How to sum up this route? :
- Terrific wildlife and scenery, especially in Perley and Whiskeyjack
- Good fishing, lousey fisherman (I definitely need some tutelage from master Bo)
- Strenuous, might not have the longest portages in the park, but some of them are brutal
- 4 days spent in a bug jacket
Where the HECK did the MILLIONS of sketers come from and why are they still around???
July 17:
Drove up to Cedar yesterday after work with a photographer friend (Kevin) who was interested in shooting in the park. We headed out early this morning. The two sets of falls near cedar made for good pics. The alligator on Catfish was a tad disappointing, then again what can one expect after 100+ years? We camped on a new site that is not yet marked on the canoe routes map. Magnificent site, 5-6 meters above lake level on a point with a great view of the whole lake. Took us a long time to get to camp, but the shock of portaging was new for Kevin, and the 2370 was especially hard. Lots of bugs. (distance covered 14.5km)
July 18:
We made our way south to the catfish rapids headed down through Perly, Burntroot and Robinson into Whiskeyjack. Had several terrific wildlife sightings (bull moose, cormorant, blue heron, otters), but couldn't take pics because it poured rain the whole day. The portage into Robinson was brutal in spite of its shortness. A 40 meter section of the portage is a beaver dam! Flashes of Sundassa sprang to mind as I did the Irish balancing jig across this section. I hooked my first ever Brook Trout on Whiskeyjack, roughly 20 inches long. Not bringing a net, I tried to lift him into the boat by hand and wound up unhooking him in the process. Oh well…already had dinner anyways
Whiskeyjack was a great lake, I plan to go back some day and spend a few rest days there. I want to get that fish back! Campsite was nice, was the only place where we got a couple of hours respite from the clouds of sketers. (distance covered 18.5 km)
July 19
The longest day of the trip, distance-wise. By now, Kevin’s used to the paddling and portaging, so we single passed all the portages and motored down the Nippissing to the Rolling Dam in the same time it took to cover the distances done on our first two days. The Nip had great scenery, but not as much wildlife as it wound and wound and wound its way northwards. Caught several Ciscos, but no trout. We were chased into the tent by 8:30 by the bugs. Tired from a long hard day we were out for the night by 9. (distance covered 21.5 km)
July 20
Headed down the last of the Nippissing, through the marsh at the entrance of Cedar and across the lake. Both of us being eager to see the world outside our bug shirts again, we didn’t stop for pictures on the way. Hooked a small mouth bass crossing cedar, decided to let him go. We took some time to chat with Jake at the Brent store before heading home. Nifty memorabilia that man keeps. (distance covered 13 km)
Karior
