After an evening camping at Racine Lake, our shuttle driver, James, took us to Missinaibi Provincial Park. Anyone driving on their own should get directions from the park service because the gravel roads are unnamed and there are numerous signs saying kayak or canoe launch that are deceptive. The place you want to end up with is at Lake Missinaibi Provincial Park. So call first for directions.
If you are staying overnight in the nearest town, Chapleau, there are only a few motels. They are priced appropriate for their features. For example, in the middle, you will find a 10-unit motel where an amenity was considered a Mr. Coffee coffee maker. (Take note, however, a bad motel for a canoeist is something that smells worse than your car.)
Put in was at 10:30. Right at the get go we had six miles of lake paddling. For most of it we had a tailwind, which was nice because a headwind on that lake would have been a tough start to a long trip. The narrows were unexpectedly narrow (due to lots of lake grass) and really shallow but we got through it without losing any vinyl.
The entrance of the river from the lake was deceptively reedy and narrow.
When we finally started down the river, we knew that within a mile we would have some more exciting water (Quittagene and Cedar Rapids).
At Quittagene we saw a campsite on the left that was a lot better than the documented campsite at the bottom of the portage on river right.
We camped the first night a mile past Hay River on the right. We were hoping to catch glimpse of a moose or two but did not
Total miles paddled 13.
No comments:
Post a Comment