Three Friends of Temagami members recently returned from restoring the traditional canoe route between Blueberry and Sunrise Lakes. Neil Caswell, Mike Murphy, and Bob Olajos collaborated on the effort. Neil and Mike rehabilitated the Blueberry to Tucker Lake portage in late May, while Bob reopened the Tucker to Sunrise portage in early June. Both portages had been rendered nearly impassable due to lack of maintenance. Now both are easy to follow.

Blueberry Lake has seen a resurgence in popularity recently due to the Blueberry Lake Old Growth Hiking Trails. However, there was no easy route out of Blueberry, so most paddlers only visited for a day trip. Now, with the route to Sunrise Lake, canoeists can use the area as part of a loop.

Ancient Forest Exploration and Research published a map and guidebook to the trails in 1998, and can be found on their website, www.ancientforest.org. The area was also site of collaboration between FOT, AFER, and Earthroots in 2000. The groups took the MNR and Goulard Lumber to issue resolution after plans to log over the trails surfaced. An agreement was struck to spare the trails and keep logging to the north of Blueberry Mountain.

The Blueberry Lake loop canoe route map can be found

Blueberry-Loop.jpg (350 kb)

Blueberry-Loop.pdf (420 kb)