Wednesday, May 26, 2010

the alarm sounds at midnight and i don't even think about hitting the snooze.

coffees brewed and i hit the road to gbusks (gregs) house. his gear and canoe are loaded.

we are on the road by 1:15 to gather whiteh20 (kyle) and kiporby (dan).

at 2:45 the long drive begins.

its a boring drive thru minnesota. we hit the border at IF/FF by 9am and get thru without hassle. only about 6 more hours to drive til we hit red lake.

the drive becomes a lot more enjoyable and beautiful once we start traveling in canada...a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

red lake is infront of us now, its approximately 2:30. i hug and kiss the trailer...being very happy that this previously unproven design has gotten us this far.

stopping at the government center we meet claire to gather any pertinent info about our loop and the park in general. you can really see how much claire loves her job as assistant park manager. she knows that place so well. some additional campsites and fishing spots get marked on the maps and we head to the motel.

we eat dinner at howeys. from the outside the place looks like a total dump...looks are deceiving here though. turns out to be a very nice place with way above average food.
after dinner we are back in the room doing some final gear checks. suddenly this hits me..."i dont remember putting my PFD in the truck". sure as sh*t, i forgot it! unbelievable! ive never forgotten anything before, nothing. walked over to a gas station to see if they carried any, they didnt. i was told that a marina opens at 6am...i will have to go buy one in the morning. im officially embarrassed now.
maybe because of the PFD screw up, my trip EC gets hit up about 24 hours earlier than planned. :)
we had a blast in the motel room, slinging BS and laughing hard. little did we know, that would go on for the entire trip.
im not sure what time we hit the hay but we were all able to sleep well.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

we are all up early and the first thing on my mind is to obtain a life jacket. at the marina i find a serviceable one for $40. (cabelas would sell a vest of this quality for *about $15...oh well, i dont have a choice)

packed and ready, we head off into the unknown again. the 47 mile, 2 hour drive to our entry point...leano lake.
and what a drive it is! this really is "the bush". narrow, hilly, twisty, rough. claire told us we would see much bear crap on the road, and we did. we also saw 2 of what left those piles behind...the second one was a big boy too.
we reached the parking lot for leano and there is only one vehicle there, an suv from michigan. the unloading begins.

the portage to the lake use to be 60 meters, use to. they changed it awhile ago and is now closer to 150.



destination for today will be lunch lake. itll be a fairly short day for us.
on bootjack lake, kyle heard a rock falling and looks over...a big bear at the shoreline, heading back into the woods. greg has been fishing along the way and a few minutes later glances over at the shoreline...here comes the same bear, down a slab of rock and into the water. he evidentially really needed to get to the other side. it was a great episode to view. it swam across and clawed its way up the other shore and disappeared.
we did a lot of portages to get to lunch lake, but not many miles.
we settle into a small site on lunch lake, barely able to fit 4 small tents. itll be a semi-shared meal for tonight...brats.

about midnight it starts to rain. it will be far from the last rain we will see on this trip.
some photos from the day...

Friday, May 28, 2010

packing up wet always sucks. at that moment dan decides that the tarp will go up right away at every campsite we reach. that proved to be invaluable.

its another day of paddle/portage/paddle/portage, etc. as we make our way to mexican hat lake. "its getting brighter out" as we reach the lake :). we land at one incredible, 5+ star campsite, and what a view from it!

camp is set and many things are hung out to dry.

walleye dinner tonight, courtesy of dan and greg. dan kicks in some frying pan bread to boot.
this spot is one hot fishing area...dan and greg are catching a lot of eyes and pike.
its 4pm now and the sun is trying hard to burn the low clouds off. we have a nice afternoon but it doesnt last long...heavy clouds again.
kyle got wood (so to speak) and we will have a great fire tonight. we decide we will layover here tomorrow. hey, the weather has got to get better, right? hahah
fire gets sparked at 6:15.

a thunder storm moves in later and we scramble to our tents.
some photos from the day...

Saturday, May 29, 2010

it stormed all night long. it takes a little break this morning then begins again. we spend the morning under the tarp watching the rain and discussing all of the worlds problems. (kidding)

the waterfall isnt a raging torrent yet, with the rain weve seen i kinda thought it would be by now.
a pair of mergansers show up and begin fishing the falls...i never tire of watching mergansers fish. they are so graceful and fast, otters with feathers and wings.
still a hard, steady rain at noon. its been a very lazy day and im ok with that.
a layover day seems like a great idea when you envision blue skys and warm temps...not so much so when its the same rainy crap youve seen for 2 days now. i cant wait to move on tomorrow.
must be the cold and damp...the fire is started at 4pm.
dan and greg continue to pull fish out and its fun watching them. this trip has really cemented it for me...ill never take fishing gear again, fishing just isnt important to me anymore.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

shock of all shocks...it rained all night! lol

packed up wet, yet again. destination hansen lake.
the entire paddle to our next campsite is on a pool and drop system. its awesome!

as we paddle to our campsite on hansen we notice an outfitters outpost camp.

this day we will end up seeing 4 canoes and a few boats. today will be the only time we see anyone else on this trip.
we take a REALLY crappy site, downed trees everywhere. thats a first for us so far.

the wind has done a 180...blowing out of the west now. hopefully the weather will turn now. not a lot to write about today, we pretty much hunkered under the tarp to avoid the wind and on and off rain.
despite the weather we still enjoy a nice fire tonight. its so easy to find good firewood so close to camp...and has been the entire trip so far.

Monday, May 31, 2010

todays travel was more difficult than any previous one weve had...but still, no portages id consider difficult.

its still on and off rain as we move to camp at agean lake.

even with the challenging weather we still find ourselves grinning a lot...we are in one amazing canoe heaven.
the sky breaks a bit as we reach camp at agean and it looks like it might stay that way now. about damn time! :)
agean is in an old burn and all the trees are pretty young. this is the first site weve had where its been difficult to find decent firewood.
small fire tonight.

some photos from the day...

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

per usual it rained last night. this morning was different though...i got baked out of my tent by a sun in a clear blue sky. YES!

today we move to paull lake. the route looks interesting...intimate paddling, narrow areas.
we got some light sprinkles on the way but nothing even close to what we have had previously.
we get to a wonderful, raised island site, its gotta be 40 feet off the water.
there are a couple of widow makers here. one has been braced.

the scariest one hovers over the best tent pad here...we all avoid that spot.
a camp pet showed up for awhile.

three quarters of of the group stay up past midnight, talking around the fire. it was a hoot to say the least. if we had been in the bw we would have been hated by everyone on the lake...we got kinda loud. :)
previously, dan and greg did a little fishing and dan get the first laker of the trip.

some photos from the day...

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

sunshine! today we push to leano, for a quick out thursday morning.

once again, its a beautiful paddle on an intimate river system.
no words can truly do justice to what we have seen on this trip. you just have to experience it for yourself.
dan finds a great site on leano, our last night here. earlier in the trip we had all felt like we had been here for weeks, today we wonder where the time has gone.
we did many flooded portages today...not surprising to us though.
another great fire tonight. tomorrow we leave. hard to believe its over already. some photos from today...

Thursday, June 03, 2010

unbelievable....its over. we paddle out on a chilly morning and start the long drive home.

my sincere thanks to you guys...we had a great group and i had the trip of a lifetime, i hope you did too!
this little trip report does no justice to what woodland caribou really is. you just have to be there to understand it.
more photos from the trip, in no particular order...