Short Day, Long Grind On The River

A “short day” on the Temagami River can still knock the wind out of you. We set out expecting easy miles and found five portages, two line-throughs, low water, and a masterclass in patience instead. Between scraping rental hulls and threading skinny lines through swifts, we had to read the river moment by moment—scout when the tongue vanished, line when rocks stacked too tight, and save our pride for camp. It wasn’t epic in distance, but it was rich in decisions, teamwork, and small wins that add up.

We walk through how low water changes everything: where V’s lie, how eddies give you breath, and why a gentle pillow can signal a lurking boulder. You’ll hear our decision tree for run vs. line, how we split loads on back-to-back portages, and the subtle cues that tell you when to step out and rope the canoe. We also talk mindset—keeping humour when progress crawls, measuring success in clean ferries rather than kilometres, and staying safe without killing the fun. The Temagami River demanded respect; we paid it with caution, conversation, and a few fresh scratches.

The day ends the way river days should: at Greg’s Escape from Reality cabin, warm food on the way, and a quiet room that lets the stories breathe. We share shout-outs to friends like Thunderbox Diaries, compare notes on route choices, and build a few takeaways for your next trip. If you’re planning a canoe route with variable water levels, you’ll pick up practical tips on scouting, lining, and pacing a team through “short” days that aren’t. Hit play, settle in, and then tell us your best trick for tight, rocky swifts.

If you enjoyed the journey, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, YouTube, and Spotify, and send us a note at hi@supergoodcamping.com. Share the episode with a paddling friend, and leave a quick review—it helps more campers find the river.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Trip Context
• 0:12 A “Short” Day That Wasn’t
• 0:42 Running Swifts And Low Water
• 1:13 Back At Greg’s Cabin
• 1:40 Sign-Off And Where To Find Us

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Good day. Welcome to Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Tim. And I'm Thomas. And this is our third trip vlog edition for our Spanish nope. Tomoganish River. Tomogamy trip. Yeah. Mostly Tomogamy River. Uh today, today was a slog, man. I think we did five portages. Five portages and two line throughs. Something like that, yeah. Crazy. It's uh foolish leaf. Somebody said, Oh, it's it's a short day. But apparently short and easy are different things. We didn't go very far, we just spent a lot of time going distance. Going there, yeah. Yeah. But we did get to do some cool things, and uh we did still run some uh some swifts and stuff, yeah, yeah, some rapids. Uh water levels were a little low, so we did a lot of scraping on Greg's boats. But you know what they say? It's a rental. Drive a little bit rental. Uh yeah, so we finished up. I actually have no idea what the total total distance of the trip was. Try to find it at some point. Uh, and we're back at Greg's uh Greg's wonderful uh cabin. Uh Escape from Reality. Escape from Reality. We're gonna we're gonna take one more night. Yeah, yeah. Bill from uh Thunderbox Diaries. Yeah, Thunderbox Diaries. Uh uh I'm tired of brain's. That's right. Uh he's he's gone off to get a few uh things. We're gonna have a have a meal and uh sit around and yak until life starts snowing, and then it will be bedtime. That will be it. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna make some dinner. And then I'm probably not far behind you. I'll be I'll be asleep pretty soon too. And then back to this big city tomorrow and uh on on with life as it is. Thanks for tuning in. That's it for us. Uh you can find us on all the social medias, you know, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky. I feel like we're still on X somewhere, YouTube. If you are watching this, you are on likely on YouTube. And uh Buzz Sprout, Spotify, email. Hi at supergoodcamping.com. That's H I at Supergoodcamping.com. And uh yeah, we'll talk to you again soon. Oh, and don't forget about our Facebook groups. Oh, yes, the campfire. Check that out. And you'll hear from us next episode. Bye bye.