Our Great Northern Adventure - Quetico Provincial Park - Part 1 (Atikokan, ON)

On the road again!

A typical pit stop. Snacks, pee break and jamming as much back into the Sube as possible!

We had such a great time at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, but we were really looking forward to the next part of our Great Northern Adventure - taking Severn on a canoe trip to celebrate her second birthday.

We stopped in Atikokan to get gas and then were back on the road westbound another 25 minutes to Branch’s Seine River Lodge.

We made it! The canoeing capital of Canada! (cellphone shot).

I wasn’t sure at first what this place would look like for $100/night, but when I walked in through the front door of our cabin I was blown away! It was SO nice inside!!!

I can’t even tell you how much we were all looking forward to having hot showers and baths!

Inside our lodge. (cellphone shot).

View from our lodge of Banning Lake (which is part of the Seine River). (cellphone shot).

We decided to stay a night here to switch over all of our car camping gear with our backcountry gear which was stowed away on the roof under the canoe.

The big gear switch-over. (cellphone shot).

The owners of this lodge were so nice and accommodating! I would highly, highly recommend this fishing lodge to anyone willing to travel to northwestern Ontario. You do need to make reservations well in advance though. Lucky for us, a lot of their clients are American, and with the border being closed we were able to book for a couple of nights. A night before our canoe trip and a night after.

The day she turned 2 was the day we left for Quetico Provincial Park’s backcountry. So grown up! (cellphone shot).

Here’s a first. Breastfeeding Severn in the lake, in the backcountry, in Quetico.

We launched at the Beaverhouse access point. There was a 1km portage to Beaverhouse Lake. We paddled until we spotted this amazing beach at the end of the lake. We knew it would be great for Severn.

When we landed, we saw moose tracks in the sand.

We named our canoe Singing Wilderness because of Sigurd Olson’s book. Sigurd had a deep, deep connection with Quetico. Full circle, right here.

Severn and I swam as soon as we landed the canoe, while my husband started to set up camp. I loved this campsite so much!

We spent a lot of the early afternoon hanging out on the beach and exploring.

The birthday girl in Quetico. Ouch, my heart!

This girl didn’t nap at all, so she was down for an early bed time after dinner.

A big day of portaging and canoeing, playing in the sand, swimming and ripping around the campsite.

My husband and I were able to relax after Severn was sleeping, so we had some drinks and watched the sunset over this land that makes our hearts ache. We love Quetico SO MUCH!

Before Severn was born, we did a 12-day, 325km canoe trip in Quetico doing the Hunter’s Island Loop. I wrote about it on my award-wining blog, Waboose Adventures and made some videos on my YouTube channel

See the moose tracks?

This wraps up our first night in the backcountry of Quetico. The next day, we have a couple of mishaps and Severn starts repeating the f-bomb for the first time.

Adventure awaits.