My buddy and I are once again considering a trip to Wabakimi for next year. We plan for eight days on the water. Neither wants to shell out the big money to fly in. Is it reasonable to start at Little Caribou and travel Smoothrock to Elf to McWade to Wabakimi and back to L. Caribou?
I have the Wabakimi Project maps for the area but don't see any Elf to McWade port.
Would that give us a good feel for the area? Is there something else to consider?
Would it be better to start down at Maggotte and end at L. Caribou or vice versa? We like to fish about 20% but travel/camp 80%.

Thanks,

I've been perusing my Wab maps this morning. On Topo map 52-I/5 it shows about 50 meters of wooded area. No bog is shown. It looks like you could do it even if there is no portage there.
You may want to buy Topos 52-I/5, I/6, and I/12.
In 2011 I went up Little Caribou, down Smoothrock and out at the northern tip of Shawnabis.
I can tell you the eastern part of your route is really nice and the portages are not overly taxing.
On my blog I have coordinates for some campsites on the Shawnabis to Little Cariboiu route.
See Wabakimi 2011

quote Thwarted: "My buddy and I are once again considering a trip to Wabakimi for next year. We plan for eight days on the water. Neither wants to shell out the big money to fly in. Is it reasonable to start at Little Caribou and travel Smoothrock to Elf to McWade to Wabakimi and back to L. Caribou?
I have the Wabakimi Project maps for the area but don't see any Elf to McWade port.
Would that give us a good feel for the area? Is there something else to consider?
Would it be better to start down at Maggotte and end at L. Caribou or vice versa? We like to fish about 20% but travel/camp 80%.

Thanks,"

Doable, but I wouldn't recommend it. Little Caribou to the first fork in the road so to speak is 27 miles, so you are going to have to backtrack on that 27 mile stretch. And Funger Bay on Smoothrock is a slog. Fine to do it one way, but I wouldn't relish the idea of doing it twice during an 8 day trip (and half of your trip or more would be spent on the section Little Caribou to Smoothrock.)

One option you may not be aware of is that if you use Clem Quenville for your shuttle, he could pick you up at Tamarack Lake. That way you wouldn't have to do the 27 mile backtrack. He is a band member and can legally drive on the road from Armstrong to Tamarack Lake, southeast of the southern tip of Smoothrock. He will also drop you at Little Caribou and keep your car. Send me a PM if you want contact info.

Be aware that there is a busy lodge (Thunderhook lodge) on the eastern basin of Smoothrock.

My park planning map does show portages between Elf and McWade. Over at Canadian Canoe Routes I believe there is a trip report for that route, though don't quote me.

As of August 2015, the Obonga Lake road was closed due to washout. Might have been fixed by now, but you would need to verify this.

I have a trip report here.

Now that I look at it again, that route in 8 days might be a bit aggressive, considering you want to do some fishing.
I didn't know there was a way to get into Tamarack.
Thant's good info. Thanks, marsonite.

Thanks guys. I do have contact info for Clem. The idea of getting picked up at Tamarack is appealing. Sounds like the west branch of Smooth Rock is the better choice for solitude.

Maybe L. Caribou to Wabakimi Lake to McWade, Elf, Smoothrock, Tamarack.
Interesting.

Maronite, after reading your report I am rethinking things. Caribou to Beukemunga sounds like high adventure. We may have to adjust our timeline but we have that option.

If we had headed south when we first hit Smoothrock, we would have gotten to Bukemiga in 9 days, which included driving up from Thunder Bay on day 1 and driving to Minnesota on day 9. We had very good travelling conditions on this portion of the trip; there is some big water to deal with so you would need some wiggle room in your plans in case the wind is bad.

Another thing that Clem told me was that they were building a road to Nipigon up there, so he will be able to pick people up on Nipigon. Not sure if the road is done yet, or how much travel on Nipigon proper would be involved, but it sure sounded like an interesting option. You could follow the Kopka all the way to Nipigon. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Yes, west leg of Smoothrock is a nice paddle.
Also, if you get in the water at the Little Caribou bridge by 8 am or so, you can easily make it a couple miles or more into the park in one day. We made it about 3.5 miles into the park, and we weren't exactly blasting our way along. We did 15.5 miles the first day because there is only one little portage.

We paddled and did maintenance in this area with the Wabakimi Project in 2010. Took the north route from Smoothrock in to Elf. The south route was done the previous week.
Contact Uncle Phil Cotton at the Wabakimi Project website for updated route information in this area. Smoothrock to Elf through the north route is some of the prettiest country I've been through in Wabakimi.

quote goatroti: "We paddled and did maintenance in this area with the Wabakimi Project in 2010. Took the north route from Smoothrock in to Elf. The south route was done the previous week.
Contact Uncle Phil Cotton at the Wabakimi Project website for updated route information in this area. Smoothrock to Elf through the north route is some of the prettiest country I've been through in Wabakimi."

Thank you.
What about the lake itself? Like? Did you do any fishing in the area?

I'm not much of a fisherman so I have no info on fishing.

We just made it to about 3 kms short of Elf during our week in there. The next week Phil and Barry flew from Smoothrock up to Lower Wabakimi then came back down to Elf via McWade, then cut 2 out of the 3 portages into the north route to Smoothrock. You'll have to ask him.

So, using Google maps...

the southern route is roughly:
From Smoothrock, 50.460703, -89.549509, to Elf, 50.482421, -89.654483

and the northern route is roughly:
From Smoothrock, 50.489658, -89.542400, to Elf, 50.501868, -89.664198

Is that right?
Either way, it sound like portages have been cleared on both routes.

And Elf to McWade was cleared, too?

Your numbers are good. There is a terrific campsite at 50.488450, -89.536986 on Smoothrock on the way into the North Route through what we called North Lake. It's a lovely route till you get to 50.509987, -89616723 where you cut up the ridge on a trail last used about 35 years ago to a slope down to the pond at 50.510043, -89.618266. Or, you can cut across the pond at 50.508896, -89.618182 to the shore at 50.508241, -89.620457, then portage on another old trail down to 50.509579, -89.623289.

Two of the portages out of Elf leading to this point have been cleared, but the nearest one at 50.511926,-89.637837 to 50.510889, -89.641185 has not been done.

The south route Smoothrock to Elf was cleared by the WP crew one week B/4 our crew did the north route. We ran into the park's native portage crew on the Smoothrock campsite near the north route. They had just come out of the south route . We asked them how it looked. The said they'd tell the boss, "It's done." We asked if they were going to clear the north route. They claimed the boss said,"Don't do it, nobody goes in there." It turned the north route had been done twice in the last 40 years (from the divergent route at the pond) and it's a very pretty way to get from Smoothrock to Elf. Lovely large flat campsite on the south shore about halfway through.

Good info~! Thanks. looks like that north portage is not on the Wab Proj Vol 3 map. Probably because it was not finished all the way through.

You guys are making me hungry for Wabakimi. The McWade to Elf opening creates some nice loop options. At this point we are leaning toward L. Caribou to the seven Sisters. That just seems like an awesome thing to experience before someone builds a road in there and starts sellng tours. Your co ordinates will be a huge help once we get deeper into planning.

It's in our plans to finish it in the future.

Do you have rough coordinates for the Seven Sisters?

quote jcavenagh: "Do you have rough coordinates for the Seven Sisters?"

The first portage into the really nice part is at 50.110152°/-89.400142°. The end of the mountain goat portage is at: 50.113337°/-89.381825°

Thanks. I did not realize that was so far south.

So L.Carib. to 7 Sisters in 8 days...hmmm...pretty aggressive for my abilities, but I can see it by a stronger, more accomplished paddler.

I agree. We are thinking 10 days with two buffer days for weather consideration. A total of 12 days. Now the debate is can we afford to take two weeks away from work. I am guessing not.
That will put us back to Elf or another option.

Thwarted - The route we did was a week long. You will have plenty of time to fish and have a layover day or 2.
And, catching the train out to Armstrong is done in the morning. We avoided that midnight dropoff. Either Wildwaters, Mattice Lake outfitters, or Quenville can shuttle you into L Carib and pick you up at the Armstrong station.
We caught lake trout, walleye, and northern.
And along that route there are at least 2 honey holes, one known as the "Walleye Kitchen." And the Fantasia portage is a really nice walk.
If you want I can give you budget numbers for 4 guys who rented 1 canoe. just drop me an email.