It looks like I'll be going in this date and doing this southern loop in the park for a likely 10 days. Fishing on 2 to 3 layovers will be a priority as well as exploring this loop at a bit of a relaxed pace. If anyone else might be interested in this solo loop, feel free to get in touch. If we have enough, we can do a shuttle to the entry and back.

Beautiful trip and just the right amount of time planned to get around and take multiple layovers.

Thanks. I am curious if most folks make it to Jake or beyond to Hat possibly on Day 1? It looks from my calculations to be too far for a first day. Somewhere around Lunch to Jake would be a good effort but I'm open to ideas.

Also, I'd like to get into Wrist after leaving Hat but if the idea is to get down into the Aegeans, particularly South Aegean then I would think I'd have to skip it and just keep moving.

Thoughts are welcome. Harlan always knows these things but his business is jumping these days with his Olive Lake cabin and I can always ask him when I'm up there.

You can easily make Jake with a good start. Some can get to Mexican Hat... Not me. My son and I drove up and just had enough time to find a camp on Leano. I'd just had a bent shaft for my son and he struggled all the way to Bunny on day two. I swapped paddles but that put us behind a bunch. So ended up on Jake. We had a great site and our dogs had their own little island. They'd swim over and just sit there. You had to be there I suppose. :) Then an easy day to Mex Hat and the fishing. We had our best fishing by a Creek by the burnt rock lake portage.

I agree with Ben. I know friends who have made it to Mexican Hat in a day but I know they have said that's too much for one day for them.

If you are in great shape, get an early start, single portage and the weather cooperates with you it can be done. We usually stop on Jake or Lunch as getting to Mexican Hat the next day is fairly easy from either of those lakes.

One point about Wrist. A fire went north of Wrist last year so the area between Wrist and Hansen was burned. Most of Wrist is fine. I have been told there is a nice camp on the island on the east side in the northern half of the lake, not the big island. I have not stayed there but if I get to Wrist I will look for it.

Wrist is one of my favourite lakes in the park (been there twice so far.) Great trout fishing too.

quote nctry: "You can easily make Jake with a good start. Some can get to Mexican Hat... Not me. My son and I drove up and just had enough time to find a camp on Leano. I'd just had a bent shaft for my son and he struggled all the way to Bunny on day two. I swapped paddles but that put us behind a bunch. So ended up on Jake. We had a great site and our dogs had their own little island. They'd swim over and just sit there. You had to be there I suppose. :) Then an easy day to Mex Hat and the fishing. We had our best fishing by a Creek by the burnt rock lake portage."

Ben, I'll look for your "dog island" when I get in there :) Might be a good place to spend Day 1 though Hat is tempting. I know where those walleyes and lakers are hiding :)

quote KerryG: "Wrist is one of my favourite lakes in the park (been there twice so far.) Great trout fishing too."

Thanks KerryG. I won't ask you to divulge locations but what did you fish with and were you going deep to get them (time of year)?

KerryG is right... Wrist is a great lake. The island we camped on Wrist was small enough that if we needed to do more than take a leak we paddled to the next bigger island to take care of that. Paull is another Laker lake. When Im on my computer I'll toss a picture of the dogs on "their" island. Maybe we'll see each other sometime and we can go over maps.

quote HighnDry: "

quote KerryG: "Wrist is one of my favourite lakes in the park (been there twice so far.) Great trout fishing too."

Thanks KerryG. I won't ask you to divulge locations but what did you fish with and were you going deep to get them (time of year)?"

Both times we were on Wrist it was late August so the Lakers were running pretty deep. It's going to depend on the year and the water temps. Lakers like hanging out at between 48 and 55 degrees and that usually means about 35 feet down in August. Our first time on Wrist I hadn't fished for trout much and just used DD Taildancers and caught some decent sized fish. Now I use flutter spoons with slip weights (80 feet of line, 3 oz weight, paddling slow - less than a mile/hr. seems like a pretty good formula for August if you don't have a fish finder.) We stayed at the same campsite twice - on the north shore west of the portage. If you'd like specific fishing spots shoot me an e-mail.

quote KerryG: "

quote HighnDry: "

quote KerryG: "Wrist is one of my favourite lakes in the park (been there twice so far.) Great trout fishing too."

Thanks KerryG. I won't ask you to divulge locations but what did you fish with and were you going deep to get them (time of year)?"

Both times we were on Wrist it was late August so the Lakers were running pretty deep. It's going to depend on the year and the water temps. Lakers like hanging out at between 48 and 55 degrees and that usually means about 35 feet down in August. Our first time on Wrist I hadn't fished for trout much and just used DD Taildancers and caught some decent sized fish. Now I use flutter spoons with slip weights (80 feet of line, 3 oz weight, paddling slow - less than a mile/hr. seems like a pretty good formula for August if you don't have a fish finder.) We stayed at the same campsite twice - on the north shore west of the portage. If you'd like specific fishing spots shoot me an e-mail."

Email sent!

Will you be able to travel through the Aegean-Paull area as you planned? The fire map looks like some of Aegean and Paull have burned.

quote Ausable: "Will you be able to travel through the Aegean-Paull area as you planned? The fire map looks like some of Aegean and Paull have burned."

It's a good question for Harlan. I'll have to give him a call. I may need to alter this route a bit.