We met a solo paddler named Mona that was making the border trip all the way through to Lake Superior that we saw at each portage. She said she would put up a trip video on Youtube, but I haven't found it yet. I told her to reference it here, too. Most of the other groups seemed to be planning on staying on Knife. One group of 2 canoes going west had a duffer in each sitting sideways with their feet over the side dressed as Marcel Marceau, makeup and all. Not sure what was up with that, or if we wanted to know. We said hello and kept paddling. Then we had to go around a group of 9 in 4 canoes floating aimlessly next to the Bonnie portage. They didn't seem to be interacting with each other or us and looked pretty disgruntled. Getting off the main route was seeming like a good idea.

There were only a few other groups on the Knife portages, some of them single portaging, so they got through fast. We had about 200 lbs of gear, including the canoe, for two 65 year olds, so we were double portaging. We wanted to make it as far as possible and were hoping for the usual west wind to help us along. It was mostly from the west, but not strong enough to help much, but still better than a head wind. We made it through pretty fast and decided to aim for Kekakabic. I remember some difficult landings and put ins along the way, but none of the portages are too bad. Bonnie lake portage was a little hillier than I remembered, though. We made it to Kekakabic about 5:30 and were happy the 1st campsite to the west was open. We were pretty beat. Rain was threatening, but we just wanted to get camp set up, eat dinner and collapse, so we didn't set up the tarp. Dinner was homemade BBQ brisket soft tacos, instant rice and rehydrated dried Ranch Style Beans. It started sprinkling off and on while we were cooking and really raining when we were sitting down to eat, so we grabbed the food and ducked into the tent to eat. We really should have put up the tarp, but it was just one more thing to put up and take down for a short visit. I spent 10 minutes frantically looking for my hat only to finally realize I had put on my raincoat and it was under the coat with the string holding it on around my neck. I chalk that up to fatigue. I also counted 20 raised inflamed bites around my neck that lasted a few days. I didn't spray down because we had permethrin treated clothes and I didn't see mosquitos. I think it must have been a black fly. We got everything cleaned up and the bear bag and ursaks stowed and then finally crashed.

Route: Sucker to Birch, 7R, Birch to Carp, 51R, Carp to Seed and Knife 24R, 22R,34R,73R. Knife to Bonnie 42R, Bonnie to Spoon 32R, Spoon to Pickle 20R, Pickle to Kekakabic 85R 14.3 miles total: 10.6 miles paddling, 3.7 miles portaging due to double portaging  Best tent pad at back on the right

Lakes: Red Rock

With no set plans for the trip, we decided to take a day trip to the southern end Red Rock Lake today. We paddled casually so I decided to try trolling for the first time in a canoe. We weren't across the first bay before I was pulling in a large Northern Pike. Boring way to fish but it got the job done. The temperature starts to climb and by lunchime it is almost HOT! We eat lunch on Red Rock Lake and watch a couple of Bald Eagles perched nearby so we decide to see just how close we can get. The answer is pretty close. Guess we are not scary looking. We head back to Alpine close to dinner time, take a quick dip to refresh ourselves then eat Brats for dinner. Dad and I convince the ladies that it is a good evening to fish so we head out. We paddle into a cove that does not look like Small Mouth territory but I was wrong. I barely get to fish because my wife sets a personal record by bringing in a dozen or so in less than an hour. I'm so proud of her and my mother for learning to fish. They get so excited when they have one on the line. Paddled back to camp by moonlight. It was peaceful.

We had Egg Taquitos with sausage and cheese for breakfast. We used dehydrated ground beef and added sausage seasoning. It worked out pretty well. We spent the rest of the morning setting up the camp and getting water for the sunshower for hand washing and dishes, and filtering drinking water. The new gravity filter is fast, but only holds 3 liters at a time, so it takes several refills to get much water filtered. Kind of a pain. We made BLT's for lunch and headed out to go fishing. I caught a walleye around the end of the island, but we weren't getting much action after that and Dan kept catching rocks on the bottom, so we moved to the end of the lake near the Roe portage. I caught and released a small northern we probably should have kept, but we seemed to be getting several bites. We decided to fry up the walleye and make fish cakes with a tuna packet for dinner. We got back to camp about 5 and rehydrated green beans, filleted the fish and fried it with the fish cakes and made instant mashed potatoes. Our dinners are way too complicated sometimes. It was a warm evening, which we figured out when we tried to go to sleep. The tent was uncomfortably hot, but rain was predicted, so we kept the rain fly on.

We got up the next morning and had cereal so we could go out fishing earlier. Dan caught and released a small Walleye down near the 25 rod portage to Shepo. I walked the portage to see if it would be better to go out the 2 portages. It was rocky, rooty, boggy and hot. That end of Shepo was shallow and rocky and full of lily pads. We decided to take the longer higher portage we came in on the next day.

We went back to camp and had PB&J sandwiches, did camp chores, took showers with the Sun shower and did laundry. It was hot, but a little late. Most of the laundry didn't get dry, so we hung it up in the tent. We put paracord along the top of the tent at home, so there was room, but it still wasn't dry in the morning, so we had to pack some of it up damp. We got to bed at midnight. It was even hotter this night, which made it even harder to sleep. Not sleeping was getting to be a trend. We could hear lots of birds at this site. Also, lots of biting flies in the afternoons, but there were several butterflies, and several bunny sightings. We liked the site a lot. the main downsides were the steep hike to the lake and the latrine. We didn't see any other people for the 2 days there. Flowers on latrine trail

I didn't think much of Hatchet lake to stay on, but Hatchet river is really pretty. We're a little biased against it though since it is the area we got lost in the last time.

We got through the Ima portage without running into anyone else fortunately since it is a tight portage at the other end. The paddle across Ima and down the Jordan narrows is another long paddle with a short portage in the middle into Jordan. We saw a couple of groups headed to Ima after the portage so we were pretty worried about getting a site on Jordan, but the 1st 2 sites of the 3 sites were vacant. Dan asked which site I really wanted to try to get and I said the one on the far south end. There is not a portage in that area, so there wouldn't be much traffic, fortunately it was open too. We unloaded and started setting up camp at about 4pm. We got the damp laundry out and hung it up on the paracord in the tent since it was late.

Campsite 1201 on Jordan has a nice landing on a small beach, and an open area for the canoe storage. It is an open campsite with a few trees for shade behind the kitchen area. The kitchen area doesn't have close trees, but the trees behind it were ok for the hand washing station and utensil bag. We rigged the tarp at the back of the site since more rain was possible and we needed it for shade when we got there. The site has several long flat rock areas that serve as sidewalks to the place we put the tent. The best place for the tent is probably where we had the tarp, but it would be in the way. The tent area we picked wasn't too level and had some roots to work around. We hung the still damp and now slightly smelly laundry up. I put mine in the tent, because it felt pretty warm in there and there was some rain threatening. Dan hung his out on the point, but had to get it in when some light showers came through. The worst part of the site was a medium sized rodent of some sort had pooped all over the place. I was a little worried it was a skunk, because I could smell something skunky over near the bushes next to the fire grate. We never saw it fortunately. We scraped up the ones that were a danger to walking with some sticks and moved them out of the way. We had saved the MH Pad Thai for a travel day. We boiled some extra noodles and rehydrated some green beans since it is a little short on noodles. We got everything cleaned up and the Ursaks and bear bags up and got to bed a little earlier for once. A rain storm came through during the night that must have had some wind, because the back of the tarp came loose and the gear packs got wet that were under it. Sagus to Fraser-Thomas 57R, Thomas to Hatchet 7R, 44R, 14R, Hatchet to Ima 28 R, Ima to Jordan 13R, Total 10.7 miles, 9 miles paddling, 1.5 miles portaging.

Dinner was Tuna Noodle casserole made with a flour, butter and Nido milk with rehydrated celery and mushrooms and cheese on top. and a side of rehydrated Niblets canned corn. The site has an open rock area to eat on overlooking the lake, pretty slanted all the way down to the lake, but workable. We did dishes and started packing up for the next day's move.

Lakes: Owl, Tuscarora

Although we wanted to stay two nights on Crooked, we decide because of Mom's shoulder that a loooong last day of portaging would be tough so we decide to move on to Tuscarora. Before leaving Crooked however, I do manage to catch the biggest pike I've landed in the three trips to canoe country. I could leave a happy man! We all agree that Tuscarora is a beautiful lake for out last night. We get a great site and head out to scout around the lake. No fish but the paddling is relaxing. The sunset is beautiful and the waves lapping against the shore lead to a peaceful night sleep.

The trip went well enough. We achieved the goal of solitude, not seeing anyone while in any of the campsites. We also were able to stay at all the sites we had picked as our first choice, which was unusual. It seemed like the 3rd week of June was not too busy. The weather was a little warm, but rain didn't affect us much. It was probably a little harder trip than we would have liked, but I like going to a few different campsites and getting off the busier lakes, and Sagus and Jordan were neat little lakes that were worth the work to get there.

Splash to Sucker 23R .5 mile paddle to portage, .2 mile portaging