The North
I have returned from the Boundary Waters. It was fucking awesome.
Though having to come out the way we went in really sucked, due to a mistake by a group member who accidentally locked his keys in another group member's car. The original plan was to: Go in at Wood Lake(196r from the road); Paddle and portage through to Hula(40r), then paddle and portage to Good Lake(144r) This route was tough only due to the knee-deep mud.. yes, knee deep mud at some places, which sucks with a 80lb canoe on your back.. and no, it's not a time-canoe. We stayed on Good Lake for 3 nights. The original plan was to go out through Moose Lake, and drive to Wood Lake,but by the time we realized the mistake we were already at our second site on Basswood Lake. Instead of just cutting our losses, and going back out the way we came, one of the members of the group advised that we should go out a "short cut" which well, didn't exist. We went up a beaver dam and paddled to a mouth of a stream which was too shallow to continue down, especially with all the fallen trees in our way. So, we paddled back, went down the beaver dam, went to a different beaver dam, and portaged to Indiana Lake(only about 3r). This is where we decided we should just go back out the way we came, only in a round-about way because we had come so far to just backtrack all the way. Which meant.... going across indiana Lake, portage back to Good Lake(100r), Back to Hula,then Back to Wood. Which means we did about oh, close to 450r of portaging plus paddling many, many miles. http://www.canoetrip.com/route6.html for a better idea of what the area looks like. FYI, 1 mile is 320r. Which means on average, because of having to go back for multiple trips for gear there was close to 5 miles of portaging. The distance wasn't the problem, it was the damn mud, and heavy Canoe that I helped carry. Still, I would not trade that experience for anything in the world. For a few days, I felt like I was completely free. It was just me, the fish, the guys and the mosquitoes.... lots and lots of fucking mosquitoes! It was a great time, I broke all of my self-imposed restrictions for training.
Caught many fish more northern than I could keep track of, the largest was a 31.5inch, 7.5 lb Northern... it was a damn good fight. Also caught Smallmouth Bass, those fuckers are terrible fun to catch.
On the clear nights, looking up was wort it all. I just got back, and damn.... I want to go right back up there.
Though having to come out the way we went in really sucked, due to a mistake by a group member who accidentally locked his keys in another group member's car. The original plan was to: Go in at Wood Lake(196r from the road); Paddle and portage through to Hula(40r), then paddle and portage to Good Lake(144r) This route was tough only due to the knee-deep mud.. yes, knee deep mud at some places, which sucks with a 80lb canoe on your back.. and no, it's not a time-canoe. We stayed on Good Lake for 3 nights. The original plan was to go out through Moose Lake, and drive to Wood Lake,but by the time we realized the mistake we were already at our second site on Basswood Lake. Instead of just cutting our losses, and going back out the way we came, one of the members of the group advised that we should go out a "short cut" which well, didn't exist. We went up a beaver dam and paddled to a mouth of a stream which was too shallow to continue down, especially with all the fallen trees in our way. So, we paddled back, went down the beaver dam, went to a different beaver dam, and portaged to Indiana Lake(only about 3r). This is where we decided we should just go back out the way we came, only in a round-about way because we had come so far to just backtrack all the way. Which meant.... going across indiana Lake, portage back to Good Lake(100r), Back to Hula,then Back to Wood. Which means we did about oh, close to 450r of portaging plus paddling many, many miles. http://www.canoetrip.com/route6.html for a better idea of what the area looks like. FYI, 1 mile is 320r. Which means on average, because of having to go back for multiple trips for gear there was close to 5 miles of portaging. The distance wasn't the problem, it was the damn mud, and heavy Canoe that I helped carry. Still, I would not trade that experience for anything in the world. For a few days, I felt like I was completely free. It was just me, the fish, the guys and the mosquitoes.... lots and lots of fucking mosquitoes! It was a great time, I broke all of my self-imposed restrictions for training.
Caught many fish more northern than I could keep track of, the largest was a 31.5inch, 7.5 lb Northern... it was a damn good fight. Also caught Smallmouth Bass, those fuckers are terrible fun to catch.
On the clear nights, looking up was wort it all. I just got back, and damn.... I want to go right back up there.