Got up at 5 and did oatmeal for breakfast and got everything packed up. Water was like glass. Did our first “real” portage. It was a learning experience for several! We then made our way over to the knife river go through carp lake. This was a neat lake. Very clear, full of vegetation, and large fish swimming all over. We first thought they were large trout, then it dawned on us that the name of the lake was carp lake! Hah! We then hit the Canadian portage, but missed that we were on an old trail. After first getting a canoe hung up in thick brush and steep rocky paths, we got straightened out and on the right path. We picked a spot on Knife Lake to camp. It got a bit windy and made for some tough paddling up Knife Lake! 15-20 mph with some whitecaps, but nothing too bad. It was good practice for what I knew would eventually hit one of our days! We did a bit of fishing since this was the first day of the adult 7-day licenses. Lots of small walleye from shore on roostertails. Dinner was beef stew…not bad but the stroganoff was better. Again, mosquitoes were very light.

Day three started at 5am with cereal and reconstituted powdered milk. Already a bit of a breeze going. Paddling and portages went slower. Lots of sore muscles and grumpiness both in scouts and an adult…..and this was just day 3! We made it through the rest of Knife Lake and down onto Eddy Lake. Wind was really cranking for the last couple miles of open water on knife Lake. We camped on Eddy Lake. Got a nice video of a small rope funnel cloud that looked like it was forming a water spout back over on Knife lake. Had to open up and dry stuff out from all the water that had been splashed in. Despite wind, Eddy lake is very sheltered. We had a nice protected cove, so we did some paddle fishing. Lots of dinky smallmouth on the roostertails. We switched to black/silver crankbaits and caught some really nice sized smallmouth. My son caught his first pike (24”)….and I learned you can’t lip grab a pike! Dinner was spaghetti. We mismeasured and got the sauce a bit watery, but the fry bread was great. Still trying to figure out how long the petrified peas need to cook to soften up! We supplemented dinner with fish fillets and I got to teach a couple scouts how to clean fish. Cleaning a pike was a learning experience for me as well! Still only moderate mosquitoes….really weird! Started drizzling that night a bit.

We stopped to check out Eddy Falls on the way out and made our way over to Lake Kekabic. Day started with mid fifties and light rain, but then cleared. This was some gorgeous water. Deep and clear! Winds were light so it made for easy paddling on the open water. Stopped and had a long lunch on the South point before the portage into Strup Lake. This next portage was rough. Only 85 rod, but rocky inclines at both ends. 5/6 of our crew was brand new to this, and grumpiness was plentiful! We ended up down in Wisini Lake and a great campsite up on a rocky point was open. Bit of a climb to get to it and not much of a landing, but the view was awesome. It was only about 1pm after getting camp set up, so my son and I took to the canoe fishing again. Water was dark brown tannin stained. We lost count of how many walleye we caught, but nothing was over 10” long! We had blisters from casting! We did several laps around the lake and even across it with some deep diving lures….i still only caught ax6” walleye on a 4” lure! Dinner was back to stroganoff…with no fish supplement. My son and I found a bit of humor in the three skinniest persons complaining of “the food situation” and being hungry. We suggested they use the sat phone and get a pizza dropped in! Again, skies cleared and wind died. Fantastic sunset! Little bit more mosquitoes here, but not bad.

We got up again at 5am, had some oatmeal, then hit the water. We came down through Fraser and Thomas lakes. I really like Thomas lake. Lots of pretty coves and clear water. Wind was up at about 10 mph, so not bad. Regardless what direction we were paddling, the wind always seemed to be right in our face! We camped on an island on the SW end of Thomas lake. Then the wind picked up considerably. The island blocked the wind on a beautiful wide cove. We all went out canoe fishing with one scout hooking up with a nice 24” pike. My son and I did another lap, but never caught anything. By this time, we were getting pretty good at cleaning pike! It was stew night again…with more peas.

Next morning the water was like glass again. After some dry cereal we discussed the days plans and an upcoming 1/2+ mile portage. We were still having to work with a lot of negative comments from both adults and scouts, but did our best to ease the tension and try and work things out. As expected, the portage was long, but not really tough. Lots of flat walking. This was the first place we really started to notice mosquitoes. They liked the shade under the canoe while portaging. I really liked the small Kiana Lake. I would have liked to stop and fish it, but that wasn’t in the schedule. All the lakes had lots of orange vegetation and brown stained water now. We made our way down Lake Insula and camped 1/3 the way down the lake on the easternmost campsite. It was a really sandy beach there….which got in everything! We all did some wade fishing here and the whole cove was the brown lettuce looking stuff. I had smallmouth bass in the 2-4lb range nailing the gold spoon. We ate well that night! ….and us Texans know how to clean bass! We came off the water early this day so everyone had time to relax.

Next morning is where I really started to enjoy the scenery. Lake Insula was beautiful! Calm winds in the morning, moderate wind by midday. Nothing too bad. This is where the fire damage starts, so all the big trees are just skeletons sticking up above the new growth conifers. But there were bald eagle nests all over! We went all the way down to the westernmost part of Insula and camped on an island. My son sat on a broken toilet and got fiberglass all over his thighs and butt. I spent 30 min with duct tape removing fibers off him. I don’t remember that chapter in the scout first aid handbook! After getting settled in, we watched storm clouds roll in. Rained for an hour or so, but then the clouds kept seeming to split and go to either side. It was windy, but the far shore across a 50 yard channel was protected. My son and I grabbed the poles and canoe and hit the water. Fishing was incredible! I caught my personal best smallmouth and walleye, and my first pike! My son bounced a 3 foot one off the side of the canoe before it spit the hook, but landed a couple nice keepers. This was a great morale boost and it was great to see him smiling again! (Combination of some personality conflicts from senior scouts and adults, and a butt full of fiberglass kinda had him down a bit.) We went back and I took the other two Scouts’s out and caught them how to work the lures, with both landing nice pike before my paddle arms finally wore out! We ended up releasing one of the pike. We had too much fish for just the six of us. Dinner was great. Most of the grumpiness subsided. We found fresh moose tracks down from our site. Early evening moose were bugleing back and forth from a peninsula behind us to the forest across. It was really cool. Great looking sunset too. Then the sun began to disappear….and holy cow! We found the mosquitoes! Geez…it was incredible! It rained off and on all night. We got swarmed while packing up the next morning!

Next morning we packed all the wet stuff up and hit the water early again. Made our way down through Hudson lake and over to lake Four. Wind started out a little stiff, but we were fairly protected. Lake Four and three were awesome looking. I’ll be coming back with friends to do just fishing down along this lower chain back to Insula! We came to a rough rocky cut from Four to Three. The wind was howling and waves were stacking in the cross winds making for some really rough water. We took safety moment to work out and explain the path across the open section to the far protected shore. Sustained 25 mph, gusting to 35 would be my guess. Luckily the winds slacked slightly after the second canoe launched off the rocks, since they didn’t follow the discussed route. We all made it into lake Three and picked a really nice campsite at the tip of a peninsula just before you get into lake Two. We set up camp then had some instructional discussions on maritime safety and canoeing to reenforce some skills. We already hit our 50 miles at this point, so the “mad dash” could be relaxed some. We decided to stay two nights here and let everything dry out and do some excursions to some cool areas.

Next morning winds were mild and the sky was clear. We decided to go across lake Two up the narrows to the rapids. You have to get out and walk to see them, but it’s cool walk. This was one of the prettiest places we went. The rapids get really big in a few spots. We fished coming back out of the narrows but only got some tiny smallmouth. We then went over to Rifle lake, which is supposed to be full of large walleye. Never got a walleye, but we got a nice stringer of largemouth bass from under the Lilly pads. I had to jog the portage back to lake Two to keep the fish alive! Towing them back to camp made for interesting paddling, too. At least the wind was light! My son and I went back out later and fished the drop offs on either side of the channel between lake Four and three. My license was expired at this point, but my son’s youth license was still good, so I just paddled. He caught pike after pike after pike. We had enough largemouth for dinner so we just released the pike. We went back, had our last stroganoff meal with bass side dish, then hit the tents before sunset. The mosquitoes here were like a biblical plague after sunset! I have video of them swarming around the tent. It’s incredible!

Next morning we didn’t get up until 6. Everything was nice and dry. We took it slow and easy, stopping to take lots more pics of scenery and wildlife. We hit entry point 30, called the outfitter for an early pickup, then just hung out talking with all the others going in/out here. We took some time to talk within the crew of the good and bad and what could be done different.

Once back at the outfitter camp we cleaned up, hit the town, then got back together with both crews to go over all the trip details. Both crews did 66-68 miles. With all the paddle fishing, my son and I were right at 70 miles. While challenging for the many novices in our crews, it was only about 6-7 miles per day over 10 days. Very doable for any skill level.

I truly love coming up here and am already planning my third trip. Next time will be primarily fishing with some longtime friends and my youngest son again.