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