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Message |
bena
Member
Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 2:04 pm: | 
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Just this past weekend my five friends and I embarked on a short canoe trip around Lake Temagami.
I was aiming to exhaust my complaining friend so I decided we would take the longer 1570 meter portage into Side Rock Lake, followed by the short portage into Kokoko Lake.
Here's the link!
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/6631/picture5u. png
Considering that I had never done this route before, this was a very foolish idea as none of us could find the small portage from Side Rock Lake into Kokoko Lake. After much scouting, frustration and deliberation, we decided to backtrack across the 1570 and canoe up to the shorter 670 portage. We were exhausted! Mission Success!
Two things:
1) Where in heck was that portage? Does anyone use it anymore?
2) After the 1570 we did a bit of bushwhacking and found a lot of old wooden boats and what looked like a fallen water tower. What was this? The tower said "Krane" on it.
Apologies for the nuisance.
These questions have been nagging me for days.
Thank you!
B |
dan_carpenter
Moderator
Post Number: 72
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 5:49 pm: |
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In the 1950s and early 1960s, the area around Side Rock Lake was was logged, and there was a large depot-type of building at the Temagami end of the present 1570 portage, which fell down and eventually was either dismantled or simply disintegrated. The trail was used occasionally by summer fishing parties. What you found could have been the remains of boat/canoe caches that were positioned at the Side Rock end in the past - or maybe something to do with the old lumber operation.
More recently, it was used primarily by ice fishermen in the winter time, although a few years ago winter or summer travel was made difficult by a series of major windfalls. I don't know whether they have been cleared out or not.
The portage from Side Rock to Kokoko is there, but it heavily overgrown through lack of use. It would take a major effort to clear it out and open it up again. I looked for it several years ago in the wintertime, but I gave up and decided it was easier to go back down to Temagami and then take the shorter, more level 670 to get to Kokoko. |
andrewh
Member
Post Number: 55
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 6:45 pm: |
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I had the misfortune of venturing into Side Rock Lake a few years ago, due to my own stupidity in not bringing a map with me when doing the Kokoko loop with a group of friends. After realizing we were on the wrong lake (portaged out of the wrong bay), I did find an old portage that was very overgrown, and it ended at the very well used trail from Temagami to Kokoko, about 50m up from the Kokoko end. So it looks as if the trail isnt in the right spot as is shown on your map. The trail started from what was likely an old camp, very near the portage coming in from Temagami to Side Rock Lake, it started as an old road, then almost completely dissapeared by the time it took you to the other portage.
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andrewh
Member
Post Number: 56
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 6:47 pm: |
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Now that I look at the map again, it looks as if the trail is where there was a small creek entering side rock lake. I scouted in that area but could not find a trail. |
bena
Member
Post Number: 2
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Thursday, August 5, 2010 - 5:50 pm: |
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Brilliant!
It's a total joy to find such a resourceful internet forum.
Thanks guys I really appreciate it.
Now I don't feel so bad about missing the portage.
Side Rock Lake felt like a whole other world; I was happy to escape from it. |
dendrast
Member
Post Number: 38
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 5:20 pm: |
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Actually, if you find the old lumber camp and explore to the back (east) of it, there was also a trail from there down to the middle of the Temagami - Kokoko portage. We used to ski it when we lived at Keewaydin as caretakers. It was better than trying to go directly down from Siderock to Kokoko into the pond. There is also another very faint trail further down the lake, near the island, that will take you down to Malloch. It was also no raging hell.
Those artifacts you found were probably traces of the lumber camp. There's an old ice house, and the cylindrical objects were rollers to groom the skid trail for the horses. Yes, that old! Lumberjacks! Bacon and beans!
(Message edited by dendrast on August 10, 2010) |
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Temagami canoe routes & backcountry travel