| Author |
Message |
spacejammib
Member
Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2011
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 9:28 pm: | 
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What is the earliest that the Sturgeon River can be paddled, or that anybody has paddled it? Me and a friend are looking at an early spring trip and wanted to know when the ice melt happens. I'd like to know if there is anything else (research stations, satellite photos etc.) that we can monitor the melt with. Anything will be appreciated. Thanks! |
brian
Moderator
Post Number: 1278
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 10:32 am: |
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Well, if anyone could predict break-up they would be God. Every spring Ottertooth has a break-up watch. Go to the home page and follow links to the watch from previous years. There is also a list of break-up dates for the last few years. |
irishfield
Member
Post Number: 280
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 10:53 am: |
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Just follow Ed.. he gets the dog to run ahead and crack the ice for him! |
alscool
Moderator
Post Number: 280
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 1:32 pm: |
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Ed. camps out days before the breakup, never misses it, at least in front of his camp. |
ed
Moderator
Post Number: 923
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 3:57 pm: |
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I don't think the dog weighs enough to do that Irishfield.
I wouldn't be too keen to go down the Sturgeon River right after break-up especially following a winter when the snow pack was above average.
So you may want to see how the Spring run is shaping up before finalizing your plans.
Yeah! Alscool, I do hope to be out there somewhere just as the ice goes out, but it will not be on the Sturgeon River. |
curly
Member
Post Number: 246
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 9:46 pm: |
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I flew over the Sturgeon late March last year. You could have run it then, if you could access it.
BTW, my first trip this year is planned for April 17. People thought me crazy for planning on April 22 last year, but by then the ice had been out for over a week! |
ed
Moderator
Post Number: 924
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 8:11 am: |
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OK!
I wrote that down in my calendar.
Curly is going to be out on the water somewhere on Sunday, April 17th,2011.
I trust that will be in the Temagami area and not in a melt pond in your backyard?
Good Luck.
If it looks as if it will happen, I will also be out there then. This past year, I had to sit on the sidelines waiting patiently until I had completed family duties, (helping kids move around), before I could get out on April 28th , missing a good 2 1/2 weeks of potential canoeing. Of course getting there may have been a problem as the back roads were still pretty messy. |
brian
Moderator
Post Number: 1279
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 9:52 am: |
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This past April was one of those rare years when the roads were dry AND Sudbury forestry was shut down so no logging vehicles to contend with AND the Sturgeon was equivalent to a normal summer level. I got lucky. Except for the day it snowed. I had left my portage crampons at home. |
fireman
Member
Post Number: 136
Registered: 08-2009
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 11:38 am: |
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Maybe I am getting old and cautious...but am I the only one who noticed the torn up carcasses of canoes along the Sturgeon River??
Seems to me an early spring run could be the greatest trip of a lifetime or the last trip of a lifetime. I went down the Moon River on April 22nd one year. dumped at the rapid before Moon Falls, almost froze to death before we got a fire going (shores still covered in ice) and the next day travelled to Moon Falls to check out the Bay only to see an infinite expanse of ice.
Paddling back up the river was quite a joyous occasion. My friend and I never spoke to each other for the entire time we were so pissed off. |
spacejammib
Member
Post Number: 2
Registered: 01-2011
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 10:26 pm: |
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Thanks a lot guys for the great responses! This gives us a better idea of what the possibilities are for early spring runs. We were hoping to fit in a short river trip before the middle of April but we may have to come back for this one later. From what we have heard it looks like a great trip. Thanks again. |
Temagami canoe routes & backcountry travel