5 Day Trip to the Chiniguchi Area

     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 Sauvés, 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:

Ottertooth Chiniguchi Maps

Ottertooth Southern Tracks

GPS Track Download

Flickr photo set