We picked this relatively short route for our first canoeing trip because we thought it would offer solitude, no real long portages, and present ample opportunity to catch lake trout. The overall short distance allowed us to have the flexibility to take a rest/bad weather day, only spend part of the day paddling, and have more time for fishing and/or relaxing around camp.

We read many reviews online claiming the road from Red Lake to the access point was very poor and would take a toll on your vehicle. I believe a lot of the road has recently been rebuilt and that information is outdated. While it's certainly not a freeway, I thought the road was in very good shape for a remote access road. We use the Goldseekers shuttle service because of the online reports we had read. While it wasn't really necessary for us, I'm still very happy we did. The opportunity to visit with Albert on the way in and Claire on the way out made the shuttle worth every penny to me.

Our route took us through a lot of burned area with some areas burned as recently as 2021 and others as far back as 2005. While clearly devastating, it was still very cool to see the underlying landscape and different stages of the regrowth cycle. I also assume so much burned area helped create the profound sense of solitude we were able to experience. We only encountered two canoes and three total people on our nine day journey. Both encounters were fairly close to the access point, giving us a 7 day stretch of complete solitude. Furthermore, once we were past Mexican Hat Lake, signs of recent use almost completely disappeared.

Towards the west end of our route many of the portages had a fair bit of deadfall on the trails, most of the campsites were overgrown, and many of the fire rinks we saw had a full season or more of growth in them. Most of the deadfall on the portages was either small enough to move off the trail, or could be navigated around fairly easily. The only portages we encountered that had enough deadfall or new growth to make them challenging were Nutria Lake to Amber Lake, Wrist Lake to Welkin Lake, and the 490 meter portage between the two no name lakes between Welkin and Aegean. Overall we were pleasantly surprised how well the portages were cleared and very surprised how well they were marked. Even when there was no visible path, looking closely you could almost always find cairns, a blaze, or tape. The only other heads up I would give regarding portages is the 180 meter portage between Elephant Head and Paull lake has a fair bit of poison ivy.

Two of us in the group are avid anglers. While we've spent a lot of time fishing for cutthroat and other trout in the west, we haven't spent any time targeting lake trout. Recognizing my inexperience with the species I read Shickler and Eveland's lake trout book to better understand the species and how it interacts in their habitat. Apparently my reading compression needs some work, because I was unable to fulfill my lake trout goal on this trip. Nevertheless we enjoyed lots of fun norther pike fishing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first canoeing trip and WCPP. I'm already planning and filling up the calendar for 2024 with more canoe trips. We published a 30 minute documentary of this route on YouTube titled Canoe Touring Woodland Caribou Provincial Park. I will leave a link below if you're interested in seeing more details or the motion picture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIzaoLWj99I