Alma: "I have none of the info you're looking for here, but I am taking that same route to Kawnipi (June 8-17) and would love any recon you could provide regarding portages, etc. after you complete your trip!!!"
Short quick note here, hopefully a trip report later.
Entered at Baptism Creek, night one on Trousers. We were the first humans (LOTS of moose tracks and scat) so we cut through several trees. Should all be passable for you now. :)
Do not rely on the McKenzie map for portages on this section, or on the Cache. If I remember right, McKenzie is missing one portage and one lift-over in this stretch. The Chrismar map is much more accurate on portages.
This was a surprisingly hard day for us - it's less than 10 miles - but I think that was partly because the Baptism current was pretty strong (we were going upstream) and because it was darn cold.
Keep a good eye out for the intersection of Baptism and the French. We don't usually miss such things and we did.
Day 2 we just went from Trousers to Cache Lake, doing the big portage. Once again, wicked cold - snowing most of the time we were portaging. We waited until almost noon hoping the snow would let up but when it didn't, we started out.
The cold made it seem harder than it probably is. But it does feel Long. You cross the Cache River along the portage and the McKenzie map shows the river crossing as being about halfway. We got there and had lunch and were feeling pretty good about ourselves! No way was it halfway in terms of how long the sections before and after took us - the stretch after the river is much longer.
It's the length and the footing that got to us. There's not that much elevation to deal with but the footing is constantly a challenge. You're crossing bog much of the time and you get to choose between balancing on slippery logs or possibly sinking up to your knees in muck (I did that a couple of times). My wife notes that the muck also had an extra muckyness because it was so churned up by moose. :)
Have you done the Badwater portage? Kinda like that except there's a lot more bog, the boggy stretches are more treacherous and it's more than twice as long. When we did the Badwater we were like "well, that was hard, but it's not that hard." When we finished the Trousers to Cache we were Tired.
Day 3 we paddled the Cache River most of the way, but not all of the way, to the end, going about 16 miles. We had a gorgeous sunny day. It warmed up to maybe 50! We LOVED it. Saw moose 3 times, including a cow and a calf, and watched a bull browse the shoreline from in the water. It's absolutely nothing but black spruce-tamarack bog for about the first 15 miles so you've got to enjoy that.
We started about 8 AM and called it a day around....maybe 4:30? We took a leisurely lunch and another nice break. We made it to the 33 rod portage where the river turns north after the Ferguson portage and made camp there.
The "campsite." There's one marked BEFORE the portage on the Padle Planner map. We didn't see the Padle Planner "before" one, though this is where we did start to see some rocks - it wasn't just 100 percent bog at that point. So probably we just missed it, or the rock is darn small (likely that).
So we camped on the portage. I've never done that before and it's kinda a no-no, but there sure as heck wasn't going to be another person through. We had seen no sign of other humans since we'd left Trousers.
So we set up just off to the side of the portage on the south end. The McKenzie map shows the campsite as being on the north end but there were raspberry canes growing in the grassy area, which didn't seem great for the tent. Plus it was right on a moose trail. So we found a spot on the south end that worked just fine. No real view or anything but we were tired and it worked fine for cooking and sleeping.
For that first 16 miles I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find dry ground to set up a tent on anywhere except at the portages . But if you had to, I think you could squeeze a tent in somewhere on the edge of several of them. We saw two ancient unused rock rings that tells us that others used to.
Portages - do NOT bother with the McKenzie map. It leaves out 3 completely. The Chrismar marks the portages correctly. I think Paddle planer does too.
The portages aren't long but none of them are easy - if you're used to, say, the portages on the Dore route to Sturgeon, these are completely different animals. You won't actually lose the trail, but they will be narrow, with poor footing, often quite wet/boggy or else brief steep slopes. We're used to doing quite a bit of portages and thought these would not be much to deal with because they are short - but they take more out of you than their length would make you think.
We again cleared branches on any deadfall so you can either go over or under. And not just on the portages! Unless the trail crew beats you, you'll come to a spot where the river is - was! - entirely obstructed by a fallen black spruce. We cut enough limbs to be able to pass under and through. Enjoy!
SO SO SO many moose tracks and moose shit on those Cache River portages! It's probably more accurate to call them "moose trails" than "portages." We actually made sure our tent cords didn't extend into the moose pathway because we thought it wasn't a crazy idea that we would trip a moose in the night.
Day 4 we took it really easy and just paddled the last 5 miles or so to where the Cache enters Kawnipi, by Cache Falls.
This stretch has more high ground and rock outcroppings - I'm pretty sure a person could find a campsite along one of them if you worked at it.
Maps differ on whether there are 2 or 4 portages on this stretch. Well, there are 3. The last one, the longest one, is the easiest one on the river.
We made it a short day because we really liked the Cache Falls campsite! It's right where one other trip report says it is, maybe 75 meters south of the falls. Contrary to what one report says, there's a sweet takeout on the south end of the site. Just go around the far side of the big downed tree in the water - no need to climb up the rock face.
There's a trail from the campsite up to the falls. A couple of sweet spots to sit by the water. And as others mention, an easy place to get water.
Campsite is surprisingly little used. I guess not much of anybody comes that way?
One other note - reading other trip reports had us concerned about taking water from the Cache. We weren't sure what the problem was supposed to be - sediment? Giardia?
Definitely there's everything that goes through a moose's bowels in that river! You'll want to treat or filter the water. But as long as you don't stir up the bottom, the river is not carrying a large suspended sediment load. We used water from the river - filtered some during the course of the travel day, treated some with Aqua Mira at camp at night.
Water levels - we had NO problem whatsoever. Lots of water, nice current.
Won't promise anything for a few weeks from now, of course.
A couple of indications - there were places we paddled, esp in some wider sections, where our paddles did hit bottom. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a main channel somewhere that we just didn't need to find since the water levels were so high.
Also, about 2/3 of the way down the river, we watched a huge bull moose emerge from the trees, amble across the open bog, step into the river, and SWIM to the other shore. It was deep enough that a large moose could not touch bottom.
We LOVED this segment of our trip while we were doing it. My wife said after the portage from Trousers to Cache that she would never do that portage again. But then after we paddled the river....and she had a couple of days for the worst of the muck to get washed out of her pants...:) that the trip made it totally worth that portage.
Just so you know a little about our perspective....I'm 65, my wife is 66, we're in pretty good shape, hike, backpack, bike, work out at the gym, but we're not buff or anything. We take a 7-9 day canoe trip every spring, going 50-80 miles. Used to do them in the BWCA but we've fallen hard for Quetico and have gone there the last 4 years. The main gear pack that my wife carried weighed around 45 pounds. I carried the canoe and the food pack. I think our canoe weighs in the low 40s - Bell Northwind carbon-kevlar with wood trim. The food pack started out in the low 30s. So I had maybe 75 lbs? We single portaged everything.
Hope this is helpful! I'd be glad to try to fill in anything I missed. And as I said, we'll try to get a trip report up.
Paddle in the water!
Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
Forum Sponsor
Search BWCA.com
Donate 