In June of 07 I took a tour of the recent fire areas in and around Saganaga, Red Rock, Alpine and Seagull. My companions were from the Kenyon area. the fires had swept through this area in 05, 06, 07 and 1975. We were able to view the various stages of regrowth and rebirth of a forest.
We left the seagull river landing late in the morning. we made our way across the main part of sag quite easily. However the last mile was was windy and wavy and rough. The good news is we stayed on course and arrived at our camp on long island in 3 hours. The wind was cool but dehydrated us. It was nice to be in camp with a refreshing drink and some snacks and a fabulous view to the west on sag. After putting up camp i made some coffee and talked about tomorrow. Our plan is to move to Alpine and camp tomorrow and then go to seagull the day after. This will make our layover day at a favorite campsite on seagull.
We slept late and weren't out of camp till 10am. It was a good day to travel, cool, and cloudy but no rain. Jenny did the navigating today. Quite a challenge as we wove our way through many islands. It was refreshing to walk and pull our canoes through a shallow channel that lead to red rock lake. Once on the other side we stopped for a short break and along came a moose cow and calf. They were not afraid of us and walked through the deep water eating aquatic plants. they walked up on shore and didn't run into the woods. We got many photos and videos as the ambled along the shore and then into t he woods. My companions walked back up stream and watched the pair of moose go into Saganaga and start swimming again. It was a wilderness vision for all of us, even Chloe the Cocker Spaniel didn't bark.
WE paddled on feeling the wonderfulness of this place in our hearts. About a mile farther down the lake we we found 4 loons swimming in the middle of the lake, we got real close and took more pictures. Now we were totally jazzed up. At the beginning of the portage into Alpine we met 9 boy scouts. We managed to come and go on the small landing. I made 3 trips and everyone else made 2 trips. The girls carried the Grumman as a team and did very well. It was a 50 rod portage, short by BWCA standards but it was up hill and very muddy. At the Alpine end to the portage we had lunch. the cheese, sausage, crackers, gorp and crystal light were delicious. From our lunch stop we could see that most of alpine was burned. The campsite we were aiming for was taken. Interestingly enough it wasn't burned. So after a little discussion we decided to head onto the Seagull Hilton campsite. WE made our way through Alpine efficiently with Jenny still navigating.
We decided to run the rapids between alpine and seagull. Pam and i went first in the Souris River canoe, no problem and a lot of fun. Jenny and Molly took photos and videos, which we later enjoyed. The girls decided they didn't want to run the rapids so Pam and i ran it again in the Grumman. Now we were getting good at it. Totally fun. I love whitewater and should do more of it.
The trip across the western 1/2 of seagull was quick but consumed our last reserves of energy. We got to the Seagull Hilton campsite and someone was already there. They said they were leaving in the morning. Our second choice campsite was also taken so that left us with our last choice which was empty. By now it was 6:30 ... we made camp and swam. It was a great day but it was a relief to be in camp. For supper we had mac and cheese with garlic bread. We went to bed without putting up the tarp or hanging the food pack.
At 6am the next morning it started to sprinkle and thunder causing us to get up and cover the packs with tarps. We went right back to bed. I listened to the radio and didn't sleep much. At 9am the tent was too hot to sleep in any longer. My back and shoulders were very achy from the previous days efforts. It was a good morning. The girls went for a hike and i put up t he tarp and drank coffee. someone else had already moved in on the campsite we wanted yesterday. In the afternoon we went exploring in the canoes. Now Molly was navigator. We stopped at a nearby campsite and swam. Next we headed for the palisade and the thunder started. Getting nervous, we checked out one more campsite and didn't go to the palisade. Back home and under the tarp before it started raining hard. I drank coffee and started the spaghetti supper. It was good, everyone liked it. We spent most of the evening on the rock talking , watching the clouds and finally the sunset and approaching evening. When the bugs got bad the girls went to their tent and played Catch Phrase. I journaled and listened to the radio in my tent. Tomorrow promises more exploring and fun.
Had my usual coffee and bagel for breakfast. Then we broke camp and went to see if the people at the Seagull Hilton were going to leave... they weren't ...So we headed for the palisade camp which was open. Dropped off our gear packs.. We had some lunch and headed for the palisade. We pulled into the mini harbor and secured our boats . We climbed the hill.. at the top the view was fantastic. for an hour and a 1/2 we took photo's, talked, ate lunch and watched the groups paddle below us. We could see for several miles east , south and west.. Back on the water we headed into the islands for more exploring. Molly still navigating. AS we wandered through the islands I thought I knew where we were, but I didn't... molly did tho. I was very proud of her. We stopped at a campsite I had paddled by many times but never explored it. As we checked it out we found a blueberry patch high on a rock behind camp. We picked and ate a lot of blueberries. The sun was shining and it was a great day. We also wandered around camp and found several kinds of flowers including a wild iris. On the way back to camp we toured around several more islands. One island had a campsite with about 14 scouts, When we got there the 4 leaders were sitting in chairs looking at the lake, a couple boys were experimenting with righting an overturned canoe. We continued our way back to camp and went by the palisade again seeing some great flowers growing in a crack on the wall. took some more photos. The last 1/4 mile to camp was real tough fighting the wind. Back at camp ;we popped up the tents but not t he tarp. the girls went for a hike and I made coffee. While drinking my coffee I saw two moose swimming down the channel and didn't know what t hey were at first. What a treat. I watched until they swam to shore and disappeared into t he woods. Supper was New Orleans beans and rice with onion and hamburger. for dessert we had a fire and made smores. At 9:45 it started to rain again. we went to our tents.
In the morning we paddled out... it took us about an hour and a half. It was a beautiful morning and once again Molly did a great job navigating. the joy of canoe country travel is strong in this group. It was a good time.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Complete Package
Dec. 27 to Dec. 31st.....Mikkel, Cody , Neil and I headed across Bearskin Lake after a 6 hour drive that started early that morning from St. Paul. It was an arduous hike in, first there was the slush and then the trail through the snow and across the ice hadn't been broken...the slush iced up the bottom of the toboggans that we hauled all our camping gear in. we pulled with great difficulty before realizing that we need to scrap the the bottoms of the toboggans. that done it was a little easier. it was 8 degrees above zero but the effort of pulling the toboggans warmed us very nicely. once in camp we shoveled out about a foot of snow to make a place for our tents and cooking area. next we started supper... we cooked individually. the hot food warmed us greatly as it was now approaching zero. we were glad to be in the boundary waters but the previous short night and today's long drive had us all in bed before 9 pm.
after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee Neil and I went looking for fire wood. the lakes summer visitors usually take all the wood close at had so we ended up going quite a ways to find it. and we did. I was just looking for a tree that would work and Neil spotted one first. it was a cedar about 30 feet long that had broken off about 8 feet up the trunk. we sawed off an 8 foot piece and hauled it back to camp. Mikkel , Cody and Neil went to the Stairway Portage, a scenic overlook about 2 miles away, down the lake and through the woods. I stayed back and dealt with camp chores. When they returned i had coffee going and the fire started. next we drilled holes and checked the depths in preparation for fishing at midnight when the trout opener started. At 7pm we went back to the cedar tree and brought most of it back with us. It was the most wood I've ever seen 4 guys haul out of the woods in a 1/2 hour. We spent the rest of the evening waiting for midnight playing cribbage. when midnight arrived we fished for an hour with no luck... went to bed about 1 am ... it was about zero degrees.
slept till 9:30 am , made some coffee and went back out on the ice to a new spot. Actually the same spot we fished last year and did so well. Fishing was a lot of fun. Neil caught a big one early on and we were all hoping our turn would come too. Cody and Mikkel caught , released and kept several more. I had many bites but couldn't get one on the ice. While fishing we made coffee on my little stove, snacked , talked and walked around, we drilled many holes and moved around from hole to hole. at 4:30, almost dark, Neil and I headed for camp. we cooked supper and started a fire. soon the other guys were in and we built up the fire even more to warm them up. We fried up the lake trout, it was fabulous. and then we played more cribbage. by the end of the evening it was 1 to 1, Mikkel and Cody against Neil and I. It was great to play cards, shoot the bull and sit by the fire. Some of our discussions covered what to bring next year, a couple things for sure would be a second stove, and a bigger pot to boil water on the fire. every evening we would fill our nalgene bottles with boiling water and put in our sleeping bags to warm our feet when we went to bed later.
The next morning I woke up too warm and a little claustrophobic. My minus 40 down bag is a little too warm when it's only zero. We soon headed for the lake taking breakfast and the stove and pots with us. We spent the morning eating, drinking coffee, talking and all the while catching 5 more trout. The Department of Natural Resources snowshoed in and and checked our fishing licenses just like they did yesterday. We fish legal and there were no problems. Just a few hundred yards from our fishing hole there were 2 high school kids camped... yesterday the DNR and forest service were here to check also and the kids didn't have a trout stamp, but because they caught no fish they didn't get a ticket, however the forest service gave them a $120 ticket for not having a permit, the young and dumb learn the hard way. While we were fishing we saw several groups of day trippers ski and snowshoe down the lake towards Stairway Portage. One of them stopped to talk to us.. their leader had stepped on thin ice and broke one foot through and had to walk back to his cabin 2 miles away with a wet foot, it was a heat wave but still only 26 degrees... I'm glad that wasn't me. He wasn't far enough to the left going through the narrows up by the stairway portage. I quit fishing about 3pm and went up to camp to journal, and prepare my stuff as it was the last evening in camp. Neil arrived about 4 and we started supper. I went down to the lake to chop out the old water hole, it had frozen 8 inches of water in 24 hours I couldn't get through. I gave up after 10 minutes of vigorous swinging of the hatchet...so next, Neil tried, he got water in five chops, I shouldn't have given up so soon. I had horded 2 tablespoons of Kenya AA coffee, and made myself a last delicious cup. Cody and Mikkel returned with another fish for a total of 6 for the day. I fried the fish on my stove once again, sat by the fire and talked, life was good. Then Mikkel rehydrated some bean mush... it was really good. We had several rousing games of cribbage and the out come was that,Mikkel and Cody were the 2007 Duncan Lake Cribbage Invitational Champions. Mikkel was off to read his book and Neil, Cody and I continued to play 3 way cribbage. Neil was the winner of that, he had a 20 point crib that hinged on the 7 that I discarded, new rule- never discard a 7. After the card games Mikkel and Cody went to bed and Neil and I went out on the ice. Neil showed me the constellations, some of which I knew others I didn't. It was a very clear night and the stars shown like Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. The Milky Way glowed, Neil told me, ( he's a relegion major) that ancient peoples believed that the stars were pinholes in the sky where heaven shown tthrough. and that when you went to heaven you went up into the sky and through these pin holes to heaven. Neil went to bed and sat by the fire journaling...sitting in front of the many glowing embers... I was thankful for the kind and good people that I've spent the last few days with, I hope I can take back to town the gifts they have given me - their friendship, camaraderie, sense of humor and enthusiasm for life. The mornings trip out took only 40 minutes, a fraction of the effort and time spent getting here on the previous Thursday. the slush in the trail was frozen and the rest of the way was well travelled and packed, that's all... Bill
after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee Neil and I went looking for fire wood. the lakes summer visitors usually take all the wood close at had so we ended up going quite a ways to find it. and we did. I was just looking for a tree that would work and Neil spotted one first. it was a cedar about 30 feet long that had broken off about 8 feet up the trunk. we sawed off an 8 foot piece and hauled it back to camp. Mikkel , Cody and Neil went to the Stairway Portage, a scenic overlook about 2 miles away, down the lake and through the woods. I stayed back and dealt with camp chores. When they returned i had coffee going and the fire started. next we drilled holes and checked the depths in preparation for fishing at midnight when the trout opener started. At 7pm we went back to the cedar tree and brought most of it back with us. It was the most wood I've ever seen 4 guys haul out of the woods in a 1/2 hour. We spent the rest of the evening waiting for midnight playing cribbage. when midnight arrived we fished for an hour with no luck... went to bed about 1 am ... it was about zero degrees.
slept till 9:30 am , made some coffee and went back out on the ice to a new spot. Actually the same spot we fished last year and did so well. Fishing was a lot of fun. Neil caught a big one early on and we were all hoping our turn would come too. Cody and Mikkel caught , released and kept several more. I had many bites but couldn't get one on the ice. While fishing we made coffee on my little stove, snacked , talked and walked around, we drilled many holes and moved around from hole to hole. at 4:30, almost dark, Neil and I headed for camp. we cooked supper and started a fire. soon the other guys were in and we built up the fire even more to warm them up. We fried up the lake trout, it was fabulous. and then we played more cribbage. by the end of the evening it was 1 to 1, Mikkel and Cody against Neil and I. It was great to play cards, shoot the bull and sit by the fire. Some of our discussions covered what to bring next year, a couple things for sure would be a second stove, and a bigger pot to boil water on the fire. every evening we would fill our nalgene bottles with boiling water and put in our sleeping bags to warm our feet when we went to bed later.
The next morning I woke up too warm and a little claustrophobic. My minus 40 down bag is a little too warm when it's only zero. We soon headed for the lake taking breakfast and the stove and pots with us. We spent the morning eating, drinking coffee, talking and all the while catching 5 more trout. The Department of Natural Resources snowshoed in and and checked our fishing licenses just like they did yesterday. We fish legal and there were no problems. Just a few hundred yards from our fishing hole there were 2 high school kids camped... yesterday the DNR and forest service were here to check also and the kids didn't have a trout stamp, but because they caught no fish they didn't get a ticket, however the forest service gave them a $120 ticket for not having a permit, the young and dumb learn the hard way. While we were fishing we saw several groups of day trippers ski and snowshoe down the lake towards Stairway Portage. One of them stopped to talk to us.. their leader had stepped on thin ice and broke one foot through and had to walk back to his cabin 2 miles away with a wet foot, it was a heat wave but still only 26 degrees... I'm glad that wasn't me. He wasn't far enough to the left going through the narrows up by the stairway portage. I quit fishing about 3pm and went up to camp to journal, and prepare my stuff as it was the last evening in camp. Neil arrived about 4 and we started supper. I went down to the lake to chop out the old water hole, it had frozen 8 inches of water in 24 hours I couldn't get through. I gave up after 10 minutes of vigorous swinging of the hatchet...so next, Neil tried, he got water in five chops, I shouldn't have given up so soon. I had horded 2 tablespoons of Kenya AA coffee, and made myself a last delicious cup. Cody and Mikkel returned with another fish for a total of 6 for the day. I fried the fish on my stove once again, sat by the fire and talked, life was good. Then Mikkel rehydrated some bean mush... it was really good. We had several rousing games of cribbage and the out come was that,Mikkel and Cody were the 2007 Duncan Lake Cribbage Invitational Champions. Mikkel was off to read his book and Neil, Cody and I continued to play 3 way cribbage. Neil was the winner of that, he had a 20 point crib that hinged on the 7 that I discarded, new rule- never discard a 7. After the card games Mikkel and Cody went to bed and Neil and I went out on the ice. Neil showed me the constellations, some of which I knew others I didn't. It was a very clear night and the stars shown like Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. The Milky Way glowed, Neil told me, ( he's a relegion major) that ancient peoples believed that the stars were pinholes in the sky where heaven shown tthrough. and that when you went to heaven you went up into the sky and through these pin holes to heaven. Neil went to bed and sat by the fire journaling...sitting in front of the many glowing embers... I was thankful for the kind and good people that I've spent the last few days with, I hope I can take back to town the gifts they have given me - their friendship, camaraderie, sense of humor and enthusiasm for life. The mornings trip out took only 40 minutes, a fraction of the effort and time spent getting here on the previous Thursday. the slush in the trail was frozen and the rest of the way was well travelled and packed, that's all... Bill
Sunday, February 17, 2008
A Week on Knife Lake
Hi everyone..... Our trip from Moose Lake to Knife on Saturday the 18th was a grand adventure. We left the boat landing at 7 am. We started paddling, wading, and portaging our way to knife lake. The first leg of our trip was 10 1/2 miles of paddling to the Carp Lake Portage. There was an east wind but it didn't slow us down much. It took us 3 trips to cross the 40 rod portage with all our gear. We paddled another mile and had to 1/2 unload to pull the canoe up a water deficient rapids. Bob would pull the bow and iI would push in the stern. Partially unloaded, we were made it fairly easy. In about 100 feet we reloaded and were able to pull the whole thing in the slightly deeper water. In about 400 feet we were able to get back in and actully continue paddleing. The second rapids was an S curve. Here again we unloaded partially and carried the packs across the rocks and through the water. Once again we pulled the empty canoe upstream and reloaded it when we arrived at the packs. Back in the canoe again we paddled to the next obstical which was an 8 foot waterfall. Here again we unloaded and carried everything 60 feet across very sharp rocks and rough terrain. As we were portageing a young couple was wading and dragging their kevlar canoe over the rocks and down the water fall. They did it just fine without rolling the whole load into the river but they did have a couple close calls. We paddled another 1/2 mile to a rapids. We got out and started pulling the cannoe upstream through the shallow water. We soon discovered it was easier to pull a few larger rocks from the channel and throw them aside than it was to drag the canoe over them. We slowly made it up the channel and the next, picking rocks and pulling the canoe. Finally we paddled up to the last stretch of rapids which was very low on water too but twice as long as anything we had done. Now I was in the front pulling on the rope and Bob was in the back. This was very strenuous work as we continued to remove rocks from the channel as we went up stream. At 100 feet from Knife Lake it got way too shallow and it was impossible to remove enough rocks to make the channel deeper.... so I portaged 4 loads up to the landing through the water. Bob pulled the unloaded boat upstream. Now we had been portaging, paddling and wading for 4 1/2 hours and were in great need of a rest stop. It was 1pm and lunch was delicious. We had smashed hot dog buns with lunch meat on top. It was so good. We sat and laid there for 1/2 hour. Ahead of us lay 6 1/2 miles of Knife Lake which would take us another 2 1/2 hours of paddling into the wind. The mornings effort had left us sapped and about midway to the camp we had to take another 1/2 hour rest break. the fact that we were so close to our distination made it difficult to stop but it was well worth it. Back paddling again we were glad to get to camp in an hour. It was good to see Ray and his coffee pot. After a lengthy conversation we unpacked and settled in. Supper was spagetti with a special spicy sauce. Delicious! After supper iI washed dishes and then sat up reading till about 10:30. At 7:30 Ray had coffee made and breakfast started. We gathered in the kitchen area for breakfast and conversation. The day was relaxing for me, I read, swam and journaled. Bob found fire wood and fashioned poles to catamaran the canoes together. Because of the severally low water, Ray has decided to paddle out with us on Saturday. Mostly he's thinking that if the water is this low now it's going to be even lower in Sept. Ray has spent 5 weeks alone at camp. While here he has fished, swam, picked blues, hiked, read and hunted mice and squirrels. The story goes like this. The mice have overrun the camp, much like the movie Never Cry Wolf.
However he didn't cook and eat them. He trapped them in an ingeneous contraption. He started with a 2x4 angled up to a 5 gallon pail that was 1/3 full of water. On the inside of the pail was smeared peanut butter. The mice would walk the 2x4 and fall in the water trying to get the peanut butter, The first night of the trap being set, ray caught 20 mice. A few days later there was a squirrel swimming in the pail with no way to get out. Ray took a stick and was going to push him under and drown him. He had the stick on the squirrel and the squirrel junped up on the stick and quickly ran out of the pail and got away... much to Ray's chagrin. Now you may feel dismayed at the homicides and attempted homicides but they are justified. The mice had eatten through a styro cooler, and gotten into food containers and plastic bags while ray was right there cooking. Monday the wind was blowing out of the S.E. quite forcefullywith some white caps n the lake. Slept till Ray had breakfst ready. It was super. Crepes with apple and raisin compote' and Kenya AA coffe. We even made a second pot of coffee. After breakfast we listened to Trader Craig, the weather and the news. 15" of rain in Southeast Minnesota.... but still none here. Bob and Ray have decided to close camp for the season adn leave on Friday. Today they started packing and taking things down. Afternoon drama...at about 12:15 a kevlar canoe was paddling toward us on the lake. We watched it for a while. They were both paddling on the same side paralell to the waves. The lake was all whitecaps. Earlier Bob and Ray went out but soom came back because it was too windy and wavy. As we watched these 2 guys were paddling furiously, the stern paddler was throwing up huge plumes of water at the end of each stroke. We watched knowing they were cheechakos. Eventulaly they flipped and after much discussion we decided they would be o.k. and that we shouldn't risk trying to help them is such horrible conditions. It took them 45 minutes for the wind to blow them to the Canadian shore on the north side of the lake. It appeared that they got all their stuff up on shore and the canoe dummped out. We watched them for a while and then they dissapperared when we were busy in camp. I sure hope their epuipTment was waterproofed. It all apperared to float. I felt guilty not helping them but it could have turned into a very dangerous situation if we had gone out ther in the wind. This afternnoon chores consisted of putting a tarp over my tent so that when it rains it won't leak so bad. Drank another pot of coffee with a few cookies and Bob and Ray are working on supper, salad, and I don't know what. Supper turned out to be alfredo and clams with onions on top of angel hair spagetti. It was super. Dessert was coffee and vanilla pudding with fruit and cinnamon in it. Very good.. Ray is still worried about the 2 guys who tipped over. But we haven't seen them since 2 pm and it's now 6:45. I'm sure they continued eastward. 8/21/07 It's been a good day but let me tell you about whats happening right now. It's about 62 degrees . I've got a long john shirt and rain pants and a rain coat on. The distant western horizon is lighter now after 2 days of clouds. there's a gentle > breezebut's becomming calmer and calmer. The water is making very soothing noises against the rocks in our harbor. I'm sittin on a rock next to a tree about 40 feet from the water. Ray's crepes tasted so good this morning couldn't believe it. Then I washed dishes and laid down in my tent for an hour. After some coffee and gorp we went fishing. We went to the entrance of Knife at about 1pm. The first place we tried was no good. We moved a little north and tried close to shore. At 25 feet away we caught a few little bass. Bob showed me how to fish with the bale open and a hand on the line.. I started catching more fish - great! At one point we drifted out about 50 feet.... Bob caught a big one. We decided to change our strategy and fish out farther. Sure enough we caught more fish and bigger ones. In an hour we had 12 bass. several of good size but the rest were respectable eaters. It was gray and cloudy with low skies. There was breeze out onl the main part of the lake to the west but only a little where we were. We headed back to camp. Ray cleaned the fish. He wrapped some to take home and left the > rest for supper. I went for a swim, the water was cooler than yesterday, I suppose the wind mixed the lake a little and at 62 degrees that probably had to make it feel cool too. Now I'm drinking Kenya AA coffee brewed just right and still sitting down by the lake. Supper was beans , potatoes, salad and bass.....unbelievably good. It's 8 pm now and the clouds have cleared and there's a very nice sunset. Supposed to be warmer the next 2 days. Thursday we pack and Friday we leave. Time to do some chores before it gets dark and then read myself to sleep. 8/22/07 - awoke to another huge stack of crepes and good coffee... washed dishes and hung around camp reading and talking. Bob and I were going fishing but the wind cam up and blew hard all day till about 8 pm. I've had a lot of coffee today but didn't have any at supper hoping I could go to sleep early. For supper it was spaghetti with meat sauce ... very good.. bob cooked tonight. Today I swam from the west rock and after supper I went back there to read in the sunset. I was reading Silence of the Loons. It's a collection of 13 short stories written by Minnesotans. It started slow but each mystery got better and better. The last few were excellent. The wind had died down and the lapping waves on shore were very soothing. the few clouds to the west were aflame with the suns last rays. I finished my book and headed back to camp thinking it was sad that I only had one day left. Apricots were the bedtime snack with more conversation and watching the pink and orange clouds above the horizon. I was in my tent before 9pm. I've been journaling and listening to WELY with my ear buds... it comes in better with them on. Ray said this place is like one of his friends said about marriage. The best thing that every happened to him was when he got married. the second best thing was when he got divorced. Rays says that's how it is with the Knife Lake area... at the beginning of summer he's so glad to get here and now on Friday he's very glad to be going home to Ely. He's looking forward to good food, sleeping in a bed, going to town, calling all his friends. What I want to do is go see ken. 8/23/07 . camp is cleaned up for the most part. I've taken a swim, cleaned up and organized the inside of the tent and my packs. It's sprinkling lightly and there's a lot of wind on the lake. we've spent the day getting ready except for Bob and I going fishing for 3 hours. He caught 8 fish and I caught 4. For lunch we had Alfredo, fish, potatoes, spaghetti, and salad. Well every thing is put away and we're going to have coffee in the morning and then Bob and Ray are going to catamaran the canoes and hopefully be across knife before the midday winds. It sounds like if it isn't too windy we'll be to the landing between 7-8pm Friday night. If I'm not too tired I'd like to go to the steam bath, then back to Bob's Friday night and home on Saturday. I wish I had about 3 more days here. I can't believe I've been here for 6 days. I sat on the rock watching a double sunset. At 7:30 a cloud bank was approaching and so the sun set prematurely behind the cloud. It was a good enough sunset and I went back to reading while I sat on the west rocks. The sun, now below the horizon, shined up underneath the cloud bank, very beautiful. The sky above the horizon shown brightly orange and the clouds were purple and pink. This was a fitting goodbye for the last trip of the summer '07.
8/24/07 Didn't sleep soundly. woke up at 5 am and laid in bed til 6. Had to use a headlamp to start packing. made coffee while taking down the tarp and tent. The tent i was in didn't roll small enough to fit in it's bag.... what a pain. I check camp and carried all the stuff down to the ocean. I saw a pine martin run through camp. Then a few minutes later while up on the east hillside of camp a jack rabbit went by. Then the pine martin went by seemingly to follow the rabbit. They went by a second time. The rabbit wasn't really running for his life but the pine martin was definitely
following him. The forecast is for nw winds at 5-15 and a high of 69. It's not that windy now so it looks like we're going to get across Knife without a problem. Bob lashed the canoes together with 2 - 9 foot poles and we were loaded and on the water at 9am. We crossed the lake in 2 hours of hard paddling. Ray was in a 17 foot Grumman standard solo with about 7 Duluth packs. Bob and I were 1/2 loaded. when we got to the dam we had lunch while Bob took the catamaraned canoes apart. We used 4 inch diameter poles to place over the rocks then we slid the canoes down stream. My job was to push Bob's boat forward and then walk back to Ray's and pull his boat over the same spot. We spent the afternoon pulling canoes by lifting them an inch or two and dragging them forward a foot or two. We got to the Carp Lake portage at 3:30 . We did the portage to Birch and had a quick lunch while Bob lashed the canoes together again. I made 3 1/2 trips across the portage, one carrying Ray's Grumman and the other guys made 3 trips. It took us 1 1/2 hours to paddle to Sucker Lake. It was extremely exhausting after everything else we had done. We got to the landing at 7:40 and unloaded. Ray had car trouble but we got it solved and that made it 9pm by the time we got to Bobs. He fixed us stuffed peppers for supper.... they were good.
However he didn't cook and eat them. He trapped them in an ingeneous contraption. He started with a 2x4 angled up to a 5 gallon pail that was 1/3 full of water. On the inside of the pail was smeared peanut butter. The mice would walk the 2x4 and fall in the water trying to get the peanut butter, The first night of the trap being set, ray caught 20 mice. A few days later there was a squirrel swimming in the pail with no way to get out. Ray took a stick and was going to push him under and drown him. He had the stick on the squirrel and the squirrel junped up on the stick and quickly ran out of the pail and got away... much to Ray's chagrin. Now you may feel dismayed at the homicides and attempted homicides but they are justified. The mice had eatten through a styro cooler, and gotten into food containers and plastic bags while ray was right there cooking. Monday the wind was blowing out of the S.E. quite forcefullywith some white caps n the lake. Slept till Ray had breakfst ready. It was super. Crepes with apple and raisin compote' and Kenya AA coffe. We even made a second pot of coffee. After breakfast we listened to Trader Craig, the weather and the news. 15" of rain in Southeast Minnesota.... but still none here. Bob and Ray have decided to close camp for the season adn leave on Friday. Today they started packing and taking things down. Afternoon drama...at about 12:15 a kevlar canoe was paddling toward us on the lake. We watched it for a while. They were both paddling on the same side paralell to the waves. The lake was all whitecaps. Earlier Bob and Ray went out but soom came back because it was too windy and wavy. As we watched these 2 guys were paddling furiously, the stern paddler was throwing up huge plumes of water at the end of each stroke. We watched knowing they were cheechakos. Eventulaly they flipped and after much discussion we decided they would be o.k. and that we shouldn't risk trying to help them is such horrible conditions. It took them 45 minutes for the wind to blow them to the Canadian shore on the north side of the lake. It appeared that they got all their stuff up on shore and the canoe dummped out. We watched them for a while and then they dissapperared when we were busy in camp. I sure hope their epuipTment was waterproofed. It all apperared to float. I felt guilty not helping them but it could have turned into a very dangerous situation if we had gone out ther in the wind. This afternnoon chores consisted of putting a tarp over my tent so that when it rains it won't leak so bad. Drank another pot of coffee with a few cookies and Bob and Ray are working on supper, salad, and I don't know what. Supper turned out to be alfredo and clams with onions on top of angel hair spagetti. It was super. Dessert was coffee and vanilla pudding with fruit and cinnamon in it. Very good.. Ray is still worried about the 2 guys who tipped over. But we haven't seen them since 2 pm and it's now 6:45. I'm sure they continued eastward. 8/21/07 It's been a good day but let me tell you about whats happening right now. It's about 62 degrees . I've got a long john shirt and rain pants and a rain coat on. The distant western horizon is lighter now after 2 days of clouds. there's a gentle > breezebut's becomming calmer and calmer. The water is making very soothing noises against the rocks in our harbor. I'm sittin on a rock next to a tree about 40 feet from the water. Ray's crepes tasted so good this morning couldn't believe it. Then I washed dishes and laid down in my tent for an hour. After some coffee and gorp we went fishing. We went to the entrance of Knife at about 1pm. The first place we tried was no good. We moved a little north and tried close to shore. At 25 feet away we caught a few little bass. Bob showed me how to fish with the bale open and a hand on the line.. I started catching more fish - great! At one point we drifted out about 50 feet.... Bob caught a big one. We decided to change our strategy and fish out farther. Sure enough we caught more fish and bigger ones. In an hour we had 12 bass. several of good size but the rest were respectable eaters. It was gray and cloudy with low skies. There was breeze out onl the main part of the lake to the west but only a little where we were. We headed back to camp. Ray cleaned the fish. He wrapped some to take home and left the > rest for supper. I went for a swim, the water was cooler than yesterday, I suppose the wind mixed the lake a little and at 62 degrees that probably had to make it feel cool too. Now I'm drinking Kenya AA coffee brewed just right and still sitting down by the lake. Supper was beans , potatoes, salad and bass.....unbelievably good. It's 8 pm now and the clouds have cleared and there's a very nice sunset. Supposed to be warmer the next 2 days. Thursday we pack and Friday we leave. Time to do some chores before it gets dark and then read myself to sleep. 8/22/07 - awoke to another huge stack of crepes and good coffee... washed dishes and hung around camp reading and talking. Bob and I were going fishing but the wind cam up and blew hard all day till about 8 pm. I've had a lot of coffee today but didn't have any at supper hoping I could go to sleep early. For supper it was spaghetti with meat sauce ... very good.. bob cooked tonight. Today I swam from the west rock and after supper I went back there to read in the sunset. I was reading Silence of the Loons. It's a collection of 13 short stories written by Minnesotans. It started slow but each mystery got better and better. The last few were excellent. The wind had died down and the lapping waves on shore were very soothing. the few clouds to the west were aflame with the suns last rays. I finished my book and headed back to camp thinking it was sad that I only had one day left. Apricots were the bedtime snack with more conversation and watching the pink and orange clouds above the horizon. I was in my tent before 9pm. I've been journaling and listening to WELY with my ear buds... it comes in better with them on. Ray said this place is like one of his friends said about marriage. The best thing that every happened to him was when he got married. the second best thing was when he got divorced. Rays says that's how it is with the Knife Lake area... at the beginning of summer he's so glad to get here and now on Friday he's very glad to be going home to Ely. He's looking forward to good food, sleeping in a bed, going to town, calling all his friends. What I want to do is go see ken. 8/23/07 . camp is cleaned up for the most part. I've taken a swim, cleaned up and organized the inside of the tent and my packs. It's sprinkling lightly and there's a lot of wind on the lake. we've spent the day getting ready except for Bob and I going fishing for 3 hours. He caught 8 fish and I caught 4. For lunch we had Alfredo, fish, potatoes, spaghetti, and salad. Well every thing is put away and we're going to have coffee in the morning and then Bob and Ray are going to catamaran the canoes and hopefully be across knife before the midday winds. It sounds like if it isn't too windy we'll be to the landing between 7-8pm Friday night. If I'm not too tired I'd like to go to the steam bath, then back to Bob's Friday night and home on Saturday. I wish I had about 3 more days here. I can't believe I've been here for 6 days. I sat on the rock watching a double sunset. At 7:30 a cloud bank was approaching and so the sun set prematurely behind the cloud. It was a good enough sunset and I went back to reading while I sat on the west rocks. The sun, now below the horizon, shined up underneath the cloud bank, very beautiful. The sky above the horizon shown brightly orange and the clouds were purple and pink. This was a fitting goodbye for the last trip of the summer '07.
8/24/07 Didn't sleep soundly. woke up at 5 am and laid in bed til 6. Had to use a headlamp to start packing. made coffee while taking down the tarp and tent. The tent i was in didn't roll small enough to fit in it's bag.... what a pain. I check camp and carried all the stuff down to the ocean. I saw a pine martin run through camp. Then a few minutes later while up on the east hillside of camp a jack rabbit went by. Then the pine martin went by seemingly to follow the rabbit. They went by a second time. The rabbit wasn't really running for his life but the pine martin was definitely
following him. The forecast is for nw winds at 5-15 and a high of 69. It's not that windy now so it looks like we're going to get across Knife without a problem. Bob lashed the canoes together with 2 - 9 foot poles and we were loaded and on the water at 9am. We crossed the lake in 2 hours of hard paddling. Ray was in a 17 foot Grumman standard solo with about 7 Duluth packs. Bob and I were 1/2 loaded. when we got to the dam we had lunch while Bob took the catamaraned canoes apart. We used 4 inch diameter poles to place over the rocks then we slid the canoes down stream. My job was to push Bob's boat forward and then walk back to Ray's and pull his boat over the same spot. We spent the afternoon pulling canoes by lifting them an inch or two and dragging them forward a foot or two. We got to the Carp Lake portage at 3:30 . We did the portage to Birch and had a quick lunch while Bob lashed the canoes together again. I made 3 1/2 trips across the portage, one carrying Ray's Grumman and the other guys made 3 trips. It took us 1 1/2 hours to paddle to Sucker Lake. It was extremely exhausting after everything else we had done. We got to the landing at 7:40 and unloaded. Ray had car trouble but we got it solved and that made it 9pm by the time we got to Bobs. He fixed us stuffed peppers for supper.... they were good.
Slim lake
the days preceding our arrival in the bwca were unique. Wild fire at the > end of the gunflint closed access to seagull, our favorite choice for the spring opener. Undaunted we rebounded with a permit to duncan, That was closed > a day later, so we rebounded again with a permit to sawbill, and that was > closed friday morning. so doug became the man in charge.... he had the > day off and we were all working... he went on line and found Slim Lake. > he got 2 permits. one for my group and one for him and mark e. he went > in that afternoon..... we would follow in the morning. we were very > happy to have a Boundary Waters lake to go to. We got to the trailhead > about 10am saturday. I was concerned about the length and difficulty of > the trail. It was labeled as 140 rods, but to our relief we discovered > the first 100 rods were the driveway to the trailhead. It took me 3 trips > to get all my stuff across but wasn't bad. so at 10:45 were at the lake > with all our gear and we aren't sure> which way doug and mark were camped. The lake runs north and south > with 1/4 to the south and 3/4's to the nnorth. It seemed prudent to go > south...That end of the lake was beautiful and inviting, but there were no > campers in the solitary cammpsite. I turned my solo canoe and headed > north while coop and pfohl assembled their fishing tackle. I'd gone a > mile north when i saw a tandem headed south. I waved and sure enough it > was doug and mark. we talked and i told them how gratefull we were that > we got a permit for the bwca. then i headed for camp which was the first > camp on the west as you headed north from the portage. A wind had been > brewing but hadn't been a problem on the way here. However it was very > windy shortly after we got camp set up. couldn';t fish allafternoon > because of the wind. Coop and Pfohl did venture out for several hours. > but came back fishless. While they were gone doug and mark shared > stories and jokes. It was a good time.> Sunday morning we awoke to the east wind again. And it was no 7mph > wind like predicted. It was a knock you off your balance, cold wind. We > huddled under the tarp about 1/2 out of the wind. We ate breakfast, drank > coffee and talked mmore. At about 1 pm we paddled to a nearby island to > get out of the east wind. It was good. I took an hours nap on a thick > bed of pine needles, Pfohl paddled over to join us. The bugs got bad and > it was too warm in the sun so we moved to a breezier part of the island. > we made mid afternnoon coffee. As usuall the conversation was great. WE > all related well to each other's perspectives on family, and other > accounts of old times, and dnr conservation officers.> We cooked supper early in hopes the wind would die down so we could > go fishing. The wind did die down and we all went fishing for an hour or > 2 before dark. It was so good to be out of camp and paddling after 26 > hours of being wind bound. We were all fishless except for mark. He > caught a 10 inch bass but threw it back. I got back early and took a > very short swim. It was thoroughly refreshing. We sat under the tarp > long after dark with more conversation. Later i read Betsy and Saganaga. > Very good book.. inspiring.> Monday morning doug and mark made pancakes. mark and pfohl returned > from fishing empty handed. It had rained a little during the night but > the wind had died down. WE helped doug and mark break camp as they had > responsibilities in town. soon coop and pfohl and i were on our way to > the rice lake prortage in hopes of northerns. the portage was labeled as > 75 rods but seemed much easier.. Rice lake was as beautiful as slim lake > but turned out o be only 5 feet deep. Much to our dissappointment we > caught no fish.. not even a bite. I had lunch at the only camsite on > the lake and soon left with coop and pfohl.> Back on slim lake, which doug renamed Slim chance lake, i took a > leisurely paddle around a nearby bay. In camp later we ate a little, and > talked. i read and journaled while the other guys took a nap. The wind > had now moved to the north and the black flies came out of the woods. I > had taken another swim and didn't want to put on bug dope. so after > moving to several spots in camp and not finding any breeze or bug > relief i paddled over to the island again.....this is where i sit now with > an occasional puff of breeze to keep the bugs away. coop and pfohl fished > from 7 to 10:15 with no luck. they decided to rename the lake again. It > is now referred to as No Chance lake.> tuesday morning we got up early and spent an hour having a leisurely > breakfast while looking at the misty lake... it was cool but not windy. > the paddle out was savored because we knew it would be weeks before we > were up north again.>>
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
02.09.08 Sadie's Initiation
t was 10am on our first day into the bwca.... me, sadie, a new sled dog and norm a winter camping buddy of many years were heading across bearskin lake. it was a perfect winter day ... about 15 degrees and very little breeze and bright skies. as we pulled our sleds towards our destination we thought of juicey succulant trout, the main goal of our trip. we were in camp and had the tents up by noon. soon we were out on the lake heading towards our gps coordinates. we drilled a couple holes and were fishing within an few minutes. the beautiful day continued as did the conversations about camping equipment, dogs, children, women and cars. later in the afternoon i cought a trout.... small but a keeper. Back at camp we had supper and fried the fish. the evening continued with cribbage... norm won. but it was a close, compettive game. the rigors of travel had worn on us and we slept for 10 hours that night. the next morning we spent talking in camp while drinking coffee. we fished from 11:30 to 1:30 with no luck. While back in camp for lunch an artic blast moved through. the temmperature dropped 15 degrees in an hour. we went back out to the fishing hole to get our stuff but came right back because of the cold wind and snnow. Well.. when the going gets tough the tough take a nap. It was releif to get out of the wind but didn't actually go to sleep.. WE had supper way back in the woods to get out of the wind. it was the usuall good camp food but my stove was a temperamental problem requiring continuous pumping and norms quit all together and it was a new stove. Zero degrees stresses the equipment. but we got supper made and went to our tents. It was now 10 below. once in the tent it was tough going to sleep because the wind roared through the trees like locomotives. I have a strong tent but the wind still shook it at the higher gusts. this would make the frost from my breath that formed on the ceiling fall on my face and sleeping bag. after 2 1/2 hours i finally fell asleep. I slept till 5 am, where upon the locomotives were still charging through our campsite. I listened to them for 2 1/2 hours while i could feel the temperature still plummeting. I was barely warm enough in my 40 below down bag. it was so cold that we didn't have breakfast , slam packed our gear and headed out. It had to be 50 below windchill. the cold fresh snow was very coarse and difficult to pull t he sleds on. we stopped and rested every hundred yards and it took us 1 1/2 hours to go 1 1/2 miles. Sadie pulled nobly for the first 1/2 mile.... then i was on my own for the last mile across bearskin lake. It was probably sadies coldest night out ever as a dog from iowa. she did alright but was very tired all the way home.
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