Day One - That morning I took our Nalgene bottles out of the freezer and brought them with us. The night before I had filled them up with water. We drove out to Vosburgh’s on Moose Lake and met Paul Riegert who does the tows for them. After loading up the towboat we took the 20 minute ride to Prairie Portage, located on the southern end of Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. Lynn took the food barrel down first and then went over to the Ranger Station to pick up our camping permit.

Meanwhile I took the rest of the equipment over the portage. When I was done, Lynn was still waiting in line, so I took her place. I paid the overnight camping fees ($15.00 per person per night) and also paid for two 7-day conservation fishing licenses ($25.00 each). Lynn talked to the ranger about going over the rules & special booklet they have on our way out on the 13th. (this orientation would let us do the same thing at VNO for our Quetico bound customers so they can get through the Ranger Station quicker). A time was set up and then we were on our way.

We paddled through Inlet Bay, to Basswood Lake and then to the Burke Lake portage. The portage starts off on a big sandy beach and ends up on a nice sandy beach with a flat, sandy 84 rod portage in between the two lakes. One of the easiest portages we have ever done!

Burke Lake is very pretty with clear water that gives you a view 20 feet down. We paddled north to a 16 rod portage which led to a creek which we took for about a half mile until the water got too low to continue. We had to get out and walk for about 100 feet. The creek had a nice firm, sandy bottom. The next portage is about 45 rods and leads to North Bay.

We paddled northeast towards a grassy creek. We had to look hard for the entry into the creek, it was sort of camouflaged by the reeds in the lake, but when we finally got right in front of the opening we spotted it. I mentioned to Lynn that we had other customers who had difficulty finding it too. We had to push and walk to canoe for a short while until we hit the beaver dam. After the dam it was easy going to the 14 rod portage to South Lake, then the 12 rod trail into West Lake and the short 4 rod portage into Shade Lake.

We found a nice campsite on a big point on Shade Lake.

This is a very pretty lake with lake trout, smallmouth bass, walleye and some Indian pictographs on the north side of the lake. It also has a number of campsites on it. Kahshahpiwi Lake is just southeast from here. After a nice dinner we cleaned up and took it easy. I discovered that there was still a little ice left in my Nalgene bottle and Lynn’s bottle which had been left in the food barrel, was still half ice.

Day Two – In the morning we had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and hot cocoa. Then we headed over to the northwest side of the lake to check out the Indian pictographs. These pictographs look like sort of abstract thunderbird symbols. After that we began looking for the 30 rod portage into Noon Lake. There is good northern pike fishing in Noon Lake. We followed the northern shore to another short portage into Summer Lake. At the end of Summer Lake there is a 16 rod up and over trail into Sultry Lake. The maps show a 40 rod portage into Silence Lake but the pond was all dried up to it was much longer. I had Lynn pace it off and she counted 70 rods. Lynn has always been pretty good on pacing/counting steps for a portage, so I’m sure it was accurate.

As soon as we hit Silence Lake I knew why this was one of Dave Sempert’s (pack room manager) favorite lakes. It is about 2 ½ miles long and mostly narrow. Big cliffs line the shore and the water is gorgeous.

Dave told us about a nice campsite on the north side. It was a beautiful day as we paddled up the lake. We found the northern site was occupied. We talked to the 2 guys who were staying there and found out that they intended on staying 2-3 days there. Lynn & I paddled back southward and grabbed a site on an eastern point. It was kind of open but had a great view of the whole lake.

I thought about taking the site directly across from it since it was more protected but we would miss seeing the sunsets.

After setting up camp we fished with bobbers off our campsite and caught a few smallies & pike. All were released and we had our steaks for dinner that night. Lynn’s ice in her Nalgene had finally melted but was still cool and nice for a lemonade/tequila cocktail. We sat and watched a magnificent sunset and then went off to bed.

Day Three - Most of the third day was spent hanging around camp, reading books, throwing out a bobber to fish and just enjoying the beautiful surroundings. I read the new Bob Cary book; “Fear was not an Option”

which is about his days in the Pacific during World War II and Lynn was rereading one of her favorites. That night we were treated to a spectacular show of northern lights.

Day Four - Saturday we planned on fishing just about the whole day. I set up our trolling rods; Lynn’s with a new style #8 Deep Diving Shad Rap and mine with a blue & white Tail Dancer #9. We started paddling towards the north side of the lake. I caught the first fish which was a northern pike, about 7 pounds. Then I caught another small pike.

We spotted a couple promising looking bays when we reached the end of the lake so we switched to our casting rods set up with ½ a nightcrawler and an orange or yellow jig. Lynn was hitting some nice bass, between 2 ½ & 4 pounds. It was great fun.

We noticed that the guys at the campsite were leaving so we waited until they had left and had lunch there, checking out the site at the same time. I could see why Dave liked this spot so much. A good view and some good fishing spots close by. After lunch we switched back to our trolling rods and Lynn started catching some very nice sized walleye. We trolled back and forth there for a while and then headed back down towards our site. In the narrows just before our site I caught a few nice pike and Lynn picked up another nice walleye.

We stopped by a small set of islands just north of our campsite and I cleaned the fish. We left the fish remains scattered on the rock in hopes of attracting a couple of the eagles we had spotted. Even before we got back to our campsite there was an eagle already soaring over the rocks, checking out what we had left for him.

I took out my regular camera and Lynn got her waterproof Pentax digital.

I got the stills and so did Lynn, but she set the camera on video and got some good “eagle soaring” footage. Now it was time to prepare dinner and eat. I had cleaned one smallie, one walleye and the pike. With so much fish we decided on absolutely no side dishes, just lightly breaded fried fish. It was great!

Day Five - During the morning I finished reading my Bob Cary book by 10 a.m. But then; Sunday! Football games! I always take a small German short wave radio with me when I go into the woods. That way I can check up on what to expect for weather and wind. But Lynn and I are big football fans, so we had planned on trying to pick up the noon games. The reception wasn’t great until I took some wire and attached one end of it to the antenna of the radio and the other to the fire grate we had brought with us. I hung the grate high up on a nearby tree and was able to pick up WELY and the Viking’s game. They lost big time which was a bummer, but since I am first of all a Chicago Bear’s fan, it wasn’t too terrible.

After the game we went fishing again. We did some trolling and caught (& released) some more northern pike and some bass. When we got back to camp we made dinner and started to get our gear in order and ready for our move on Monday. John used our satellite phone and checked in with the shop. Kevin answered and let us know that he was not a new dad yet and warning us that there was going to be a couple isolated thunder storms coming our way. That evening, in the tent, I heard some pitter patter of a few rain drops but nothing ever came from it that night.

Day Six - After a quick breakfast on Monday morning we started breaking down camp. The skies were getting dark and making noise. We managed to pack everything up except for the tarp which we were able to duck under for the first shower of the day. Just as it was ending there was a lightning strike that hit the campsite across from us. That got our attention!

After all was clear we packed up the canoe and headed over to the 8 rod portage into Agnes Lake. We planned to check out the white moose pictographs on Agnes and then head south. As we paddled we kept an eye on the skies. We followed the west side of the shoreline down so we could run for cover if it started to lightning again. We had planned to troll for some lake trout in Agnes, but thought it was best not to travel with a lightning rod.

When we got down to the bottom half of Agnes we noticed a peninsula on the west side where the Canadians/Quetico had let a fire burn that summer. It had mostly burnt low, searing the ground, but most of the trees were still okay.

We traveled through a narrows with high cliffs and then the wind and rain started picking up again. This part of Agnes is the deepest in all of the Quetico, 300 feet deep.

With the weather being bad we didn’t get a chance to stop at Louisa Falls. Louisa is very unique. Midway up the falls is a natural bowl that has been carved out of the solid rock, forming a wilderness Jacuzzi of sorts. At the top of the falls is a lovely location that offers a panoramic view of the south end of Agnes Lake. Be careful when climbing this path as it can be dangerous footing when wet. We finally landed at the 140 rod portage into Meadow Lake. It was on this long portage that my heal spurs began to act up. I should have been wearing my boots for this long, rocky trail.

This area is called the Meadows Portages. We saw two groups of people on this trail. After we were done with this portage, my heels were also done for. We stopped and had some lunch, trying to rest up my feet. Then we paddled across Sunday Lake to the “Singing Brook” portage & campsite. With my heels hurting so badly, we decided to camp there. The site is not the best but it does have a pretty view of the brook and the rushing water lulls you to sleep at night.

Day Seven – On our last day the blue skies were back. We had about a 2 hour paddle back to Prairie Portage. We paddled through the south end of Burke Lake, passing by three island campsites. There was an 84 rod portage to Bayley Bay which was a totally flat, even and sandy trail. The view at Bayley was magnificent, brilliant golden trees at the water’s edge and a long, soft sandy shoreline.

After taking a few pictures we said goodbye to the Quetico, loaded up the canoe and took off. Paddling towards us was one of our canoe customers. I knew they were ours as soon as I saw the black trim on the canoe. We are the only outfitter to have black trim on all our Kevlar canoes. It was Bill Hohengarten (nicknamed HoHo) and friend David Knudsen. They were headed out for an 11 day trip. After a short conversation, they headed to the portage and we headed south. Once in Inlet Bay we spotted the Canadian Ranger Station.

Once we hit the Ranger Station, I took the gear & canoe across the portage and then joined Lynn for the meeting with the ranger. We went over the orientation book and all the rules & regulations and then we were entered as being qualified to go over Quetico rules for our customers.

Paul showed up with the towboat on the south side of Prairie Portage and took us down the Moose Lake chain to Vosburgh’s.

We picked up our Suburban and loaded it up and then headed to town. Before we hit Ely we stopped at the U.S. Customs station just east of Ely and checked in. Then we hit the Dairy Queen for some bacon cheeseburgers & chocolate malts and headed home to shower up.

Another great trip into the Quetico. We had some super days for fishing, checked out some new equipment, had 6-7 days of good weather (and some of it was down right hot!) and 3 days of just kicking back.