Mad Moose Lodge, Agawa Canyon Trip 2008

This was a cool trip... Thanks to Denny, Adam, and Jim of the Mad Moose Lodge in Montreal River Harbor for organizing the trip. This was a March 2008 trip via train to Agawa Canyon in Ontario Canada. There are no roads to the canyon, and snowmobiles are not allowed to ride in the railbed since it is too narrow in places for a train and snowmobile at the same time. We camped and ice climbed for 4 days, 3 nights. You can board the train in Sault Ste. Marie, or can board it at intermediate stops. We arranged ahead of time to board it at a rail crossing in Frater that is used as a logging company loading/unloading site. Frater road is apparently not always plowed, so that is not always possible. Schedules vary by season, but when we did the trip, The passenger train runs once a day, one day going north from Sault Ste. Marie Canada to Hearst, returning southbound the next day. We had a good group of 17 climbers. Here is a large, 51 meg, video clip of our drop off.

As winter camping goes, this was pretty deluxe. We did have to shovel tent platforms into the deep snow, and needed snowshoes to get around. But we also had a load of firewood for bonfires, and a large dining tent with propane heaters. That was vital for drying out our climbing gear at the end of the day.

A guide map is available from Granite Publishing, it is laminated with a map on one side, and select climb descriptions on the reverse. orders.climbingcentral.com or www.chesslerbooks.com

Mad Moose Lodge		View from the deck.
	Montreal River Harbor
	Unloaded, and waiting for the train.
	Frater Station. Frater road is a logging road and this is mostly a log loading area for the freight trains.	Coming round the bend.
	Loading the gear
	On our way to mile 112, and climbing.
Unloading the train on Friday.		And the train pulls away... See you on Monday.
Digging out tent platforms and setting up camp.
	Agawa River	On a scouting hike to check out the ice conditions.
Agawa Canyon Park, Mile 114.