Chiniguchi, until relatively recently was
not very popular, there’s no paper maps showing where the campsites and
portages are..
Kevin Callan put some
route descriptions into some of his guide books in 2002, then apparently there
was a (relative) explosion of canoe trippers in the area.
Chiniguchi river area is a mix of forest
reserve and park area, it is not yet a Provincial park, but it is a proposed
one.
It is a former logging area, the
attraction for canoe trippers is it is Crown Land, which gives some respite
from the horrendously high user fees that are charged for Ontario Provincial
Park backcountry fees in other areas.
You don’t have to pay to use Crown Land for camping if you are a
Canadian citizen.
And often, I found the
few amenities and campsites I have used at least on this trip do rival
Provincial Parks, they were relatively clean of litter, and most had some sort
of thunderbox.
Chiniguchi lies between Sudbury and the
Temagami area and has several parts to it.
The western/northern area is the most popular, including the Wolf Lake
area, which has the oldest red pine stand in the world, and has large hills
that can be climbed (i.e. one called the elephant) to take in some spectacular
views of the surrounding area. Another
reason for the popularity of this area is because there is a public parking
where you can also park for free, so your entire trip is free (other than the
car and gas it takes you to get there).
Apparently though, the parking lot is quite busy in the peak July and
August seasons. We chose to check out
the Southern area, the topography is a bit flatter but nonetheless quite
beautiful. This area includes Kukagami
Lake, Donald Lake and the huge Maskinonge Lake to name a few. The best reference for campsites, portages
and other info of the area is on Ottertooth, a great resource.
With some sheepishness (as it takes away
from any hardcore backountry cred to admit so), I admit we did follow Kevin
Callan’s route he has in his top 100 Canoe Trips of Ontario. This starts at the Sportsman’s Lodge on
Kukagami Lake, then heads east towards Carafel Lake where we camped the first
night, then continuing east towards Maskinonge Lake for a long day’s paddle
north to Lower Matagamasilake through Rice Lake for the second night. That was followed by a day of many portages
to get to Donald Lake, the most striking lake on our trip. The second last day was spent paddling south
on Donald Lake and tackling the 1000m portage to get back to Kukagami. This itinerary is quite relaxing and we got
into camp before 4 each day to set up and relax a bit before dark.
Day 1
We stayed at the Moonlight Inn near
Sudbury after driving 4 and a half hours to get there late the night
before.
After breakfast we headed
towards the Sportsman’s Inn.
I had the
Sportsman’s Inn marked on my GPS on my phone in Google Maps. The normal way to
get there would be to go east along highway 17 and then turn north, but my Google
Maps was telling me to turn left towards the Sudbury airport beforehand and I
foolishly followed it, instead of going the way I knew to go.
Long story short, there’s tons of backcountry
logging and ATV roads all over the area and it’s easy to go the wrong way..also
Google Maps isn’t exactly in the know about most of these types of roads, if
you call them that, so I turned around and went the highway way.
Turning north off of Highway 17 towards Sportsman’s
Inn, I was surprised how well maintained the dirt road towards the Inn was and
almost washboard free except on some of the hills, so we made good time.
There is one fork in the road and you turn
right towards the Inn, it is well marked with signage.
We got to the Inn bofore noon.
It looked like there were no guests
there.
I had not bothered to call ahead
and just assumed someone would be there.
The main lodge was locked but there is a loud buzzer that summons
someone (and a ferocious sounding but not really dog) when pressed.
A man came, unlocked the lodge and collected
the $8 per day for the parking when the button was pressed.
We gathered our gear and walked it down to
the beach for our put-in.
The weather was phenomenal this day, and
the next several days. Bright sunny not
a cloud in the sky, a warm but comfortable temperature high around 20, and only
the slightest hint of a wind. Other than
two guys in a small motorboat, we were the only ones on the entire lake, the
surface was mirror like as it remained for the majority of our trip. We headed north, and then east down Outlet
bay. After this pleasant paddle we came
to the end of the bay and to the portage on the right. In his book Kevin Callan which I assumed he
did over 10 years ago, he talks about not being sure which way to go on the
portage etc. but it is pretty obvious nowadays.
He also talks about a longer rough trail to the right that circumvents a
smaller pond, but that doesn’t seem to exist, or at least it looks like people
have tried to convince others that that is not the way to go by putting logs
across an old overgrown trail. Also, on
the Ottertooth Chiniguchi maps, it shows paddling across the pond instead of
going around.
Anyways, after this relatively short
portage, I filtered some water, we ate a snack and
It is a very short paddle
across a small pond, look for the trail marking tape on the trees a bit to the
left for the next portage.
The next
portage take out was fine, except for the very loose, deep mud, make sure you
stand on a rock or log when getting out.
The portage itself was fine, but the quick-mud on the other side not so
much.
The put in is very gradual and
muddy.
There isn’t any place to put in
while standing on rocks or logs so you have to push the canoe out to get some
buoyancy..
except the mud is very deep
and thick, I sunk up to my knees in no time and then I had trouble getting my
feet out of the mud without losing my Keen sandals, but after a bit of
struggling I pushed us out far enough to get in and we had to bump forward
while paddling to become buoyant and free.
continued on our
journey.
We paddled the short distance to the next
portage which wasn’t immediately obvious where it was. It is just to the right of the logging dam
that is there with the driftwood. The
take out is a bit rocky but manageable.
It is another short portage that ends steeply but with an easy put in. Another short paddle to the last portage for
the day, takes us to the right of the stream on a wide rock takeout. This was a bit longer than the other
portages, about medium difficulty with some ups and downs. We managed to complete that my mid afternoon,
where we could then take our time paddling Carafel Creek to Carafel lake in
serenity. It looks like water was a
little higher here than has been in the past as we could see canoe paint marked
rocks quite a bit below us. We could
take a direct route into the lake through the lily pads instead of meandering
with the creek’s main channel.
Coming
up to Carafel Lake I heard an engine a bit off, thought it was an ATV, but to
my disappointment it was actually a fisherman in a small boat with a 5hp
motor.
I am not sure how he even got
there, must have been using some logging roads or ATV, as there are no real
roads near Carafel Lake.
We turned
right, to get to the other side of the lake from the fisherman and headed
towards the island campsite in the south.
It is a great campsite.
It’s on a
north point of an island, you get a good view of sunrise, sunset and down
Carafel lake.
The island is a medium
sized island which had enough firewood, good canoe take out/put in and swimming
on a gradually slanted rock, and a .
The
only thing I found lacking at this site is a good food hanging tree.
Seriously, I don’t know what other people
have been doing on this island for that, unless they wrongfully assume that
bears don’t swim.
After walking the
entire island and spending quite a bit of time, I managed to hang food in a
large pine in the middle of the island.
Day 2
The next morning the sunrise was
beautiful, the morning mist on the lake was heavy and took a while to
clear.
The wind was almost nonexistent,
the skies crystal clear, and the lake mirror like.
The temperature dropped quite a bit overnight
and I don’t think I have ever seen a heavier dew in the morning before, there
was literally pools of water on the waterproof camera bag just from dew.
We leisurely packed up and hit the glassy
water.
At the east end of Carafel lake
is a beaver dam.
There wasn’t much of a
drop, and it was easy to pull the loaded canoe over it.
Carafel creek then meanders a bit with many
materlogged, dead pointy trees lining the bank some deadfalls across the
channel we had to maneuver around, until we reached the bridge.
There used to be a bridge at one place that
was dismantled recently, but the remaining base is also a beaver dam with quite
a drop, requiring a short portage around the right side and down an ATV path to
reach water that is deep enough to put in.
Carafel creek them meanders a bit with one last beaver dam that had
signs of recent activity.
This dam is
another low one and an easy pull over and wade down some shallows before
getting back in.
We were then on Maskinonge Lake.
I was crossing my fingers that the wind
didn’t pick up before we hit Maskinonge Lake, since it is a huge open lakearound
12km long and a one or two wide that would quickly make you
Luckily the wind was still almost dead
calm.
The water level in Maskinonge
looked about a meter lower than normal, possibly they lower the water level at
this time of year.
It was a very
pleasant but long paddle north on Maskinonge.
We had the entire huge lake to ourselves – no one at any of the
campsites or on boats.
As we passed the
different island camps we checked out the campsites from the canoe as we
paddled by them..many had plastic picnic tables and tarps set up around what we
assumed is the privy/thunderbox.
And
most had nice sandy beaches at least on parts of the islands.
Getting hungry, we stopped at an island
midway up the lake, called Big Elephant Island according to the map.
I supposed it looked like the top part of an
elephant’s head in the water, sloping granite all on one side of the lake that
plunges into the water.
There is a
campsite on the island which looked so-so, not much flat ground for a tent, but
a small one, sure.
We ate our sausage,
cheese and hummus for lunch, wishing that it was mid August so we could eat
some blueberries as well, since the island had many blueberry bushes on
it.
Continuing up the lake, we first
heard some sharp eyed dogs barking from far away, and a person at the Taylor
Statten camp.
The lake narrows to the inlet
river and turns at a rocky outcrop where it appears there used to be a bridge
or something with crude abutments on either side of the river where we saw a
mink.
Paddling through smallish Rice
lake, it was full of stumps above the waterline.
Then we got to a bit of a narrows/swifts and
had to line the canoe up them which was easy enough to do.
struggling or wind
bound if the wind is up and blowing the wrong way.
From there we were on lower
Matagamasi lake. There’s supposed to be
two campsites on the east side, but as we paddled by the spots where they are
on the map, there were no signs of campsites, at least from the water, nor were
there any good flat rock boat landing spots so we continued to the northernmost
campsite on a bit of a point on the west side which turned out to be yet
another a great campsite. The landing
was a large sloped rock and the firepit is up on top of the rock with a good
view of the lake. The only drawbacks is
there’s no thunderbox, and there isn’t a huge amount of flat spots if you have
many tents in your group.
As we were tending the fire for the night
as the sun was making it’s way down, we saw the only other paddlers we would
see the entire trip come out of the portage to the north and paddle by.
Day 3
Waking up the next morning amid the yet
again brilliant sunshine and mist on the lake was fabulous.
We were relatively efficient in getting
breakfast and packing up done, since although we weren’t getting much mileage
in today, we were getting quite a bunch of portaging done, and we also wanted
to get a good site on Donald lake, our destination for the evening.
We made our way through the first portages
easily.
The far side of Edna lake was
beautiful, with the fall colors coming into full effect and the gurgling stream
incoming from Karl Lake.
The longest
portage of the day was the 340m portage by Karl Falls.
The falls, at least at this time of year are
not exactly ultra scenic, but they are pretty nonetheless.
There are some campsites beside the falls but
they don’t really look that great, they are on slanted rocks.
Putting in above the falls takes a bit of
maneuvering and a little bit of hard paddling upstream, the rocks make you
zigzag a bit to get to a rock dam at the end.
The dam didn’t have much water flowing through it and it was a quick
portage to the other side of it.
Apparently
there’s supposed to be a bunch of names from loggers and other trippers about a
century old carved into a rock here, but we searched around and couldn’t find
the rock, so we hopped into the canoe for yet another short paddle, and yet
another portage.
We were making good
time, despite all the in-and-out of the canoe and the portaging.
This next portage starts out a bit steeply
and then skirts a river bed to get to Gold Lake, where we ate lunch then hit
the water again.
Another short paddle
and to the right down the farthest bay reaches the portage.
This is another very short one to Colin Scottlake.
Last Lake (phew!) and one last portage before
we got to Donald lake.
I can say one thing, the portage from Colin
ScottLake to Donald Lake ensures you make a dramatic entrance to Donald
lake.
It’s another short portage, you go
over an outcrop where you have a great view of northern Donald lake and the
sloping rock face to the put in.
The
rock face is moderately steep, no problem in dry conditions, but may be
slippery when wet.
Just across from the
portage put in is a tall cliff plunging into the water.
We wanted to get the campsite on the nearby
point. After all, it is rumored in
Callan’s book that it was the best campsite on the lake. As we paddled closer it looked like someone
had already been on the campsite, as it appeared a bright yellow tarp or tent
was set up. But as we got closer and
rounded the point we laughed as it was just the midday sun shining on the
brilliant yellow leaves of a maple tree.
But it is true, the campsite is pretty awesome, although I can’t compare
it to any other sites on the lake. The
only slight downside of this one is you have to walk a bit to find and drag
firewood back to the campsite. Other
than that, it has a nice canoe landing on the south side, a good firepit, nice
wide open but treed space for a bunch of tents with flat ground, ample tarping
opportunities. There is a dilapidated
but still functional thunderbox on the site as well. There a large rock you can climb up right
behind the camp to get a nice view northward, and if you round the cove to the
south, there a 60 foot tall mound of rock you can get great views of the
campsite and also northward from. We
spent the afternoon relaxing by the lakeside on the large rock rock, reading
books ,watching the sun dancing and sparkling on the lake with the perfect
temperature and a light breeze.
Day 4
The next morning we awoke to yet another
beautiful sunrise as the sun poked it’s head across the
I climbed up the rock behind the camp to get
a good view of the misty lake, the sunrise and the colorful trees.
But soon after sunrise, a fog quickly rolled
in and the temperature dropped.
One
minute clear sunny skies, and 20 minutes later surrounded by fog.
We ate our breakfast (Mountain House
Breakfast Skillet is surprisingly good for a freeze dried meal, and a welcome
change from oatmeal, by the way) and hit the water in the fog still, making our
way south on Donald Lake.
After only
about 30 minutes of paddling, the fog and clouds cleared as quickly as they
appeared.
We made our way south on the
lake towards the narrowing bay that the 1000m portage between Donald and
Kukagami.
The portage was easily located
on the east side, there was an overturned aluminum boat at the portage end,
although on my Garmin Topo GPS map, the portage shows erroneously that it’s on
the left (west) side.
The portage wasn’t
too bad, especially considering we had eaten most of the food and drank most of
the booze we had with us by this point.
It was a little hillier than I expected, I thought it would be a logging
road type of portage, but it was a real trail.
I managed to do the full carry with canoe, paddles, pfd, my canoe pack
and my camera bag for 900m, then had to drop the canoe and get it later, but
the portage went quickly.
The wind had
started to pick up a little by the end of the portage, so we headed out, on
north Kukagami to look for a campsite.
We managed to pick one on a point a little bit to the east.
There must have been some people that just
left there, as the campfire was still slightly smoldering.
We seemed to have been chasing some people
called the Sauv
és, as we saw
some makings on a rock on Lower Matagamasi campsite, two days earlier, and now
this one too, saying this was their last day of a 15 day trip. Again, this campsite was pretty decent, with
a bunch of wood piled up for us and ready to go. I still collected a bit more wood.
There’s a large rock that can be used to pitch
the tent, but we chose to pitch it on a small hill behind that as it was
flatter (and cushier, too). There was
only the remnants of a falling apart thunderbox at this site, and would have to deal with that.
But the point itself was very nice – rocky
with good swimming spots, and a great firepit where you could watch the sunset
to the west.
Day 5
The wind picked up during our last night
out, and I was starting to get a little concerned about the wind/rain by the
time we had eaten and packed up. The
skies to the west were cloudy and had darkened considerably, the wind getting
whipped up. We only had a short paddle
south back to the Sportsman’s Inn, but any big wind coming from the south over
a Lake as large as Kukagami could possibly mean a bit of trouble. Even though the wind was brisk, the speed of
the Swift Kipawa was no match for the wind and we kept moving with not much
problems despite the wind. So we were
back into cottage country, and we decided to do the lift over near the
Sportsman’s Inn on the spit of land, instead of rounding the point and being
exposed to the wind more. It is an easy
lift over with sandy beaches on each side.
Then, the smallest paddle back to the car and a 6 hour drive back to
reality.
Chiniguchi is a fantastic place to enjoy
great crown land camping, where you aren’t gouged for backcountry camping fees
as you are in Ontario Provincial Parks.
The campsites were cleaner and better than I figured they would be, at
least in the South/Donald Lake area.
Donald Lake itself is very scenic and the portages for the most part are
easily found. There were few people and
much solitude to be found at least in this section at this time of year.
Links:
Firstly, I like to have my SLR accessible during shore stops, lunch,
portages, etc. when on paddling trips so
burying it in a drybag in a dry pack doesn’t work for me, not to mention, there
is not much protection against crushing, rubbing, etc. I also wouldn’t want to just strap a typical
drybag to the deck or put it in the bottom of a canoe, as I don’t trust 100%
any dry bag to be sealed properly. I
could have also used an otterbox, but they are very bulky, square, and don’t
have any proper straps for when I need to portage. 
When
kayaking, I thread some bungees directly through the loops around the drypod
base and attach it to my deck lines on the rear of my kayak. It is easily attached this way, and is
awesomely accessible when I get out of my kayak. When canoeing, I just place the drypod on the
bottom of the cane in front of me… once
in a while I will take it out of the case for some photos while on the water,
but not very often. I generally use it
for all of my electronics while on a trip – batteries, phone, filters, etc, and
sometimes even put my toiletries kit or a book in there for dryness and ease of
access.
The one
downside of using just the drypod itself is the lack of straps for
portaging. I have used the bungies
themselves many times to act as backpack straps, but it isn’t quite ideal,
although it is manageable. My last rip,
I didn’t have the bungie configuration the best configuration, and I did pull
one of the attachment loops off of the base.
Basically the glue gave way on the attachment loop itself, it didn’t
tear a hole in the outside. I am going
to look into getting some aftermarket PVC attachment points and some glue to
mount some attachments for just some simple backpack straps to make this this
ideal for my needs as a paddling drypod for my SLR.
As for
keeping water out itself, it is rated for IPX7 which means it is submersible. It comes with a small tube of silicone grease
to keep the Tizipzipper lubricated and sealed properly, as is used with drysuit
zippers. I have done rolls in my kayak
with it, and there is no issue. There is
one caveat though. You must make sure
you do the zipper all the way up. One
trip to the French River I was lining my kayak down some rapids and the kayak
flipped over, putting the drypod in the water.
I wasn’t concerned at all about the water and took my time righting the
kayak. Then I realized I hadn’t done the
zipper up all the way, it was about 2 inches open, and there was some water in
my bag. The water did mess up the electronics inside the Nikon
D300 that I had at the time. Luckily I
was able to recover $700 by selling it as a water damaged item on eBay at the
time. So now, I make sure double check
the zipper before putting in with the bag.
