Hello All, I have a Daughter and son-in-law, with a 6 YO son "My Grand Son XO" who love the outdoors and hiking. I was talking about my love for the area and my daughter expressed interest. They're interests are not so much about fishing, but I'm wondering, are there good hiking trails, in the camp boat ride area, of Alwaki or Kipawa Lodge?
Maybe I could spring for part of the cost for a Christmas gift and book them the week after I'm there and leave them my boat, tube and fishing gear for lots of options, not to mention the hiking?
LOL.
How do you get your boat back home:)?
At 3SeasonsCamp, there a vast series of hunting trails behind the camp.
The bush is so full of bugs, you would need a case of bug spray and two bug suits on .
Just my observation
Mr. Rhybak has some good points, but mine would be this.
Of all the things to enjoy about the Kipawa region, I would assess there are abundantly more suitable and beautiful hiking destinations within 500 miles of, say, Erie PA. Abundantly more. It's a cool place for fishing and nature in general, not so much for hiking. Personally, I'd be too afraid to run into a bear or something. And endless miles of staring at the deep bush of Quebec while hiking may get boring after a bit...it all looks the same "inside" the bush.
Agree with Tbone
Hiking up in kipawa is not a good idea for many reasons including general safety
For all ages
All good points
@RHYBAK and
@T-Bone , I will have to think it through some more. I saw 2 families together at Alwaki last July, spend an entire week, cooking out, swimming off the dock, camp fires and chilling and never fish. I wish I'd know about such a place 25 years ago.
On the getting the boat back home, I would drive their vehicle back home and they my truck towing my boat.
Quote from: crackers42 on July 18, 2019, 01:57:22 PM
Agree with Tbone
Hiking up in kipawa is not a good idea for many reasons including general safety
For all ages
Sasquatch? Or are we talking about the Black Bear Population? I've heard the Canadian Black Bear is more aggressive than ours here in PA. I have them in my back yard every now and again and I've never heard of a Bear attack recently in PA and the population is pretty high.
LOL
Bears in PA smell humans and yearn to eating their tasty garbage.
Bears in Quebec bush smell humans and yearn to eat those tasty humans
Quote from: RHYBAK on July 18, 2019, 02:10:08 PM
Bears in PA smell humans and yearn to eating their tasty garbage.
Bears in Quebec bush smell humans and yearn to eat those tasty humans
LOL ;D
Yea, makes sense.
I often walk to the bridge at Red pine from my camp, It's about 2.5km walk one way. Or sometimes drive to the bridge and walk the main road. Sometimes hazardous as the trucks using the road aren't used to seeing idiots walking that road. As above not much to see but rocks and trees. I do it for the excersize and only when the bugs let me lol.
Not to sound smart but I would not trust some guys up that way in the back country
I wouldn’t let my wife or daughters out of my sight when we are off the beaten path
Quote from: crackers42 on July 18, 2019, 05:00:01 PM
Not to sound smart but I would not trust some guys up that way in the back country
I wouldn’t let my wife or daughters out of my sight when we are off the beaten path
Yikes.
Quote from: Hodgey1 on July 18, 2019, 02:19:46 PM
Quote from: RHYBAK on July 18, 2019, 02:10:08 PM
Bears in PA smell humans and yearn to eating their tasty garbage.
Bears in Quebec bush smell humans and yearn to eat those tasty humans
LOL ;D
Yea, makes sense.
He's pulling your chain Chris... :)
Black bears are by nature timid and do their best to avoid humans, specially in the deep wild. Attacks are rare, and would involve someone somehow getting between a sow and her cubs and her feeling threatened. Brown bear can be a different story depending on circumstances, and for Polar bear humans are definitely on the menu.
As for hiking safety, pepper spray has been proven to be very effective at thwarting potential bear attacks, even more so than firearms.
Cheers
On the back side of Alwaki, in the bay with the mini lighthouse, there is a trail going up to the logging road. It has been about 30 years since I have been up there so it might be overgrown. Ask Brian or Rob if it is still accessible.
Years back me and one of the guys that used to come with us went on a hike behind the dead bear bear outpost cabin when staying there.
It was a little ATV trail and we maybe hiked a few miles in the woods following moose tracks looking for a pike lake that we thought was somewhere back there. Never found it. Probably not the smartest thing I've done considering all we had was a knife and no bear spray. Its a weird feeling that far back in the bush. I'm sure there was some large animal at some point that had its eyes on us.
Still to this day have never seen a bear on Kipawa. I've always wanted to but in the safety of the boat. Maybe this trip!
Quote from: Mattie on July 19, 2019, 09:44:35 AM
Still to this day have never seen a bear on Kipawa. I've always wanted to but in the safety of the boat. Maybe this trip!
Hey Mattie, I was fishing in between North River Dam and Grant pass last year, and on the way back to camp Chad and I watched a bear for 5-10minutes hanging out on shore foraging just North of Grant Pass in a narrow section. It was cool experience.
Looking forward to cracking a cold one with you and T next week!
Now that I have a great map to refer to https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i0q7_FP8SmDyGalN6TGk9qZ1u8gHmX-I&usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i0q7_FP8SmDyGalN6TGk9qZ1u8gHmX-I&usp=sharing) I can type intelligently about those place by name :D
We see them swimming from point to point in the open water down our way when the bugs in the bush are really bad
Usually once every three years or so same for moose
One of the camps near us almost saved a bear one time in open water we figure it got so exhausted from swimming all it wanted was ride have heard about this deer in parts
I would tend to agree with the suggestions on this board that hiking in the area is not likely the best idea.
There are some spots but nothing is marked and pretty much every trail has many other trails off it, making the potential of getting lost fairly significant.
Also, most of the trails in this area tend to be built for function (ATV trails for accessing camps and lakes etc) and not as hiking trails.
So, as T-Bone mentioned, they may find that walking these trails tends to get a bit dull after a while, depends on what they expect from the hike I guess.....
As for bears, this one hits close to home right now as our girls literally came face to face with a young black bear last week at camp while walking along an ATV trail going to our woodshed, it was less than 50 feet away from them according to their account of the run in.
Luckily the bear was likely more scared of them than they were of it and ran off in a hurry opposite of their direction.
About 15 minutes later I took the girls to go look for any signs and we found it again hunkered down in some brush off a different ATV trail on our land, we walked right past it the first time but while walking back it spooked and again ran, no signs since.
The bears in general are pretty quick to turn and run but all it takes is an aggressive young male bear or a mama with cubs and a nice hike through the bush can quickly turn ugly.
Bear spray and a whistle are for sure items to carry if the hikers are not accustomed to seeing bears face to face.
Crackers note is not to be taken lightly either, while I'm sure (or hope anyhow) that everyone on this board has come to enjoy the general good nature of people in the area, like anywhere in the world, there are some rougher customers out there occasionally.
Being alone in the bush only gives the criminal element one more advantage to exploit.
If they do decide to go:
A good compass / map / GPS etc and ability to use them will help avoid getting too far away from camp and not knowing how to return.
Even some basic first aid / survival gear may not be a bad idea if they plan to spend some time and distance out there, people have gotten lost here before, both on and off the lake and the outcome is not always good.
As an alternative, perhaps canoeing?
That being said, Kipawa can got from dead calm to stormy and rough in a hurry so if you went this route be sure they stick close to shore and are comfortable with spending time on a larger lake in a canoe.
If they stick close to shore and away from larger open sections of the lake a canoe trip for the family can be a nice adventure that is similar in nature to hiking.
Just trying to think of ideas for you, I know the feeling of trying to find activities to keep all parties happy!
Good luck:
Brent
Thanks
@Fort Wisers and all of you for your advice and details.
After all of your input, I will scratch the Hiking idea. The last thing I’d want is for a nice family outing to turn into a disaster. I think if I decide to get them a week at Alwaki, it will be focused on fishing, camp fires, exploring the lake and peace & tranquilty.
I watched a documentary once years ago about the number of people attacked and some eaten by bears in the Algonquin Park. What I’ll never forget was One story of a family that went missing there, search party found each member dead, partially eaten, then partially buried. ??? Geez, we’ll stick to the water thank you ;)
Hey Hodgey, good conclusion I think... my 2 cents...with recent live experience...
Last Monday - we visited the church and walked into the forest to see the old school house, etc. - bugs were incredible - we ended up running back through the trail to get to the boat swatting and waving our hats... it was nuts in the forest compared to on the water.
Friday (2 days ago) - we were setting up to lake trout troll over in front of Whispering Pines and saw something moving in the water near shore... watched it, and idled over closer (but not within 200 yards close) and a young black bear (not a cub, but not full grown either) got out of the water at shore and saw us and RAN up the hill, like I mean RAAAANNNN full tilt up this hill with big rocks and a steep degree - it was young and could still move fast... imagine what it will be like when it gets a larger! Very powerful.
Greg