https://caltopo.com/m/GC29

Any feedback on this loop? I asked earlier about the Cap Lake - Boulder Lake Portage and got great info on that.

This is referred to as 52-2 The Kekekabic Beaver Loop in the book from Roberty Beymer and Loius Dzierzak. They have it as 7 days but we have 10-12 days to complete it if needed.

Any suggestions on how to use those extra days? where to stop earlier in the day, maybe an extra stop or two?

Edit: entry date is Sept 8 and total of 12 days if needed.

The Kek Beaver loop would be nice. I've been on all of it except the Ogish Kek part or the north alternative at the start. I went Bat Green Gillis.

Couple questions:

How many of you and are any hammockers?

Do you single or double portage?

Some campsites on the route were burned and could limit the available sites for hammocks. Some places along the route sites may be small.

If the extra days aren't determined by weather, Little Sag is worth an extra day. I haven't been there, but Ogish/Kek probably qualifies. You probably won't want to camp on Cap. Boulder/Adams/Beaver another possibility. You don't want to camp on Trapline.

boonie: "
How many of you and are any hammockers?

Do you single or double portage?
"

2 people, 1 canoe. No hammocks. Single portage.

boonie: " You probably won't want to camp on Cap. Boulder/Adams/Beaver another possibility. You don't want to camp on Trapline.
"

Just curious, why is that?

So far I think we will add a night on Tuscarora Lake for sure, save up for that mile long portage. I think we will add a day to spend near Kekekabic Trail and Mueller Falls area. I think we actually have 12 days total to spare if needed. I will add Little Sag to the list. If there is bad weather we can easily adjust as we go.

Thanks for your time.

I like the idea of this loop and may have to try it. I've done about 60% of that route, but no different trips. Your route stops at two of my favorite lakes - Gillis and Kek. I love the laker lakes. I'd suggest a day off on either of those to fish, but you may not want to do layover days too early - may be better to save them for weather issues. Of course, you could consider reversing your course. Then you would get the big Tusc portage out of the way and get to travel a lot of the smaller lakes east to west which could be more favorable for wind.

Reversing the loop is a good idea and will consider. It will be either reverse or spend the last night on Tuscarora and hopefully rest up for it then.

Trapline has no space, no real tent pad, not a good landing among other issues. One of the worst sites I've seen there. Emergency only for me. Cap just isn't a great site, but better than Trapline. You could stay there, but there are much better sites on Fraser/Sagus before or Boulder after. Stop and check them out on your way by, only take 10 minutes.

I also tend to just keep traveling if the weather is good. You never know when it'll get bad and you'll be windbound.

Tusc is a nice enough lake, I've stayed there several nights. There are several decent sites. Little Sag has lots of sites and usually few people. It's a nice island-studded lake.

krole: "Reversing the loop is a good idea and will consider. It will be either reverse or spend the last night on Tuscarora and hopefully rest up for it then."

Yeah, that Tusc portage could go either way. On the one hand, it’s nice to get out of the way. On the other, it’s nice to camp on Tusc and tell yourself there’s just one (almost) big last portage between you and a cold beer.

I did a solo trip from EP 52 to Kekekabic and back in June. I actually really enjoyed the burn area, but Gillis was way too crowded for me. I enjoyed the campsite on the south side of Powell, and the fishing was great there. The Gabi crossing that you have marked worked better for me early in the day before the wind kicked up.
Agamok has a decent site near the portage to Gabi, and I caught a nice pike on a portage rest at Mueller Falls. Kekekabic was my favorite lake, with some beautiful bluffs on the North side and clear water.

We were just in some of these areas. When we portaged from Bingshick into Flying, we met a group that was trying unsucessfully to find the portage from Flying into Fay. They could not find the entrance from that direction. We didn't try since we were on our way to Brandt in a hurry. But that group finally gave up and went through to Green. The lakes in this area are beautiful IMO.

We arrived at Ogish on a Monday afternoon around 1pm and every single site was taken...maybe pressure from people not wanting to deal with the bear issues on Jasper/Alpine/Seagull...I don't know. But we frantically paddled like maniacs around the lake with a nasty storm bearing down and found everything occupied. As the storm hit we had to shelter at a closed site. We wished we had stayed on Agamok which was empty when we passed through.

We spent 2 days hanging out at Little Sag. Beautiful Lake and one that we saw the least people on.