Has anyone portaged in there since the fire.

quote Pinetree: "Has anyone portaged in there since the fire."

Bump!
Tomahawk Timber Company Camp 5 was on the road just off the southwest tip of Maniwaki. You can see the spot in the satellite photos of the burn area. I'd like to know if Hope Creek is navigable to Maniwaki and then hop over to the sight to see if there are any relics lying about.

quote Jackpine Jim: "

quote Pinetree: "Has anyone portaged in there since the fire."

Bump!
Tomahawk Timber Company Camp 5 was on the road just off the southwest tip of Maniwaki. You can see the spot in the satellite photos of the burn area. I'd like to know if Hope Creek is navigable to Maniwaki and then hop over to the sight to see if there are any relics lying about."

About 30 years ago we went from South Hope to Maniwaki. Part way up from South Hope you had to get out and walk the canoe up the creek than a small portage to Maniwaki lake. You could barely see where the road was way back than where it crossed the creek.Now I would say you could find none. About 50 years ago the MN. DNR stocked Muskie in Maniwaki of the Shoepack strain.
Well about 30 years we fished it and caught some nice size perch,that is all. it is fairly shallow.
What also is interesting I hear there is smallmouth bass in Hope now.There never use to be and it amazed me they could get there from Insula.

quote Pinetree: "

quote Jackpine Jim: "

quote Pinetree: "Has anyone portaged in there since the fire."

Bump!
Tomahawk Timber Company Camp 5 was on the road just off the southwest tip of Maniwaki. You can see the spot in the satellite photos of the burn area. I'd like to know if Hope Creek is navigable to Maniwaki and then hop over to the sight to see if there are any relics lying about."

About 30 years ago we went from South Hope to Maniwaki. Part way up from South Hope you had to get out and walk the canoe up the creek than a small portage to Maniwaki lake. You could barely see where the road was way back than where it crossed the creek.Now I would say you could find none. About 50 years ago the MN. DNR stocked Muskie in Maniwaki of the Shoepack strain.
Well about 30 years we fished it and caught some nice size perch,that is all. it is fairly shallow.
What also is interesting I hear there is smallmouth bass in Hope now.There never use to be and it amazed me they could get there from Insula."

I walked the North Road (Powwow Trail) up to where it turns east toward Powwow Lake in October, 2015 and the road was not bad, lots of trees down because of the fire. I I started later in the day so had to turn around. The Fire makes some of the old roads clearly visible on the satellite maps but I'm sure they are getting pretty grown over with fireweed, jackpine and aspen. That road used to go east and cross the portage trail from Kawashachong Lake to Town Line Lake near the crest of the hill and then up the east side of Lake Polly. There is a clearly evident flat gravelly area on the portage trail where the road crossed. Tomahawk Timber Company Camp 4 (Polly Camp) was located on the Phoebe River near where it runs into Polly. Hard to believe how much of the area was logged off in the 1940's and 1950's. Lots of fishing going on so minnows trapped and moved from lake to lake. I wouldn't be surprised if that heled accidentally spread the smallmouth bass.

Some of those roads had like class 5 gravel. The smallmouth introduction was like 30 years after the roads closed and 20 years plus since you could even find them. They moved up from Insula lake somehow. By creek or human help or?

Years ago I use to hike from the Isabella parking lot and could hike to the Arrow lakes. There was roads and trails going everywhere. From Ferne lake you could paddle across the lake and hit the road and walk a fair distance on good road trails.
I use to see some monster bull moose along those trails in the 80's(when there was moose).

Back in October of 1982 I hiked the east loop of the Pow Wow Trail. Most of the trail followed old logging roads, and the vast majority of the landscape was fairly young, second-growth forest. Lots of moose sign and many grouse. I remember wishing I would have brought my shotgun with.

When the Pagami Creek Fire burned through that area, a lot of people got excited, thinking it was the wholesale destruction of old forest in a pristine landscape. Not true at all. That fire was great for the area, as it burned a lot post-logging pine plantations that were planted in tight rows, and generally allowed the forest to return from scratch.
It probably burned up a lot of old logging debris, too, that would have taken a LONG time to break down.

quote arctic: "Back in October of 1982 I hiked the east loop of the Pow Wow Trail. Most of the trail followed old logging roads, and the vast majority of the landscape was fairly young, second-growth forest. Lots of moose sign and many grouse. I remember wishing I would have brought my shotgun with.


When the Pagami Creek Fire burned through that area, a lot of people got excited, thinking it was the wholesale destruction of old forest in a pristine landscape. Not true at all. That fire was great for the area, as it burned a lot post-logging pine plantations that were planted in tight rows, and generally allowed the forest to return from scratch.
It probably burned up a lot of old logging debris, too, that would have taken a LONG time to break down."

Yes Grouse hunting in the 80's was awesome back there. I would hike in and camp like Pose lake lake and hike and hunt grouse in the area. Remember seeing those bull moose standing in like a beaver pond area or once in a while on the trail so you let the moose pass if it wanted too.There was a trail you could go to Hudson lake also. The one trail going going to the northeast of Pose and Hudson is where the individual got lost and was wrote about in the Book The Call of The Wild. At the time it happened I wondered if that individual could of went that way because the trail slowly disappears and gets confusing.

Yes the fires gave the area a chance to return to more prelogging era. Also it should be awesome moose habitat now.

quote Pinetree: "

quote arctic: "Back in October of 1982 I hiked the east loop of the Pow Wow Trail. Most of the trail followed old logging roads, and the vast majority of the landscape was fairly young, second-growth forest. Lots of moose sign and many grouse. I remember wishing I would have brought my shotgun with.



When the Pagami Creek Fire burned through that area, a lot of people got excited, thinking it was the wholesale destruction of old forest in a pristine landscape. Not true at all. That fire was great for the area, as it burned a lot post-logging pine plantations that were planted in tight rows, and generally allowed the forest to return from scratch.
It probably burned up a lot of old logging debris, too, that would have taken a LONG time to break down."

Yes Grouse hunting in the 80's was awesome back there. I would hike in and camp like Pose lake lake and hike and hunt grouse in the area. Remember seeing those bull moose standing in like a beaver pond area or once in a while on the trail so you let the moose pass if it wanted too.There was a trail you could go to Hudson lake also. The one trail going going to the northeast of Pose and Hudson is where the individual got lost and was wrote about in the Book The Call of The Wild. At the time it happened I wondered if that individual could of went that way because the trail slowly disappears and gets confusing.


Yes the fires gave the area a chance to return to more prelogging era. Also it should be awesome moose habitat now."

I'll have to pick up the book Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods
My dad ran a trap line in that area from 1959-1964. He left me an audio file before he passed away in 2013, and which I just this week listened to, in which he recounted the Hudson Road, the Arrow Lakes and camping at the blacksmith's shop that remained at Camp 5, and how it happened to burn down while he was out checking the traps.