Just back from a five day trip up in the Elliot Lake area.
(on an unrelated note - if you're one of the million people who emailed or PM'd me during that time, I'm working my way through the backlog and will get back to you as soon as possible)
We paddled through Dunlop, Claim, Lower Mace, Lilypad, Lake Five, Upper Mace, Swamp, Ezma, Astonish, Olympus, Bruce and finished on Flack Lake.
Paddled on only four of the five days - one was a layover. It was a wonderful trip, in a great area. Good campsites, scenic lakes and perfect weather. Paid for the privelege with a bit of portaging - 6200 metres in total. Since we double-carry these portages, we ended up walking almost 19 km. Since we spread the travelling (and portaging) up over four travel days, it was still worthwhile.
Arrived at Elliot Lake Wed morning to find a brisk wind from the east. Immediately changed our plans to paddle from Flack to Dunlop to the reverse order (Dunlop to Flack). Thought that we may as well take advantage of that wind to paddle the 15 km length of Dunlop with the wind at our back. In retrospect, it was a very good decision. We camped that night on Claim Lake at a four-star campsite.
Thursday - paddled from Claim through Lower Mace, Lilypad, Lake Five and into Upper Mace Lake. Three portages of 650m, 370m and 220m. Although it's not marked on the Chrismar map, there is a good campsite on one of the Islands in the middle. Good 'common area' and OK tent sites.
Friday - We spent and extra day at this site, lazing around, swimming, playing Euchre and exploring the lake. The other campsite down at the west end of the lake is OK, but not as nice as the island. Moose tracks on the beach at that location.
Saturday - Left Upper Mace and paddled through Swamp Lake, Ezma Lake and into Astonish Lake. Three portages of 265m, 200m and 650m. There's a small site on the west side at the entrance as shown on the Chrismar map, but it does't have a campsite sign. There's an 'official' campsite with signage and the only thunderbox we saw on the route on the narrow finger peninsula on the north side of the lake. We stayed there. Long and narrow, with tent sites dotted along the entire length - we were really strung out from one end to the other. Brief thunderstorm that night, but cleared overnight.
Sunday - time to go home. Our hiking (rather than paddling) day. Three portages in quick succession - 1100m, 850m, 490m. Very short (less than 1 km) paddling between each of these portages. More of a pain to load and unload than it would have been to walk the whole 2.5 km. The portages weren't simple, but they weren't the most rugged we've done, either. Main problem was with footing - lots of mud, and lots of round rock 'ankle breaker' sections. Paddled out on Flack with the lake as flat as a millpond. Very unusual for Flack in the middle of the day.
All in all, the concensus was that the rest of the trip was worth the walking. The trip was only 40 to 50 km long, so we had very short paddling days. On two of the four days, we were off the water in time to have a late lunch at our next campsite.
We saw a single fishing boat on Dunlop on our first day, then nothing until we arrived at Ezma on Saturday. There were two small fishing boats on that lake, presumably dragged in from Ten Mile Lake (fishing lodge close to Ezma). We never found the old logging road that skirts the north shore of Astonish, but in the evening we heard an ATV driving along it (sigh). One more fishing boat on Flack on the way out. No other canoeists in five days.
The route appears to be used enough to keep the trails and campsites open; but not so heavily that it's getting ruined. Everything was nice and clean when we got arrived, with the exception of a bunch of toilet paper back in the bush on the island campsite on Upper Mace.
Supposed to be trout in these lakes. Only two of the six in our group are fishers, and they got skunked. Probably more a reflection of their skill than the lakes themselves (sorry, guys).
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