Tumpline
TAPPING WABAKIMI’S POTENTIAL. PHOTO: JAMES SMEDLEY
COMING SOON. The Wabakimi Project
ONE CANOEIST MAPS LOST CANOE ROUTES IN ONTARIO’S LARGEST PARK
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IT’S EASY TO SPOT PHIL COTTON at outdoors tradeshows. While nearby outfitters hock big-ticket float and bloat trips, Cotton uses images of axes, brush saws and GPS units to recruit canoeists to help him turn northwestern Ontario’s Wabakimi Provincial Park into a wilderness tripping para- dise. For less than $100 a day, canoeists can join Cotton’s Wabakimi Project—a series of all-inclusive work trips into one of the world’s largest protected canoeing areas. Located 250 kilometres north of Tunder Bay, Wabaki-
mi became Ontario’s largest provincial park in 1996 when it was expanded to 892,000 hectares. But in the interven- ing 11 years the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has yet to complete Wabakimi’s management plan, meaning no one is sure how much of the park’s huge canoeing potential will be developed. A few years ago, Cotton got tired of waiting for the government and took it upon
PHIL COTTON PHOTO: PHIL COTTON
himself to “explore, find and repair” lost or abandoned canoe routes in Wabakimi and the surrounding Crown lands. “I couldn’t see how planners could develop a meaningful management plan if
they didn’t have all canoe route information on hand,” says Cotton. Cotton says most canoeists stick to the established and accessible routes in the
southern part of the park, such as the Allenwater River. For the balance of the park, all that are available are outdated MNR canoe route guides and hand-drawn maps that date back to the 1960s. Since 2005 Cotton and his volunteers—who hail from as far away as British
Columbia and Nova Scotia—have paddled 1,080 kilometres and cleared 59 kilome- tres of portages, going out a week at a time to clear trails, clean up old campsites and record features on a GPS. Barry Simon, a Wabakimi Project volunteer, has as- sembled more than 30 digital maps so far. Cotton hopes that his efforts will develop routes to the park’s interior and “open
up a part of the park that’s never before been documented.” His ultimate goal is to develop the park’s first proper set of maps marking campsites and portages. Meanwhile, Wabakimi superintendent John Tomson says the park has yet to
begin formal work on its management plan—a project that’s likely to take two years to complete once begun. Tomson says the park currently contracts portage maintenance to six locals “to keep the main routes open.” Not surprisingly, he wel- comes Cotton’s efforts. “Tey’ll be able to tell us about routes we haven’t documented yet,” says Tomson. Speaking without the benefit of a government communications department,
Cotton says it will take another two or three summers of work for Wabakimi to become a friendlier place for tripping. —Conor Mihell
12 n C ANOE ROOT S early summer 2007
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