We drove up to The Cliff Dweller for the night, after stuffing ourselves silly at the Rustic Inn on the way up. Some day I will save enough room for a piece of pie, I swear! My new pup, Amelia, rode in the truck with me, with the Prism on top and our packs in the bed. My son Jesse, god daughter Alex, and her son Nick (age 10), drove up as a group...getting used to traveling as a team! We had an early night, and slept well.

We awoke at 5:00am, showered, and headed out for an early breakfast at South of the Border Cafe. The place was filled with guys heading on fishing trips to Canada. We all had way too much to eat and then headed up the Gunflint Trail. On the way to Ram, we were very surprised to see how hard it had froze the night before. There was frost on everything. Only one vehicle at the parking lot, so we pulled to the other side of the lot and starting unloading. Shortly into the portage I was reminded about what I had heard of this one. It was a gradual uphill climb almost the entire way. For how cool it was this morning, it didn't take long for me to feel a little overdressed! I worked up quite a sweat with my backpack and canoe up this climb. I finally approached the end and saw the lake. What a relief! I made my way down that tricky end to the lake and snapped a few pictures. My first take on the lake, was that it was a nice, small lake that appeared to be a nice spot for our home the next couple of days. [paragraph break] We got the rest of the gear down to the lake, packed up the canoes and headed out! We checked out the site near the portage, just in case someone was at the other one. Not a bad site, just way off the water. Saw canoe landings in both directions down the shoreline a fair bit from camp. We changed course and headed down the lake to the western site. It was open! This was the one we were hoping for. We pulled up the canoes and unpacked our gear. As we spied the two small tent pads and started getting the tents set up, I had to see what time it was... It was 7:40am!!! We were out fishing by 8:30am. On a short four day trip, we were pretty much getting a bonus day of fishing. This was really going to help make this trip seem longer than the 4 days. We were all super excited to be lake trout fishing! I, personally, had read every article possible on fishing lake trout in canoe country (plus read every thread on this website twice...). Soon frustration set in, as we were getting tons of follows, but no strikes. I switched over to a jighead and twister tail and on my first cast, BANG! I hooked up. I insist to use ridiculously light line up in the BWCA, so he gave my ultralight and 2 pound test quite a battle. Wog had a small trout net that we used in vain, trying to at least get the head of the fish in the net. But, we did finally land it. I had caught my first ever lake trout! [paragraph break] Hunger led us back to camp for some lunch. We cooked some brats over a small fire and had some chips to go with it. We were still amped up about having that first laker on the stringer and the other guys wanted to get their own soon! After lunch, we hit the lake again and it didn't take long for Wog to have a nice hookup, also on a jig and twister tail. This fish fought and fought and when we finally got it boatside, we were floored to see a huge rainbow trout. It was such a beautiful fish! We wrestled it in and got a few pictures. [paragraph break] Soon after that, Wog got another strike and subsequently landed his first ever laker! The other guys continued to have follows, but just couldn't get one to latch on. We fished hard that first day and the wind became a little more problematic as the day went on. I was surprised to see how much a good wind could affect almost all of Ram Lake. During the afternoon we saw our first canoe of the trip: a solo paddler heading out today. We headed back to camp for one of our most anticipated meals, steaks over the fire! When we got to camp we also took a picture of our nice little stringer we had collected: [paragraph break] We collected a bunch of dead cedar and started a great fire for the steaks. Man, that was a pile of beef! I have everyone bring their own steak, so the sizes and varieties we get every year is quite funny. Especially when we learned Mike's pack had 2 huge ribeyes in it. Miraculously, all of the steak and instant potatoes were eaten! [paragraph break] We went out fishing until dark and Wog added another lake trout to his day. We caught some fish today, but George and Mike were yet to get on the board. We enjoyed a fairly short campfire, as everyone was pretty tired.

Wog and I both got up pretty early. We were both anxious to fish some new water today. We got coffee and breakfast started. From the way the morning looked, it was going to be a gorgeous day! [paragraph break] We made frypan bread and heated up some pre-cooked bacon. As breakfast was finished cooking, I couldn't help but notice two sets of snoring coming from the other tent. I went up and yelled "You have 5 minutes before Wog and I eat your share of breakfast!" We were joined rather quickly for breakfast. We laid out the day and decided we should make tracks and get going to Little Trout Lake. We packed up our lunch, gear, and whatnots and headed for the portage to Kroft Lake. The first 2 portages weren't too bad. They were just warm ups for the portage from Rum to Little Trout. The other guys named it "Death Mountain". It was pretty steep, up and down, but at least it wasn't too long. [paragraph break] We hit the water and started casting! Wog and I checked out the campsite right in front of the portage. It didn't seem that great for an island site. There just wasn't much view of the water. Shortly thereafter, we ran into a couple who was heading out today. They had camped on Little Trout for a couple of days. He asked how the fishing was and I told him we caught a few the first day, but got shut out the second day. He proceeded to tell us, they had been just slaying the lakers. His advice was to troll "Yozuri Pin Minnows" in blue. We thanked them for the info and they went on their way. We immediately went to our tackle boxes to see what we had that was comparable. I tied on a jointed husky jerk and Wog tied on a Shadow Rap. We paddled over to the other guys and shared our intel. Well, wouldn't you know it, within a half hour, Wog and I had both boated a laker! We made our way around the lake and caught up with George and Mike near campsite by the Misquah portage. As we chatted, George told us he had FINALLY caught his first laker. Then, he hooked into another right in front of us! He boated his second fish of the day. [paragraph break] We took a break at that campsite to eat our lunch of jerky and granola bars. We were all rooting for Mike at this point. He was the only one who hadn't caught a fish yet this trip. We headed back out, as the temps actually got hot out. I caught my second trout of the day north of the island. We were catching our trout in around 27 feet of water. I was a little surprised how deep they were. Then, Wog caught his second fish of the day, a real beauty! It was a very dark fish. I loved the coloration of that fish. [paragraph break] We had gotten separated from Mike and George again. But shortly after Wog had released that gorgeous dark trout, they came around the point, hooting and hollering. Mike had finally caught a trout! We decided it was time to clean fish and start making our way back. I took the opportunity to snap a picture of Mike's fish: [paragraph break] We headed to shore to clean some fish. In our hurried exit from camp this morning, we realized just George had packed a filet knife. Oh well! We took turns and filleted a few out that we were going to pan fry tonight. Then, we loaded up and headed back to camp. I would have loved to stay and keep fishing, but the guys were all content with the fish we had caught and the wind had started picking up a little bit. We got back to camp and although it was early we were all starving. We had worked up quite the appetite and burned through the calories from that little lunch. We decided to eat early and be out on the water at sunset of our last night. Tonight we were having pan-fried trout and hash browns. [paragraph break] Dinner was awesome! The lakers fried up very well! We had breaded them in Andy's Red fish coating. We fried them crispy and with our crispy hashbrowns, they made quite a meal! We had fried up three trout, which after we had chunked it up, ended up being a lot of fish! By the end of dinner it was gone! We did dishes and hit the water. This was my last chance to catch a rainbow! We fished and fished. Right before dark the fish were hitting mayflies all over the surface. I decided to run a small spinner right under the surface. I cast and retrieved that thing for at least a half an hour. Next thing I know, Wog tied on a little rooster tail and was cruising it under the surface. Bam! We catches his second rainbow of the trip! Then, bam!, he hooks into another rainbow. This is another bruiser, and after quite a battle it did shake free. That was our last action of the night. I congratulated Wog on his awesome trip. In 8 months he had caught a brook trout, lake trout, and rainbow trout in the BWCA. I fell short on the rainbow... We went back to camp and I snapped a picture of the guys (Wog with his trout): [paragraph break] We stayed up for quite a while around the fire. Reality was starting to set in, we were headed home in the morning. It was a truly magical day and everyone went to bed happy.

Our last morning, just oatmeal and hot beverages and packing up. What is there to say....it's sad but also happy, because....showers! steaks! salads! ice cream! Yay! We left you lots of wood, whoever you are, so you're welcome.

The paddle out was uneventful- I forged ahead in the prism with Amelia, and the "kids" came on behind. We paddled across Kawishiwi together, me straining mightily against the wind but ultimately successful. Not too bad for a old lady. Amelia was wise and lay down in the canoe when the wind got bad. What a good girl she is- gonna be a great canoe partner!

Alex discovered a flat tire in the parking lot. Sigh. She changed her tire and we headed off to civilization again.....another great one under our belts.

Next year, they do all the planning and packing too!