Have moved the trip report to:

http://rogwilmers.wordpress.com/

because I have had a photo poached from this website.

Thanks for looking.

Edited by rOg_w on 02/18/2013 13:48:21 MST.

Rog. Thanks so much for posting this up. Amazing pics and nice job catching the salmon. Unreal. There's so little info out there on this trail, so I really appreciate the report. These are the best pics/info I've seen.

I've had this trail in mind for a few years but until recently I was never sure how I wanted to tackle it (ie. water taxi vs. yo-yo). I finally realized that I could combine this trail into a two week epic trip with my pack raft. You can take a logging road off of highway 17 that will take you to the Pukaskwa river (supposedly it's pretty good going from the 1 kayak report I could find). From there, you spend 4-5 days rafting the class 2-3 river to Lake Superior. Then it's 25-30 kms of bushwhacking (yeah...epic!) or lake paddling to get to the southern terminus of the trail. I'm hoping to try this summer 2013 when I'm in grad school in Thunder Bay.

Edited by dandydan on 01/18/2012 21:04:29 MST.

Great looking trip! Thanks for posting!

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Edited by rOg_w on 05/28/2012 17:23:29 MDT.

The La Cloche Silhouette trail in Killarney, Ontario is another neat trail in Ontario, not as remote as this though. It's an 80km loop and I think there's lot of paddling options too. No good fishing though thanks to the nickel mines/acid rain coming from Sudbury. This was the first serious I hike I ever did, not counting little 30km loops in Algonquin. I'm from Ontario but moved west 4 years ago.

Edited by dandydan on 01/18/2012 21:59:15 MST.

Rog,

Great trip report. I love learning about new places (to me), even if I'm unlikely to reach them anytime soon.

It's an amazing world we live in.

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Edited by rOg_w on 05/28/2012 17:24:04 MDT.

Hi Rog, The Bruce trail (Ontario) is a 800km trail with and an additional 200km of side trails. Its starts at Niagara Falls and ends on the top of the Bruce Peninsula. For the most part it is a ridge hike that follows the Niagara Escarpment. There is only about 10 or so authorized campsites / grounds so it would have to be done primarily via stealth.

http://brucetrail.org/

All the best,
Doug


p.s., Pukaskwa has been on my list for a while now.

"did you do the Bruce Peninsula Trail"

I haven't done much of it...just a few small sections at the north end in Bruce Pennisula National Park.

I really don't know enough about this trail to pass judgement on it, but I will say that my uninformed impression is that it goes through an awful lot of developed areas. It certainly links together some nice spots, but it doesn't seem like you'd get much wilderness on this trail. Southern Ontario is all farmers fields, roads and urban sprawl, so hiking through that via a narrow strip of forest never made it to the top of my to-do list. I'm sure the Northern half has some really great areas though, once you get away from Hamilton and the GTA (greater toronto area).

I personally would look at Killarney and Algonquin first. Algonquin gets busy, but it's got a LOT of nice backpacking trails that take you by some awesome lakes with great fishing. I suggest the Western Uplands area of Algonquin, which has options ranging from about 30km to 88km. Start at highway 60:
http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/visit/camping/western-upland-backpacking-trail.php

Great report, excellent photos, well done. I would love to go fishing up Canada way. Congratulations on a great hike!

Rog,

Beautiful pictures. Looks amazing. I am hoping to tackle this trail this year...it's on my list for the area. I like the idea of taking the boat out and walking back to the head end. What did they charge you for the run out to the end?

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Edited by rOg_w on 05/28/2012 17:26:00 MDT.

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Edited by rOg_w on 05/28/2012 17:30:27 MDT.

That place looks awesome. Isle Royaleesque but bigger and emptier? Sweet.

I agree that those bridges are pretty hideous. We've got some way back in the Bob Marshall which are big enough for a car, but at least they're wooden.

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Edited by rOg_w on 05/28/2012 17:31:52 MDT.

Missed Dan's proposed route also until Rog pointed it out. The Pukaskwa River/Coastal Trail combo sounds amazing actually. Damn...going to need to pick up a packraft now. If you get further along the planning phase Dan would love to be kept in the loop of any info you find.

Rog,
Nice report about an area I don't remember hearing about before. Fantastic marbling on the boulder in picture "P10."
Tom

Thank for this interesting post and sharing best National park for tourist attraction.I like your post.Canada's park very nice and famous the best in the world.

Thanks,
http://www.waterton.ca/seasons.cfm

Wow. It looks like Rog has systematically deleted every post he ever made on BPL. A dozen pages worth. That takes some dedication. What's up? Did somebody hurt his feelings?

Edited by acrosome on 07/18/2012 09:36:46 MDT.

Hmm....bummer this trip report got deleted.

"If you get further along the planning phase Dan would love to be kept in the loop of any info you find."
I'm planning on giving this trip a whirl next summer. I'm quite serious about making it happen. The online beta seems pretty limited on the Pukaskwa river, and of course non-existant for the bushwack section, but I'll update with whatever I come across. Mostly likely I'll get serious about it in the spring.