View topic - Wollaston Lake to Lake Kasba

I've only looked closely at the Kasba Lake to Baker Lake section on the Kazan, I'd guess the Wollaston to Arviat trip would be close to 60 days when all is said and done and conditions are good.

Problems are that getting down the Kazan can be impossible before mid-July and by late August one could be encountering truly terrible weather conditions.

If you are serious about such a trip do try for a year with an early break up and a late arrival of early Winter weather. Yeah I know, these things are impossible to predict in advance.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Here are reports of ice conditions on the big lakes, from my report at
http://www.myccr.com/canoedb/routeDetai ... outeid=834

Ice on lakes (from trip reports, cairn notes, etc):

Kasba:
28 June: barely passable (McKay )
~1 July: none (Leeson)
3 July: none (Spragins-Harmuth)
5 July: lots of ice but passable (Klein)
6 July: none (Jacobs)
6 July: none (Stone)
7 July: none (Caplan)
10 July: lots on east side (Hoel)
16 July: none (Martin)

Ennadai:
1 July: barely passable (McKay)
8 July: none (Spragins-Harmuth)
8 July: none (Jacobs)
~8 July: none (Stone)
~12 July: lots at south end (Hoel)
18 July: none (Martin)

Angikuni:
ice mentioned by North River, 1991, no date
ice seen by Hrechka in 1990, no date

Yathkyed:
"middle of July" 1926: impassable (Mallet)
21 July 1991: impassable (North River)
~23 July 2001: none (Caplan)
24 July 2003: none (Jacobs)
27 July 1982: none (McKay)
28 July 1989: none (Spragins-Harmuth)
29 July 1978: barely passable (Hoel)
30 July 1972: impassable; passable next day (Klein)
1 Aug. 1974: none (Martin)
5 Aug. 1991: some ice; passable (Hollis)

EDIT:
I haven't looked for data after 2003.

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

Recped,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, even with a teacher's summer holidays, 60 days would be pushing it. I guess I'll have to take a semester off sometime and do it. Could you give me a rough estimate of how long it would take to paddle from Wollaston to Baker Lake with experienced paddlers?

Do you have any advice on a trip in this general area that would be 30-40 days in length?

Thanks for taking the time to consider my questions.

Personally if I ever get there I'll be doing Kasba Lake to Baker Lake via the Kazan. This is often done in 30 days but I would plan for 40 myself.

Although I can enjoy a small amount of upstream and cross-watershed travel The concept of all downstream and practically no portaging is quite appealing. Optional would be to cross over to the Dubawnt.

The logistics are pretty simple for this trip and not too expensive in relative terms.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

The Kazan is the buggiest place I know. And the Yathkyed area is the buggiest on the Kazan.
On the other hand, it is perhaps the richest in Inuit sites.
I highly recommend Kasba Lake Lodge if you intend to paddle in the area. They'll get you and all your stuff from Winnipeg to Kasba Lake.
And I highly recommend a PakCanoe - saves a bundle of money getting out of Baker Lake (worth a stay of a day or two).

_________________

A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

If you don't mind waiting for 3 or 4 months you can get your boat(s) back relatively cheap.

_________________
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Wasn't aware of that; your information is obviously more up-to-date than mine (8 years old now).

_________________

A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

You can ship them back to the South via ocean freighter. Issue with that is the boats end up either in Churchill or Montreal. The Northern Store in Baker Lake pays good money to ship empty containers back to Churchill, they will happily take a bit of money and toss it inside an empty. From there I'm not sure what CN charges for the train ride to Winnipeg as freight....it's only $50 if they go with a passenger

The other possibility is to make a deal and ship it air cargo. You can probably cut a good deal with Calm Air, they fly cargo into Baker Lake and those planes generally return near empty, any revenue they can get makes them happy.

I got a fantastic quote from Air Inuit to move my boats from George River, only problem was that their cargo flights originate from La Grande and the truckers there wanted extortionist rates to put it in an empty truck heading back south.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

So I wonder if anyone dares to compare the various routes from Wollaston to Kasba as far as difficulty of portages and how quickly they run out of water in the spring:

1. via Black Lake and Snowbird Lk

2. via Hatchet Lk-Schwand R

3. via Bannock Lk-Hasbala Lk

4. via Cochrane R and Little Partriage R

I have done a fair amount of research and study on these options and have come to the conclusion that #2 the Hatchet Lake - Schwand River route is the easiest route. Of course I won't know for sure until I actually get there which I hope to do at some point in 2018 or 2019.

I would be doing this route and then continuing on to Baker Lake either via Kazan (most likely) or Dubawnt so I figure I would need to start early in the season regardless so water levels should not be a problem given ice-out on that route doesn't happen until mid-June at the earliest.

Starting from Black Lake for a Kazan trip seems like way too much effort (maybe ok for the Dubawnt) unless one is dead set on getting to Snowbird to claim the entire Kazan. The logistics of getting to Black Lake are also more involved than simply getting to Wollaston.

I see no point in going via Hasbala unless one is doing a two part trip (exit and re-entry via the lodge on Hasbala) but even for that it makes more sense to me to get to Kasba Lake Lodge via the Schwand River to end part one.

The Cochrane - Little Partridge route which has been done by a number of groups seems to me to be unnecessary pain and agony unless that is something one enjoys.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Thanks for your thoughts recped.