Anybody done Whitewater arc to Whiteclay? Looks like a fun trip. WP has it on its list for portaging clearing this summer....

Back in 2006 I did a trip with The Wabakimi Project starting in Scrag Lake, through Arril, up into Grayson, then down the Grayson River into
Whitewater to the beach on the south shore, at Mattice Lake Outfitter's Whitewater lodge. It was a beautiful trip, early August, lots of water, lake travel, river travel, but almost no whitewater.
Whitewater Lake is huge, so when we headed south we pushed into a 30mph south wind that made for tough travel. I loved the whole route from Scrag to Whitewater. Very pretty and lots of good fishing.

Deerfoot and his party of four did the Whitewater Lake to Whiteclay Lake route on a two week dash from Davies Lake at the west edge of the park to I believe Mojikit Lake in the east. He would have a better idea of what it's like through there.
The Wabakimi Project's Volume One map booklet has the Whitewater-Whiteclay route on pages 7 and 8. Have a look on the website and buy it. We didn't do all that work for nothin' huh?

quote mrcanoe: "Back in 2006 I did a trip with The Wabakimi Project starting in Scrag Lake, through Arril, up into Grayson, then down the Grayson River into
Whitewater to the beach on the south shore, at Mattice Lake Outfitter's Whitewater lodge. It was a beautiful trip, early August, lots of water, lake travel, river travel, but almost no whitewater.
Whitewater Lake is huge, so when we headed south we pushed into a 30mph south wind that made for tough travel. I loved the whole route from Scrag to Whitewater. Very pretty and lots of good fishing.


Deerfoot and his party of four did the Whitewater Lake to Whiteclay Lake route on a two week dash from Davies Lake at the west edge of the park to I believe Mojikit Lake in the east. He would have a better idea of what it's like through there.
The Wabakimi Project's Volume One map booklet has the Whitewater-Whiteclay route on pages 7 and 8. Have a look on the website and buy it. We didn't do all that work for nothin' huh?
"

Mrcanoe, that's great information. Thanks! I assume that was a fly-in for Deerfoot's crew? Alternatively, that's would have necessitated a long paddle from somewhere such as Caribou? Anyway, good info. I'll look back at those maps...think I have at least a pdf somewhere to refer to.

That year our trip flew into Savant lake, up in the north arm. We paddled north through Jabez Lake, past the big bend, up in Velos lake, then through Redmond Lake and Takeoff Lake to Davies, where Deerfoot's crew flew in to replace us. They dashed across the park so the 2 canoes would be at the other side for the late summer series of reconnaissance trips and to begin working on the Whiteclay Lake to Mahammo Lake portages and campsites. They also did a trip around the Ogoki Reservoir... I believe.
Savant Falls on the Savant River

In 2008 we flew into Davies Lk and traveled roughy east through the Palisade Rv south to Kenoji Lk to Whitewater to Whiteclay via the Ogoki Rv ending at Mattice Lake Outfitters camp on an island in the west end of the Ogoki Reservior. Scenery-wise I thought the Palisade Rv was one of the most scenic spots I have been to in the Wabakimi area and I have been on 13 weeks of trips over the past 7 years with the Project. As Ken (MrCanoe) mentioned, Whitewater Lk is huge and we actually traveled it via two tows to save time. It was a great trip - 132 miles in eleven days. But it is pretty much a fly-in/fly-out kind of trip unless you are real motivated.

Highndry if I am not mistaken didn't you say on another post that you will be at Canoecopia? If so, stop by the booth in the Atrium. Three of the crew on this trip will be there plus many others with a lot of tripping experience in the greater Wabakimi area.

I assume that was a fly-in for Deerfoot's crew? Alternatively, that's would have necessitated a long paddle from somewhere such as Caribou?

Most of The Wabakimi reconnaissance expeditions involve fly-in insertion and fly-out extraction flights. A large part of the logistics involved in planning these trips involves scheduling the one-week (Saturday-to-Saturday) trips back-to-back for one simple reason: $$$!

Since float plane rates are based on the return trip mileage, having 3-4 participants fly in and 3-4 participants fly out using the same deHavilland Beaver float plane doubles the number of passengers sharing the flight and halves what is costs per person.

It takes a block of 6-8 consecutive trips to cover the costs of the 2 deadhead flights, i.e., the inbound leg of the first trip and the outbound leg of the last trip. For these flights, we must use a deHavilland Turbo Otter so we can insert/extract our 2 18-foot canoes. In any case, I have tried to keep trip costs within reason and have personally absorbed any deficit for the past 10 years.

For 2014, there are only 8 vacancies left for our May/June block of trips. There's lots of room left for our August/September trips. For a copy of this year's prospectus, e-mail me ("Uncle" Phil) at pjcotton@tbaytel.net.

quote deerfoot: "In 2008 we flew into Davies Lk and traveled roughy east through the Palisade Rv south to Kenoji Lk to Whitewater to Whiteclay via the Ogoki Rv ending at Mattice Lake Outfitters camp on an island in the west end of the Ogoki Reservior. Scenery-wise I thought the Palisade Rv was one of the most scenic spots I have been to in the Wabakimi area and I have been on 13 weeks of trips over the past 7 years with the Project. As Ken (MrCanoe) mentioned, Whitewater Lk is huge and we actually traveled it via two tows to save time. It was a great trip - 132 miles in eleven days. But it is pretty much a fly-in/fly-out kind of trip unless you are real motivated.


Highndry if I am not mistaken didn't you say on another post that you will be at Canoecopia? If so, stop by the booth in the Atrium. Three of the crew on this trip will be there plus many others with a lot of tripping experience in the greater Wabakimi area.
"

I'll definitely be there Saturday. I've already bought the tickets :). I might be able to make Fri. evening as well but have to see how my client meetings go that day in Madison. Can you get tix at the door or will they all be sold out by then? If they are, I'll just go out to dinner and wait until the next day!

Tickets are always sold at the door and to my knowledge have never sold out. I suppose the exhibition space has some max capacity but I don't think it has ever been reached and I have attended every Canoecopia at least on Fridays since the late 1970's. I think you can also buy tickets in advance on line. It is usually a bit crowded on Fridays at 4 pm until the initial crowd gets in the exhibition hall but that back up is cleared in maybe 15 minutes or so.

See you at the show.