Temagami Diamond Wakimika Obabika Loop
Day 1 ~ Sunday, July 12
We set off from home at 5:30 am and we arrived at the access point on Temagami Access Road. The parking lot was big but there aren’t any bathrooms or even a garbage disposal. We saw a bear and a fox who must have been enjoying the garbage left by people, tossed in the forest between rows of cars.
Our goal was to paddle up Kokoko Bay but we missed it and instead paddled the relatively calm waters up Lake Temagami (see the red line in the picture below).
Navigating was pretty confusing because the lake is so big and there are lots of islands. Later in the trip we would learn that the cottages have blue number plates out in front which corresponded to one of our maps.
Our campsite was very private and had good swimming.
Day 2 ~ Monday, July 13
Greg saw a bear swimming way out in front of our campsite as he made a morning fire. We were up between 6 and 7 and by 9:50am we were heading back out on Lake Temagami heading towards the North Arm. On our way we saw a very clear pictograph. We stopped to fish at the pictograph and Greg caught a small mouth bass, the first of many!
We paddled in grey, windy conditions to the Lower Narrows. Three house boats anchored at the first campsite at the mouth of the Lower Narrows. We passed the floating toasters through the skinny and shallow curves of the Lower Narrows into Sharp Rock Inlet. We stopped for a snack on a campsite, put on our rain jackets and continued on our way. We paddled on the west side of Sharp Rock Inlet along the rocky, cliffy shoreline. We fished a couple more times, with some success though we failed to find any more pictos. After landing a lunch-size small mouth, we continued on our way.
We chose a campsite on an island just before the portage into Diamond Lake. After setting up camp, eating our small mouth and more lunch, we headed out to explore and fish some more. Next are the photos taken around 7pm as we returned to our campsite.
Our site had these cool massive, striped rocks and we had fun jumping around them and playing tag. I also did a little big of yoga under my sweet tarp set up.
Day 3~ Tuesday, July 14
We woke up to sun shining through our tent. The night before had been my best night of sleep yet. Yes, it took 3 nights to finally get a good night sleep! There was fog on the water and everything was super calm. I was glad to have my tarp set up because it kept all our stuff dry from the heavy dewfall. Greg made a fire.
By 9:15am we had left the campsite. We portaged into Diamond Lake. We were GOBSMACKED by Diamond Lake! Check out the video below.
After the loveliest paddle, we had arrived to the coolest campsite by 11:45am. We discovered our campsite by accident. We were looking for a good cliff jumping spot and when we got out to take a look we discovered that it was a site. Our site was covered in blueberry bushes. We ate and ate and we ate. We jumped off the cliff a zillion times. Pure bliss!
At about 4pm we decided to paddle around Diamond Lake. Here are pictures from our exploring. We also harvested some wood. Our little island did not have much for a fire, so we needed to find some other dead wood.
Then it was time for dinner. Evening on this site was also incredible.
Day 4 ~ Wednesday, July 15
We set off from our site quite late after a rainy nights sleep and a morning that just had to have a few more cliff jumps into the lake! By noon we were near the portages that would take us into Lain Lake and then Wakimika Lake. We found umbrella rock as described in our Temagami guide book by Hap Wilson.
The first portage was 400m of very challenging terrain. Boulder fields, steep rocky slabs and giant step downs where I tried my best not to smash up my precious boat.
Greg did the next portage from Lain into Pencil Lake which is really the north end of Wakimika Lake. It was less challenging and easy to find because it starts right from the campsite on the lake.
It started to rain and the wind was beginning to pick up too. Next we arrived at the beaches on the north end of Wakimika Lake where over 300 were arrested protesting logging in 1989 along Red Squirrel Road.
When we got to the windy beach, we took a stroll to discuss whether we would camp or push on. We were distracted for a while by service berries!
We had a very “character building” paddle through Wakimika Lake and into Wakimika River. The river was a lovely break from the howling wind and waves we encountered on the Lake. We also saw a river otter! Best wildlife spotting of the trip.
We came out of the quiet river into Obabika Lake which was howling. But we continued on to find a campsite. We wanted to camp near the hiking trails so we could explore the old growth forest. We fought the wind and waves and found a super cool campsite right at the foot of the Wakimika Triangle Trails. Check out the massive table at our campsite! Yes, those are sold planks of wood!
We hiked the orange trail and there were tons of trees down and finding the trail was actually a challenge. At first we were suprpised by the frequency of trail markers, but after a while, we needed all of them (which were only about 10–20 meters apart) to nagivate the trail that was getting reclaimed by the forest floor. Very old, very big white and red pines as well as some big tooth aspens mixed in for some deciduous fun. We hiked from about 6–7:30pm.
We had a quick swim and then the rain really started to hammer down. By 7:40pm I was journalling in the tent and told Greg to give up on dreams of a fire and come take shelter.
Day 5~ Thursday, July 16
This was not supposed to be our last day. But it rained from 7:40pm the night before and we had a huge electrical storm during the night. We were floating in our tent by the morning. Everything was soaked and covered in dirt and mud from the splish splash of rain bouncing back up and under the tarp! So we packed up and headed out. We made the very bad decision of wearing our dry clothes, which was silly because they were soaked instantly. Lesson learned: you gotta put on those awful wet clothes no matter what.
We interviewed each other prior to setting out:
We had about 25 km to paddle in order to get back to the car. That would be the pink line from Night 4 to the access point.
We had a mix of weather on our long tour back to the car. By 4:30pm we had dined on fish and chips from a chip truck, looked for cans of Temagami Dry (which you can’t get because of COVID-19) and snapped this shot of the old train station. It was time to head home and dry out.
Meal Plan
To see our meal plan for this trip, check out this google doc here.
Packing List
Boat:
Canoe
sponge
Rope/Bailer
PDFs
compass (in PFD)
Paddles
map, map bag with carabiner
tie down ropes
Fishing Gear
binoculars
In top of big bag:
Goretex rain coats
2 bug jackets, 1 bug hood
Clothes:
swimsuit
dry pants
dry socks
long sleeve wool
wool bra
undies Gx3 Mx5
long sleeve collar
fleece
belt
Put in outfit:
undies
pink bra
wet pants
wet long sleeve
wet shoes
wet socks
sun hat
buff
watch
Camp:
dry camp shoes
towel
goggles (Greg small pair)
headlamps
toilet paper
tarp with rope
knives, axe, saw
clothes line, Bear Rope
Water:
water purifier & Platypus bags (2: clean/dirty)
Dromedary bag
Water bottle w/ carabiner
bowl for sink
Cooking:
matches/lighter
pots
frying pan
stove
fuel and pump
spatula blue
soap (same as toilette)
Eating:
cutlery
mugs
bowls
Toilette/First Aid:
First Aid kit (with lights)
toothbrush, floss
toothpaste
sunscreen
bug spray
Lana-cane anti itch
foot powder
antihistamines
soap (same as kitchen)
extra map
phone charger
headlamp charger
2 charging blocks
pencil & journal
LED red/green and glow sticks (pack in first aid )
Sleeping:
tent
sleeping bag
thermal rest
pillow
