BWCA Keats to Fern Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
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docfinny
member (7)member
  
07/26/2018 02:15PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Hello all, hope you're having a great summer!

Asking for a little route planning help. This would be my 2nd trip to Quetico and I wanted to know if it is feasible to get from Keats lake to Fern lake.

It has us portaging around the falls on the eastern end of Keats then hooking an immediate left at Shelley lake to go up a creek to Alice lake.

From there, paddle through Alice and take two long portages through two unnamed lakes before dumping out on Fern. Those lakes are west of Vachon.

There are campsites marked on these unnamed lakes but from what I know or would guess, I doubt anyone goes through there. They look pretty remote.

7.3 miles paddling with 2 miles of portaging.

Does anyone have any experience with these?

Alternative would be to go back out Russell to Sturgeon to Olifaunt.

Thanks in advance!
 
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docfinny
member (7)member
  
07/26/2018 03:33PM  
After more digging, some maps have those 2 portages marked as the Sauvage and Bonhamme and I was able to find some information on this forum about those (nasty).

Anyone travelled them in the recent past?
dentondoc
distinguished member(1097)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
07/26/2018 04:20PM  
docfinny: "After more digging, some maps have those 2 portages marked as the Sauvage and Bonhamme and I was able to find some information on this forum about those (nasty).

Anyone travelled them in the recent past?"

The portage maintenance map produced by Ontario Parks indicates that those portages were worked in May. Still, a lot can happen in a couple of months. During my late June trip (in another area of the park) I encountered blowdowns and deadfall when the map indicated the portage had been worked only 2 weeks earlier. It happens!

dd
07/27/2018 06:23AM  
There's not a lot of elevation change on either of them. Long and remote. I saw a massive moose print on the trail and some scat too. There's one rock ledge that is too steep and slick to walk a canoe down. I was solo so basically dragged it. The blowdowns were cleared very nice for me last September.
docfinny
member (7)member
  
07/27/2018 08:03AM  
Thank you! Bring a saw... Have you done the creek from Alice to Shelley?
 
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