*** Note: All maps shown on this page are provided courtesy of Toporama which contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. I have made additional markings to show route information.*** 

Finally, after a couple of years of lockdowns and a bad year (2021) of forest fires in Northwest Ontario, Dad and I made it to Wabakimi Provincial Park, Ontario's second largest, in the summer of 2022. It did not disappoint. It was a fabulous trip that threw a little bit of everything at us. 

We decided to enter and exit the park by train from Southern Ontario. With this decision, there were a few things to consider about this method of entering the park:

Pros:

• It was way more economical to take the train rather than drive up from Southern Ontario due to the price of gas. Gas got incredibly expensive in the spring/summer of 2022.

• It was obviously much cheaper than a fly-in and paddle-back trip.

• It was way more relaxing than driving. We could both sleep on the train (ideally!) and not arrive at the put-in exhausted after a 20-hour drive.

• We could use the train to complete a circuit route without having to retrace any part.  The alternative would be to paddle to and from Armstrong (2 days of travelling each way from Little Caribou Lake to Smoothrock Lake).

• One has to admit; it is pretty cool to have the train drop one off in the middle of nowhere with a canoe and slowly pull away leaving one to their own devices in the bush. 

Cons:

• The cross-Canada VIA train (aka The Canadian) is notoriously late on a regular basis, typically anywhere from 2 to 24 hours late.  We were at the mercy of VIA Rail in terms of timing.

• The train stops regularly with people embarking and disembarking continuously. Getting any sleep at all might be wishful thinking. 

• We would be without a vehicle once back in Armstrong after the trip, our take-out location while waiting for the train home. 

Given the fact that we weren't bound to a tight schedule in our work and personal lives immediately after the trip, we decided we'd try the train. If it were going to be late, so be it. One minor concern that we did have was that if it were drastically late on the way to the put-in, we'd be rushing through the trip to catch it home. This wasn't a big issue, however; I had planned a trip that I estimated would take nine or ten days to complete if we averaged 5 hours each day. Our window between trains in and out was 11 days, so barring some very nasty weather events, it was not too much of a worry. As long as we weren't windbound for more than 2 full days, we should be fine.

We arranged to get picked up at Little Caribou Lake, our take-out location by Wabakimi Clem. Clem is the Postmaster of Armstrong and is the nicest guy. I cannot recommend his services enough. He was extremely reliable picking us up, and even let us camp in his backyard while we were waiting for the train since we came out of the bush one day earlier than expected.  He is a wealth of information on the Armstrong/Wabakimi Area and has been helping people with their trips for many years. To contact Clem, phone or text: (807) 372-1346. E-mail: wabakimiclemq@outlook.com 

The Train - Sudbury Junction to Schultz's Trail 

The scheduled departure time to leave Sudbury Junction was 4:57 PM. The train did not arrive at the station until 7:30 PM and didn't depart until nearly 8 PM. It was already 3 hours late in the early stages of its journey. Yikes! 

Interestingly, we had our first wildlife encounter while we were waiting at the station before the trip even really began.  The fellow in the video below brazenly sauntered across the tracks near a VIA worker and platform loaded with passengers in a Sudbury suburb with barely a nod of the head to all the humans around him. 

We interpreted that incident as a good omen for the trip. 

When the train finally arrived, we helped the VIA staff load our gear and we were on our way. We taped our names and mileage marker on our possessions and stored the paddles, PFDs, barrel and bags right inside the canoe once it was up and inside the cargo car. 

The train was busier than we had expected, however; we were lucky enough to snag a group of four seats facing one another and were able to stretch out for the duration of the trip. We purchased dinner from the dining car and enjoyed a beer or two as the train worked its way northwest across the province. We managed to get some sleep over the night, but I wouldn't say it was a restful sleep. The train kept its bright interior lights on throughout the night and stopped quite regularly. I combatted the disturbances with earphones and a Covid mask over my eyes. 

We awoke to less than stellar weather. It rained hard all morning as we approached our stop. 

VIA passenger trains have the lowest priority on the single track across the country and often have to wait on sidings as the freight trains speed past. Luckily for us, over the night, the train did not get further behind. I guess it was a slow freight night. 

We arrived at Armstrong Station at a quarter past noon, and a bunch of Wabakimi canoe trippers got on the train with their canoes and gear. Many people drive to Armstrong, get on the train and ride the short distance to their put-in points, then paddle back to Armstrong. There were at least 7 groups getting on that day and it took quite some time to get everyone loaded. 

We finally arrived at Shultz's Trail, 24.7 miles (not kilometers) past Armstrong Station, our train departure point. It was 1:30 PM, four hours after our scheduled arrival time. One of the groups that got on at Armstrong was also putting in at Schultz's Trail. Wabakimi Outfitters had helped them plan their trip and they were told to get off at the 24.3 mile marker, not 24.7. The conductor didn't want to stop twice, so there was a bit of a discussion as to which location was the best. The train workers seemed to know where the usual stop was and we were glad it was the 24.7 one. Though 60 meters longer to reach the water, it was a gentle trail down to a fishing lodge on Onamakawash Lake, rather than the shorter, but incredibly steep descent to the portage between Onamakawash and Shawanabis Lake at the 24.3 location. We had passed it while the train was slowing, and with all the rain that had fallen that morning, it looked like it might have been treacherous. 

We watched the train pull away as we were left in the bush next to the tracks.

Day 1 - Schultz's Trail to Lookout River (9 km)

Thankfully, the rain had stopped, and transitioning from train passengers to canoe trippers was easy. There was a yellow sign saying 'Shultz's Trail' to demark the trail to the lake and we made a couple of trips down with all of our gear. The first thing we noticed on the trail were the blueberries...so many wonderful blueberries. We would enjoy them throughout the trip. The trail was well-worn and easy to use. In fact, with the exception of two portages between Whitewater and McKinley Lakes, we found all of the portages on the trip very well-maintained. Many thanks to both the Friends of Wabakimi and Ontario Parks for their consistent and vigilant efforts on trail maintenance. 

It didn't take us long to load and get on the water. We said our goodbyes to the other group and wished them well as we paddled away. Blue skies were beginning to poke through the gloom, but the wind was also coming up from the northwest. We felt it more as we got out into the larger part of the lake, so we kept to the northern shore and tried to hide behind points when we could to make the paddle a little easier.

We entered the bay at the northwest part of the lake and had to get out of the canoe for a minute to wade over rocks near the outlet of the Lookout River. This allowed us to skip paddling around the island. 

We saw our first rapid of the Lookout River just after that and it looked easy to run, at least the top part did. We ran it and eddied out at the bottom only to discover that the final rapid had a newly fallen cedar sweeper across the bottom of it, stretching pretty much across the entirety of the river. We couldn't see it from the top. Knowing that we should have walked the portage on the left to get a look at the entire run, we quickly learned to not take things for granted in Wabakimi. We were able to line the canoe down the right side but had to cross the bottom of the rapid in front of the sweeper while hanging on to it. Luckily, there wasn't too much push, but there was still enough to get a head full of cedar leaves and to carpet the bottom of the boat. It was a little comical actually. 

We paddled northeast across a bay and arrived at the next obstacle, a Class 3 drop in the river between two bays. There was a 64m portage on the left, very close to the drop, and a nice looking campsite there, as well. It was 4:30 PM by that time and we decided to call it a day even though we'd only been on the water for a couple of hours. We both like to sleep with the sound of running water nearby and in this case, we got that in spades. Besides, the sky was beginning to cloud over again in a hurry, so we wanted to hunker down before any rain came and we were very tired having only slept a few hours the previous night on the train. 

We made camp, got a fire going, and gathered some firewood to dry out around the fire; the ground was still very wet from all the rain earlier in the day. About that time, we said hi again to the group that got off the train with us after they portaged through and made their way down the Lookout River. For the rest of the evening, we were in complete solitude.  It was wonderful.