, but we lined and Wade's the creek, so not much to add there and no brushing done.

Nice route. Rained a lot and the bugs were bad. I perfer the other Gogama routes over it though

_________________

My Backcountry Website: www.explorethebackcountry.com



Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group