I plan to take my son on our first Quetico trip the second week of June 2025. My family and I are backpackers and have also logged hundreds of miles and dozens of nights on river-based canoe trips, but we have zero experience on a BWCA or Quetico style flatwater trip. Time to change that.

My question is the accuracy of the online estimates for travel time. For instance, one leg of our route would take us from Olifaunt into northern Sturgeon and then down to Russell Lake, perhaps all the way to McDougall. For instance, I've seen PP estimates of 3 hours and 30 minutes from the 5 star camp at the pinch point on N. Sturgeon down to the 4 star on McDougall. Have you found those estimates to be in the ballpark, assuming there's not a bad headwind, or boot-sucking mud on portages?

Thanks for any feedback.

I've never been to Quetico, so can't answer directly. It'll be as accurate as the parameters you chose, depending on other factors you mentioned. The problem is nobody knows how fast you'll travel. It happens often here that some will ask how long will it take from here to there. They get answers that vary widely - 4 hrs. to 7 hrs.

You don't know either of course.

Start finding out when you put in, keep track, have some wiggle room in your plan, adjust if necessary. Portages can eat up time, especially difficult ones. Find out about the ones you'll be doing. You can have a headwind or tailwind. You can even be windbound.

Just to give you a number, assume you can average about 2 mph. It's a number that's been suggested before.

Thanks, that's good information. I understand its highly variable depending on experience, fitness, weather, etc. The 2 mph average sounds reasonable to me. On that note, our tentative route is:
Day 1: Stanton-Bay to Bud/Fern
Day 2: Bud/Fern to N. Sturgeon
Day 3: N. Sturgeon to Russell
Day 4: Russell
Day 5: Russell
Day 6: Russell to Dore
Day 7: Dore Stanton Bay

I know Americans can't park at Stanton, so we'd hire an outfitter to drop us off and pick us up. I'm less interested in paddling back to French over the eastern half of Pickerel as that seems to slightly increase wind risk (though perhaps going with any wind) and that area just looks less interesting to me. We want to fish, see a good a cross-section of the park, and have layovers to day trip to other lakes and walk some portage trails to just explore. I'm hoping this trip would fit the bill. Any thoughts?

I know nothing about Quetico; you'll get better information on your route if ask in the "Quetico Forum". Other than that, if you're route mileage isn't too aggressive, 2 mph should be in the ball park. My experience (don't ask) is it's easier to adjust if your estimate is conservative and you have some built-in wiggle room.

There are a lot of people here with Quetico experience who can give you information on your route

The 2 mph average is pretty close and the portages on your route are pretty decent and well traveled. The one killer is along the Pickerel River to Olifaunt....you'll remember it. You should be ok in June but the other surprise place can be the Deux river on your last leg. If it is low, it can be a mess. Keep an eye on posts about it closer to trip time. Somebody usually inquires. Also, do some research on the outflow from Russel to Sturgeon. Tricky little piece of water going down, and sometimes near impossible to paddle up. Just a few items to adjust your time estimates.