Wabakimi is a 10 hour drive from St Paul, Minnesota to Armstrong, Ontario. We split the travel time and journey into two days.
Day 1, August 25
St. Paul to Grand Marais, Minnesota
5 hours, 380 miles
Route: Interstate 35W north to Duluth, pick up Highway 61 in Duluth following the north shore of Lake Superior to Grand Marais.
Highlights: a beautiful sunset on a calm Lake Superior.
Day 2, August 26
Grand Marais, Minnesota to Armstrong, Ontario.
4½ hours, 380 kilometers
Route: Highway 61 from Grand Marais to Thunder Bay clearing customs at the Pigeon River. Canadian Highway 17 through Thunder Bay stopping for gas (there is no gas along the 527 Highway) before heading north on the 527 Highway which dead-ends in Armstrong.
Destination: Wild Waters Outfitters on Matisse Lake ten kilometers from Armstrong. We overnight at the Wild Waters Eco-lodge where we make final trip preparations and route plans.
Highlights: eating Caribou Eyes at the Pie Place in Grand Marais.
Day 3, August 27
Armstrong to the Allan Water Bridge Trail
1½ hours, 54.1 miles via the Canadian National Railroad
We spend a leisurely day visiting with Brenda and Bert, our hosts, at Wild Waters Eco-lodge fine-tuning our route. Our departure for Wabakimi Park is around 6 pm with a stop for dinner at the E&J Restaurant in Armstrong before arriving at the train station around 8:00 pm. To our surprise there is a small white sedan with a canoe on top at the train station. We meet the Albingers, brothers Peter and Martin. They tell us the train will be two hours late. We pass away the time getting acquainted as twilight turns to total darkness. The train station is lit by one small street lamp and the parking lot has been busy with people coming and going. Around 11:00 pm with fifteen to twenty people waiting, comes word the train will arrive soon. Finally, at 11:30 pm, two and half hours late, the train arrives. We load the canoes and gear into the baggage car and board the first passenger car along with the Albinger brothers and fifteen First Nations people headed for Collins, our first stop on the way to the Allen Water Bridge Trail. After an hour and half ride, and with a brief stop at Collins, the train slows to a stop and we step down from the train into the cool night air- we are at the Allen Water Bridge. The canoes and packs are off-loaded from the baggage car, the train pulls away- it’s 1:00 am and I think to myself, this is one hell of an hour to start a canoe trip. We portage the canoe and packs from the railroad tracks about 200 yards where we’ll spend the first night of our wilderness experience bunked in the outpost camp of Wild Waters Outfitters.
Highlights: the jumbo burger at E&J’s (a story of its own and worth the drive to Armstrong) and meeting Peter and Martin Albinger who traveled with us to the Allen Water Trail head.
Day 4, August 28th
12 miles, 6 portages, 3 lift-overs. 10 am to 6 pm
Route: Allen Water Lake, through two small-unnamed lakes, into Lower, Middle and Upper Foam Lake, then into Barrington and Heafur Lakes. We set up camp at the third set of rapids, a beautiful site, at the north end of Heafur Lake.
Highlights: a flock of 35-40 black mallard ducks chased up from a wild rice bed at the north end of Allan Water Lake and, our camp site on the 3rd set of rapids in Heafur Lake.
Day 5, August 29th
Its only the second day into the trip and we decide our campsite is just too beautiful to leave - we layover.
Highlights: relaxing, cleaning up, fishing the rapids. Walleye for breakfast, lunch, dinner and catching fish on almost every-other cast. Hot, sunny, clear, blue sky day. Middle of the night wind storm.
Day 6, August 30th
8 miles, 3 portages (650, 225 and 175 meters)
Route: 9:30 am departure; we paddle northeast on Heafur, portaging into Flet Lake, then paddling north into Flindt Lake. An early afternoon storm has us looking for a campsite at 3:00 pm, we find a high campsite on the west shore overlooking Flindt Lake.
Highlights: a giant golden eagle on the portage into Flet, the afternoon storm on Flindt Lake, our two-casts, two fish, evening dinner, the bull caribou swimming across Flindt Lake, and the late evening into the night thunder storms.
Day 7, August 31th
10 miles, 3 portages (700, 400 and 100 meters), 8:30 am to 4:00 pm
Route: We paddle east across Flindt Lake, portage into Gault Lake, paddle north, portage into Stump Lake, then paddle east into the Allan Water River. Our camp is above the first set of rapids flowing into Brennan Lake.
Highlights: the portage into Gault Lake through a tangle of blow down trees; rough footing on the portage trails and longer portages than indicated on the maps.
Day 8, September 1st
14 miles, run 1 set of rapids, 1 portage, and 1 lift-over, departure is 9:30 am
Route: We paddle east on the Allen Water River, then north, and then east into Brennan Lake. We paddle the full length of Brennan Lake to within a ½ mile of the falls stopping mid-afternoon to pick blueberries in an old fire scare. The afternoon turns windy and finding a sheltered campsite becomes a task. We finally make camp at 5:30 pm out of the wind on a tiny, high, rock outcropping on the west side of a bay near the falls. Our tent is perched on the rock outcropping only 6 feet from the ledge overhanging the lake.
Highlights: the lush blueberry patch found on Brennan Lake and our campsite on the rock outcropping overlooking the lake.
Day 9, September 2nd
10 miles, 4 portages, 5 lift-overs and 2 lining, 7 am-1:30 pm
Route: We paddle and portage from Brennan Lake through three unnamed lakes into Change Lake. It has been raining since 8 am and as the day progresses the rains intensify. We find an island campsite, the rain stops long enough to set up camp. We catch a nice fish for dinner and prepare our evening meal under the shelter of our rain tarp. The wind intensifies and unfortunately is blowing directly into our camp, with no shelter from the gusty, strong, winds we move into our tent and call it a day at 7:30 pm.
Highlights: sunrise, the intensifying storm from the Northeast. Waking up in the middle of the night to high winds and the sound of our rain tarp ripping apart and thankfully remembering that I turned the canoe over and tied it to a tree before retiring for the night.
Day 10, September 3rd
A layover day on Change Lake, caught in a ‘Nor’easter’, it rained and blew all day, we only leave the tent to relieve our bladders.
Highlights: spending 24 consecutive hours in our tent, and enduring 35 hours of continuous heavy rain.
Day 11, September 4th
6 miles, 5 portages, 10 hours
Route: Paddling south from Change Lake to Dagger Lake, through Jeannine Lake into Bullfrog and then into Snake Lake. There are two long portages from Jeannine into Bullfrog and Snake Lakes, the first is 800 meters and the second 600 meters. The 800-meter portage was blown-in with 104 trees down, knee-to-crotch high, across the portage trail. It takes four hours to walk, crawl, and climb over trees to complete this one portage.
Highlights: just completing this leg of the journey. The 4-hour ‘portage from hell’ into Snake Lake. Our campsite on a sand beach in Snake Lake.
Day 12, September 5th
Ahead of schedule, we layover a day on Snake Lake.
Highlights: beautiful, sunny, day relaxing around our campsite.
Day 13, September 6th
11 miles, and 6 portages, 9:15 am to 5:45 pm
Route: Paddling south the length of Snake Lake into the Nemo River, and then into Osprey Lake and then into Scratchy Lake. We paddle to the south end of Scratchy Lake and find a beautiful campsite along the rapids coming into the Lake. With the relaxing sound of running water and plenty of firewood this is a perfect camp on one of our last nights in the Park.
Highlights: paddling the Nemo River bog as it winds through the Canadian Boreal Forest.
Day 14, September 7th
6 miles, 3 portages, our last day on the trail before catching the train to Armstrong.
Route: Scratchy Lake to Redhead Lake and the Bingham Trail head.
We enjoyed a leisurely start to our last day knowing we have only six miles and three short portages to the Canadian National Railroad tracks; our ‘pick-up’ spot the next day. In an attempt to catch a small fish to compliment our breakfast meal I managed to land a stout, 18 lb northern pike casting from shore into the swirling waters below the rapids. The fish made three long runs working the drag on the reel to perfection, exhausted, the fish finally came to shore. After releasing the fish, we cook up the last of our eggs, fresh potatoes and onions for a hearty northwoods breakfast; satisfied to go without fish.
Before we can break camp the weather turns ugly again with a north wind, dropping temperatures and more rain. We break camp at 11 am. Paddling and portaging the last six miles in the rain we arrive at the CNR tracks around 3 pm and make our way up the Bingham Trail walking the train tracks a ¼ mile across the stone arch bridge where the train will stop to pick us up. We return to Redhead Lake and our canoe, find a campsite for the night, and pitch the tent for the last time.
Shortly after settling into our tent we see two canoes emerge from a rain bank far out on the lake, approaching from the north. They head our way and land the on the sand beach where we are camped. A grizzly character, with a long white shaggy beard in the stern of the lead canoe appears as a familiar figure- it’s ‘Uncle Phil’ (Cotton), and with him one of his 2010 Wabakimi Project portage crews. It’s the third year he has been clearing portage trails in the Wabakimi wilderness. We pass the evening reacquainting ourselves and sharing information about our trip and the condition of the portages along our route.
Highlights: catching and releasing the last fish of our trip. Running into ‘Uncle Phil’ Cotton.
Day 15, September 8th
Leg One- Bingham Trail to Armstrong
44.1 miles - 1 hour by rail
We wake at 6 am, break down our tent and pack it away along with our sleeping bags, mats, and rain tarp for the last time into our #7 Frost River pack. The train is scheduled to stop sometime between 7:30 and 9:00 am. Breakfast will be on the train this morning. We make our way to the Bingham Trail head and portage for the last time our four packs and canoe the 30 meters up the trail to the train tracks. The Wabakimi Project trail crew is also headed for the train and joins us at the tail head to await the arrival of the train. As we are chatting away when around 8 am, a freight train headed West sails on by at full throttle. The sound of the clattering wheels on the rails is deafening to our ears, and the draft from the train is lifting our canoe off the ground aside the tracks. And then, with a swoosh, as fast as it appeared, the train passes. A deaf silence falls upon us on once more and we continue our conversation. At 9:15 am we see a train approach from the west, it’s our train. It slows to a stop, and within 10 minutes three canoes and twelve packs are loaded into the baggage car. The six of us board the trail and we settle into our seats for a short six-mile ride to the Lookout River where the train stops for the Wabakimi Project crew to jump off for the final leg of their trip. My wife and I wish them the best as the train begins moving again. We continue on to Armstrong arriving at 10:30 am where Bert from Wild Waters Outfitting is waiting for our arrival at the train station. We load the canoe and gear into his van for the short drive back to the Eco-lodge on Matisse Lake. There, we shower and clean up and share our stories before heading back to Grand Marais, Minnesota our final destination of this day.
Highlights: our train ride back to Armstrong in a heated passenger car with comfortable seats, a great view of the wilderness and a breakfast of warm banana bread, coffee and tea.
Day 15, September 8th, Leg Two
Armstrong to Grand Marais, Minnesota
4½ hours by car
Day 16, September 9th
Grand Marais to St. Paul, Minnesota
5 hour, 380 miles
Highlights: the hundred emails that needed processing before leaving Grand Marais.
Follow-up Notes:
Wabakimi Provincial Park, located close to the 50th parallel north, is in a remote part of Western Ontario with limited access and services. Detailed planning, in advance, is essential even for the most experienced paddlers. This is not the Park for first time wilderness trippers. Detailed canoe route maps with current portage trail information are hard to come-by, and often not accurate. Don’t assume you can run all the rapids shown on maps; the water levels will vary with each season depending on rain. Low water can dramatically change access to portages and render river routes impassable bolder fields. Portage trails can be rugged with many of the ‘off -the-beaten-trail’ canoe route portages poorly maintained. Access to the park by car is limited to only a few points and canoe routes. Safety of your car can be a concern if left along some road side or logging road trail. It is recommended to work with a local outfitter to shuttle and care for your car. The most northern reaches of the Park are accessible only by air with many fly-in options available from Armstrong, Savant Lake and Pickel Lake. Fly-in and train out is often the recommended scenario with The Canadian National Rail (train) an affordable option for accessing the southern Park boundaries and canoe routes. However, the train runs an every other day east to west directional schedule. Therefore, if you board the train in Armstrong and travel west into the Park you will be starting your trip in the middle of the night. Finding a suitable campsite near your drop-off point could be a challenge best tacked in daylight. Boarding the train in Savant Lake and traveling east you will start your trip in daytime hours with your return train scheduled for sometime after sunset. Whichever direction you travel, be prepared for an adventure and the unknown.
