Wasaksina Lake Loop

Five Days. Four friends. Three tents. Two canoes. One most excellent adventure. 

This is what my friend, J.P., wrote in a notebook that was stashed in a ziplock bag on a bushcraft shelf at a gorgeous campsite at the entrance to Shiningwood Bay on Lake Temagami. The notebook was left there by the caretakers of the site, presumably the Friends of Temagami, for users of the site to record their presence and canoe-tripping stories. J.P. aptly and concisely told ours in those few words. For four old friends who had been separated for the most part by distance, time, and circumstance, what better context is there to get together and catch up than on a five-day canoe trip?

In the spring of 2025, I heard from Jason and Scott, friends that I had known since we were teenagers, that they would be up for a canoe trip in the second week of July. The three of us got together in 2021 when we did the Eighteen Mile Island Loop on the French River. Given the fact that Jason lives in Victoria, B.C., and due to family and life commitments, it isn't the easiest to arrange time for all of us to get together. This year, however, we were willing to make it work. Even better, our other long-time high school era friend, J.P., got in touch and said he would fly in from New Brunswick to join us. Nice! 

We were looking for a trip that had good fishing and offered some solitude. We contemplated the Nabakwasi River Loop, Dunlop Lake Loop, Magnetewan River area, and the Kirkpatrick Lake Loop, among a few others. I sent the boys a list of pros and cons for each route, and despite the large amount of portaging involved, we voted and decided that the Kirkpatrick Lake Loop would be our choice. I was happy about that since I had to abandon that loop a quarter of the way through it after getting a nasty bout of COVID mid-trip in 2022. The part of the trip I had done on the loop was incredible, so I was eager to get back and finish it. 

Well, a couple of weeks before the trip, J.P. got in touch and said that he had broken a bone in his ankle and would have to cancel. That was a bummer. But rather than not have JP along, we all decided we would just change our route and do a trip with minimal or no portaging. What was important was just getting to hang out together. He said he could gingerly walk on it, but was a little afraid to do a portage-intensive trip in case of reinjuring it. If his ankle was bad, we would just do an extra trip to carry his load on any portages. I came up with the idea of putting in at the town of Biscotasing, north of Lake Huron, and simply paddling down into Indian Lake to spend our time fishing and exploring that large lake and its many bays. It was just as well, because I was recovering from an injury that I had obtained on the Steel River Loop about a week and a half earlier. 

When the boys arrived at my place on the evening of July 11th, J.P. said that his ankle was feeling a lot better and he could handle a little more portaging. After showing him the map and describing it a bit, I asked him if he could handle the 6 short portages of the Wasaksina Lake Loop in Temagami. The route was supposed to have some gorgeous lakes and fantastic campsites. Anyone who has been to the Temagami area before knows that Temagami never disappoints. He said that he was willing to give it a go. 

It was decided; the following day, we would be Temagami-bound...

Day 1 - Lake Temagami (2 km)

Day 2 - Lake Temagami to Iceland Lake (16 km)

Day 3 - Iceland Lake to Wasaksina Lake (7 km)

Day 4 - Wasaksina Lake to Shiningwood Bay (13 km)

Day 5 - Shiningwood Bay to Central Access (4km)

Trip Chronology