My little journal from this trip doesn't say anything at all about "before" and "after", but there are some photos. Since I don't know if these photos were en route to Minnesota, or on the way home, I am choosing to describe them as "before". None of us remember 1977 that accurately in 2021, right? (Some of you weren't even born yet!)

We took the car ferry, SS Spartan (seems appropriately named for us) from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin on what looks like it was a cloudy, windy day. Mary Helen would have been almost eight years old and Edwin was five. We lived in Port Huron, Michigan.

If you look closely, you can see our car waiting to be loaded onto the ferry. Pale blue Mercury, Grumman canoe on top. Front row, far right.

And this is a view of the SS Spartan's sister ship, SS Badger, also in port at Ludington at that time. [It is still doing lake crossings today, but the Spartan was retired in 1979.]

As we had done in 1973, we planned on leaving the children with our friends Merodie and Paul in Minneapolis. By this time they had three children of their own, and they had purchased a home on a hill in the neighborhood called "Prospect Park". It was our first time to see it.

Mary Helen and Edwin knew Heidi, Scott and Heather pretty well. Their family had spent a week with us on the farm at Holly in 1975. It didn't take long for them to be comfortable with the situation, and we were confident that all would go well.

I do not have an exact date for this trip, but I do know it was in mid-June of 1977. We were excited to be exploring some of the Quetico, and we were thankful to have good friends who would provide a safe, fun environment for our children.

Day One:

After several canoe trips, the journey to Ely is beginning to take on a "traditional" feel. We had our lunch at the Ely A&W, and then headed up to Moose Lake Landing. It was rainy. Saw a deer on the way to the landing.

Left Moose Lake Landing at 2:30 PM. Spotted one heron early on our way.

The weather cleared and we camped at Sucker Lake in a birch forest. The temperature was 68 degrees. (This is the first time we had taken a little thermometer.)

We had rain in the night, thunderstorms. THE RAIN FLY KEPT US DRY!! YEA!! [Our first trip with a rain fly.]

There was a resident turtle at this campsite.

We broke camp at 8:15. Paddled around through a corner of Birch Lake to Basswood. Went through Canadian Customs and Prairie Portage.

Sometime on our way today I snapped this photo of Spartan1 with his maps, planning the route. Still in his canvas Army rain jacket, and with the jungle hat on his head.

Three long portages in the rain. [Bayley Bay of Basswood Lake, North Portage (128 rods) to Sunday Lake, then 193 rods to Meadows, and 140 rods to Agnes.]

Louisa Falls is pretty. Would be more enjoyable if it weren't pouring rain. There was a party of girls at the falls when we were there.

The weather cleared off about 2:30 or 3 PM.

We camped on a little island in Agnes Lake, 4 PM. The flowers are pretty here: columbine, roses, daisies. We had a really enjoyable stay here. The temp at supper was 68 degrees.

As we were enjoying this beautiful afternoon Neil broke out the blackberry brandy and we sat on a rock to have a sip or two. I jokingly said that I should do a sexy portrait of him, since it was early in the trip and he was still clean in his cutoffs and his Camp Easton Staff t-shirt. The two photos below were the result. Notice that in one photo (the one we shared with some of the tee-totaling side of the family) he is not holding the bottle. We took our brandy in a plastic Colgate 100 mouthwash bottle that we had emptied out before the trip. These are my all-time favorite photos of my canoe partner.

We enjoyed a beautiful misty morning. Neil took a photo of me cooking breakfast over the fire.

The sun made for some nice views from our island campsite.

It was a pleasant time paddling on Agnes Lake. We saw a mink on the shore at one point.

Ate our lunch at the portage from Agnes to Reid Lake. Neil had an idea that we could get to Reid and then portage over to Hurlbert, to Trant, and go down Kahshahpiwi. But we had trouble finding a portage out of Reid. We portaged into a little lake that had no outlet (at least none that we could find), then we portaged back into Reid. Found no obvious campsite so we made our own.

It was a gorgeous day all day, but it was obvious that a thunderstorm was brewing, so we were glad to have a camp set up. We endured more flies and mosquitoes than any time so far, and the weather did seem threatening. Temperature: 66 degrees.

I always love to find a wild iris in the spring. Some people call these "blue flags". They always seem more like purple to me.

We had a very noisy, windy, scary thunderstorm in the night. Even though a thunderstorm isn't fun--the whole "tent in the wilderness" setup doesn't feel like much protection--it is interesting to hear the thunder echo off the rocks and reverberate over and over as a storm is coming closer. We survived just fine.

What a wet morning! It was rainy and stormy all of the night before, and still raining in the morning. After breakfast we broke a wet camp and got on the lake at 7:40. Since our proposed route didn't seem to be possible, we backtracked to Agnes Lake.

All day we battled the rain and the wind. But at least the route we were now planning would be smaller lakes. Many short portages, too.

We had our lunch at the portage to Silence Lake at 11 AM. It was a short portage, and then we crossed the lake quickly in heavy chop, with a wind assist.

My notebook now says "bluebirds". I don't ever remember seeing bluebirds in the canoe country, but perhaps??

Made the 40-rod portage to Sultry Lake, a short carry to Summer Lake, and another little hop to Noon Lake. After one more short portage we were at Shade Lake and we decided to camp about 2:30 on a point. It was still rainy and windy. The tent and rainfly were very wet--and it seemed like everything else was damp.

There was a partial clearing at 3:45. Some of the stuff got dried out a bit. Then more rain. More sun. More rain, etc. A very changeable day. The temperature was 66 degrees.

Another group (3 canoes) paddled by. It looked like they had planned on this campsite. Sorry.

Day one starts at 1 am as we make the drive from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Ely, Minnesota. The drive was relatively uneventful and we arrived at Jordan's Outfitters at about 7 am. With the paperwork done and the gear loaded we are on our way to the entry point. (We have had great experiences with Jordan's and will continue to use them for our future trips.) We get dropped off and decide that a single portage is the way to go for us. We make it to water by about 8 am and that's when the rain starts. We both get wet pretty quick so we decide to make the paddle without donning our rain gear. The rain is intermittent and isn't all that bad at all. We make it through the rapids going into Gabbro Lake with relative ease and start making our way across the lake. We meet a couple on their way out and they offer us leeched and some great advice about what sites are open on the lake. Turns out they are just leaving one of the sites we had our eyes on so we beat feet for that site. (Camp 1715.) One other bonus was that they told us the left plenty of firewood. (To the couple that we got everything from "Thank You!" it was all greatly appreciated.) We arrived at camp between 9 and 9:30 am and start setting up camp. With the tent up, the fire started, and the water pumped it was time to get dry and try our hand at some fishing. We were able to land a couple small northern, 14"-16" range and have a small snack. The clouds continued to roll in and it started raining again. We made our steaks over the fire between the rain spells and decided to retire to the tent about 5 pm. A couple of games of cards later and we were ready to call it a night.  

This was a beautiful morning! We were up at 5:30. The duck and the chipmunks were still entertaining us.

Left camp at 7:45, and left Prairie Portage at 8:30. Saw two loons really close on Moose Lake. Arrived at Moose Lake Landing at 10:15 and packed up for the road trip. The nicest weather yet--sunny and breezy.

And another memorable canoe trip comes to an end. [It would be another three years before we returned to the Border Canoe Country. In 1978 we took a short 4-day trip in Algonquin Provincial Park with our eight-year-old daughter, and in 1980 there would be another trip in Quetico, one that included a return to the Namakan River Loop.]