Made it back from my 8 day solo. WCPP (Woodland Caribou Paradise Park) is everything it is cracked up to be….and then some. It has been on my bucket list ever since Doug Grow wrote an article about it many years ago. I went in the Garner Lake EP and visited Haggert Welkin, Aegean, Wrist, Beamish, Irregular, Mather and a bunch of no name lakes in between. After Haggert I did not see anyone however did see a tent on Wrist but did not see anyone there. Even Berseford was abandoned when I got back. I covered over 100 miles in 8 days. At times I pushed my 56 year old body to the limit but wanted to see all that I could. The weather was almost perfect. A little on the warm side a couple days, good thing I had plenty of sunscreen. Bugs were virtually nonexistent. Did not see a lot of wildlife but did see their tracks. The park has done a tremendous job of clearing portages. All were in great condition and well marked. Hanging out at my cabin the rest of the week before reentering civilization on Sunday. I will be putting together a full trip report in the next few days.



!$/a

Sounds Awesome...was in Park from August 31 - September 6 with Boppa and nctry Leano to Kilburn to Middle Kilburn to Dragon to Boomerang to Talon to Paull to Elephant Head, to BootJack to Bunny and out at Leano about 60 miles in 6 days

Would like to see a trip report? Haggart is a wonderful lake

Congratulations old geezer

SunCatcher

Fun, ain't it!

I did the Garner EP in 2011 and a solo in 2010 (although you got your solo in at a age 8 years younger than I).

It is glorious to be in the bush by yourself, and WCPP is an exceptional place to do that. And, its always a treat to pull up to a campsite, that you can tell from the growth in the fire ring, hadn't been used in a couple of years (or longer).

dd

Congrats! WCPP is the best! It's been 3 years since my first solo up there, and I return as much as I can. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how to get up there one more time this fall. I love the solitude of the park, scenery, and the fishing.

Earlier this summer, I went up to the Glenn Lake area, and had my best trip ever. Lots of memories.

Start planning your next trip.

Greg

Sounds like an awesome trip. Seems like our May trip was ages ago sadly. WCPP is just a special place! Glad you got to experience it!

Trip report

Thanks for the trip report. You did a really nice job on it. It was nice to see a report about this corner of WCPP. Such a nice way to sneak in the back door. I always wished there was an established service to shuttle a vehicle up to the Wallace Lake campground. It would make for a lot of route options without retracing anything.

Nice report. I enjoyed the read and mentally retracing some of the paddling I've done in that area.

Haha. You must have had steak on your mind that deep into your trip ... I think the actual name of the lake is STREAK (close to Wrist).

Yeah, thats the thing about campsites the park has referenced. Some are first rate, some are in need of re-hab (e.g., deadfall), some haven't been used in many moons, and some are wishful thinking (or the like). On a recent trip to the Bloodvein River section of the park, pre-trip I asked the park staff to comment on what they knew about campsites in a couple of areas. For the most part, what they identified as better campsites were (mostly due to deadfall) not usable without the help of a chain saw. I still wound up with some excellent campsites at other spots.

As far as covering the same route of Haggart back to Garner, the only real advantage I found of repeating that section is being able to cache my last day's worth of food along the long portage at Jester Lake. (I judged that my last night out would either be on Jester or Garner.) At least I didn't have to lug it around for 2 weeks just to carry it back to the same spot. So, I just stashed a bear canister off the portage in the woods and recorded a GPS waypoint at that spot.

dd

Awesome stuff, those are great pics and a wonderful trip report.
I love that place!

SunCatcher

wow! that looks great! well done!

C-