Queen Elizabeth II Wilderness Park

CanadaOntarioSouth Central
Submitter & Author Information
Route submitted by: 
Frank Kriewaldt
Trip Date : 
May 16, 2015
Location Map: 
Additional Route Information
Distance: 
44 km
Duration: 
1 days
Loop Trip: 
Yes
Portage Information
No. of portages: 
23
Total Portage Distance: 
10300 m
Longest Portage: 
2200 m
Difficulty Ratings
River Travel: 
Intermediate
Lake Travel: 
Intermediate
Portaging: 
Moderate
Remoteness: 
Novice
Background Trip Info
Water Levels: 
Medium
Route Description
Access to Put-In Information: 

The Devil's Lake access is one of the better ones I have come across. Nice dock too !

Technical Guide: 

Youtube video of the trip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8RDRdoxWr8

May 16, 2015 - 1 day QE2 Park Canoe Trip - Large Loop 

My friend and I were planning to check out the QE II Park for canoeing opportunities. We had already hiked the loop to Victoria Lake down to Moore Falls. Looking for options, I came across the very helpful description of Brad Jennings from the ExploreTheBackcountry videos found on Youtube. As a result, we decided to try the whole large loop from Devil's Lake, over to Victoria, down to Fishog, up to Scrabble, over Moore Falls, and back to Devil's Lake. Ambitious !! But we do things like that.

  We knew returning in daylight was unlikely, so we decided to do the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. This way we had some road escapes, if required, in the latter half of the trip. As well, all the difficult portages would be completed with daylight, and we could follow the shorelines on the big lakes at the end of the trip. The one thing we made sure of was that wind would not be a factor at the end of the day. Early in the day it started out from the west at 10-15 km/hr.

A word of advice. The portage we took from Clear lake into Scrabble was horrible. There was little water in the marsh section between the lakes. We just pushed our way through the weed overgrowth, and then we just bushwacked at the upper end. It appears that the portage option to the left (which we landed at first) takes you to the long bay connected to Scrabble. We gave up on it, as it did not appear obvious. We lost at least 30 minutes with our choice. 

The day was cloudy. Our energy was probably higher as a result of not getting cooked by the sun, especially on the portages. Most of the portages are short suckers. The longest are: 600, 640, 870, 1300, 1600, and 2200 m. They aren't that bad, because the QE2 Park is pretty much flat as a pancake.

Trip Journal/Log/Report/Diary: 

Devil's Lake start                     - 08:15

Cooney Lake                           - 09:15

Victoria Lake                           - 10:30 

Crooked Lake                         - 12:45

Round Lake                            - 14:20

1st pond east of Fishog Lake - 15:20

Coburn Lake                           - 17:10

Scrabble Lake                         - 19:15 (after taking the poorer choice of portage)

Moore Falls                             - 21:40

Devil's Lake -                          - 23:05 

Other
Special Comments: 

This is a great loop. Doing it in 1 day takes special consideration, as you will likely not be dragging a lot of overnight gear along to keep the weight down. Be able to do a minimum of 50 km of paddling in 1 day without requiring medical intervention. Do a good amount of hiking beforehand. We took a SPOT GPS just in case. Check your times against ours to see how your schedule matches ours. Don't pick a windy day !! Make sure any wind there is comes from the west, to have shoreline protection on the big lakes at the end. Enjoy !

Photo Gallery
GPS Tracks

Comments

Post date: Thu, 02/02/2017 - 09:31

Comments: 

Wow you guys must be animals to have pulled off a day like this.  Did you even stop for food breaks?

Post date: Thu, 01/26/2017 - 22:58

Comments: 

As of 2016 the 295m portge from Clear lake to Digby creek is signed and cleared - it's an easy and picturesque ‎way from Clear to Scrabble.