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Sierra Club Wilderness trips and expeditions
   Chapter: Michigan (Mackinac)
   Group: Central Upper Peninsula (CUPG)
   Leader: Michael Neiger, Marquette, Michigan (Web site; e-mail; bio)

Review journal, photo album no. 1 from this completed trip.

Feb 13-17, 2004
(date change; updated 10-19-03)
   Remote, advanced-level winter-camping
   17th Annual Canadian Snowshoe Expedition

   Destination:
      Dossier Creek Valley
   Objective:
      Recon 525-foot-high Dossier Creek Cliff/Escarpment
   Tentative Route:
      down South Old Woman River from Hwy 17;
      up Dossier Creek to Dossier Creek Cliff;
      overland to Broadtail Lake;
      down Kasubeck Creek to Hwy 17.
   Location:
      Peterson Township, Algoma District
      Lake Superior Provincial Park
      Ontario, Canada (south of Wawa on Hwy 17)

-- Extremely strenuous 100% off-trail route; only suitable for those with good aerobic endurance and stamina.

-- Extremely isolated location. Evac by helo only.

-- Requires prior winter-camping experience with trip leader in Michigan.

This year's annual, advanced-level, winter-camping trip will take us on a five-day snowshoe tour with sledges (five, first-come, first-serve, $5-rental club sleds available by prior arrangement) deep into the heart of Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Final route depends on river ice conditions and snow depths.

 

Gary De Kock prepares
a snowshelter in anticipation
of a 40-below night
along the Little Agawa River,
deep in the Canadian bush,
February 2001
(Photo by Michael Neiger)

This is not a basecamp trip. We will move each day and bivouac in a different location deep in the bush each night, far from roads, dry & level campsites, potable water, toilets, and fire rings.

If you're a hard-core winter-camper who's in peak physical condition and who has the equipment and proven experience to handle arctic cold--minus 40-50 temps with windchills exceeding minus 100--we want to hear from you.

On our '03 trip, we had between 4 and 5 feet of snow on the ground. Temperatures dropped to minus 40.

Participants must be: 18, have prior winter-camping experience with leader, nonsmokers, experienced winter-campers (2 recent trips) with extreme cold weather (-40) experience and gear, very physically fit (good aerobic endurance and stamina), swimmers, adventurous, & fully equipped, including bivouac gear, rations, stove, and high-floatation snowshoes.

   -- Ice rescue picks required

8 a.m. Fri to midday Tues. $20

Suggested signup deadline: January 28

Topo maps for nav team:

   -- 1:20,000 Ontario Base Map No. 20-16-6600-52900
   -- 1:20,000 Ontario Base Map No. 20-16-6600-52800
   -- 1:50,000 Topographic Map No. 41N/15 (Michipicoten Harbor)
   -- 1:50,000 Topographic Map No. 41N/10--41N/11 (Old Woman Lake)
   Topo map ordering information

View trip journal and photos from '02 winter trip

E-mail trip leader for a trip application form at mneiger@hotmail.com.

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In God's wilderness lies the hope of the world,
the great, fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness.
 — John Muir 1838-1914, Alaska Wilderness, 1890

Content Copyright © 1984-- 2005-09-09
by Michael A. Neiger

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