HUNTERS ISLAND RACE

[WoodsWalker]

Thanks IC, That is a heck of a route has anyone here did that loop before? If so how many days did it take you?

I think QP is working on posting a map.

[ultimathule]

I imagine most people would take a day to do each of several of the major lakes on the route: 1-Knife 2-to Kawnipi 3-to Sturgeon 4-Sturgeon 5-Maligne 6-LaCroix 7-Crooked 8-Basswood River & Basswood. Weather could have a lot to do with overall time, either making it much slower or ideally, faster, with it behind you. IMHO it would require very helpfull weather to beat the current time.

[HoHo]

woodswalker said:

Thanks IC, That is a heck of a route has anyone here did that loop before? If so how many days did it take you?

I think QP is working on posting a map.

I haven't done the Hunter Island Loop, but in his Paddler's Guide to Quetico, Beymer gives it 13 days. In my experience, his days are hard ones too. Okay, now pack all that into less than 30 hours!

[qp]

Having been on all the portages on this loop except for 3 (Have a Smoke, Twin Falls, and Bottle Portages), I feel there are three major concerns as to portaging.
First would be Silver falls to Kawnipi.
Second Magline River.
Third Basswood falls.
With this in mind I think I would plan the 24 plus hour adventure so I would hit Silver Falls at day break. Then hoping to make it to Crooked Lake by night fall. The Basswood River might be a challenge at night but the plus side as I see it, would be going up stream.
A couple other factors would be hoping for the evening calm waters on Lac La Croix.
I then see only a problem with the wind on Sturgeon being it would be mid day to early afternoon.
So with that in mind I would plan to leave PP around 2 am. Be waving at the Ranger on Cache Bay around 5:30am. A short and quick lunch on Chatterton Lake around 11. Quick late dinner next to Twin Falls(6 ish). And hope like heck the wind is blowing hard out of the west when we hit Crooked Lake around 9-10 pm. Plan on being thru the Basswood River by 1 am. That leaves 3 hours max to get across Basswood Lake. Which would be pushing it. That 2 hours more than 24.
hmmm!!!!
Back to the calculator.
qp

[intrepidcamper]

QP, did I hear you say you were "over the hill" for this one? ;D

[WoodsWalker]

Meany and a partner had held the two-person kayak record for the route, paddling it in 33 hours, 38 minutes in 1988.”

IC,

Do you know if they beat that record in a two-person kayak?

If so, I wonder what the record in a canoe with single blade paddles is?

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[qp]

intrepidcamper said:

QP, did I hear you say you were "over the hill" for this one? ;D

Well I did take one more step at being closer to over the hill last Saturday.
But I can tell ya. This loop has to happen soon if I'm doing it. Unless there are senior handicaps involved.
Are the portages on this loop Handicap accessible?
qp

[qp]

Hunters Island History 101
From a booklet I have it tells a little about Hunters Island. I thought I'd share.
(booklet is called Lake Names of Quetico Provincial Park put out by Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario)

Hunters Island consist of the international border and the water flow from Saganaga Lake to Sturgeon Lake, then down the Maligne River to Lac la Croix Lake. Once called "Ile des Chasseus"
In A journal from Dr. McLaughlin from the Rainy Lake Post in 1823, he refered to one family of 10 - 12 people called Hunter of Sturgeon Lake, who hunted on lands of "the rats of Mille Lacs" hunted before they starved to death 10 years earlier. He wrote of one small band, sons of the deceased Chasseur (Hunter). They were said to have trapped between Rainy Lake and Mille Lacs to the northeast, they trapped near Sturgeon Lake in the winter, then moved towards Rainy Lake to live on sturgeon and to dry some for the summer. Several Indians of "the hunter tribe" were reported at the Rainy Post in 1817-1818.
It also notes that: During the negotiations to establish the border, US and Canadians tried to prove that the "usual route" to the west was farther north (US) farther south (Canada). The Americans claim would have put Hunter Island inside the boundary of the US.
qp