The Mantario Trail

[WhiskyJack]

Hey guys, it's Ankar, just changed my alias from "sketchbag". I like this one much more.

Anyway, last Wednessday me and my friend (who posts here occasionally as DianeNike") headed out to the Mantario trail in the whiteshell. It's a 63km trail from Caddy Lake to Big Whiteshell lake, and crosses into Ontario at Carribou Lake.

Arranging transportation from the other end back to our vehicle was too much hassle (would of had to hitchhike) so we decided to start and finish at Caddy Lake. Besides, we were more interested in camping than spending all day hiking, so we only ventured about 1/3 of the way up the trail.

Pretty similar gear to my last trip, still tarp camping, this time I brought my 4 piece St.Croix fishing rod in a crush proof PVC case I made for it and my new Tatonka cooking pot. For food we brought bannock, oatmeal, raw cured sausage, smokies, pork chops, lots of jerky, dried vegetables for stew, trail mix, hot chocolate & powdered milk, and some other dehydrated foods. We brought a Coldsteel tomahawk instead of my GB SFA.

As I've said before, I'm no photographer, and taking pictures is usually the last thing on my mind, so there werent that many from this trip.

We arrived at the trail head mid afternoon on Wednessday, the the stretch to our first destination, an abandoned airfield 7.2km up the trail was the roughest, with lots of steep hills, several marshy tracks lined with slippery logs sinking into the mud and two beaver dams.

About halfway to the airfield there was a sharp turn on the trail with no markers, karens or flaging tape. Evidently lots of people get turned around there, and we ended up following one of the false trails, lost the main trail and ended up just treking through the bush for about 1km until we came to the train tracks which we followed back to the trail. With the detour it took us about 2.5hours to get to our destination, and we had enough time to make our beds out of spruce bows & moss, set up our tarps make a pot hanger, and gather firewood. The sign at the start said "no open fires" but it's late october, it had been raining solid for a week, you could get a forest fire going if you tried, besides, were both forest firefighters.



It drizzled rain all night, but we set our tarps up well, and were dry and comfy in the morning. We had oatmeal and trail mix for breakfast then hit the trail, we took a snowmobile route shortcut which required us to go through a grassy marsh to get back to the trail on the way to Carribou Lake, 5.1km away.

On our way we came across one of several streams, this one came out of nowhere, just flowing out from the bottom of a tree. The water was very clean and clear and we refilled out canteens with the pristine water.

At Caribou lake the trail crosses a stream which marks the point where you cross into Ontario, here's a shot from the north side of the stream, looking down it into Ontario

These shots are from the same peak looking at Caribou Lake

I caught a nice Pike for lunch, and found an onion floating in the lake, we had fish fried with butter, onions & garlic with salt and pepper and scalloped potatoes with herb & cheese sauce for lunch. Delicious.

I looked all over for a good camping area; flat, free of bushes & other obstructions and with some elevation. The only clearing I could find was pretty low, but it would have to do.
I took a shot of my bed, which that night was quite uncomfortable, every night our beds got thicker and thicker, a 1' thick bed of sphagnum moss is very comfortable. I put moss over the spruce on my bed for comfort because I had a foam pad to insulate, otherwise the spruce would have to go on top to insulate you from the wet moss. Also, 1 lesson learned after a poor night sleep was to lay the branches with the cut ends sticking out so dont lay on the thicker parts of the branches.

That night went down to -2C, after supper when we went back to camp everything was covered in frost. We made a roaring parallel fire, the radiant heat melted my tarp onto my sleeping pad.

My Wiggys sleeping bag was toasty warm, as it should be though seeing as its rated down to -40C.

 

[WhiskyJack]

The next day we hiked up to Marion Lake, 6.5km.

We spent another hour looking around for this abandoned railway camp with a stone oven, looks like the "oven" is just a pile of rocks now.

I tried to do some fishing, but the side of the lake we were on was poor, too shallow. My line got snagged, but I wasnt about to cut loose a $5 tackle and loose my wire leader too, so I manned up and ventured in. I tried walking down the fallen tree it was snagged on, but the last 10' that was submerged was covered in algae and slippery as hell, as I was sliding down this thing trying to regain my balance it occurred to me that I had a $300 camera and a $250 mp3 player in my pocket, and this was an absolutely ludicrous idea risking all that to save a $5 tackle. I grabbed them, held them high, jumped in then walked back to shore to drop them off before going back to free the snag.

Two words: MAN UP!


We ate smokies and bannock while I dried my pants

The sunset on Marion Lake was beautiful

The next day we headed back to Caribou Lake. The first night we were there we were going to store our food in this metal bear box, but it was full and stinking, so on our way back we decided we'd burn the garbage that was left. When we cleared it out there was only a few rotting items of food, and a whole lot of sealed MRE's. We really hit the jackpot, had to be at least $120 of food there.

Before anyone goes and accuses us of stealing this, we didnt, as far as I'm concerned it was abandoned, there was no other cars in the parking lot, and we didnt see anyone on the trail until the last day, two other hikers who started at the north end who also hadnt seen anyone until they ran into us. There was 2 bottles of sunscreen in there too, so this must have been there for a while as no one wears sunscreen in the forest in October. I suspect some yuppies started at Caddy Lake, got that far, realized they didnt have the constitution for hiking and gave up, ditching their food cause they knew they wouldnt be doing anymore hiking and didnt want to hump the extra weight. Probably had to pick between MRE's and their camping espresso maker.

We would have stayed another week with this new found treasure, but were expected back. We're ready for the next trip though!

Saturday night we didnt set our tarps up properly, and of course it rained hard on us. The last 12" of my bag got soaked, and rolling up in the tarp was awfully claustrophobic and caused a lot of condensation, never the less we made it through the night just fine. Sunday morning I was up at first light to do some fishing, but while jumping along the rocks to get a good position I slipped and put my leg in the lake, putting an end to my fishing.

After I dried my boot and had breakfast we hiked out. Our packs were even heavier leaving than when we started, what with all that food and wet gear. We really gave er' and hiked the whole 12.3km in just under 3 hours.

5 Days and 40km later, were back at the south end of the trail.

 

[KuRUpTD]

nice adventure ..... and awesome pics thanks for sharing

 

[Liam Ryan]

Looks like a fun trip!
The new name is pretty cool, but for the record I thought Sketch bag was a pretty good name too.
I am in the market for a sleeping bag, how do you like the wiggys? Was it too warm for this time of year? Is it bulky to pack?

 

[WhiskyJack]

It was a blast! Trying to decide on what to do for the next adventure, being laid off kicks ass.

I'm really liking this Wiggys sleeping bag. Saturday night even though it was raining I was too warm, had my arms out of the bag most the night, but I was layered up.

I got the "super light" and the outer bag, it is pretty bluky. It comes with 3 compression bags though, 2 smaller ones for the bags individually or one extra large for them combined. I was using both, and if you look in the last picture that 80L bag is packed too the brim, the sleeping bag takes about 1/3 of the packs height, I can fit a few smaller things around it in the corners.

It was really expensive, around $400, but the lifetime guarantee and being able to machine wash/dry and store it compressed without ruining the insulation sold me.

I'm glad I went with a synthetic because my bag got pretty wet (soaked in spots), I dont think down would have let me off this easy with my careless tarp setup.

 

[HornyToad]

Great pictures and write up. I wish I had the time (and youth) to follow in your footsteps. 12 miles in 3 hours

I understand Whisky Jack but what is a "sketchbag"?

 

[Unsub]

I would not consider that stealing either. If I had left it i would be thrilled someone found it and got some use out of it. Think of it as good karma for wanting to clean up someone else's mess.

great pics and very much like the bush where i live.

 

[tonym]

Thanks for sharing your adventure. Sounded like a great time.

Great pics as well.

 

[pitdog]

I was in the very same spot the other day, I had to hike back on an empty stomach cos someone had taken all my food from the bear proof box !!!!!


Only messin bro, great pics, looked like you had a real good time !

Ps. Is your buddy so facially disfigured that you had to edit him out to save our stomachs ?

 

[Mentor]

Excellent trip report. Sounds like it was a great time.

I confess that I have never heard of the Mantario trail before. When I first saw the thread title, I anticipated some kind of description of an uber-manly outing here in Ontario - with no-shirt hiking through black fly country, bear-baiting and Les-Stroud-like feats of food procurement.

Anyway, despite my expectations, the real story is no disappointment!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[WhiskyJack]

Great pictures and write up. I wish I had the time (and youth) to follow in your footsteps. 12 miles in 3 hours

I understand Whisky Jack but what is a "sketchbag"?

12km is more like 7 miles, much less impressive sounding eh?

I would not consider that stealing either. If I had left it i would be thrilled someone found it and got some use out of it. Think of it as good karma for wanting to clean up someone else's mess.

great pics and very much like the bush where i live.

I couldnt believe how much people litter on the trail, oh well I had fun burning all sorts of different things. We tossed a big bag of trash in the fire, something in there (I think a 1/4 full bottle of sunscreen) kept making really loud, wet sounding fart noises and it just kept going and going for about 15 minutes, it was hilarious.

The Canadian Shield is great aint it? I'm pretty biased, but it's my favorite country side.

I was in the very same spot the other day, I had to hike back on an empty stomach cos someone had taken all my food from the bear proof box !!!!!


Only messin bro, great pics, looked like you had a real good time !

Ps. Is your buddy so facially disfigured that you had to edit him out to save our stomachs ?

:thumbup:

Excellent trip report. Sounds like it was a great time.

I confess that I have never heard of the Mantario trail before. When I first saw the thread title, I anticipated some kind of description of an uber-manly outing here in Ontario - with no-shirt hiking through black fly country, bear-baiting and Les-Stroud-like feats of food procurement.

Anyway, despite my expectations, the real story is no disappointment!

All the best,

- Mike

They need to lay down some ground rules, ie "your balls must be this big to traverse the Mantario trail". Tried flexing my testicular might by venturing into the frigid lake, but that water had my balls on the retreat.


Glad you guys enjoyed the pictures.

Any suggestions for the next journey? I'm pushing for a trip out west to B.C. and do some camping in the rockies on the way like I mentioned a little while back, but might have to settle for something a little closer to home base.

 

[Fonly]

ooh, looks awesome that terrain reminds me so much of Nova Scotia, that is tha only place I lvoe to hike and feel %100 safe. The friendlyest looking woods around. :thumbup:

 

[Fonly]

Any suggestions for the next journey? I'm pushing for a trip out west to B.C. and do some camping in the rockies on the way like I mentioned a little while back, but might have to settle for something a little closer to home base.

I know im making a trip to tumbler ridge next summer, very nice water fall there.

 

[WhiskyJack]

ooh, looks awesome that terrain reminds me so much of Nova Scotia, that is tha only place I lvoe to hike and feel %100 safe. The friendlyest looking woods around. :thumbup:

I know eh! Some forests just have a sinister look to them, but this one feels like its out of a disney movie especially with all the birds and chipmunks loitering around camp.

Tumbler Ridge sounds amazing, do the waterfalls completely freeze up in the winter?


Once the lakes freeze up I'm going to do the mantario trail on ski's, go cross country across the lakes and use the portages.


A brief review of the CS tomahawk: For a woods tool it's notably inferior to a proper axe of comparable size. The straight handle lacks grip, so this one had a paracord wrap, which while being grippy, was excessively grippy and would cause blisters if you used it for long without gloves. There's a big difference in chopping to, the GB SFA really kicks the chips out, while the tomahawk wedges itself badly, sometimes on every swing. Splitting = :thumbdn: it has a very narrow profile right up until the handle, when it balloons out, splitting anything other than poplar would be a real challenge, you'd be better off using it to carve wooden wedges then hammer them in than try to get it done with the hawk itself.

 

[Shore08]

I would say that if someone left that food in there with rotten food and trash, they weren't coming back for it. I probably would have taken it too but then spent the next few days worrying that I was dooming someone to a hungry night in the woods! Oh well, in all reality they really weren't coming back for it. Besides, who abandons all their food in a box and hopes it will be there when they come back?

Great looking trip though, looks like you had a blast. I've done the whole 'nearly lose $500 worth of stuff to save $1.50' myself!