Day five in the BWCA

Tuesday June 20, 2006....day five.

Today we just hung around our new camp on West Fern. It was sunny and warm. Here's our camp unoccupied.

We watched a mommy loon with her babies. They were still fuzzy but getting too big for her to carry around on her back anymore. Daddy loon was there a lot also. They would spend the entire day diving for minnows and giving them to the babies.

We did some laundry...

and took a much needed bath (even though Ellie brought the camp shower and it heated up to be over a hundred degrees, I opted for a nice COLD dip in the lake....yikes)
We went out fishing and Ellie and Makita each caught another trout. We stuffed them with stove top stuffing, wrapped them in foil and baked them. That was really nummy.

Day four in the BWCA

The day started out really windy and rainy. It rained most of the night and continued into the morning. We stayed in our tents until almost 10am. It was rather cool too. Ellie had her long johns on. We went out fishing after lunch and I caught a laker (Thirston). We decided then to pack up and move from Powell lake to West Fern lake where we had heard (from a couple from Grand Rapids MN) that there was big lake trout. We went through Malaria portage again. The wind had pretty much stopped. We drug Thirston with us. On the way paddling to our campsite we all drug a line and Makita picked up a really nice lake trout and Dave picked up an equally large one as well.

We went to camp, cleaned the fish, fried two and baked one of the trout and ate trout until we couldn't eat anymore. Good stuff.

We were the only people on West Fern Lake.....just like on Powell the night before. It's so quiet here.

Day three in the BWCA

Words right from my journal: "Sunday June 18, 2006 Day 3. Got up around 6:30am. Packed up. Most everything was wet due to the rain that fell on and off all night. Had some coffee and paddled to the first portage. The wind was UNBELIEVABLE. We paddled to the first campsite on Gillis Lake. We thought about staying there but it was only 9:30 am and we thought maybe we could go further. So we tried. We made it a couple more lakes and then we were forced back (turn back = our official name for this situation). Dave and I would have gone further but Makita was skeptical and Ellie refused. So after going across the horrible muddy Malaria portage twice we carried everything back and stayed on Lake Powell. Ellie thinks she saved our lives...she could be right. We had "Turn Back Stew" (potato soup with spam in it) for lunch and took baths in the freezing lake. That evening we had chicken stir fry and Ellie made apple muffin cake with a fresh apple baked in it. What a nice treat. We were in bed by 8:30 pm. "
Makita found a golf club on the portage enterance from Bat lake to Gillis lake. When we came back several days later it was gone. The Forestry Service probably removed it.

Day two in the BWCA

Saturday June 17th was day two. We were all still pretty beat from the first day and someone suggested we stay on Bat lake for the day to try our hand at fishing for Lake Trout. No one hesitated to agree with this. We could move forward the following day. It seemed like we had all the time in the world to get to our final destination, Ogishkemuncie. "Ogish" was rumored to have some of the best Walleye fishing available in the BWCA. But in the meantime we would see about these Lakers. So we rigged our rods. Ellie and Makita put on the recommended three way swivel with a heavy sinker and some kind of wild crazy spoon. While Dave and I opt for a more conventional crank bait. Deep diving of course but with no added weight. Well we barely got off shore and Makita hooked a trout. Ellie caught one too and we went in and had a fish fry.

We went back out fishing in the afternoon and Dave caught two lakers (he's by now changed to the suggested three way swivel method) and Ellie caught another one. This time we fried two and tried "gutting and gilling" the third and baked it on the fire in foil with butter and onion inside. It was very good.

Day one in the BWCA

A view from the top...................


Good golly Molly what a day! We portaged our butts off. Lots more walking than paddling. We got up before 7am, drove to the Round lake landing and piled in the packs. We each started with one pack but before we left home we ended up with a total of six packs. Me and Ellie would carry two and the guys would carry one pack and then a canoe. So it was three trips on each portage.

We portaged a total of seven portages the first day. None where too long but all where pretty elevated and very rocky. When I get a copy of Ellie's photo's I'll post one of a portage I know she took a picture of. We stopped part way through to have a little lunch and to drink two of the four beers we drug along. Our good deed of the day was when a man from Roseville Minnesota and his two young sons where using the same portage as us, except heading in the opposite direction, and we helped them carry two of their packs and some other items as we went back to get our second load.

We had originally intended on going into Peter lake the first day but only made it to Bat Lake. We setup camp on a big rock hill with a beautiful view. Pictured here is Ellie and Dave up in the camp.




Ellie made us pizza over the fire for supper and it was awesome.
They should have named Bat lake "Snake Lake" because we never saw one bat but did see several snakes. Each time Makita or Ellie would see one they would scream. Good grief. Dave would scream too just to make fun of the "girls".

We made it back....

This was taken the morning we left to go in to the BWCA. As you can see we had a lot of gear. Stay tuned for lots more photo's and stories.

Talk to you Later.........

Well I'm off now until the 25th having another Boundary Waters adventure. My pack is way too heavy. We're going to try to fish for Lake Trout this time. Most of our time in the past has always been spent on Walleye but the lakes we're visiting this time are predominately filled with only Lakers. So talk to you all when I return with stories and photos.

Happy Fathers Day

To all the fathers out there....have a great Fathers day this Sunday the 18th!

Saturday at Winstock

I got to go on Charlie Daniels bus. He was super. And he sure can play. Very entertaining.
Little Big Town put on quite a performance as well. They played most of their new (only) album "The Road to Here" including their hit "Boondocks".

Blake Shelton...what more can I say.
Terri Clark rocked the house. Her new husband, who is in her band, is from Grand Rapids Minnesota.
Johnny VanZant of Lenard Skynard...good stuff.

I also met a six pack!

Friday at Winstock

Winter arrived on Friday. And of course all we had with us was shorts and tank tops. So we had to do a little digging to find something warm to wear. I had to tie a bandana around my head to keep my ears from freezing off. The winds were none stop howling at over 30 miles per hour. We had to put the canopy down on the camper because it started to tear from the constant wind. I wore my pj bottoms under my pants in an effort to stay alive. But hey...we're Minnesotans and we can withstand anything. We'll actually sit outside for seven hours straight drinking and singing along.

Phil Vasar rocked the house. He was awsome as usual. I've seen him before. Great performer. Plays the piano (like ring'n a bell???).

Shannon Brown was a trooper, performing with the wind coming right at her. The temps fell somewhere into the 40's. It started to sleet. Looked like snow.

Ricky McDonald of Lonestar was the greatest. Someone in the audience threw him a bomber hat and he wore it for the rest of the show.

Thursday night at Winstock

Thursday at Winstock was a pretty good day. It was warm and sunny. We set up camp and had some beer (Bill so generously brought a case of Hams.....in cans). It was plain old nasty.













Then we went down to the concert grounds and had speghetti at the Winstead Fire Department's fund raiser. That was nummy.







And we played some games of Corn Hole (more on that later...hey check out the awsome corn hole board... more on that later too).

And then we sat around the fire and had a few cocktails.......good grief, what a bunch of hillbillys.

Going to Winstock

This weekend I'll be heading off to the Winstock Country Music Festival. Here's the line up:

Winstock 2006 Schedule

Thursday, June 8, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. - Winsted Fire Dept. Spaghetti Dinner near the beer tent with music by The Beer Daddys

Friday, June 9,
4:30 p.m. - White Creek
6:35 p.m. - Roy Clark
8:40 p.m. - Phil Vassar

10:45 p.m. - Lonestar

Saturday, June 10
12:45 p.m. - Diamondback
2:50 p.m. - Jamie O'Neal
4:55 p.m. - Charlie Daniels
7 p.m. - Blake Shelton
9:05 p.m. - Terri Clark
10:30 p.m. - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Emerging Artists Stage
Friday, June 9
5:45 p.m. - The Law
7:50 p.m. - Shannon Brown
9:55 p.m. - Shannon Brown

Saturday, June 10
11 a.m. - Pre-show beer tent bash with music by White Creek
2 p.m. - The Lost Trailers
4:05 p.m. - The Lost Trailers
6:10 p.m. - Little Big Town
8:15 p.m. - Little Big Town

Maggie's Puppies recap

I recieved this photo and the following email from my friend Ellie last night:

"This is Jimbo saying his farewell to Thor. He got to spend the night and tonight he is with his new family in Maple Plain - he has a 2 year old girl and an 8 month old boy to take care of. His Mommy and Daddy (Jimmy is his Father's Day present) are very nice - so excited that they showed up to get him 2 hours early! Since they are avid Nascar fans, his new name is Bristol. It seems very lonely here tonight- we were getting ready to keep him...

So to recap - KimKay is named Abbey Kay with David, Jimmy is Bristol, Frank is in Aitkin now known as Louie, Greenie is in Brooklyn Park called Elphaba, Brutus , my favorite, is in Buffalo - hope he is OK - I will have to call her..."

More Trout pictures

The trip out to Trout is always fun. As you can see by these photos we haul a canoe on our boats to Trout Lake so we can use them to paddle into Little Trout Lake. Anthony (my little boat) has a new addition this year. Makita and Mike built him the "aircraft carrier" for Al to ride on. This makes it really nice to travel across Lake Vermilion and Trout. You can also see that sweet Maggie May got to come with us on our adventure. She's a good dog.
Here's Maggie May on a canoe ride during a firewood hauling expedition.
And my friend Ellie caught this nice walleye in Little Trout. She's a great angler. And a great fish fryer. Here she is just a frying away over the fire one evening.
Makita is outdone by Miss Ellie on this particular outing.....