Wednesday, June 25, 2008 The goal today was to get up to Clear lake for some fishing before heading out on Thursday afternoon. We packed up camp after some awesome blueberry pancakes and headed toward the Kawishiwi River. At the rapids out of Gabbro into Little Gabbro we saw this gent:

We wanted to try and run the rapids and skip the 120 rod portage. After a look at the rapids we realized the portage was the way to go. The first run looks like fun and very navigable but the next set 50 yards or so downstream would have been to tough for us. 

 

We hit the portage and quickly made our way to the Kawishiwi. This portage was in great shape and easy to travel. The trip down the Kawishiwi was delightful. We ate lunch along the way and enjoyed the scenery. 

The portage into Clear was short but a little muddy. Keegan continued to impress me by hauling more than his weight. 

We arrived in Clear Lake to the sounds of a Scout troop on the first campsite, sounded like they were having lots of fun! We finally found a campsite (1689) open and settled in with rain showers on the way. We quickly set up camp so we would have some cover and then cooked our final dinner which again included some fish. After dinner the skies cleared and we set out to fish the lake. We ended up taking several walleye and the boys got into a big bunch of panfish and smallmouth which kept them busy for an hour or so. We noticed a lot of crayfish and minnows in the lake. The boys decided they wanted to forego fishing the the next morning on Clear Lake and head back early in hopes of catching their other grandfather at our exit point before he went out for the day so they could fish with him. Grandpa Dick grew up in southern Minnesota and the boys absolutely love to fish with him. The mosquitoes were pretty brutal for some reason on Clear so we called it a night.