Woke up to more wind and low hanging clouds this morning as I zipped open the tent and looked onto Upper Hatchet Lake. Temperatures dipped into the 50’s last night and I immediately dug around in my clothes pack for something warm. Dad had a fleece that he told me to put on and then I used my rain jacket on top of that. Here we were, up in the wood in July with multiple layers of clothing on! It was time to make a decision about sticking around or an exit strategy on packing up camp and heading out of the park. It was 6 hours to the Johnson Lake put in and the wind was blowing hard across the lake and the sky had that feeling where it could rain at any moment. Dad said, “lets cook some pancakes for breakfast and talk about our situation”. Once the word “pancakes” was spoken, I could hear Jackson getting out of the tent to join us. Here we were, huddling around a small camping stove, mixing up pancake batter and working as a team again to prepare breakfast.

I am a firm believer that good decisions can be made while eating pancakes when on a canoe trip. Talking about our options to stay another few days on Upper Hatchet Lake or pack up the camp (again) and move back towards Douglas Lake where there could be Walleye. Jackson and I were fine with catching Northern and especially Lake Trout! We decided to stick it out on Upper Hatchet and it’s a good thing we did. Around 1:00 in the afternoon the clouds were breaking up and I could see patches of blue sky! After seeing haze and clouds roll by the last 3 days straight, a patch of blue sky was a sight to see. We all planned a small day trip to check out an inlet or portage that was located in the North West part of the lake. Packed up a lunch for when we are exploring and headed out in the canoe.

The area was very rocky and beaver dams were covering the small stream running out of Upper Hatchet. I got out of the canoe and walked through the tinny sandy steam to stretch my legs from the canoe ride. I had hoped to see a waterfall but there wasn’t one of this side of the lake. We got back in the canoe and paddled to a portage right behind our campsite that was connected to a small bay. It was a 450-meter portage into Embryo Lake and the landing was very boggy. With gear, canoe and packs, this would be a huge challenge just to get everything out of the canoe and onto the shoreline. We beached the canoe and made sure it was secure enough to walk away from it with peace of mind that it will not end up across the lake. While walking the portage to Lake Embryo, we were all thankful we didn’t move camp today. The portage was very muddy and it opened up into more lake area that looks just like our spot on Upper Hatchet! That would be the farthest we traveled into the park so we huddled together and took a group selfie!

Feeling good about the decision we made to stay at our campsite, we went back to camp and had Velveeta cheese with crackers and summer sausage. By the way, this tastes amazing when out camping! After lunch the sun broke out and the park really started to shine. Wood was very abundant throughout Woodland Caribou and it was time to get out the sawvivor camping saw. The fire pit at this campsite was so cool because it was right near the landing on the West point on the lake. Jackson surprised Dad and I when he said “Birch Bark Check!” It really caught Dad and I off guard because we didn’t have any in our pockets. The birch bark check is an inside running joke between John Bredemeier, Greg Negard, Jackson, and My sister Becky. The deal is to carry a dry piece of birch bark in our pockets in case we needed a natural fire starter. We all shared a good laugh down by the fire pit. We kept that fire burning all afternoon, finding downed tree to cut up, uprooted trees and drift wood for the fire. The tree roots were super hard wood and burned the longest. They were definitely harder to cut and Jackson found a nice uprooted tree and went to work with the sawvivor camping saw. There was no need to stoke the fire because the wind coming off the lake would naturally fuel the flames. This was one of the best places I have ever built a fire. We ended up spending a good part of the day out in the sun, building up our fire wood pile and cleaning up the campsite from downed and rotting trees.

It was now time for Jackson and I to venture out in the canoe and go fishing! Headed out to another area of the lake this time and Jackson landed a huge lake trout. The trout fight so much when you get one on the line and we definitely wanted to get this one into the canoe. I started paddling for shore and got out of the canoe in the shallow rocky water to unhook Jacksons trout. We snapped a few pictures and admired how cool the fish looked with his mouth open and then released the fish.

There was more area to cover and we quickly put our lines back in the water. I was on a lure losing streak today and was constantly getting snagged because we were traveling to close to the shoreline. Downed trees and rock beds lined the shores and I kept losing my nice Rapalas. Not getting any more bites, Jackson turned to me and said “Let’s go back to camp” He started to reel in and to his surprise he had set the hook on a fish! “Fish on!” He yells as he starts to reel in a fish like the pros do. It was so much fun.

We paddled back to camp and saw Dad sitting on his light weight camping chair and reading from his iPad. He had also gone and cut some wood and was keeping the fire going. It was another evening with no mosquitoes and none of us had to reach for our bug jackets or head nets… Yet!