My 12 year old son, myself and some geocaching friends decided to take an alternate route to the traditional 4-5 day canoe trip to Ishpatina's Center peak. Following Ken Takabe's 3 day overland route, we started west of the ridge at the Sturgeon River, where a logging road north of Capreol ends. The only difference is we planned to be in and out in one day. We started before sunset, and after getting across the Sturgeon River, we continued on the bush road, until it became an overgrown ATV trail, and then disappeared completely. We had about 3-3.5 km to go, all of it bushwacking. We followed the ridge on the south side, coming out near Dick Lake, just down the trail from the peak. The firetower there is in great shape, and we enjoyed a climb to the top, and enjoyed the view. Spent four hours up top with my fellow hikers, and a group of others who had come via canoe and float plane for a geocaching event.
For the hike out, we followed the shores of the lakes along the south side of the ridge, and spotted ribbons here and there following Takabe, and a couple others who had taken this route a few years ago. The hike out was in complete darkness, as we arrived back at the river around 2am. This route is a tough one, and I think I'll go by canoe the next time.

Event page for detailed logs from various attendees of the event, including the hikers:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f22da839-ea3e-4cbc-9083-a9dcea2eb233

Flickr Group for event photos:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishpatina

**the photo by SBurke on the main peak page was shot on this trip by me.