The plan was simple for this trip. Bring as much fishing gear as we could fit in the canoe, find a spot to base camp on Alpine lake, and catch a bunch of fish. So we launched out of Seagull Lake, and took the tow from Seagull outfitters halfway across the lake to where motors are no longer permitted. The jon boat that we took made me laugh because it reminded me of my dads jon boat that Seth and I borrowed for a trip to Eagle Lake Wisconsin. On that trip we almost sunk that jon boat when all of our gear weighted it down so much water was coming in over the gunwales, we aren’t sitting much higher in the water this trip. 

Cutting the lake in half by using a motor was a great move. We unloaded all the gear, and still using our old aluminum canoe, packed it full and started the paddle. It was a fast, easy paddle to the portage of Alpine and we took our time the three trips it took us to get all the loose fishing equipment and that beast of a canoe across the portage. Just as we reached Alpine with our final trip it started to pour, we took a tarp out of the top of one of our packs (lord knows we have enough tarps) and hunkered under until the storm blew over. Just like that, the skies and Alpine Lake had both opened up for us. Yeah, we ended up on the 5 star site right on the peninsula and put a flag in that baby as ours for the rest of our trip. 

The trip in went just as planned. The benefit of packing in all that gear is you can turn a wilderness campsite into a wilderness camp, and have it become pretty dang comfortable to stay for the week. We did just that by setting up our big tent, cook shack and other tarps amongst bickers and laughs as only two friends doing this for seemingly the millionth time can do.