Fellow Q Afficionados... I'm looking for information on some Q portages. I've looked on QJ at their portage database, but many of the posts about the portages are old - some over 10 years.

I'm planning a trip with a Nym Lake entry with a destination of Chatterton Falls. Some of the portages that we may encounter are the following:

~ Nym to Batchewaung (creek paddleable after short portage?)
~ Batchewaung to Maria
~ Maria to Jesse
~ Jesse to Elizabeth
~ Elizabeth to Halliday
~ Halliday to Sturgeon
~ Sturgeon to Olifaunt
~ Twin to Dore'
~ Dore' to Pine Portage Bay (Pickerel)
~ Pine Portage Bay to Pickerel

Anyone been through this area semi-recently? Willing to share some information about the portages? There might be a couple that I missed so feel free to include any other information if you wish.

Thanks in advance!

Nym to Batch, Dry newly improved, with steps and gravel improvements mostly down hill from Nym to Batch. It is actually Pickerel to Maria, you will drop a foot from Batchewaung into Pickerel, easy short portage.

Maria into Jesse can be quite sloppy if it has been raining but then again its not too bad.

Jesse into Elizabeth similar to the previous portage just not as sloppy.

I have not been through Halliday, I think it would be much easier to portage into Walter, an easy portage then into Lonely and portage into Sturgeon, All easy portages, plus you get to paddle Sturgeon narrows a cool area in my opinion.

If you are going into Russell you may also need to portage the top end of the river from Sturgeon into Russell, it all depends on the water level and your paddling strength.

Sturgeon into Oliphaunt can be quite sloppy and I usually run into a ton of mosquitoes on this portage but over all its not too bad.

Olifaunt into fern is all up hill and quite a long portage but it is dry. portages from fern until you get back on Pickerel are not very long and are short and usually dry.

If you are planning on going Deux Riviere check the water level before you go it is no fun to drag the whole river, I know this first hand. Portage into Dore from Twin is uphill with logs placed so you miss most of the swampy areas overall not too bad.

Dore into Pine portage bay is up then down another dry portage. Be sure to check the spring to the south side of the portage, it is at the base of a pine tree, best drinking water, cold and clear.

Pine portage bay into Pickerel very short easy portage it will save you some time paddling if you are going back to Nym.

Good luck and have fun.
Anthony

Pete, our happy foursome will be on the last 4 in May and will report back to you.

~ Nym to Batchewaung (creek paddleable after short portage?)
+++ This is a pretty easy portage, well-used, not bad even if wet, a highway when dry.

~ Batchewaung to Maria
+++You mean Pickerel (as stated in the other post reply), and it has some areas that can get muddy, but it isn't awful.

~ Maria to Jesse
+++ This one I seem to recall slipping around on rocks a lot, but I don't remember a lot else. Make sure you are careful on open rock faces.

Others I haven't done.

Thanks for the feedback so far, guys. It's appreciated.

Maria to Jesse was seriously "upgraded" sometime prior to our 2011 trip through there. It looked like the Army Corps of Engineers had designed the project.
--Goose

My memory might be a bit fuzzy as to which portage is which, but that looks like Batchewaung to Nym. they were still working on that as we were finishing up our trip end of June/ early July 2011.
I think between Maria & Jesse we had some mid-shin-high mud. Same between Jesse & Elizabeth.

I think I took this on Jesse to Maria...I think

(could be Eliz to Jesse though..?)

Sometimes it's easier to use a stick or paddle to check the depth of that mud. Then again maybe he was going for the mud spa treatment!

:). - yep- those are bare feet under that mud, with the toes undergoing a nice, uh,..exfoliating thing!

JF, I took a bunch of portage pictures of the area between Lonely and Nym, just haven't downloaded them. Will try & get to it if you're interested, though after a trip it can be hard to remember exactly which portage was which.

Howard -- re: Maria to Jesse portage . . . Order of the Arrow Boy Scouts were involved in the "upgrade," according to this article . . .
LINK
--Goose

Thanks Goose - I wonder if they got going on that one right after my trip, or maybe it was more on the Maria side as opposed to Jesse. (Or maybe I remembered wrong altogether!) The Batch-Nym maybe done before by another group? Pretty impressive work either way. Looked like hard work with the boulders & all.

Howard: Our trip was first week of June 2011 and Jim Clark at Canoe Canada knew about the improvements, so it was done sometime before that. I think there is a thread somewhere here (or, maybe on the QJ forum?) discussing the "improvements" pros/cons, but I don't have the link. At any rate, it was more "fun" (and interesting) doing the improved portage than it was when we did it (very wet) in 2007, I think.
--Goose

quote HowardSprague: "JF, I took a bunch of portage pictures of the area between Lonely and Nym, just haven't downloaded them. Will try & get to it if you're interested, though after a trip it can be hard to remember exactly which portage was which."

I'll be happy to see them, Howie. Send them whenever you have time. No rush. Thanks a lot.