New Trip Report posted by cabinsolutions

Trip Name: 85 Challenging Miles Solo (EP 36 Entry to EP 37 Exit).

Entry Point: 36

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What a trip! Thanks for posting this!

Fabulous trip, thanks for sharing!

Your next trip, in preparation for the border challenge, needs to be on the big lakes. You will be paddling for many hours between portages. Need to figure out how often you need to get out and stretch. Ability to maintain good paddling technique for extended periods is key. Getting used to navigating on the big lakes needs some work, too. Night travel maybe. Not sure what your Border challenge is meant to be. but if are going to push traveling into the dark get some experience with that for sure.

Excellent report! Thank you for taking the time to put it together and share. Well done! Glad my trip report was helpful to you.

I thought the "key points" at the beginning of each day was a very neat & helpful story telling aid. And, the gear & travel review at the end was interesting as well. I also always find it fascinating to hear of other people's perspectives of areas (Perent River) I've recently been through. I think we just beat the foliage fully sprouting on our trip through there in May.

I 'm curious and haven't yet taken the time to fully investigate which Perent River portage you were referring to when you said you had to negotiate through a boulder garden - presuming it was the 2nd one east of the campsite (#1913) we stayed at. Did you find any of those Perent River portages particularly troublesome or memorable?

The "rock garden" portage I referenced was the seventh one from the east. I included a picture of the map chip on my response and circled the area that you have to navigate prior to the portage landing. I expected a landing sooner to avoid all the boulders leading to the rapids. Once I made the call to pick my way thru the rock garden, I found the landing on the north side. I may have my details a little off at this point because they all started to run together after a bit.

To your question, the middle portages (7-9) from the east were where I lost time simply because I couldn't find the landings due to overgrown foliage. I assume they'd be more evident in the spring or fall time. I think it was the 8th one where it was on the south side and I spent time looking on the north side. My advice to anyone going on this stretch is to prepare to search a little bit along this middle section, but you can make it through. It is a beautiful area and I am very glad I chose to attempt the route.

Yeah, that's where we got a little confused too on our way back to camp. (In my opinion, this is the toughest portage to locate when traveling west.) We actually pulled into the little channel just to the South of where the actual portage is. I do recall some boulders near the landing but dont recall having any serious problems with boulders. Of course we went through about a month earlier than you! Interesting to hear of your experience.