Just got back from 12 days in the park. We entered from Stanton Bay and paddled and portaged ~150km through Pickerel, Maria, Jesse, Oriana, Quetico, Conk, Jean, Burntside, Rouge, Sturgeon, Fred, Nan, Camel, EAG, McDougall, Chatterton, Russell, Twin, Dore pack through Pickerel to Stanton Bay.

General impressions were high water, good portage trail and campsite conditions and quite extreme mosquito populations. Fishing was pretty darn good as usual but they were a little harder to find than normal given high water and waning moon. Smallmouth Bass seem to be overtaking every lake in the park. There are so many we got tired of catching them after a while. We also caught some large Lake Trout, Walleye and giant Pike. Small fish seemed almost nonexistent - this is a good thing of course. :)

We saw black bear, otters, snapping and painted turtles, swans, geese, ducks, beavers and many bald eagles. The forest was very healthy but with a thick carpet of old needles we had to be careful with fires even with some extreme rain events moving through. We had one serious storm that filled Sturgeon Lake with tree branches afterwards.

The park seemed very busy, especially in the Pickerel Lake, Oriana and Quetico Lake areas. After Jean Lake things calmed down a lot and we saw much less people but still way more than my wife and I saw in 2025 where we only ran into 6 other groups in 13 days in the same general area.

We timed our trip up Cutty Creek perfectly. We were literally 5 minutes behind a trail maintenance crew with a chainsaw! This route was the only one we encountered that needed ribbons. There was only one viable campsite on Camel Lake so we were very relieved not to see another party in there!

McDougall and Chatterton Lake were our favorite area - we spent an extra day on a 5-star site in Chatterton to avoid anticipated crowds on nearby Russell Lake. Fishing Split Rock Falls was a special experience although they were so high that finding fish there was a bit of a challenge.

If you have any specific questions on the route just ask.

I’ve done all of your route at different times and I might have seen you out there. Got back on Tuesday, I think your photo pretty much sums of what God has given us in Quetico. Certainly there are no words that could explain it!

Billions of galaxies each with billions of stars.

Cutty Creek out of Camel is a quintessential definition of a boreal river. Such a beautiful stretch until the beavers make mud soup.

It sounds like you had a wonderful time! I saw the fewest people ever on my trip. Batch was busy as ever but as I drifted south off the water highway, the people pretty much disappeared. I had whole lakes to myself which is fun. I had a wolf at the edge of the water howling so loud it echoed on and on. I wish I made a recording of it. He definitely was announcing his presence for some time.

Tom

Hey Vern, wondering if there will be a longer trip write up or even better, a video of this trip coming in the future?
I too made the long trip from Edmonton out to Quetico this year for a May 29 to June 10 paddle. It would have been fun to have a little chat had we crossed paths at some point. Our route started at Nym Lake then Batchewaung, Pickerel, Bisk, Beg, Bud, Fern, Olifaunt, Sturgeon, Russell, Chatterton, Keats, Shelley, Kawnipi, Keewatin, Agnes, Bird, Anubis, Kawnipi then retraced our way back thru the poets chain to Sturgeon, Lonely, Walter, Elizabeth, Jesse, Maria, Pickerel, Batchewaung, and back out at Nym.
For the most part, agree with the fishing comments, I thought we would do better with Walleye but with high water levels, they seemed a little elusive. Our biggest were 26.5 and 27.5 inches but also several in the eater size around 18 inches as well. Largest Pike was 35 inches which is a lot to handle from a canoe. And funny enough, both myself and my brother caught that same massive Pike about an hour apart! Our best trout fishing was on Agnes, we found a little honey hole that produced on almost every pass and even produced a trout double-header.
We actually didn't find the mosquitoes to be too bad. Sure, some portage landings were buggy so you wouldn't want to stick around and we only found them to be a nuisance at camp for about 1 to 1.5 around dusk then they would pretty much be gone. We encountered a few ticks (brother about 6, myself 2 or 3) but got them before they could burrow in.
We couldn't have asked for better weather, if anything, it could have been a touch cooler. Mostly sunny every day except June 8 which was the only day we got a 15 minute light rain mid-day which didn't even require a rain jacket. The wind was also pretty fair to us, only kicking up waves on a few occasions on long fetches on the bigger lakes.
I left my canoe in Atikokan and will return for a second Quetico trip at the end of June into July then my final trip of the season will be a solo to one of your frequently visited locations, WCPP in August.

Wow! Nice trip! Yes I will be producing a longer report with video - those take a while to develop. :)

Very interesting about your mosquito experience. Maybe we're getting soft - Calgary doesn't have m(any) mossies for the most part but my brother-in-law is also from Edmonton and my nephew is from MB and both of them thought it was pretty bad.

We had to cut our trip a little shorter than planned due to a lingering back injury with our oldest member (67 yo) but it was still fantastic, obviously.

Are you producing a video / report at some point too? Where did you leave your boat?

Nice update. I just got home yesterday from a 7-night solo from Beaverhouse to Nym. I saw zero people the first three days from Beaverhouse to Oriana until a solo paddled by on Oriana the afternoon of day 4.

Zero people on Day 5 on Jesse, but then started seeing a few the last two days... and that wind from June 11-13... oh my, that was a lot. Ready to go back.

I completely understand the amount of effort and time required to produce a thorough trip report, and even more so, the work involved in creating a quality video.
I often wish I had the writing, video and narration skills that you and the other Canadian canoe content creators possess. I believe I've watched all of your canoe videos, along with several of your Rockies climbing adventures.
I (selfishly) decided to just enjoy the experience for myself this time and not worry about writing the daily events each evening when I laid down for the night.
I contacted Wayne at Souris River Canoes in Atikokan and arranged to leave my canoe there for the weeks between my 2 Quetico trips.
(Vern, feel free to send me a DM for a short side discussion.)

Vern - would you do that route again seeing some of the areas are burnt (i say your comment on p a ddle planner). Reason i'm asking is, i'm driving up from Pittsburgh end of August and wanted to do a 10 day paddle (i'm solo). Love to supplement at least 3 dinners with fish and I do a lot of photography.

danbogey: "Vern - would you do that route again seeing some of the areas are burnt (i say your comment on p a ddle planner). Reason i'm asking is, i'm driving up from Pittsburgh end of August and wanted to do a 10 day paddle (i'm solo). Love to supplement at least 3 dinners with fish and I do a lot of photography. "

Oh yeah, absolutely I would do it again. Compared to what I'm used to in Woodland Caribou park, this was nothing.