Heading to entry point #70 in a couple of weeks. Has anyone taken the Royal River from John Lake to South Fowl? What are the portages like, as well as water levels? Thanks in advance for the info.

That whole area changes quite a bit with water levels and plant growth (seasonally.) It's also BEAUTIFUL. The portages were pretty easy to my recollection, though some may have different landings depending on water levels. I was able to walk the river on the long one from the Fowls, though it's a bunch of riffles and definitely less time-consuming to take the portage. In my memory, those portages have far less topography than the average in the eastern part of the BW.

We did that portage, opposite direction, in 2022. We had a hard time finding the actual start of the portage due to water level. Many false starts. I ended up dragging the canoe upstream to find the real portage start. Would guess coming the other direction you won't have problems like that, and water levels ought to be more 'normal'. Someone did swamp in that river during a high-water event, FYI.

Was there last week. Portages were nondescript or typical of normal portages. Water level was good, one boat floated the section where the long portage is. Water was moving fast.

Only thing that stood out was the high amount of reeds along the way. Couple areas on the water where there wasn't an obvious path through the reeds and just had to paddle through in the general direction of where you want to go, especially in royal lake.

Was suprised to see cabins on the small strip of land on north fowl. Couple kids yelling out asking if we wanted a cold beverage was cute and funny.

I did that stretch quite a bit ago. We never did find the portage(s) and walked our boat to South Fowl. I concur with what T&B said, very reedy and you can’t really see where you are going, kind of have to trust you are going the right direction, use a compass. I stayed in one of those cabins at a dump called Ron’s Lodge for a few days. I doubt it’s operating anymore. Have fun!

BEARnMOOSE: "Was there last week. Portages were nondescript or typical of normal portages. Water level was good, one boat floated the section where the long portage is. Water was moving fast.


Only thing that stood out was the high amount of reeds along the way. Couple areas on the water where there wasn't an obvious path through the reeds and just had to paddle through in the general direction of where you want to go, especially in royal lake.


Was suprised to see cabins on the small strip of land on north fowl. Couple kids yelling out asking if we wanted a cold beverage was cute and funny."

The reeds are my biggest memory from my trip going the opposite way last year. On Royal Lake I remember standing up in my canoe, still not seeing the right way over the reeds and just trusting I was reading the map right. We made it through no problem but you can get disoriented

As an aside, there are mambo perch in those lakes, John & Royal. Drop a line when you paddle thru. Are you doing a loop.

bnics: "

BEARnMOOSE: "Was there last week. Portages were nondescript or typical of normal portages. Water level was good, one boat floated the section where the long portage is. Water was moving fast.



Only thing that stood out was the high amount of reeds along the way. Couple areas on the water where there wasn't an obvious path through the reeds and just had to paddle through in the general direction of where you want to go, especially in royal lake.



Was suprised to see cabins on the small strip of land on north fowl. Couple kids yelling out asking if we wanted a cold beverage was cute and funny."

The reeds are my biggest memory from my trip going the opposite way last year. On Royal Lake I remember standing up in my canoe, still not seeing the right way over the reeds and just trusting I was reading the map right. We made it through no problem but you can get disoriented"

It’s been many years since I was through there but I remember it well. We also got lost in that lake. The bull rushes and wild rice was too high. I too stood up but could not see a thing. Finally got out a topo map, got a bearing, then fought our way through the reeds to the portage. Millions of spiders all over the canoe, packs, down our back. Like I said I’ll never forget that lake. We named that lake “Royal pain in the A$$”. I will never be back to that area, trust me on that.