Great Lakes Circumnavigation

Wilderness Tripping
#1

I was wondering if anyone had any information at all about circumnavigating the Great Lakes, most importantly camping information around all of the Lakes would be the biggest help.

~Jason

#2

info
not sure if you’ve been on the Ontario Parks website but it has a new feature that you can view the parks on a map of ontario. You’re able to see the parks that border , lake Erie, Ontario, Huron and Superior on here and it might help, click on the park and you can see if they offer camping and what type… Good luck on this.



http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/ont_map.html

#3

Here …
… are some select routes to get you started. I’ve paddled sections of all of them and found the descriptions pretty accurate. Waterproof paper maps of each water trail may be ordered from certain sports shops in the respective areas.



Lake Michigan Water Trail

http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/watertrail/index.html



South shore of Lake Superior

http://www.hiawathawatertrail.org/index.html



Keweenaw Peninsula (Upper Michigan) Water Trail

http://www.kwta.org/



And here’s Tom Heineman’s blog outlining his circumnavigation of Lake Michigan last year:

http://caska.org/Heineman_Trip_2006/?m=200604

#4

Ontario Provincial Parks
Neys and Rainbow Falls are car accessible. You may need a Crown Land Camping Permit to camp on other islands and shorelands in Ontario. Pretty much you are on your own here. No facilities but plenty of opportunities.



Pukaskwa National Park requires a permit. You can stop in at Hattie Cove and get one on the spot if you are travelling clockwise around Superior.



Check in advance with Lake Superior PP. They may be able to give you a permit over the phone. The permit office is at Agawa Bay and the north office is on the road and its quite a hike from the water. (like a dozen miles bushwhack)



If you see a house, just ask…you are pretty much on your own from Thunder Bay to the Soo.

#5

When
When are you thinking about doing this?

#6

camping info
Delorme Atlas & Gazetter - I have one for Michigan that I often refer to when padling lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. These show all the parks along the shores and give camping information. There are gazetters available online for most states.

JC