About the Area

THE TEMAGAMI WILDERNESS

Welcome to Temagami, home of the most extensive fresh water canoe-tripping network in the world. The Temagami wilderness covers about 12,000 square kilometers of endless interconnected lakes and rivers. Formed by the great glacier movements 11,000 years ago, the water is clear, deep and astonishingly buoyant. Known as “Nastawgan”, the traditional interior trail system of the Teme Augama Anishinabe or “People of the Deep Water” is a 6000 year old network of back country trails and portages. Lake Temagami itself has almost 1000 kilometers of shoreline including 1259 islands. It is a portal to the pristine canoe-tripping wilderness beyond that has remained unchanged throughout the centuries.

This area has the largest continuous stand of Old Growth Pine in the world, dating back over 400 years. The rocky terrain has very little soil and is a border zone between the great boreal forests to the north and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest system to the south. Northern hardwoods such as aspen and white birch are found alongside southern hardwoods like yellow birch and maple. White and red pine grow on rocky shores, white and black spruce and balsam fir flourish and jack pine thrive in burned over areas. There are wetland ecosystems that consist of scrublands, marshes, floating bogs and black spruce bogs. Exploring this sacred land one can hear the echoing call of the loon and experience the majestic Northern Lights exploding across the night skies. There is an abundance of wildlife including moose, timber wolf, lynx, marten, fisher, snow shoe hare, beaver and otter. Eagles and osprey soar along with a variety of smaller birds and water fowl. The lakes are rich with Northern pike, walleye, lake trout and small mouth bass.

The native Ojibwa people who live here trace their ancestry back over 5000 years. Artifacts from aboriginal sites have been found along portage trails by keen eyed canoeists. Pictographs on rock outcroppings can be seen from several lakes. Although voyagers traveled the fur trade routes by birch bark canoe and the Hudson Bay Company had a short lived outpost on Temagami Island, this magical region remained isolated until the early 1900s when it was discovered by adventurers as a canoe tripping paradise. Today canoe trippers can experience Temagami in short three to five day lake trips, or venture out on longer routes that can include running rivers, or embarking on expeditions as far north as the Hudson Bay. A canoe trip in all its wonder is simple and real, it brings us back to our essential being-ness with the land. The North beckons something deep within all of us. Place your paddle in this water and transcend centuries.