A Canadian in California giving you the skills to get outside. Sign up for gear, trip reports, how-to guides and all things canoeing, kayaking, backpacking and outdoor adventure travel!
🏕 Trip Report: Temagami's Old Growth Forests
|
Hello Reader, I hope you're having a great day so far! This isn't a new report (written about a trip from 2020, it's actually one of the oldest reports on the website) - but it happens to be one of my favourites. I absolutely love Temagami. It was the destination for my first real canoe trip, and I've loved revisiting it each time I've gone over the last 15 years. Temagami: Maple Mountain & The Old GrowthQuick Facts
Scott and his wife designed this double-loop to immerse themselves in Temagami’s most rugged and beautiful areas: Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park, Obabika River PP, and the conservation forest near Chee-Skon Lake. The real draw is the mix of experiences—summits, swifts, swamps, and silent old-growth trails. The route starts at Sandy Inlet Access Point, on Lake Temagami. There are dozens of route options from this access point, so it truly is a choose-your-own-adventure kind of place. Many of the routes go to Maple Mountain (called Chee-bay-jing in Ojibwe), and you can follow a trail to its summit (which I highly recommend!).
“Maple Mountain is a must-see. But if I could change one thing, I would’ve spent even more time on Chee-Skon Lake.” I haven't been to Chee-Skon Lake myself, but based on Scott's photos, it looks absolutely stunning (look at those cliffs!). Plus, there's only one campsite on the lake, so if you manage to snag it, you'll have the lake all to yourself! This exact route is for intermediate paddlers. Although it's a long trip with a lot of distance covered, the individual days are full but not gruelling, leaving plenty of time for campsite chilling. Less experienced paddlers could shorten the trip by focusing just on Lady Evelyn Lake and Maple Mountain.
Trip Highlights
The Temagami region is huge, so I'll be featuring more Temagami routes throughout the summer. Until next week - happy adventuring! Mikaela 🛶 Join Trip Reports: Get access to more than 215 detailed reports, plus the interactive Route Planner, to make trip planning easier. Click here to join! 💰 Get Paid to Write Trip Reports: Want to contribute to our growing collection of comprehensive trip reports and make some money to fund your camping adventures? Click here to learn more and send in your route! 🌲 Support Conservation Efforts: Excess proceeds from membership fees go towards supporting "Friends of..." organizations so they can keep our parks in good condition. |
Mikaela | Voyageur Tripper
A Canadian in California giving you the skills to get outside. Sign up for gear, trip reports, how-to guides and all things canoeing, kayaking, backpacking and outdoor adventure travel!
Hello Reader, I hope you're having a great day so far! Apologies for being two days late delivering my weekly email to you - I was travelling for work this week and it was much busier than I expected! I've often written that Killarney Provincial Park is one of my favourite places in Ontario (and one of the most beautiful as well). And it's no secret that securing a reservation here, especially in one of the more popular destinations, can feel like trying to snag tickets to a Taylor Swift...
Hello Reader, Welcome to the first day of May! Now that paddling season is upon us, I'm resuming my weekly newsletter showcasing lesser-known destinations - and lesser-known routes in popular destinations - for backcountry camping. We'll start this series with the Nipissing River. Although it stretches some ~100 km through Algonquin Park, the Nipissing River contains some of the park's least frequently travelled sections. So if you want Algonquin, but want to avoid the craziness of Hwy 60,...
Hi Reader, I hope your week is off to a great start! You may have seen on Instagram that I ran a survey about backcountry camping earlier this month. To my surprise, hundreds of people responded to it and the results have been quite interesting so far! If you didn't get the memo about the survey, it's still open - click here to complete the survey and you'll receive a free copy of The Voyageur's Backcountry Cookbook as a thank you 😊 I wrote this digital cookbook early in the pandemic to...