Overall
It certainly wasn’t my best Q trip but it wasn’t my worst either. I guess you can san say I had two weeks of fun and one week of hell.

Route
I adjusted my route substantially because of age, weather and low water. I ended up doing the following: Quetico, Quetico North, Conk, Jean, Little Jean, Burntside, Rouge, Sturgeon, March, Bentpine, Heron Bay, Fred, Cutty Creek, Nam, Camel, Eag, Cub, Baird, Metacryst, Cutty, Sark, No Name East of Sark, Cairns, Heronshaw, Kawnipi, Shelly, Keats, Chatterton, Russell, Oliphant, B-Chain, Pikeral & French.

Water Levels
The water was almost as low as I have ever seen it. In the drought years you couldn’t get out the creek at Beaverhouse. This year it was just possible. I didn’t even bother trying Alice Creek or the creek into Wild Goose. To give you some examples of the low water: Dieux Riveriere was a mud bowl. There is a carryover coming out of Heronshaw into Shelly but this year it was a 50 yard portage. When you portage from Shelly to Kawnipi there is a little bay where you launch your canoe. This year it was a sandy beach.

Weather
It really was a tale of two canoe trips. The first 13 days were idyllic with low winds all the time and lots of heat. For a Canadian living in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains who gets a handful of days of 30C degrees, the heat was tough but I just did less work and more fishing.
This Shangri-la changed in a heartbeat. I was fishing on Heronshaw and had just caught three large walleyes when I looked at the sky and didn’t like what I was seeing. I quickly paddled back to camp. The north wind started, the temperature dropped and the rain started. The wind kept going for the rest of the trip except for about eight hours one morning.
After waiting for the rain to stop I portaged into Sark and flew down toward the main lake. The wind was so strong I couldn’t have paddle into it. I tried to find a campsite on the point at the entrance to the big lake and then again at the point of the big island but I couldn’t find any sites. Since I didn’t want to go further south I ended up making a campsite.
The next day the wind shifted to the SW and allowed me to get to Kawnipi but for the next four days it was roaring out of the north with plenty of rain and that was where I was heading. Fortunately I found two south facing campsites on Keats and Russell and hunkered down. To put this in perspective they measured the wind gusts in Wawa at 90 KPH per hour. I found it was equally hard to paddle than to do the split rock and Russell portages.

People
The south part of Q was probably deserted but not so on my route. To be quite frank I have never seen so many people. On my second night I heard some noise and saw some canoes. When I went out fishing that night I counted ten tents on three sites. I met a couple going down Cutty Creek. I haven’t seen anyone there in years. I met two other solos and a couple coming out of Shelly and another couple going the other way. Definitely too crowded for me.

Fishing
The fishing at least for the first two weeks was for me wonderful. I got lots of lake trout including a big one. I got more walleye than normal including five big ones. I got two large gaiters and had one that took hook, line and sinker. Bass of course were everywhere and I got some nice ones including a couple of large mouth. I am not a serious fisherman so when I say large take it with a grain of salt as I basically surface troll most of the time. I do a bit of deep diving for large walleye and jig for trout. Overall I caught fish in places where I don’t normally get them – especially walleyes.

Animals
I expected to see more animals but I didn’t. Normally I see a token moose but not this year. However I saw two driving to Beaverhouse. I did see all the normal small ones. I got scared by a big turtle that was hidden in the grass about a foot from my feet. At my favorite Eag campsite a beaver serinated me wacking his tale for about an hour. I got a kick out of a beaver that I caught on the shore and who looked like and electrified beach ball. He finally did a frantic cannonball to get back into the water.
I did have two exciting bird encounters. In all my trips to Q I have never seen more than two trumpeter swans and that has only been recently. This year I saw eight adults and four young ones in three different locations. When you first see them from a distance they look like floating white balls as their necks are too thin to see. The other excitement was two close encounters with bald eagles: one on a lake rock and one on a low branch.

Bugs
I don’t have a lot to say except there really weren’t any. I could count the number of mosquitoes and black flies on my hands. The mosquitoes were so small you barely saw them. I went through a swamp on Jean Creek one morning. Normally there would be a multitude of insects. There weren’t any. Even ankle biters, deer flies and horse flies were almost non- existent. It was the most bug free trip I have ever had. I didn’t even take my bug shirt out of the pack.

Portages
I find each year the Park keeps adding distance, hills and muskeg to the portages (HA HA). As I continue to age unlike a fine wine I find that the first few days are scary trying to get my pack on my back. I look for any assistance I can: rocks, hills or the canoe. I had real trouble with the Cutty to Sark portage. I had done it the other way about three for four years ago without any memorable problems. But the hill going the other way was a brute. I quad portaged halfway up the hill and then again up the rest of the hill and then did my normal tri portaging the rest. The Pickeral River portage almost did me in. Having to walk it five times was just about my limit. My last embarrassment was the last portage into Pickeral. I was about halfway across when the sky opened up. Without my rainsuit I was utterly soaked in about two minutes. I had to change back into my first half of the trip dirty clothes.

Injuries
I guess I continued to be blessed. I fell onto rock three times with weight on my back but only got scratches. I put a couple fishing hooks into my hands and got some fins and teeth marks. My back was sore but always recovered. Not too shabby for an old codger.

Near Disaster
On the worst night for weather I was hunkered down on Keats. In the morning I went out and got the water off my tarp and then turned toward the lake. Quickly I realized my canoe was missing. My first reaction was someone had stolen it. Dumb! Then it dawned on me that the wind had picked it up. It had been turned over on flat surface 15 yards from the water and still the wind got it. I ran down around the corner away from the wind and fortunately the low water helped as it got hung up on a line of rocks about 40 feet from the shoreline so I stripped down naked and retrieved it. The gunnel that had been rubbing against the rocks was damaged but the rest was fine. Since Keats is a small lake and water was so low I am sure I would have gotten the canoe if it kept floating but it would have been much harder.
The only other time I lost my canoe was on Gammon Lake in WC. I had the canoe on shore and I went back to get one of my packs. It was about 3C degrees and raining with a strong wind. The latter pick up the canoe and flipped into the water. Since the wind was blowing off shore my only option was to jump in with my clothes and retrieve the canoe. I had to spend the rest of the day in wet clothes so I would have a dry set when I camped.

Great report. Thanks for taking us along with you! Man I miss Quetico.

Thanks for the write-up. Was picturing your route in my mind as I was reading. I actually winced when I came to the part about doing the Pickerel portage FIVE times. Ugh! You are one tough hombre!
AdamX

Wow is all I can say! I am 67 and have seriously considered going solo but your trip may have changed my mind. Great stories! It is always the unexpected that keeps us coming back. We had our trip planned for early June but of course cancelled. I think about Quetico almost everyday. Really miss going this year. Thanks for sharing the memories. Maybe next year.

Thanks for the report, John. You're lucky to have been able to paddle Quetico, especially being able to do a three-week trip. Really looks like a great trip.

Thanks for the report. Always tie your canoe in camp. ALWAYS!

Was wondering when we'd hear from you. Welcome back! And thanks for the detailed report. Quite an adventure. Canoe Canada did mention to me that they expected it to get busy in August. They said they generally always see a spike in Canadian bookings for that month.

Well done!!!!
Thanks for the report. Many of us are very, very envious of both you and your trip. You give me hope. I am four years younger than you if your profile is accurate and do both solo and group trips each year. I feel myself slowly losing strength and stability but your report gets me pumped for a solo next year from Prairie to Chatterton and back somehow.
Welcome Home!!

Nice trip! Sorry about the weather. What were the dates of your trip?

August 18th to September 7th.

Banksiana: "Thanks for the report. Always tie your canoe in camp. ALWAYS!"

I just started tying my canoe about ten years ago. In fact I routinely ram the canoe between trees ,far from shore and then tie it up with rope.
The rope may have never prevented the canoe from blowing away BUT I surely sleep much better when it storms and I don’t have to worry about the canoe.