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I just got back from a short trip (3 days, 2 nights) to Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba. I will be writing a full trip report but thought I would at least relate some of my observations. I also have all of the data to add an interactive map to this site, which I will do in the near future. We did part of the Caddy Lake route. We started at Caddy Lake and went to Granite Lake. Whiteshell is a "multi-use" park, which seems to mean anything is permitted. There is a designated "wilderness area" - Mantario Wilderness Area - within the park in which motorized craft are not permitted (supposedly). Granite Lake is within this zone, which is why we pushed hard to get there. Advantages
- Cheap - The only permit required for Manitoba parks is a vehicle pass. Daily passes are $5, 3-day passes are $12, and annual passes are $40. Three weekends a year park entry is free. This was one of those weekends, so we didn't even need to buy a pass. Manitoba fishing licenses are also fairly inexpensive with annual non-resident conservation licenses being only $33. We didn't fish at all, so we didn't buy licenses. Our only significant cost was the gas to get there and back.
- Close (at least for us) - Whiteshell was only 4 hours from our home compared to six hours to the BWCA/Quetico. It made driving to and from the park much easier.
- Fishing - I hear it is good, but we didn't try it out this trip.
- Beautiful - The Canadian shield country, I thought, was gorgeous. North Cross Lake took my breath away (at least when I wasn't dodging motorboats).
Disadvantages
- Motorboats - They were everywhere. As I said, North Cross was beautiful, but going in we were dodging motorboats left and right. Some were more courteous to paddlers than others. In one tiny bay we had to navigate through, there were 7 motorboats fishing. We were getting very tired of hearing all of the motorboats and were looking forward to getting to the wilderness area to leave them behind.
- Disregard for the rules - I'm not sure if it is blatant disregard for the rules or not being educated about them (I'll talk more about this later), but no one seemed to follow the rules. As I said, we were anxious to enter the Mantario Wilderness Area and leave the motorboats behind. We had a 1 km (about 200 rods) portage to Granite Lake, which is within the wilderness area where motorboats are not permitted. Since it was late in the day and we planned to camp on that lake, I decided to try single portaging. We had our aluminum canoe instead of a kevlar for this trip, so this was not an easy decision. I can "easily" carry a pack with a kevlar canoe, but trying to do it with our aluminum completely drains me. I was carrying about 85% of my body weight across that portage. I was sweating profusely and my legs felt like jelly by the end. I didn't think I could walk one more step and wanted to cry "Hallelujah!" except that I couldn't even talk. My wife helped me put the canoe down, and what is the first sight I see? Another group is starting the portage (going the other way), and they have... a motor! It was discouraging to say the least. This was not the only instance that I saw. I know Manitoba only allows campfires in approved "fireboxes," but I saw campfires everywhere. I wonder how many other rules were being broken (even by us), but I could not find a listing of rules and regulations anywhere on the Manitoba Conservation website.
- Crowded - There is no quota system, so we saw a lot of other people. Granted, it was the September long weekend, so it was probably more crowded than usual.
- Dirty - We saw a lot of trash in and around the campsites and portages. What happened to LNT? One other "interesting" feature is seeing all of the aluminum boats stacked at the beginning and end of portages. Apparently in Manitoba you can leave a boat just about anywhere as long as it is registered. People take advantage of this by stashing boats at ends of portages so they only have to portage the motor. Latrines were also a problem. For some reason a few official campsites are on small islands. The campsites are well-used, and there are not any latrines - it is mostly "dig-your-own." There were latrines (or the lack thereof) everywhere at some of these sites.
Seeing a different park made me really appreciate the BWCA and Quetico and made me think about why they are so different and how Whiteshell could be better. Here is what I came up with:
- Permit Fees - Having to actually pay something to use it makes you appreciate it more and take care of it better. I believe having to pay fees to use the BWCA and Quetico make me want to take care of the land, something that may be lacking in Whiteshell.
- Funding - BWCA and Quetico fees go towards funding the running of the parks. I have heard that Manitoba parks are underfunded - charging fees for parks like Whiteshell and Nopiming may provide sorely needed additional money to run the parks. Of course, this is all hearsay, and I may be completely wrong...
- Enforcement - For enforcement, you need funding. I often see the rangers out and about in the BWCA and Quetico. The only rangers I saw at Whiteshell were at the campground and boat launch on Caddy. In this train of thought, I also don't know what the fine is for getting caught violating one of the rules. In the BWCA, the fines can be significant and, I believe, deter rule-breaking. I'm not sure if this is also the case in Manitoba, but from what I saw, either people didn't know the rules or didn't care. Not sure which...
- Education - When you pick up a BWCA or Quetico permit, you are forced to learn and agree to the rules and regulations. Not so at Whiteshell. I couldn't even find the rules and regulations on the website after coming home from the trip. I am going to call and clarify some of them for my own understanding, but how many people will make the effort to do that?
- Quotas - There were a lot of people out there. Sometimes we say the BWCA is "crowded," but that really is just a relative term. When there are no quotas, it definitely can get crowded. A quota system does not need to be put in place for all of Whiteshell, but perhaps putting one in for just the wilderness area would be beneficial.
All of this being said, I enjoyed our trip to Whiteshell. We're not sure if we will go back, but it was nice to change up our normal routine. Perhaps we'll try it again when it isn't a holiday weekend and not as crowded.
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