Trip Dates: Monday, July 29 to Saturday August 3 2024
Total Trip Distance (km): 96.5
Difficulty Notes: Wilderness canoeing with limited options for bailing out. Good bushcraft and wilderness survival experience is necessary to travel through Woodland Caribou Provincial Park.
Lakes Traveled: Leano, Bunny, East Lunch, Lunch, Jake, Mexican Hat, Burnt Rock, Paull, South Paull, Upper Kilburn, Middle Kilburn, Kilburn, Dragon, Three Bears, Little Pot Hole
Creeks / Rivers Traveled: Leano Creek, Bird River, Sturgeon River
GPS Track: Gaia
Forest Fire Update (2021): Forest Fire Impacts in WCPP
Planning & Preamble
I had big plans for our 6-day group trip into Woodland Caribou Provincial Park in 2024. After an all-time great trip with my daughter out of Wallace Lake along the western edge of the park only 6 weeks earlier, I felt like I was in the best canoe trip fitness of my life and should take advantage. Unfortunately, my planning was bigger than our reality and due to a number of factors our plans were waylaid on route. Such is the nature of wilderness trips. Mother nature doesn’t give two wits about your fitness or your plans, she simply does what she does and it’s up to the humans to respond in kind.
The original plan called for a route out of Leano Lake, but instead of going west or north, we would dip south. Sometimes this is referred to as “The Edge Route”. We’ve done many canoe trips out of Leano Lake over the years (2009, 2011, 2014, 2022) but we’ve never dipped along the southern border of the park before. The closest we’ve come is a trip in 2006 where we managed to get into Eagle Lake before wildfire chased us back. Ironically we would find very similar weather patterns to the ones we had back then, but thankfully no wildfires this year.
In a change from other years, there would only be 4 of us on this trip, Harold (my brother-in-law) and his son Levi in his canoe and Bill (Harold’s brother) and myself in my canoe. I was super excited to finally be trying the Edge Route and was looking forward to a new section of the park. Everyone else seemed pretty psyched as well and there was no indication that we wouldn’t be able to tackle this challenge. Things were looking great as we finalized gear preparations and plans in the weeks leading up to the event.
Monday July 29 2024 – Leano Lake to Middle Kilburn Lake (18.5 kms, 7 portages)
We decided once again to leave from my parents house in Carman, MB early on Monday morning and make the lengthy 8+ hour drive to Leano from there. After picking up Bill at Vermilion Crossing, we continued to the town of Red Lake and from there up the Suffel Lake road in deteriorating conditions. We were all in Harold’s Ford F350 so there was no chance of getting stuck, but the road was in rough condition compared to previous years. In 2022 we were shocked at how much wider the road was, past the Black Bear Lodge turnoff thanks to the fire fighting efforts of 2021. Despite this widening, the roads were so rough this year, that we drove most of it at 30kph or less. It takes a long time to drive 70+ kilometers at less than 30kph!
By the time we finally drove into an empty Leano Lake parking lot, we were feeling a little tired from over 9 hours in the truck. The weather was forecast to be brutally hot and humid for at least the first few days and it proved to be exactly that. As usual the bugs were absolutely fierce in the parking lot and we quickly loaded up our gear and started the 375 meter portage into Leano Lake. This was Bill and my first trip as canoe partners. Instead of sharing gear, we decided beforehand that other than the boat and my Hyperlite Mountain Gear UltaMid II pyramid tent, we would each use and carry our own lightweight gear. This included meals, which we would carry and cook ourselves on light Isopropyl stoves with lightweight pots. Notice a theme? It was all about going lightweight. Bill isn’t getting any younger in his mid-60’s and I am a huge proponent of lightweight and ultra-lightweight camping styles from my 25 years of climbing and trekking in the Canadian Rockies. I find trips are much more pleasant when carrying my gear is relatively easy.
The first carry went well and soon we were paddling down Leano Lake towards the first portage on Leano Creek towards Kilburn Lake, happy to be here again. It had only been 2 years since our last trip out of Leano but with our plans to travel new terrain along the Edge Route, we were pumped. The first few carries down Leano Creek went OK while we ironed out the process for each team member. Bill and I very quickly settled into a familiar pattern of docking, loading up, shuttling gear and getting back into the boat. The weather was holding and water levels and portage trails were very reasonable.
One thing we noticed right away was how easy the portages were. Compared to my experience up the Wanipigow River and through the western side of WCPP a month and a half earlier, this was very welcome. The Leano Lake area is one of the most popular sections of the park, and it shows. Campsites are well used and maintained, as are the trails. It helps immensely that the landscape around Leano and Kilburn Lake hasn’t burned recently. Bill and I slowed down a little bit, hoping that Harold and Levi would catch up, and enjoyed a very relaxed pace in the heat of the afternoon. It was getting later in the day as we finally entered the last section of Leano Creek as it cascades towards Kilburn Lake.
Originally we were planning to paddle all the way down the immense Kilburn Lake before heading back up into Middle Kilburn for the first night. With tstorms building all around, we decided that we’d be better off portaging the 1000 meters into Upper Kilburn Lake and proceeding from there into Middle Kilburn. Better to be caught in a storm while carrying gear through the bush than on open water. The 1000 meter portage went very easily despite the distance – as usual for this one. Because the forest is unburned, the trail remains open.
By the time we completed the portage into Upper Kilburn, the sky to the west was not only looking severe, it was sounding it too. Peels of thunder echoed over the boreal landscape on either side as we dug the paddles deep and proceeded to the 110 meter portage into Middle Kilburn, located just east of the devastating damage from previous forest fires along the south shores.
Once again, the portage was easy to find and follow. Unfortunately in our hurry to get across Upper Kilburn and avoid the tstorms, Bill forgot his fishing rod at the put-in and didn’t realize it until the next portage. We decided to go back the next morning rather than tackle the extra paddling with tstorms all around. Bill and I were slightly ahead of the other team, so we quickly paddled south to find a viable site on Middle Kilburn. The weather seemed to be missing us, but we didn’t want to take unnecessary chances.
The first site we paddled to didn’t look very promising. I got out of the boat to check it out but it wasn’t ideal. We kept paddling (thunder was quite close at this point) and I’m glad we did! Site “PB” is the premier camp on Middle Kilburn and we quickly set up our tents and a tarp only to have the weather clear off. It was a hot, humid evening and we were all pretty exhausted after a very long day of driving, paddling and portaging. This was by far the furthest we’ve travelled on a Monday before and some of us were feeling it! Levi seemed to enjoy the experience so far – it was far more chill than his usual field exercises. We had a cheerful fire before the bugs chased us to bed.
Tuesday July 30 2024 – Middle Kilburn Lake back to Upper Kilburn Lake to Paull Lake (26.5 kms, 8 portages)
If you are sharp-eyed and a regular WCPP traveler, you’ll notice from the distance and portage count in the title that it seems a little odd. It’s not 26.5kms and 8 portages to travel from Middle Kilburn to Paull Lake. Also – why Paull Lake and not something towards the Edge Route? Read on for the details…
Remember Bill’s forgotten fishing rod from day 1? After a decent sleep, Bill and I had to paddle over 4kms back to the west end of the 1000 meter portage for his fishing rod. Of course we also had to paddle all the way back to camp. It was a gorgeous morning as we paddled the empty canoe furiously across a glass-smooth lake, but it was already getting hot. It took longer than expected before we were back at our campsite on Middle Kilburn with Bill’s fishing rod retrieved. (Ironically this was the one canoe trip in WCPP where we shouldn’t have bothered with fishing gear.)
Everyone seemed ready to tackle a challenging day as we finalized preparations and paddled on glass to the west end of Middle Kilburn and a 95 meter portage towards Dragon Lake. At this point I was still psyched to be traveling the Edge Route. The short portage seemed a little manky, Levi cut a large fallen tree off the trail before we could do the carry. It was already bloody hot and humid at this point and the previous days efforts were already starting to show as we paddled away to the next challenge.
Already this early in the trip, I noticed how slow the fishing was compared to usual in WCPP. Obviously the unrelenting heat was driving the fish deeper and making them harder to find and catch. We quickly crossed “Little Pot Hole” Lake before our troubles started in earnest at the east entrance to the 550 meter portage into Dragon Lake. Reading recent comments on PaddlePlanner from Matt Long who traveled this same portage only a week after us (Aug 5th), I am deeply confused about what happened with us next. Matt says;
I had time, so I paddled west to see this portage from Middle Kilburn Lake and help clean it up. It was a mess in 2023 and I only managed to clear less than half of it. Sometime before me in 2024, a WCPP chainsaw crew had cleaned it up and re-routed the west side. I found the old portage trail for the first 2/3’s of the way clearly marked and burned dead fall removed. The last 1/3 at the west end has been re-routed to the north side of the low spot. The Dragon Lake entrance is now found on the north side of the bay / floating bog. When approaching this portage from Dragon Lake going east, look for it there and you should see my orange flagging tape marking the way. When paddling east of this portage, look for the paddling route through the floating bog on the south side of the pond.
We did *not* find the old portage trail for the first 2/3’s of the way “clearly marked with old deadfall removed”! Not even close. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the trail crew with chainsaws came through this section after us and before Matt. Talk about bad timing on our part! 🙁 It started rotten already before getting to the dang portage, with no water at the eastern end coming from Little Pot Hole Lake. We followed sparse blue ribbons across the marsh, pulling and pushing the boats in 2 inches of water and sweating buckets while doing so. But this was just the start of our troubles.
I should preface the following discussion with a comment. I managed to stumble and bumble my way along the first 2/3’s of the route without much issue. Sure! I had to add a few fresh ribbons along the way, bash through some fallen, burned trees, and search hard for an overgrown trail but I’ve done worse. The last 1/3 was hellish, because somehow we missed the west end “north reroute” that Matt found. (Or more likely, it wasn’t fixed up just yet.) When I finally got to the swamp I searched for another way but didn’t spot anything obvious, simply bashing my way across it instead. It wasn’t pretty, and I was sweating and swearing (getting bit by a giant hornet didn’t help), but I made it. I even walked along the north shore off the swamp and still didn’t find any kind of usable trail. I think we missed the trail crew by a matter of days here. It wouldn’t be the first time. In 2019 we missed a trail crew along Royd Creek by a matter of hours, nevermind days!
It took much longer than it should have to portage the 550+ meters, and it killed our group’s mojo. Fearing that other portages along the Edge Route would be in similar disastrous shape, we made a group decision to bail on the original plan. It’s alway easy to second guess these things on hindsight but I still think this was the right decision for our situation. Some of our group were not coping well with the heat, humidity and rough terrain. We didn’t think we could continue at this level for another 3-4 days in these conditions. Maybe all the rest of the carries along the Edge Route were perfectly maintained, but the evidence didn’t point in that direction based on the two portages we’d just done from Little Pot Hole Lake to Dragon.
I’m not gonna lie. I was disappointed for the rest of the trip that we had to bail on my original plans. It really sucked. I was already feeling somewhat dejected about turning away from big plans earlier in the year on the 14-day trip with my daughter, and now the exact same thing was happening again! Dang it. (There’s likely a lesson in here somewhere but I’m probably going to ignore it. :)) We took a break in the boats – escaping the bugs and heat as best as we could before continuing slowly and somewhat dejectedly up Dragon Lake.
Lunch was a bit quieter than usual. We stopped at a rustic campsite (“P3”) and everyone dove into whatever limited shade there was available. I’ve been on hot canoe trips before (2006), but this was next level. The humidity probably escalated things to around 40 degrees. I think we all realized that we had to be careful or risk a much more serious situation with heat stroke or worse. It’s not fun anymore when the risk of injury is elevated above reasonable levels.
Our options for the rest of the trip were unfortunately, quite limited. Because of a tight timeline of 5.5 days, we only had 3.5 more days left at this point. Considering we were at least 1.5 days from the parking lot, we could either head back (that wasn’t happening) or try to rescue some sort of circle route back to Leano Lake. This meant repeating over half of our 2022 trip. First world problems, but certainly not ideal. Harold, Bill and I have all done the route around Mexican Hat, Jake, Lunch and Bunny Lake more times than we can count at this point. I can’t speak 100% for the other guys but a lack of motivation took over as we paddled towards the so-called “3 teeth portage” between South Paull and Paull Lake. Memories from 2022 didn’t help with my emotions – these 3 portages were pretty terrible for us back then already.
The first tooth wasn’t horrible but everything went very quickly into the proverbial crapper after that. After emptying the canoe and prepping to carry the 170 meter middle “tooth”, Bill and I were in for a nasty little surprise. It turns out that a beaver dammed the south access and within 25 meters we were in thigh-deep bog! We had to bring the canoe over, reload it and go another few meters before getting to ground we could walk on. The south end of the trail was still knee deep muck. If the brutal conditions didn’t kill us on the middle tooth, the northern one almost finished the job. Half way through the 240 meters into Paull Lake there is a boggy section that also has many fallen, burned trees scattered around to make things more “fun”. Biting black flies were also out in full force. At this point, Bill and I already had a long day (ironically longer than the day I had originally planned on the Edge Route) and were done with it.
Rather than wait for the other boat, we decided to paddle to the only viable site nearby. “MT” is an elevated site that partially escaped the various wildfires in 2016 and 2021 that we also used in 2022. We slowly set up camp and recovered from an exhausting day as the sun slowly sank to the west. The air temperature remained very high well into the evening and even overnight. Harold and Levi left the fly off their tent and I wished we had that option with ours. We made a cheery little fire that we technically didn’t need and stayed up long into the night, reminiscing about many previous trips and trying to recover our “mojo” for the remainder of the trip.
Wednesday July 31 2024 – Paull Lake to Mexican Hat Lake (22.5 kms, 7 portages)
After a couple of brutally hot and humid days in WCPP, we awoke at our partially torched site on Paull Lake with more of the same looming ahead of us. Despite being disappointed in how the trip was no longer along the Edge Route, I was slowly coming around to the realization that these were simply not the conditions to do that route and have any fun while doing it. From the terrible fishing to the heat-induced exhaustion and lack of energy, we made the right call on this one. After a leisurely breakfast we packed up camp and set off for the distant 150 meter portage out of the NE end of Paull Lake.
Bill and I tried our best to catch fish as we paddled our way up the long NE arm of Paull Lake. Normally in WCPP, catching fish isn’t even a challenge but on this trip we were having a tough time connecting with even small pike, nevermind walleye or trout. At least the water was calm as we slowly made our way through morning heat to the first portage.
We hit up the 150 meter portage towards Burnt Rock Lake and proceeded easily through it to a small pot lake and then started a 375 meter carry. This portage was also fairly straightforward, although it had plenty of deadfall (burned) to step over. The elevation gains and losses over a cooking Canadian Shield started to wear on us already at this point.
The wind was picking up out of the west as we portaged a short 150 and then a manky “OB” that was more like a 30 meter. We were feeling the heat by the time we finished dealing with muck and swamp into Burnt Rock Lake and started paddling for the penultimate portage mid way up. Burnt Rock Lake isn’t a tiny stretch of water but thankfully we managed to avoid the worst of the wind before finding the portage that isn’t even given a distance on the map. Due to the burn it’s now located quite a bit further east than the old trail and is marked with cairns and ribbons through open, blackened forest.
A short paddle later and we were facing the last carry of the day – a long 750 meter portage into Mexican Hat Lake. Considering our experience in 2022, the lengthy portage was as reasonable as it could be. The first half from the Burnt Rock Lake side was still a little manky through burned forest while the second half finally put us back under a lovely canopy of green. As Bill and I completed the carry into a blustery Mexican Hat Lake we had a decision to make. Should we book it for the “walleye factory” site (“GV”) immediately, or wait for Harold and Levi to finish the portage? We made the decision to book it. We didn’t want to miss an opportunity to stay on that site and it’s one of the more popular sites in WCPP. (That being said, I’ve almost never had to change camping plans due to others occupying a site in WCPP – that’s how sparsely used it is.)
Despite the water looking calm from the end of the 750m portage, once we paddled onto the lake proper, the waves were 2 foot rollers with a strong wind from the west. We rode the wind, very grateful that we were headed east. This trip was proving the opposite of my earlier one where we were constantly pushing against the gale. For some reason, every time I end up going for site “GV” I think that we’re going to come around the corner and see another party camped there. Normally this wouldn’t be the end of the world – there’s other great sites in the lake, but today it would suck. We simply didn’t have the energy to turn around in the 2-foot swells and paddle back against the wind to find another site. As we finally came around the last corner to view the walleye factory I was delighted to see no signs of anyone else on the site. And then Bill exclaimed, “whose stuff is that at the bottom of the falls”?
Our hearts sank as we realized that either someone was just leaving the site, or much more likely considering the time of day, approaching it. Dang it! We quickly landed our boat and started setting up camp, but it was pretty clear that we’d just scooped another party by about 8 seconds. If it wasn’t clear before, it was very clear when we heard a loud exclamation from the 2-person party returning to the bottom of the falls with the rest of their gear! I felt pretty bad, but what to do? WCPP is a first come, first serve sort of place and we’d beat them fair and square. Within a few minutes I spotted the two sorry looking gentlemen pacing back and forth, muttering under their breath across the short stretch of water between the site and the end of the portage. Harold and Levi hadn’t arrived yet, and I mentioned to Bill that we should invite the two strangers into “our” camp. It was the right thing to do, forcing them to paddle against the wind in the brutal heat wasn’t fair. Bill agreed and I yelled over to the two that they should stay with us. It didn’t take much convincing and before long Rex and Jeffrey were shaking our hands and thanking us profusely for the offer! In a very odd twist, Rex looked at me strangely as we greeted each other before asking if I was “Vern Dewit”! Talk about a small world. Apparently he’d seen a YouTube video I’d made and commented on it and recognized me.
Harold and Levi were a little surprised to see 4 people waiting at the site when they arrived. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent hanging around camp, catching fresh walleye from the “factory” for supper and hearing stories of big wall climbing from Jeffrey who had us laughing for hours on end with his anecdotes. Apparently Rex has put up many big wall routes in the USA (both were from there) and Jeffrey had shared many of them. Rex was quiet and neither him or Jeffrey have much of a web presence so I don’t even know their last names and couldn’t find them despite a lot of searching. No matter – it was nice to share stories with two other hardy outdoorsmen. Despite being well north of 60 years old, this was Jeffrey’s first canoe trip and the heat and conditions of WCPP was quickly taking its toll on him. They were following our playbook and adjusting their trip accordingly. We talked around a small fire well into the night before turning in.
Thursday August 1 2024 – Mexican Hat Lake to Jake Lake (7 kms, 6 portages)
Wow. I didn’t realize how short this day actually was until typing up this report and looking back on it. We knew we had plenty of time to cover the remainder of our route back to Leano Lake on the last 2.5 days of our trip. In a stretch we could do it in 1 day if necessary and might have stayed a rest day on Mexican Hat Lake but knew that Rex and Jeffrey were planning the same. We remembered a nice site on either Jake or Lunch Lake from 2022 and decided that we might as well move a little bit on a hot day, and have plenty of time left over to relax and cool off, so that’s what we did.
We were all still feeling the effects of the brutal heat as another day dawned under a brilliant blue sky. We were in absolutely no hurry and slowly packed up camp, not departing until 10:30 after bidding Rex and Jeffrey a hearty farewell. It was unbelievably HOT already in the morning and I think Rex and Jeffrey were not even the slightest bit jealous that we were moving on. 🙂 The first and longest portage of the day normally feels a little manky but today it felt great. This was likely because it was the first of the day, rather than the last like it usually is when coming from the other direction.
It was lunchtime as we continued towards Jake Lake over sets of familiar portages, most of them quite straightforward compared to less traveled areas of the park. As usual, the closer one gets to Leano Lake, the more the trails are used and the more attention they get. As we finally exited the last portage onto Jake Lake, we didn’t know exactly how far we were going today. It was now past noon, so we pulled onto shore in a protected, shaded area to rest and have lunch. It was so hot that we all pulled into the shadows as much as possible, even tucking our legs up out of any direct sun.
We took our time for lunch before slowly paddling south down Jake Lake, still unsure of where exactly to camp. As we paddled past site “HQ” I shouted out to Harold that I was pretty sure this was where we stayed in 2022. Bill wasn’t as convinced, but we did indeed stay here and decided that we might as well do it again this year. “HQ” is a rare site in this area of the park with some living trees and shade, and we definitely needed any shade we could find! It was past 15:00 hours and the heat was unrelenting, might as well stop, swim and rest rather than push on.
After setting up camp, we spent the rest of the day swimming, relaxing in the shade and reminiscing about our many previous canoe trips. At this point none of us were kidding ourselves that this was going to be a particularly momentous trip – it was certainly better than not going at all, but the conditions were simply not ideal on this one. I’ve had trips impacted negatively by rain and cold before, but this was a rare case of heat being the problem. Despite the water being easily calm enough to go fishing, none of us even bothered. This is very rare for our group, as we normally fish almost too much on these trips, often until the last bit of sunlight dips below the western horizon. We spent another evening around a small fire (for bugs, not heat) and enjoyed a spectacular sunset.
Friday August 2 2024 – Jake Lake to Leano Lake (20.5 kms, 8 portages)
Our last full day in WCPP was another scorcher. Although slightly less stifling than the previous few days had been, it was still plenty warm! Fishing continued to be very slow as we worked our way out of Jake Lake, through several portages and the small but scenic Lunch and East Lunch lakes.
There were some unexpectedly scenic sections of paddling between East Lunch, towards Three Bears Lake. In 2022 we managed to bypass a portage or two via a “seasonably shallow” stream, but there was no way that was going to work this year. Towards East Lunch the devastating wildfires had fizzled out and paddling through a green landscape reminded us of what a boreal paradise this park used to feel like.
Originally we wondered if we might stay in Bunny Lake on a familiar site, “KU” that we’ve stayed at many times over the years, usually on our last night. But then we got to thinking. Why not try a site in Leano Lake for once? We’ve never stayed there and I knew there were a bunch of reasonable sites (unburned) that we could try. After lunch on Bunny Lake (again – seeking as much shade as possible), we continued for Leano.
The last few portages towards Leano Lake were familiar and relatively easy despite the heat. We walked a well maintained 300 meter through welcoming shade before the familiar beaver dam “pullover” leading into Leano Lake. The wind was picking up as we paddled out onto Leano and headed for a nice island site, “M1”. Unfortunately for us, it was already occupied. This hasn’t happened to us very often but being a long weekend and so close to the parking lot it wasn’t a huge surprise.
Talk turned to, “we might have to finish the trip today” as we sought the last chance for a site. Thankfully site “LT” was still available. After thinking it might be sub-par, it ended up being a fantastic site with flat tent sites in the cool forest and an overlook on rock for an evening fire.
After some afternoon swimming and siestas, we had supper on the overlook. Harold finally broke out his fishing rod for the first time on the trip (!!) and enjoyed an evening of fishing with Levi. Another adventure in WCPP came to a close with laughter and tales around a cheery fire.
Saturday August 3 2024 – Leano Lake to the Parking Lot (1.5 kms, 1 portage)
Yes, that’s probably the shortest final day we’ve ever had in WCPP. We left our site on Leano Lake at around 08:00 and 15 minutes later we were portaging to the parking lot. It doesn’t get much more efficient than that! 😉
By 09:00 we were driving away from the park with another year shrinking in the rearview mirror and unsure when the next will be. As I’m sure you can tell from the tone of this report, I had mixed feelings on this trip. I think we all did. Although WCPP is still a special place, it simply isn’t the same as it used to be. We’ve suffered several group trips after the 2021 wildfires, but they have been with mixed results, all of them have been shortened due to the current conditions in the park. We talked about our next trip being a fly-in, fly-out so that we can get to more northerly sections of the park that are new for us. Who knows what will happen? I know that personally I will be back to try the Edge Route, possibly already in 2025. The call of the wild is always present for me, and the call of WCPP is a special place, even with the remarkable changes that have come over it in the last 8 years or so.
