I just finished a trip which included the Cache Lake and River.  I put Paddleplanner’s GPS infor and some of mine on my GPS to help with the rout. I usually fine Paddlepanners infor to be good but in this part of the park it was lacking.  There were many portages marked that there was nothing to portage around.  I have done this rout a couple of times and have collected my own set of GPS info.  I have marked some campsites and almost all the portages at least all the portages that I did.  I have saves the Cache GPS info in GPX and GDB formats and if anyone wants them send me private message with your email stating which file format you want and I will send it to you. If I were to do this section of my trip over my GPS would only have this information on it for this section. 

First some information on campsites. I only marked campsites that I was standing in this year or my previous trip is this area.

PaddlePlanner 1YV I got as near this campsite with my GPS as I could and was about 4 foot from a 8 foot high shear rock wall and in water over 10 foot deep.  To get to this campsite you would need to get out of your canoe in water over your head and clime a rock wall. I did not go on top of the wall but I will bet there is no camp up there. There is not a nearby way to get up there without climbing a wall. 1YV does not exist and never did.

I did find a campsite near there on the end of the lake. It has a sand beach and 1 tent pad.  I marked it 1T1Sx .  It has one tent pad with no trees between it and the lake and lots of blowdown and widow makers.  There are better camps on this lake. I give it a 1 star

Paddleplanner 6091.  I did not look for this camp but I would not plan on staying there.  That area is a swamp.

The big island in the middle of the lake also has a campsite but I forgot to mark it.  The other two marked on the lake I have used on previous trips through this lake. I marked a few on the river I think all of them were on the portages.  There were other places that I saw rocks set up for a fire pit but I did not get out and check them out so I did NOT mark them.

Heading down the river the first thing you will come to is a trapper’s bridge. It has been repaired since I was there a couple of years ago. The official park map shows a portage on the south side of the river. I got out of the south side and found no cleared path in the woods and no place to put in downstream of the bridge on the south side. I only put one marker there and labeled it Bridg.  If I were doing it again I would get out and back in on the north side of the river. Words of caution. On the north side down stream of the bridge the beavers have dug under the bank and it has collapsed leaving holes which they cover with small sticks. 

Headed on downstream the portage names tells you which side of the river to find it on.  R for right and L for left as seen approaching from the water. A couple of portages downstream ends are marked at 2 locations where high and low water would affect where you would want to put in.

One portage I only marked the downstream end “DN ST END”.  I have been through here more than once and never knew there was a portage.  It is a small (10 foot long) fast water with some rocks to dodge.  I have (and still would) walk my loaded canoe through the fast water and get back in.  This time as I was getting back in my canoe I saw the portage so I marked the downstream end but did not go the other end to mark it.

When you get to the third and second from the last portage most people (including me until this time) get around the obstructions on the north side of the river but there are easier, better, and maintained portages around both of these on the south side of the river. The third from last is a island with very little water going on the north side and most people just carry around that side but the south side portage is easier.