Temagami South East-Cross Lake loop

Day 1: August 20th 2020 
We left from Verner early in the morning and drove up to the end of Lake Temagami Access Road. We parked the car @46.963667, -80.017648. 

Leaving in a little bit of rain. 

We paddled 2.2 km into the wind south down Lake Temagami then turned east down Shinningwood Bay. 

Shinningwood Bay

9.3 km from Lake Temagami Access Road we got to the first portage. The portage is found at: 46.966704, -79.945852. One hundred meters into the portage the yoke on the canoe broke. We decided that we would paddle back and get it fixed. 18.7 km later we arrived back where we started. We drove back home and fixed the canoe. Any of the campsites I found I took photos of and posted on the interactive map at the bottom of my post.

Day 2: August 21st 2020  
SUN SUN SUN! Today we had nothing but sunshine! Lake Temagami was calm so we were able to cut 400 meters off of yesterdays paddle. After 8.9 km we hit the portage to Olier Lake. Here is a video of the 400 meter portage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8WGrwyaXg

Olier Lake from the portage. 

Olier Lake has phenomenal fishing. The bass were swimming under our canoe for a good portion of the lake. We paddled for 1.2 km to the portage marked by a large piece of plywood. The 400 meter portage to Denedus Lake is really nice. There is a fairly fast moving stream along most of it. Here is a short video of the whole thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfCvZ_jk43g

Denedus Lake

Denedus Lake is a beautiful Lake. It is fairly shallow but the fishing is amazing, almost too easy. 

Our campsite on Denedus Lake

Day 3: August 22nd 2020
We had planned to make this a fishing day. We were going to do a short paddle set up on Wasaksina Lake then fish Wasaksina and surrounding lakes. However, we had cell reception and saw that the next day was going to rain A LOT so we decided to paddle all the way to Cross Lake. There is a really short portage from Denedus to Wasaksina. Here is a short video of the whole portage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZrUY3gU8Cc.

It was over cast and a little windy so we paddled through Wasaksina pretty quickly to the 1,350m portage. Here is a video of the entire portage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcD5F9bL3P0 . From the portage it was a short paddle to our campsite.

Our campsite on Cross Lake.

Day 4: August 23rd 2020
Today as promised by the weather network was a very rainy day. 
Water collection made easy!

The first time it rained it flooded the entire campsite. I had to go out mid rain and divert the water away from the tent. The second time, the water was calm but the sky sounded like a jet was approaching. We watched as the rain came towards us on the water. After the rain we packed up and set out at 1 pm. Just a few kilometers down Cross Lake we set up camp again.

Our campsite

Day 5: August 24th 2020
Today started off as overcast. The paddle through the channel connecting Cross Lake and Lake Temagami was absolutely stunning. 

We saw a beautiful bald eagle. This is the closest we could get to it.

We took the short 50 meter portage to Cross Bay and picked a sheltered campsite. Finally the sun came out. We went for a swim and enjoyed our last night with a campfire.

The sunset that night.

Day 6: August 25th 2020

Our campsite

We woke up in the morning made breakfast and paddled back to our car. We left Cross Bay into a pretty fast moving headwind. We saw a house boat coming out of another section of the bay so we paddled as quickly as we could to get behind them. They were so kind to slow down and we surfed behind them until we crossed Shinningwood Bay. 

Here is a video of the whole trip, enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRfnFzIaAlE

Click on the  icon to make the Google Map full screen, to see all the photos I took and where they were taken. Click on the  symbol to see all the photos. There are 37 in total. I colour coded each day. Purple is day 1, yellow is day 2, brown is day 3, green is day 4, pink is day 5, purple is day 6. I tried to take a photo of every campsite I saw to help you out in trip planning. 

Stats:
August 20th: 18.6km paddle 100 meter portage (yoke broke)
August 21st: 12.5 km paddle, 2.5 km total portage  
August 22nd: 8.9 km paddle, 4 km total portage
August 23rd: 8.2 km paddle
August 24th: 11 km paddle, 150 meter portage
August 25th: 7.2 km paddle