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Author	Message Text
cowdoc	03/11/2024 09:43AM   To clarify....pic was from Chrismar, not Fisher. Checked my Fisher, no label there.
CookHam	03/08/2024 06:48PM   Has anyone been on the racers portages (Bonhomme and Savage) in the past couple of years? We have been on those in past years… wet, dry, flooded.. any idea what they look like now?
cowdoc	03/09/2024 06:47PM   Just ran across it recently doing some research as our group may use them this spring.
tumblehome	03/09/2024 02:53PM   " Here’s what the lake between the portages looks like
cowdoc	03/09/2024 09:38PM
sns	03/09/2024 06:24PM   cowdoc: "The "racers" portages are different. They go from Nym to Pickerel via Gillnet lake outside the park boundary " I always thought they were the two portages connecting Fern and Alice? But I've been wrong before. Just ask my wife.
tumblehome	03/10/2024 12:52PM   Huh, I too thought the racers portages were between Alice and Fern. Don Meany up in Atikokan would know. His brother made them. Tom
cowdoc	03/10/2024 01:47PM   Yeah, little suprise to me too. Maybe both sets known by that name?...maybe old and new... Maybe racers and racer's?
tumblehome	03/09/2024 07:01AM   Why yes I did them last year. They are both burned out from a fire in 2021 or so. Definitely not as bad as I thought they would be. The middle lake between them is burned out. It’s all a real pretty area though. I will make one serious note though. The portage out of the small lake to Fern is not marked correctly on the Fisher map. It is several hundred yards east of where it’s marked on the map. Due to the fire, the portage trail is at times a little tricky to stay on. More moose use the trail than people. Watch for flags on the trail put there by Quetico rangers. Have fun! PS. Alice is all burned out too and no campsites. Tom
sns	03/10/2024 04:47PM   Well, this is interesting history! Might indeed be "both", sort of... Can't see anything about why the Nym>Pickerel shortcut is called the racers...though it would seem that that may have been the route for the races in '62, '63 and '64. Regardless, the two guys who won the 1964 Atikokan > Ely race got the Alice - Fern portages that they cut through the wilderness named after them...assuming this article is correct (which it may not be): Atikokan > Ely Race So I at least had that second part right in my head...
CookHam	03/11/2024 04:58PM   Thanks! This is great info
tumblehome	03/11/2024 07:19AM   Well SNS, I think that answers a lot of questions. It appears that at least Fisher maps thinks the portages out of Pickeral and Gilnet are the racer portages. And maybe they are. But the portages between Fern and Alice are ‘also’ the racer portages. Probably more so since they were put in specifically by and for the racers. Canada was opened up by the paddle, not the wheel like in the US. So much canoe history in Ontario. Tom
CookHam	03/11/2024 04:58PM   Ha! Yeah… my mistake. Although the name still fits with the Bonhomme and Savage…. And the story is still a good one!
cowdoc	03/09/2024 03:52PM   The "racers" portages are different. They go from Nym to Pickerel via Gillnet lake outside the park boundary