Lets here your favorite memory I know must will have many. Feel free to share them. I know I have to that really stick out in my mind.

It was the summer of 05. I took a guy I work with and his son age 16 and my son age 5 at the time and my dad met us up there in the BWCA. We went in to Snowbank first time going in on that side of the BW. We went and camped on disappointment lake. We had a great campsite and enjoyed are time. Well the first morning there I started to boil some water for coffee and oatmeal. And as I am messing around I look up and there is the big cinnamon colored bear. I look again and say that's a bear. My dad and Bob say what are you talking about and I say louder this time HOLY ^%&# theres a bear not ten yards from us. So I am scrambling trying to find my son. he normally would have been on the rocks behind him but thank goodness he was over by the canoes. So we run the bear off by yelling and crashing pots and so on.

Well we paddle around the lake a few times and fish and such. It is starting to get close to supper time. So I go back to and start boiling water for soup. My dad and my son are down at the lake making a few casts and dad walks up to talk to me and I thought he was messing around when I hear a noice up by the tents. I said dad what did you do because there is a noice up by the tents he said I heard that to. So we walk up there and there is a young black bear sitting between the tents. And my boy hears us saying bear. So here he comes just a running. Right by my dad and I screaming at the bear GET BEAR GET. Throwing rocks and so on. Well dad trys to catch my kid and so do I but he is slipper kinda like a greased pig at the county fair. He managed to run this bear off and he was so proud of himself that he at five years old chased away a bear.. Man all I could think was your mom is going to kill me when she hears about this.

Sunday May 9, 2004

My friend Larry and I are camped on Horse Lake and decide to to a little paddling around Horse Lake and parts of the Horse River. We are both using our new solo canoes for the first time and we are loving the trip so far except for the wind and rain we have had.

As we approach the entrance to the Horse River I see some ravens in the trees and hear some noise in the tall dead rushes still around from last years growth. I paddle close expecting to see the head of a Moose raise above the grass. I am paddling quietly and am dwon wind as the wind is from the north and I am south and west of the animal.

I am maybe 20 yards away as the animal raises its head and looks me square in the eye. To my surprise it is not a Moose, but a timber wolf with bright yellow eyes. He looks at me for a moment, turns slowly and then quietly and slowly retreats up the bank and into the woods. A few minutes later the ravens descend. I try to get close enough to see what the wolf was eating, but the grass stops me and the muck is too loose to walk on.

I should have had my camera ready, but the shock of seeing a wolf that close overwhelmed me for a moment.

I hope you at least thought about moving camp after all of that.

Nope-actually we were hoping to hear some howling and maybe see him again during the day. Neither event occured.

I hadn't thought of this until I saw Bog's post, because it was a trip that I was on with Bogs, Larry and another friend Jim. This one was on Horseshoe Lake in October during moose season.

We were all paddling solo canoes. We spotted a nice sized bull. We paddled fairly close and watched him as he fed on the edge of the water. After a few minutes we saw a glimpse of blaze orange in the woods and watched as a hunter stalked to within 50 yards. The gun came up up; the hunter's shoulder flinched; the moose lurched, and then the KABOOM. The moose wound up in the water.

When we left the hunter was on his walkie talkie contacting the rest of his group.

Larry (LHR Images) photographed the entire sequence.

The experience was amazing. I'm a deer hunter so it wasn't the taking of the animal. It was the fact that I wasn't hunting and saw the entire event as an outsider/non-participant. The moose knew we were there but also knew (sensed) that we were not a threat, just another part of nature. That made me feel more a part of nature than hunting ever did.

Cool experience.

Bannock-That certainly was an amazing experience that lives with me today. I also have a few pictures of the moose.

I also remember that the moose was taken late in the day (about an hour before sunset) during a windy day that had frequent snow squalls. Not the most pleasant of October days.

The Moose went into the water, Antlers down, sticking into the muck. The hunters had to pull him up on shore. We know they had to skin and prepare the moose for transport out the following day under lantern light with a fairly heavy snow falling. Moose hunting in the BWCAW is not for the weak. I also understood the process and was honored to have been part of it.

I was very proud of the hunter and his patience. He waited and waited until the moose turned in such a way that he had a great shot. The Moose went down with one shot. By showing patience he insured the Moose did not suffer from a poor ineffective shot.

Definitely an amazing experience. We were there for 4 days and that was one of many, many Moose we saw. I know I counted 9 and I remember Larry counting 11. That was the most Moose on one trip ever for me.

LAC LA CROIX..1985
my first BWCA trip.on a solo from the Indian Sioux to
Lady Boot Bay and back..i took this route because i was using
my first canoe..85 pounds worth of fiberglass and plywood.
it was great on the St Croix where all i had too do was push
over the sandbars and logs...but the BWCA i could see was going
to be a whole new story..so to avoid having lots of carrys i
went to La Croix where the only portages would be down the river
and the "railway" into La Croix...i spent over week shore lineing
the lake.."just keep the shore on the right and you can't get
lost"..because it was a "first" lots of the things i saw and
did really stick to this day..a deep bay lite up in the deep
red of sunset with the black forest behind it..huge open sky
filled with rainbow ice clouds..hearing what i thought was a
big waterfall untill i paddled up to it and found it was no
bigger that a six inch culvert's worth of water falling a few
feet into the lake...lots of those sort of things...BUT..
the "favorite memory"..easy--on the way back i pulled out
into La Croix from the narrrow channel on the west side of
Coleman Island..its quite a view..after closed in you turn
hard left around a point and there is the LONG open water of
the lake again..on the trip in it was a sunny calm day with
just riffles as i paddled the shoreline..now it was gray with
a light drizzle off and on and no wind..but the lake was heaving
in long,low waves..i stopped at the camp that has the big view
of the lake..i kind of recall even seeing a big radio tower at
the village and thinking "well if i dump maybe there might be
someone around..somewhere..maybe"..i finished my tea and went
off down the lake....THEN..just where the first big,smooth cliff
drops down into the lake..A HUGE OTTER..came right up in front
of the canoe..no more that a paddle length away and looked right
at me..i could see the water drops on his wiskers..i froze..
we looked at each other for a few seconds as he bobbed up and
down..then with a wet squeek he went under....my first otter..
really close..and in a place where if i belived such things i
could take as a "sign"....well maybe i did..i dug in and
made the rest of the trip down lake to the 27 island narrows
in great spirits and still count the otters as good buddys and
talk to them whenever i run into them "hey guys!!nice day to
be an otter!!..good luck fishing!!"