Saturday, June 11, 2011:
Nest Lake to King Point in Ranger Bay of Basswood Lake. (About 5 Miles) 1 portage: 720m.
There was no reason to get up early, but I did. It was a nice morning with some sun and clouds and the bugs weren’t bad in the cool as we had breakfast and leisurely broke camp. The paddle for the portage to Ranger Bay was a short leg southwest through a narrows then a turn directly south to find the small cove and landing. I had found no description of this portage online so I made a conscious attempt to remember what I could so I could add it to the database when we returned home, but I’ll not describe it here. I was a piece of cake compared to the Point-Nest portage, though.
The landing/put-in at Ranger Bay was one of the best we’d seen there were no nuisance boulders, the water was shallow with a solid bottom and there was a nice grassy spot to store the gear. I took several wildflower pictures on the second carry, and when we finally pushed off into the bay, Joe spotted a largemouth bass dart for cover. “Hidden Bay” as it is called was a welcome site with its rocky east shore and tiny island. We found the narrows and when we cleared it we had a pretty good view of what was ahead to the south. In no time we were into big water and Ranger Bay stretched out before us. Beautiful!

I was watching our map and when I saw we were perhaps halfway between the put-in and our King Point destination I asked Joe if he wanted to find a spot to stop and eat something and he did. At the last small island on my McKenzie map there was a low rock shelf on the south end and we paddled close by and then realized there was an unmarked campsite there. After dealing with the poor landing, we got the food up to the seating area and found one of our remaining lunches. Spam!
After lunch and some pictures -- especially of the cliff to the west – we packed the food stuff up and carefully got back into the canoe and headed south. By the way, Joe found a nice jig at the fireplace while we were eating. The sky had grayed up some by now and a little north breeze was aiding our progress south. After we had paddled past the south end of the sizable island just north of King Point, we spotted the sandy beach that as it turns out is connected by trail to the other 4 or 5 campsites around King Point.
Not knowing this at the time (in fact not knowing the exact location of the old ranger station pickup) we decided to beach there and check it out. Doing so actually saved us a little paddling, as you will see. After a little look and a little walk, we figured out the whole King Point/old ranger cabin thing. About this time, I realized I was missing my left hearing aid. I sheepishly told Joe I knew exactly where it was – at the lunch spot where I had taken it out and laid it on a rock. (I was getting feedback when I chewed.)
We paddled back, into a nice north breeze of course, the way we’d come. About halfway up the west side of the island we’d just passed, Joe sarcastically said, “This looks familiar.” I laughed and said, “yeah, it’s déjà vu all over again.” After we reached the lunch island and I retrieved the aid, we paddled back to King Point again, this time taking the east side of the intervening island, for a change of scenery.
At the sand and gravel beach on the south end of King Point, we finally landed and got out to decide where to spend the rest of our time. (There are about five different fireplaces and unlimited tent placement opportunities in an area of maybe five to ten acres at King Point.) At one fireplace, someone had left warm, smoking ashes and had recently cleaned fish and left the remains in the shallow water at the shore. We decided to use the fireplace the farthest away from this and place our tent nearby under some tall pines near it. Soon after hanging the clothesline to air some things, I got out of my wet shoes and socks, stripped and had a great bath in the shallow bay. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
After the tent was up and our gear was stashed near the cooking and tent areas, we explored the area and then Joe fished from the shore and I opened up the food barrel to see what was left. I found freeze-dried vegetarian lasagna that had lots of veggies and since I had about a quarter-pound of dehydrated ground beef along, decided to hydrate and add it. It was pretty good. I also had found a dessert of hot apple cobbler that I had been carrying around for a several trips but for one reason or another had never used.
The cooking of it was kind of involved, so I told Joe if he’d take care of the “topping” part of the recipe, I’d start cooking the dehydrated apples and sauce. This concoction had to be stirred constantly for ten minutes of so, which was a pain on the Brunton stove, but I got it done without tipping the pan over and spilling it. Joe spooned on the topping and got to lick the spoon to clean the mixing bowl, and after waiting a few minutes for the topping to cook, it was ready. Joe took half and ate out of a bowl while I ate directly out of the pan. Delicious! (But a sticky pan to clean up.)

After cleanup, Joe fished some more and I even tried a little. He caught several small SMB and I caught nothing. By late evening it had cleared quite a bit and the waxing gibbous moon was up to the south again. We walked the grounds of King Point again, checking out all the buildings and ruins; there is a log cabin, another frame small barn-like building, and old outhouse, etc. About three or four campsites north, (no one was using any) we followed a faint trail back into the woods and found an ancient looking clearing that had a tumbledown table between two trees. This would have been the only tent area with privacy and we wondered how long it had been there and when it was last used.
There was a lot of kindling and sticks strewn about our site, so we policed it up a little and made our usual small fire after sundown. Near dark we had the last of our liquor and a cigar and didn’t get in the tent until it was almost too dark to see. With a layer of pine needles under the tent floor it was very comfortable and I was asleep in no time. Around two in the morning, I got out of the tent to pee and the moon was very low and so very bright I could hardly see any stars. It was casting a long reflection on the bay and I stood there in silence for a few minutes before returning to the tent.