Was at Donat's in 04. They told us to boil water before use. We used it only for dishes. bring your own perc type coffe pot.Cooking provisions are not great. A small gas stove. I suggest bringing your premade, soup stew, chilli, etc. inyour own metal pan with lid so you can just put on stove and warm up.I know that after being in thebush all day we didn't feel like coming back and cooking anyway.It's a warm dry place to camp and that's it.Showers are there but it can be hard to get one at times. Prepare to be self sufficient. I will be back there this year, Nov. 23-26. Both years we tried to book at Mirage but couldn't get in. Definately not a fancy place, but it's ok if that's what your'e expecting.

LH, I believe there is a registration fee of about fifty dollars to bring snowmobiles into Canada. thats what I remember from about seven years ago not sure what the process is now.We rent snowmobiles every year for about 135.00 Canadian sometimes six, sometimes one or two, depending on the conditions of the hunt if the bou are close you can get by with just one if they are in the bush you may need to rent more than one.dragginga caribou long distance in the deep snowis a sure way to prescribe to a heart attack. bring some walkie talkies to stay in communication with other. Pulling a trailer all that way can be done ( we have done it) you just have to be a little more cautious ...be sure to bring extra equipment: tires,12 volt air compressor,towropes, gas, ect..you are a long way from nowhere.
When its all done "renting" is not a bad deal for the money in my opinion, to each his own, what ever you decidedo...it's the right choice, good luck.

spike 00 thanks for the info. I see you live in dearborn. have you made this trip before and if so how many hours or days did it take you to make this trip? The days are not going by fast enough for me. looking foward to my first caribou hunt, like a kid waiting for christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Luckiest Hunter, I live in Taylor and last year we left my house at 1am and crossed into the hunting zone at 6am the next day. We only stopped at the border to check guns(25 minutes, gas stops and both check ins.)
Some landmarks, mileage and times, New Liskeard/Quebec Border(550 miles-11hours) Matagami (810 miles-15.5 hours) Km381(1050 miles-17 hours) Mirage(1370 miles-29.5 hours) The roads were clear and the temp. never dropped below 38 degrees. It took us 35 hours coming home but we had a snowstorm all the way to 2 hours south of Matagami.

Big and small, has about the same drive time that we had last year.The weather was dry and the roads were good almost all the way to camp.It was a very warm for that time of the year we made good time.The trip can take a turn for the worse (slow driving) real quick if you run into bad weather that part of the country can get a lot of snow real quick.

Mirage called last year the day before we were to leave to ask if we would like to reserve the helicopter that the caribou were thirty miles away, we said "thanks, but no thanks, we would take our chances". Two days, thirty miles we had good odds.
We were told at the check in ( Matagami) by returning hunters the main herd had crossed the road "that day" around 10:00... we were blessed , when we got there we seen more caribou than all the other trips combined.... what a sight! the caribou had not lost there horns ever-one brought back nice racks. it was the best trip ever! getting to see all those beautiful animals... its all about luck when it comes to timing the migration.looking foreword to seeing how our luck is this year!

"Like a kid waiting for christmas" - Yeah, it's that bad for me too! Sadly enough, I'v already started to pack a few things this weekend. Just want to make sure I'm 100% prepared for this trip!!

Anyone find out anything about bringing bou back into the states? We're trying to figure out if we have enough room to leave our trailer behind and just quarter the bou and put in totes to come home. We may need to fit 6 bou and gear in an 5 1/2' truck bed...

yea, that will be a tightfit six bou and all your guys gear, you may need a trailer. last year there was no restrictions on bring back the bou across the boarder that I can remember. Haven't hear of any changes this year... but its early.

I would be more worried about the weight - get 6 big animals and you can have near 2K# just in caribou.Add you (3 I assume) and your gear and that 5.5 foot bed betterbe on a 1 ton.I would out on some strong shocks to protect your springs on these roads.

Also - no restrictions from QC into US as far as heads go.

My guys have been taking bear and moose back to the US with no problems. But you can go to the US Dept. of Agriculture's web site. All the info about it is right there. I use to have the web site but I don't anymore.

BKMSTR, I use to have a F-150 crew cab, we built a wooden cap on the on the top of the bed to carrier the bou back .we would put six animals top and our gear under it in the bed. it works well, alot of hunters use this style up there, it keeps them from having to bring a trailer. My new truck is a f-350 and I still use the wooden cap method for bring back our caribou.I find each time I build a new cap the design gets better.
Last year one of our guys had a truck with a fiberglass top, we put the bou in the back, covered them withone of those bluetarps, put there gear on top of that...everything stayed dry.