last revised on April 20, 2024
Table of Contents:
- Day 9 – Crooked Lake to Missanabie – Basic Data and Map
- The Height of Land Portage Into Dog Lake
- Robert Bell On The Portage and Lake in 1875
- Paddling Into The First Real Wind of the Trip
- The Origin of the Names “Missinaibi” and “Missanabie”
- Northern Walleye Lodge
- Ernie’s Cottages and Campground
- Ernie’s Bought By Missanabie Cree F. N.
- Our Tour Of Downtown Missanabie
Day 10 – Map and Basic Data – Missanabie To Healey Bay By Train
Le Grand Portage To Toronto- 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dropping Off Our Canoe For Repairs At Swift Waubuashene
Links to The Other Day-By-Day Reports
- Day 1 – From Healey Bay To Ramhill Lake
- Day 2 – From Ramhill Lake To Below Sunset Lake/Key Lake
- Day 3 – From Below Rawhide Lake To Mukwa Falls (Woods Lake Rd Crossing)
- Day 4 – From Mukwa Falls To Little Missinaibi Lake
- Day 5 – From Little Missinaibi Lake To Admiral Falls
Day 6 – From Admiral Falls To Whitefish Falls on Missinaibi Lake - Day 7 – From Whitefish Falls on Missinaibi Lake To Red Granite Point
- Day 8 – From Red Granite Point To Crooked Lake Island Site
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The Day’s Basic Data and Map
- distance: 18.5 km
- time: 9:10 a.m.; finish 1:45 p.m.
- portages/rapids: 1
- P18 – 240m Height of Land – Arctic watershed to Superior watershed
- weather: sunny /cloudy periods; strong SW wind; overcast by day’s end but no rain;
- campsite: Ernie’s Campground uptown Missanabie…now called Dog Lake Cottages and Campground
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The Height of Land Portage Into Dog Lake
From our Crooked Lake campsite, it was a half-hour paddle to the Height of Land Portage. We set off just after nine and by two were in Missanabie. One thing we did not do is take any pix.
Well, Max took one! As we paddled away from the put-in on Dog Lake he turned around for a shot of the easternmost point of Dog Lake and the bush between it and Crooked Lake.
Like the Little Missinaibi River system, Crooked Lake feeds into Missinaibi Lake and the Missinaibi River system. Its water ends up in James Bay after merging with the Moose River. Meanwhile, we were now in sprawling-in-all-directions Dog Lake. Its outlet, the Michipicoten River, ends up in Lake Superior. We were paddling in the Atlantic watershed!
The Perimeter of Dog Lake – looking very much like a reclining dog with its legs stretched out!
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Robert Bell Describes The Portage & Lake
Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada came across this height-of-land portage in 1875 on his way to Michipicoten from James Bay. His report has this brief description:
The lake he refers to as Mattagaming is the one we know as Dog. He notes its T shape but you can see something else! It looks like a Labrador Retriever sitting with his front legs forward and his head up! The Ojibwe word for “dog” is animosh so what the matta part of Mattagaming means is unclear unless it is related to mattawa meaning fork. The lake splits with one section to the north and the other to the southern outlet.
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Paddling Into The First Wind of the Trip
After the almost complete absence of headwind for the entire trip, a solid breeze from the southwest during our last two hours on the water would have us digging in extra hard on certain exposed stretches. The one from Km 110 to the narrows was one of them.
On passing the island at Km 112 we stopped for a bit of a breather at a dock on the sheltered NE side. We met there a couple almost at the end of their Dog Lake island vacation. He was curious about the rivers we had paddled and we, in turn, were impressed that not only had he done them too, but some of them like the Bloodvein he had done more than once! We were definitely talking to a kindred spirit!
After our island chat, we paddled through the narrows between Fifty-Seven Bay and Hay Bay. Then we headed north to Dog Lake Narrows, the channel over which Highway 651 crosses. More into-the-wind paddling and we finally arrived within sight of Missanabie.
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The Origin of the Name Missinaibi
Ever since I read Selwyn Dewdney’s account of how the hamlet got its name I have been pronouncing it “Miss Anabie” in my mind! Dewdney writes –
Missanabie is not even spelled the same way as the Lake and river system – strange.
As to how to pronounce it, we have said Miss in ah bee with a soft “i”, a soft “a” and a stress on the third syllable for almost forty years. I asked Julie at the Missinaibi Park office in Chapleau how she pronounces it and she said – Miss in ay bee, with a hard “a” sound. When we got to Missanabie I would ask Ken Martel the same question. He pronounced it the way we have been all these years! Now that we have this issue settled(!), there remained just one more to deal with – where to put up our tent for the night.
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Missanabie Village:
2019 image of Ernie’s Campground Missanabie – see here for the image source – the “village” is on the top left and out of the picture
The last time we had been in Missanabie was in 1983 and – Duh! – things had changed! Thirty-four years ago there wasn’t much else there (that we could remember) other than the hotel. As we approached the docks and a beach area on the waterfront we were amazed by all the trailers and cottages.
The Wikipedia entry on Missanabie has some recent population statistics. After noting a population of 62 in the 2006 census, it continues –
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Missanabie had a population of 33 living in 15 of its 38 total private dwellings, a change of -17.5% from its 2016 population of 40.
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Northern Walleye Lodge
While doing pre-trip research I had seen a Northern Walleye Lodge indicated on the Google map of Missanabie. The plan had been to ask the lodge if we could camp on its grounds for the night – we figured $20. would do it – and then be very near to the train stop the next morning. Well, the Lodge does exist but it is on Dog Lake about ten kilometers south of Missanabie. In Missanabie all they have is a parking lot where guests leave their vehicles; they are then taken to the lodge by motorboat.
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Ernie’s Cottages and Campground
Missanabie waterfront in front of Ken’s Bait Shop and Ernie’s Campground
another view of Missanabie landing in front of Ernie’s and Ken’s
However, in our chat with the island couple, we learned of Ernie’s Cottages and Campground. [See here for their Facebook page.] It was the answer we were looking for! We paddled up to the concrete boat launch pad just to the right of the fish cleaning shack. We walked up the dirt road to a couple of guys standing in front of a store – the sign read Ken’s One-Stop Bait Shop.
When we said we were looking for Ernie one of them said we’d found him! Introducing himself as Ken Martel, Ernie’s son, he assumed correctly that we were looking for a tent site and within a minute we were walking towards an area thirty meters away that he had pointed at. He told us to come back later and pay – it was $20. (tax included) for the night. We left thinking – “Man, that was easy!”
Ernie’s Campsite – and Ken’s One-Stop Shop at Missanabie
As well as lots of tent space, Ernie’s has some cottages (cabins) available. They also rent space on the property to people who show up with trailers. Some park them for the entire season. The photo below from Ernie’s website has an aerial view of the property. It is a shot from 2009 so things look a bit different in 2017!
This shot of Ernie’s campground from 2009 is no longer accessible on their website.
The tail end of the trailer you see in the photo below – right to the left of our tent space – belonged to someone who had yet to be up in Missanabie this year. On the upper right of the photo is the gazebo, an enclosed cooking/eating area with running water and a fridge and stove. We were the only ones to use it during the time we were there. Another twenty meters to the right was a double washroom/ shower facility. It felt good to stand under a stream of hot water after a few days of haphazard cleanliness!
our camp spot at Ernie’s in Missanabie – right next to the gazebo
In the panorama shot below our tent was up under that clump of trees you see on the left. The fish cleaning shack is on the extreme right of the image.
a panorama of the campgrounds and the docks and boat launch ramp
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Ernie’s Bought By Missanabie Cree F. N.
Note: Since we were there, Ernie Martel has sold his Ernie’s Campground and retired to Wawa. A YouTube video posted in February 2022 still refers to it as Ernie’s Campground so its sale and the name change to Dog Lake Cottages and Campground probably happened sometime since 2021.
The new owners are the Missanabie Cree First Nation, who already own and run the nearby Island View Camp in Hay Bay. (The website has not been refreshed since 2019.) The purchase was made possible by the $150 million from the Federal Government after a land claim settlement which was reached in 2020. The F.N. expects another 55 Sq. miles of land to end the dispute. It will enable the F.N.’s desire to expand its economic base in the area. As the F.N. website points out –
The Missanabie Cree were also successful in negotiating with the Government of Canada for loss of use compensation under their Treaty Land Entitlement claim which was recorded the largest per capita settlement in the history of Canada.
As a part of the settlement, the Cree band also received what had been Crown Land in the Missanabie area. See the map below for the extent of the territory signed over by the Ontario Provincial Government.
Missinaibi Cree First Nation Territory
Not everyone was happy with the land transfer to Missanabie Cree F.N. The Robinson-Superior Treaty (1850) Anishinaabe considered the territory theirs.
Ontario land transfer to Missanabie Cree First Nation questioned by Anishnabek Nation | Media.Knet
One Anishinaabe (i.e.Ojibwe) political leader argued –
For the Province to transfer fifteen square miles of Robinson Superior Treaty land without a lawful agreement from the Robinson Superior Treaty Chiefs shows us that the government has no concern for our treaties. It’s an illegal transfer because it contradicts the Constitution Act… (source)
It may be that the Treaty No. 5 chiefs were expecting to receive some financial compensation from the provincial government in return for their agreement to the land transfer.
The $150,000,000. and the land transfer were only the first steps in what is seen by Missanabie Cre F.N. leaders as the eventual settlement.
In 2011, on August 17, The Missanabie Cree First Nation and the Government of Ontario signed an agreement to provide the Nation with 15 square miles (39 km2) of land as an initial allotment of a total 70 square miles (180 km2) to which they are entitled under Treaty 9. (Wikipedia source)
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Update: While I have paddled through Dog Lake and into the Missinaibi River system a few times over the past 45 years, I only recently delved into the history of the Cree and Ojibwe people who live in the area. Curious about why we had never seen any local Indigenous people on our trips through the area, I searched for some population stats.
On googling “Missinaibi 62” I learned that this is a reserve owned by the Michipicoten First Nation. A satellite scan of the reserve showed four cottages which may be used on an occasional and seasonal basis by those living on the main reserve at Michipicoten, a 126-kilometre car ride away from Missanabie. See here for maps of the main reserve on Lake Superior and their other reserve in Chapleau.
Island View Camp owned by the Missanabii Cree First Nation
To the east of Missanabie Village, I always assumed (wrongly) that there was a Cree community somewhere. Its omission from Treaty No. 9 consideration was rectified in the land settlement indicated on the map above.
However, the band office is in downtown Sault Ste. Marie and the only collection of Cree F.N.-owned buildings in the Missanabie area is the Island View Camp on Dog Lake. Of the 476 members of the Missanabie Cree F.N., very few would seem to live on the territory they were awarded.
The political leaders of the First Nation were hopeful that 10 to 15% of its members would move to the reserve from the various urban centers where they now live. Former chief Glenn Nolan put it this way –
‘An opportunity for us to reconnect with that physical space and allow us to become a community once again’ (source)
Time will tell if 50 to 75 F.N. members – they would have to be either true believers or those with little at stake holding them back – will follow their leaders and abandon
- established homes,
- employment,
- educational opportunities, and
- all the conveniences of an urban lifestyle in Wawa or Sault Ste. Marie or Toronto
to build from scratch an uncertain future on their new reserve and what is left of nearby Missanabie after the Martels’ departure.
My continued research led to this eye-opening study which deals with the impact of Treaty No. 9 and the establishment of the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve on the indigenous families who lived in the area, either on a permanent or seasonal basis.
Click on the title to access the study.
It led me down the proverbial rabbit hole. Faced with a half-dozen different Indigenous communities and their stories, I figured I would examine each one in turn and clarify for myself the situation from various perspectives, Indigenous and non-. Well, it did not turn out as expected.
All I have to show for my deep dive is the beginnings of a post that, in the end, I gave up on. There is a book in there somewhere for someone keen on coming up with the facts and untangling the threads of what is a multi-layered story.
Missinaibi-Area First Nations & Their Recent History
Our Tour Of Downtown Missanabie
We had a few hours to kill so we decided to do an in-depth tour of Missanabie. We could also figure out where to haul our canoe and gear for the next morning’s train ride back to our starting point at Healey Bay. (Missanabie – population 40 or so – no longer has a train station or waiting room.)
We walked to the entrance of Ernie’s Campground. At the entrance sits a building with all sorts of heavy equipment outside – dump trucks, tractors,…all the stuff you need for road building. It is Martel Contracting. It does road work, welding, tire repair, and more. We never did find out if this business – like Ken’s Bait Shop and Ernie’s Restaurant which we would soon visit – belonged to the same family.
the entrance to Ernie’s Campgrounds and Cottages – Missanabie
There is a dirt road named Curran Street that runs parallel to the CPR tracks. As we walked down Curran we came to the hotel. It was apparently purchased by Americans some time ago, renovated, and turned into a private residence or two. Next to it is another building – one in need of some attention before it collapses.
the old Missanabie Hotel – now an American-owned residence
dilapidated building in Missanabie
We crossed the rail tracks – there are two sets – and headed for the junction where Highway 651 comes to the tracks. This is where we ended up waiting for the train the next morning, flagging it as it approached from the northwest. (The conductor already knew he would have two passengers to pick up since we had purchased the tickets beforehand.) We walked down Highway 651 from the tracks – it is labelled as First Street on the above map. Now we were in downtown Missanabie. As we approached Ernie’s we stood under the awning of the establishment and looked back at the tracks – a CPR freight train was coming through.
CPR freight train moving through Missanabie
The next morning we would be reminded of the #1 rule of railway travel in Canada – when two trains want to use the same track at the same time, freight takes precedence over passengers every time!
Ernie’s Lounge/Restaurant/LCBO Outlet
If Missanabie has a community heart it would have to be Ernie’s Restaurant!
- It is a lounge with a large TV screen; the Blue Jays were on when we visited.
- It is also a restaurant that specializes in hamburgers and french fries.
- Also attached to it is an LCBO outlet – i.e. a place where you can buy bottled alcohol to take away.
- There may also have been a small tuck shop there which sells sundries like cigarettes and pop and chips.
- the community’s mailboxes are located at the front of the building.
- If you are driving into town and need accommodation or a place to put your trailer, Ernie in the restaurant will have the answer!
the LCBO outlet on the side of Ernie’s Restaurant and Lounge
We spent some time in the restaurant/lounge munching on some French fries and chatting with Ernie and his helper. He had opened the restaurant in the mid-1970s after moving up to Missanabie from Dalton where he was born and grew up. (Dalton is down the CPR tracks a few kilometers.) The closing of the nearby mine in the community of Renabie in 1991 must have been difficult for businesses like Ernie’s in Missanabie; so too the closing of the lumber yard in town. The restaurant and the thriving Campground and Cottages show that Ernie Martel and his son Ken are making a good go of it.
the front of Ernie’s on First Street Missanabie
Across the street from Ernie’s is the Fire Hall. The sign seems new enough to indicate it is still in operation. Set some distance behind and to the left of the Fire Hall is the Missarenda Consolidated Public School run by the Algoma District School Board. We were left wondering how many children in what age range go to the school and whether those from the nearby First Nations reserve would be among them.
the Missanabie Fire Hall with the public school behind it
Fire Hall and Ernie’s on First Street, Missanabie – Dog Lake in the background
Missanabie’s public school – Missarenda Consolidated
Something we did not notice in the village of 40 to 60 inhabitants is an OPP post -.i.e. a police station.
We spent the afternoon wandering up and down the roads of town taking pix and checking stuff out. Back at the campground, we made use of the shower facilities and then headed to the gazebo for supper. It was a soft end to our canoe trip, one that had begun with a couple of difficult days on the upper section of the Little Missinaibi River. Occasionally in the days since we still heard the sound of that SAR helicopter from CFB Trenton hovering over our Day Two campsite at 2 a.m. We knew we would be talking – and explaining – and apologizing – for days to come about that helicopter visit when we reached home.
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Day 10 – Missanabie To Healey Bay By Train
- distance: 66.8 km
- time: 8:00 a.m.; finish 10:45 a.m.
- portages: 1 335m – Campground to the trackside train stop
- weather: sunny
- campsite: we were back in Toronto at 8 p.m. after a long ride from Healey Bay with a quick stop at the Swift Georgian Bay outlet to drop off our canoe!
Healey Bay on the east end of Lake Windermere was our starting point; it was the closest we could get to the headwaters of the Little Missinaibi. The Happy Day Lodge was a convenient place to leave our vehicle while we did our nine-day paddle to Missanabie. And now that the trip was over it was also an easy place to return to.
Running through Missanabie – and past Healey Bay – is a VIA-run passenger service on the CPR tracks that run from Sudbury to White River. Three times a week it runs one way; the other three it makes the return trip. It was Friday morning in Missanabie and, after breakfast and coffee in the gazebo, we did our last portage, a 335-meter carry up to the stop on the side of the tracks at the end of Highway 651.
The map below shows the 66-kilometer route from Missanabie to Healey Bay. While we would have our stuff by the tracks by 8:15, it was scheduled to arrive at 9.
Click here for a PDF file of the train schedule for the Sudbury-White River – Sudbury service.
one last look at our landing spot at Missanabie – off to catch the train
The train arrived on time! Onboard after handing up our canoe and gear to someone in the baggage car, we found we were two of five passengers that morning. (The passenger capacity is 95!) The fare for each of us was $20. which is why I was surprised to be told that the charge for the canoe would be $50. My understanding was that the canoe fee could not be higher than the passenger fee – i.e.$20 – so I did point that out – to no avail.
Missanabie train stop – with the old Missanabie Hotel across the tracks
Somewhere along the line, we stopped to pick up two Americans and their sons; they were on their way back to their vehicles in Chapleau after a week of fishing at an outpost not far from where they caught the train. Twice we waited for ten to twenty minutes on a sidetrack while freight trains moved through.
Healey Bay stop on the rail line
Healey Bay is between Musk and Esher; when I purchased the tickets I just paid for the fare to Esher, the next stop. The train will pick you up – and drop you off – wherever you request. All it takes is a bit of arm-waving!
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Le Grand Portage To Toronto
Back at Healey Bay Max went to get his car while I sat with the gear on the side of the tracks. It was about 10:45. By 11:00 we would have the four bags, paddles, and life jackets inside and the canoe strapped down. It was now time for Le Grand Portage, the ten-hour drive back to Toronto! We weren’t even sure if we would make the entire distance in one day, thinking that we might camp somewhere south of Sudbury and then finish the drive on Saturday morning.
However, Max was relentless behind the wheel. First, we knocked off the ride from Healey Bay south to Iron Bridge. That took over three hours. We stopped for some gas and some junk food and kept moving.
The next target was Sudbury, another two hours and 200 kilometers to the east. It was about 4 p.m. as we skirted south of the town on the by-pass and started heading south. We knew that another four hours and we’d be home – so we pushed on.
Rather than drive into Parry Sound to our usual gas station we saved another ten or fifteen minutes by pulling into a roadside Shell station just north of the Sound. And a bonus – it was a full-serve station so while the tank was being filled, we were emptying ours! And it was time for more junk food!
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Dropping Off Our Canoe For Repairs At Swift Waubuashene
We also had another reason for our haste – we wanted to get to Swift Canoe‘s Georgian Bay outlet at Waubaushene before they closed at 8 p.m. Before the trip, I had inquired about dropping off our canoe for a repair/paint job on the bottom of the canoe. Not only had we added more scratches and scrapes to the bottom on this trip; in our numerous log and beaver dam haul-overs, we had also stressed the bottom enough to cause a long crack line. Truth be told, our 42-lb. composite Kevlar/carbon fiber canoe, an excellent tripping canoe, was not meant to take the kind of abuse it was subjected to on the Little Missinaibi!
Still, we were happy to have done the trip with our Swift Dumoine and know that hauling a 70-lb. Royalex or Tuff Stuff canoe over those same obstacles would have been an even bigger challenge. We need to reward our refurbished Dumoine with a nice, easy trip when we pick it up!
We dropped the canoe off shortly after 7. By 8:15 we were on the Danforth in my Toronto neighbourhood picking up a few bottles of wine and by 8:45 we were sitting at the kitchen table with my wife and a visiting friend. To no surprise, they wanted to hear the helicopter story – the story of the SAR team rappelling down to our tent site at 2:00 a.m. in response to the SOS message we never sent!
I guess that is how the trip down the Little Missinaibi is fated to be remembered – although our posts have hopefully made it clear that it was about so much more too!
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Update: that “nice, easy trip”? It was a totally delightful one-week ramble in the French River Delta and the nearby islands of Georgian Bay. See here for the first of the posts –
Canoeing Georgian Bay’s French River Delta: Logistics, Maps, & Day 1
Canoeing Georgian Bay’s French River Delta: Logistics, Maps, & Day 1
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Links to The Day-By-Day Reports
The Little Missinaibi From Top To Bottom – Intro, Maps, & Logistics
The Little Missinaibi River From Top To Bottom – Intro, Maps, and Logistics
Day 1 – From Healey Bay To Ramhill Lake
Canoeing The Little Missinaibi River: Day 1 – from Healey Bay to Ramhill Lake
Day 2 – From Ramhill Lake To Below Sunset Lake/Key Lake
Canoeing The Little Missinaibi River: Day 2 – From Ramhill Lake To Below Rawhide Lake / Key Lake
Day 3 – From Below Rawhide Lake To Mukwa Falls (Woods Lake Rd Crossing)
Day 4 – From Mukwa Falls To Little Missinaibi Lake
Canoeing The Little Missinaibi River: Day 4 – From Mukwa Falls To Little Missinaibi Lake
Day 5 – From Little Missinaibi Lake To Admiral Falls
Canoeing The Little Missinaibi River: Day 5 – From Little Missinaibi Lake To Admiral Falls
Day 6 – From Admiral Falls To Whitefish Falls on Missinaibi Lake
Day 7 – From Whitefish Falls on Missinaibi Lake To Red Granite Point
Day 8 – From Red Granite Point To Crooked Lake Island Site
Canoeing The Little Missinaibi River: Day 8 – From Red Granite Point To Crooked Lake Island Site
The Pictographs of Little Missinaibi Lake
The Anishinaabe Pictograph Sites of Missinaibi Lake
