A group of four got out last Saturday. We planned on getting into Agnes via South-West-Jeff-East, but on the day we entered the winds were kicking up Bayley Bay pretty well and we didn't quite have our skills/confidence ready, so we went via the Sunday Bay portage to Sunday Lake, Meadows, Agnes. Then Silence, Trant, Kahshahpiwi, McNiece, Shan Walshe, Yum Yum, Armin, Grey, Shade, South, North Bay, Burke, Bayley Bay, and out.

A full report will be made after I get home and can download photos, which is next week (currently working in Houghton, MI).

Weather ranged from good to pretty ugly (i.e., the last couple of days with highs around 50 and rain -- textbook hypothermia weather). I guess the same is true of portages - good to ugly (but ugly in a fun, sadistic sort of way). We saw very few people overall - usually one group here or there. No one between Silence and Kahsh. Shade was busy, and coming out on Saturday we ran headlong into dozens going in (remind me to not go in on Saturdays; our Monday entry encountered very light inbound traffic). Scenery spectacular, even the fire-scarred areas. You would never know all that rock was there around Kahsh if mature trees were in place.

Biggest issue was time: We carved out a lot to paddle/portage and ended up with little extra time to explore. It felt sometimes like we were moving through lakes and not allowing time to fully appreciate them. We also felt the pressure of having to get out via North and Bayley Bays and the dependence on weather for a safe exit. We learned a lot on this first trip into Quetico.

Welcome back and congrats on a wonderful and safe trip!

That's a great route. I've done most of it if not all in pieces and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. I'd especially like to spend more time on Trant and northern end of Kahs. Looking forward to report and photos.

I once skipped the North Bay approach to Agnes because of high wind and did the Sunday Bay portage out of Bayley and them dumped in Sunday in high waves, but I can see not wanting to go through Poacher.

Welcome back, Frenchy! Glad to hear a bit about your first trip to Q. I've been through some of that same area and I really enjoyed it. How'd you like the Kahshahpiwi to McNiece portage? How about the Grey to Unnamed (or is it Unnamed to Grey?)

quote Jackfish: "Welcome back, Frenchy! Glad to hear a bit about your first trip to Q. I've been through some of that same area and I really enjoyed it. How'd you like the Kahshahpiwi to McNiece portage? How about the Grey to Unnamed (or is it Unnamed to Grey?)"

Gosh, it's all such a blur, but I do remember the Kahsh-McNiece portage well. We were actually looking forward to that one because we could see the vertical relief on the topos, which meant we'd not likely be in shoe-sucking mud and beaver pond debacles that we found entering and exiting Trant. We appreciated the dry footing so much that we were willing to forgive the topography! We also appreciated the recent work that someone had done cutting through obstructions on the route.

Grey to Unnamed had some mud/bog, but it was manageable compared to what we'd seen a couple of days before. It took a few minutes to sort out where the trail went at the S end of the bog, as there were two apparent trails. The left one eventually petered out, and it was our guess (maybe some on the board can confirm) that it's an effort, apparently failed so far, to go directly from Grey to Shade.

The most difficult portages were the two 400+ meter ones approaching Trant from the east (we called these the African Queen portages), and the Trant-Kahsh portage (which involved some thrashing around until we figured out we should drop into the beaver flooding and follow it). We might have felt differently about the African Queen portages if they had not come at the end of a long day; we were camped on Agnes north of Louisa Falls, and started the day by going south to check out the falls (we'd gone by them the previous day without stopping). Then from there to Trant made for a long day.

Rugged portages abound between Silence and Kahsh. Muck, boulders, sudden ups and downs and dicey landings. In June I camped on Louisa on day one and Kahshahpiwi on day two- thought I had lost my mind on the Trant/Kahsh portage when the muck trail through the bog led to a trail in the woods that then disappeared. Tired enough that it took too long to just cypher out that I needed to launch into that mucky lagoon.

The dual trail is the infamous "infinite loop" portage. More than a few people have portaged into the swamp (going from unnamed to Grey) and then back out to the lake they started from.

Man, don't post that trip report too quickly. I'm still "working" on mine a month after getting home.

quote Banksiana: "The dual trail is the infamous "infinite loop" portage. More than a few people have portaged into the swamp (going from unnamed to Grey) and then back out to the lake they started from."

Absolutely! As I was reading Frenchy's post above, I was remembering back to our trip through there in 2003. We were on the trail somewhat early that day and had no one anywhere in sight behind us. We got to the landing on the Unnamed end and, all of a sudden, there is a group arriving right on our tail. They would have bet their canoes and all their food that they were on Shade.

When we convinced them that they weren't, (it took some major convincing), they got a little red-faced and sheepishly said, "Boy, we're sure glad we ran into you guys."

As it happened, they had gotten off the main portage trail onto what was probably a moose trail, got turned around and ended up going the wrong way. Telling us that they were headed to Kahshahpiwi was the first clue they were a little off course.

that is a funky spot. lucked out twice. :)

quote Banksiana: "The dual trail is the infamous "infinite loop" portage. More than a few people have portaged into the swamp (going from unnamed to Grey) and then back out to the lake they started from."

I think I did that!

Any trouble finding the portage from Armin to Yum Yum?

quote billconner: "

quote Banksiana: "The dual trail is the infamous "infinite loop" portage. More than a few people have portaged into the swamp (going from unnamed to Grey) and then back out to the lake they started from."

I think I did that!"

I KNOW I did that in 2011. Lots of wasted energy that day.

quote Beaverjack: "Any trouble finding the portage from Armin to Yum Yum?"

Not a lot of trouble (if I am remembering correctly), but there was a recently fallen tree that somewhat obscured and blocked the portage entry on the Armin side. We dispatched enough of the tree with a saw to make the entry a bit more visible and approachable.

The portages from Silence to Trant are quite difficult. A little story about a trip that we completed in late July 2012.

We had a party size of 6 (3 canoes) and it was our first trip back to the Q since 1999. All of us had been on prior Quetico trips (2-8x)and we were definitely pumped to be back.

Day 1 - Starting from Prarie Portage we made it to the very top of Agnes by 6pm (single portages, 5-10 mph wind coming out of due North). Tough day, but not brutal.

Day 2 - Great fishing day on Agnes!

Day 3 - Had 3 inches of pounding rain overnight. We made a group call to break camp and head to Kashapiwi once we dried out (Anges head south to, Silence, Chain of unnamed, Trant, Kashapiwi). Left just before 10am (dreary with a mist all day). Each of the portages from Silence through the chain of unnamed lakes to Trant are technically challenging for a large group. Not long, but steep ups and downs strewn with ankle twisting boulder fields. Put ins and outs very hard for large groups (1 team at a time). We were doing great and navigating the last portage into Trant (~1pm) when things went bad. There is a fairly steep smooth rocky slide about 3/4 of the way into the portage and our friend Pat slipped with a heavy pack and broke his ankle. Real bad!!! The team went into crises mode and pulled together with a plan and made a splint and walking crutch. I pulled the satellite phone and called the outfitter seeking help in arranging a float plane to fly him out. Good news - outfitter arranged plane to fly him out the following day! Bad news - we had to get him to Kashapiwi because Trant was not possible. It took us over 2 hours to move Pat about 25 rods to the end of the portage. We canoed Trant to the portage head arriving just before 5pm. Next crucial call - Do we camp on Trant or push through to Kashapiwi knowing the difficulty of the portage ahead and facing the risk of running out of daylight. Pat made the call to push through because he did not know if he would be in too much pain in the morning to make it. The portage from Trant to Kashapiwi is a difficult one with long sections of boulder fields and a long beaver creek with several dams to navigate. The creek was a bit of a blessing because we could leave him in the Canoe and push through the muck and dams, but the boulder fields took a long, long time to get through. 4 guys humping 3 canoes and all the packs and 1 guy attending to Pat to assist him in navigating the trail. Anyway, we made it through just before sunset and headed for the first campsite on the map. Devastated when we canoed up and it was taken. Canoed 2 more miles down Kashapiwi and found a site on a west side island as darkness set in on a dreary wet day.

Day 4 - Waited for float plane to arrive. Arrived at ~ 11am and made for some great video. We all wished our fallen comrade goodbye. Very depressing day! Another of the team also went with Pat to get him to hospital and we were down to 4 with 3 canoes left to get back to Prarie Portage. We broke camp and canoed to south end of Kashapiwi to get ready for Yum Yum the next day.

Day 5 - Beautiful sunny day. Broke camp early. Duck taped paddles together to make Kayak paddles and headed to Yum Yum portage. We physched ourselves up and methodically kicked Yum Yum's a## in just shy of 2 hrs. It was a beautiful but very hard day on our trip to South Lake (Yum Yum, Armin, Grey, unnamed, Shade, West, South). 3 canoes and gear for 6 is not fun for 4 guys, but there was no complaining, except when I fell in a bog up to my waist. Shoes almost got sucked off getting out. Arrived at great South Lake campsite at 7 pm. Slayed smallies and largies on South that night and had a nice little fish dinner just before mid-night.

Day 6 - Beautiful sunny day. Broke camp early again knowing that Bailey Bay can get real tough. Beautiful day to canoe, but had that nervous pit in stomach the whole way because it just felt like wind was going to kick. It did! Finished Burke in small white caps with wind coming out of due south. Raced the portage to BB and me and my other buddy in solo canoes paddled all out clear the island to safety. Tandem cleared it without too much problem. Another hour and I don't think it was passable for the solo guys. We were totally spent.

Thats it! Trip of a lifetime and we took countless video. Pat is ready to go back in 2014 and this one will a be fly-in paddle-out.

And THAT is a great story.

Great story. Great report and way to stick to it.
Been about 10 years since I did the Trant to Kashipiwi. You could see remnants of old beaver dams,but zero active dams and the trail was pretty good,like walking thru a grass meadow with a nice trail-yes but very long. All the trails on that trip were very dry,just remember tho there was no lack of mosquitoes,they were very thick.
That is some very wild country between Agnes and Kashipiwi.
South end of Agnes is one of the most beautiful areas to paddle thru with those high hills.

Thanks unshavenman and pinetree. It's amazing what can be accomplished when all the chips are on the line. Very intense time getting through that last portage. Total group teamwork. For those that plan to do that Agnes to Kashapiwi section don't underestimate the effort especially when wet. The lighter you travel the better. Lots of loading and unloading canoes.

Indeed, one heck of a story; thanks for sharing it.
I became convinced on our trip that the most dangerous moments come at portages, when loading/unloading/lifting heavy packs and canoes (while sometimes standing in rather precarious situations), and carrying these loads. I became obsessed with a fear of my feet slipping out from under me with a canoe on my shoulders, convinced I would break my neck (the same kind of fall is less of an issue with a pack, since you often land on your pack, and it actually offers some protection). My most nervous moments were not out on the water, at least on this trip.
We also recognized the enhanced safety that comes with having another boat in the party. Having another couple with us in another boat made us feel a bit more secure; if something goes wrong with one boat (e.g., swamping), there's another to help pick up the pieces. Gmorgan, imagine trying to do what you did if it was just you to manage the situation. I'm sure you would have managed somehow, out of necessity, but I bet it was nice to have a few others to call upon.

quote Gmorgan: " 3 canoes and gear for 6 is not fun for 4 guys, but there was no complaining, except when I fell in a bog up to my waist. Shoes almost got sucked off getting out. "

I know that bog! Somehow I stayed on the logs - mostly - but one of the Scouts went into his waist.