Monday, April 14, 2008

Possible destination change for CC 2008?

While returning from Jacob's summer hockey yesterday Bill and I got to talking about this blog and canoe tripping. He had read my post about the SPOT device and commented on how cool it was. That led to a great discussion about gear, trips and trip planning that made the drive zoom bye. Before long Bill asked if I had ever done the canoe trip to "the highest elevation in Ontario". He had a friend from work that was into canoe trips and had told him about that trip that took place in the Temagami region. I consider myself fairly well informed when it comes to canoe trips, but I had never heard of this. With my curiosity now peaked, I made a note to look it up when we got home.

Shortly after I arrived home Bill emailed me a link to this info site (thanks buddy!). After reading it I was hooked and for the rest of the day couldn't get the view out of my head. After the kids were tucked in bed, I spent the rest of the evening scouring the Internet and managed to find many well written trip logs, but the best by far was Chris Lawson's. You may remember Chris, as I have mentioned him on here many times before and he is well known for the natural, engaging way he writes. If I wasn't convinced this was a place I wanted to visit before, I sure was after reading that!

Trip Features:

  • Located in the Temagami Woodland Reserve
  • Ishpatina Ridge is the highest point in Ontario (2,274 feet)
  • The Peak has an 80-foot fire tower
  • About a 6.5 to 7 hour drive from Newcastle Directions to the put-in
  • 3 km hiking trail to summit
  • Less Challenging canoe route. In fact, this is much less then any trip we have done in the past
I have not had a chance to talk to Gerry about it yet and I want to do a bit more research, but this looks like just the kind of thing we look for.

Tentative Schedule:

  • 3 night trip (excluding Thursday night in Hotel)
  • Depart Newcastle in the afternoon of Thursday July 31st and spend the night in motel/BB near put in (Elk Lake or New Liskeard area)
  • Day One: travel from put in (Montreal river and Beauty Lake road) to to this beauty site on Smooth water Lake.
  • Day Two: Break camp and travel to Lake where the trail to the summit begins ( still have to research) then walk the 3 km trail to the summit. Explore, take pictures, check out the fire tower.
  • Day Three: Break camp and travel back to this beauty site on Smooth water Lake again.
  • Day Four: Travel back to put -in and head home.
What do you say Gerry...you up for it buddy?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Jim,
I was pretty surprised to see you might be going to Ishpatina ridge. I have been following your exploits since you began this blog and many times have gotten some good ideas from you. I first read about this trip in Kevin Callan's Sturgeon river story. We are flying in from lake Wawiagama to Scarecrow lake first week of August as Kevin outlines in his book. I was pretty surprised to see those pictures of Scarecrow lake on your blog. I have been scouring pictures and trip reports about it and recognized it right away! Be sure to read "Ishpatina by camaro" and look for the youtube video of some yahoo's in a pickup truck crossing the Sturgeon river just below Ishpatina ridge. I have always enjoyed reading your blog.

Pierre