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       Portage from Lonely to Yeh barely functional
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Date/Time: 03/28/2024 04:05PM
Portage from Lonely to Yeh barely functional

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Previous Messages:
Author Message Text
TomT 10/09/2018 06:55AM
Small world indeed! Thinking back I should have waved you guys over to share the site that evening. I was a little lonely on Lonely. :) And yeah, I left for Batchewaung the next morning. I remember seeing a pair of swans but on the water.


BearMandolin 10/08/2018 11:41AM
Ha! Yup, that was us, TomT! I have to say we were a little sad to see the peninsula site taken when we got there since it was starting to get dark. We went up the lake a little nervous, and got into our site on the NW shore about 10 minutes before full dark. I never like cruising close to shore looking for a site in the dusk, but we got the site! The stars were especially good that night, and after dinner my brother (an astrophysicist) showed me Andromeda, which is almost impossible to see with the naked eye. We were fishing in the morning and saw you headed toward Walter - the swans flew over you. We went down and spent a night at the 5 star on Sturgeon by Scripture Island before heading back up to Jesse.
TomT 10/05/2018 06:58AM
BearMandolin: "That's when the puppy found me and seemed to be saying, "Where you been? The boat's this way!" Sheesh. We didn't get done and onto Lonely until just after sunset."

I wonder if I saw you guys on Lonely. I was there solo on the 5th and was set up on that peninsula site at the channel leading to Sturgeon and saw two canoes come by from Yeh very late in the evening. I have a brown tarp and red canoe. You may have seen my dog as well. I remember seeing lights setting up a camp on the north west side after the canoes passed.

Did you end up on that site in the north end with the great front porch? I passed that site and made a note for the next time. The rock came way out into the water. Great for watching stars.






ParkerMag 09/25/2018 07:37AM
My son, nephew, and I went through early June this year. Appeared portage maintenance had been through just a week or two prior based on chainsaw chippings.

Unfortunately, somewhere around Memorial Day, there was a significant wind event that knocked down a LOT of new wood.

On top of that, the nephew put an axe in his ankle a couple days prior. He could limp along, but wasn't carrying anything yet, so son and I were now double portaging to get the extra gear across. Three fairly challenging hours beginning to end.
BearMandolin 09/24/2018 11:21AM
I agree. We went through from Yeh to Lonely Sept 5 and the second part of the portage is bad with blow downs. It's passable - someone cleared enough branches to get through - but you need to dismount the canoe or packs on a number of occasions. It took us a long time since we were double portaging.


I had an interesting experience I hadn't had before: on the way back for the second trip I got turned around in the 250 m bog section and started the think "Have I been here before? This doesn't look familiar..." The trail I was on started to go up into the woods out of the bog and I knew I hadn't been there before. There was a moment of creeping panic where I wondered if I was going to get lost in the bog. It seemed pretty trackless. It was late afternoon already and the shadows were playing tricks. I turned around and retraced my steps to a point where I saw surveyors tape again and knew where I was. That's when the puppy found me and seemed to be saying, "Where you been? The boat's this way!" Sheesh. We didn't get done and onto Lonely until just after sunset.
stevedug 09/24/2018 09:22AM
I am confirming the original post about this portage. our group went through the yeh lake portage on sept. 18, 2018, and the section that is closest to the lonely lake side has numerous blowdowns over the trail. some can be stepped over, but many require canoes or packs to be taken off and lifted over or under the blowdowns. its not unmanageable, but it does slow things down considerably, especially if you care about not scratching your boat up on the blowdowns.
billconner 07/23/2018 02:52PM
I got caught on one of those portage reroutes one year somewhere from Kashapiwi to S chain via Trant. Spent an hour or more looking to the left of the stream and it was on the right and just out of sight. Now I buy a new Chrismar every time it's revised. I got spoiled by the Fishers and MacKenzies which seem to rarely be changed.
Jackfish 07/23/2018 12:29PM
Perhaps a dumb question considering the fact that you were on the portage six years ago, but you were on the NEW trail, right? We were headed from Yeh to Lonely eight years ago and mistakenly took the old portage at first. Looked like the description in your post - it was a real pain. Fortunately, we found our way back to the beginning, paddled around the corner and there the NEW landing was.
Sconniepaddler 07/23/2018 12:04PM
Just an FYI that the Portage from Lonely to Yeh lake in Quetico is essentially non-functional. We used it July 14th, 2018. There are many (15+) large trees down over the portage. We had to lift/push canoe over trees or slide under trees. Very little opportunity to just portage as normal due to frequency of trees down. The blow down didn't look overly recent, so I wonder if the portage is being abandoned. The last roughly 1/3 of portage from marsh to Yeh lake wasn't as bad. We took this portage about 6 years ago and it was fine back then.