We were up at dawn fishing the rapids that surrounded us. We broke our simple camp and continued our journey to High Falls.

I'd been to High Falls exactly ten years previously, and remembered enough to make the approach with some serious caution. This falls has a twenty foot drop - and though we are good at reading water we followed the shore easing up on the portage carefully.

We landed and portaged down to below this massive falls. I walked the exposed rocks below to view the falls from below - there rocking in the thundering water was a Kevlar canoe - torn in two and shattered. I shook my head - I prayed that the owner hadn't been in it.

The goal of this trip - reaching and fishing High Falls - was driven by the fact that there are plans afoot to dam this beautiful falls for hydro prower to fuel our insatiable demand for electricity. I wanted to see it one more time before they cut roads and started pouring thousands of yards of concrete laced with rebar. Already crews had hauled in drilling equipment and had bored several test holes evaluating the rock structure. Survey marks were evident, but the equipment was gone.

High Falls today is still utterly pristine - known to few people and not easy to find or access…. and miles and miles from civilization.

If you remember the beginning of this odyssey I was now some distance from Ely - certainly across two Fisher maps! My car was supposed to be stashed in the Ontario forest some further distance from the falls.

Two motor boats appeared with Ministry of Natural Resources staff and scientists. They pulled up next to our canoe. We chatted - they were on an interesting mission - netting and tagging the giant Sturgeon that dwell in these waters, executing a survey of the fisheries related to the pending dam construction. They actually netted these Sturgeon, placed them in a giant live well on the boat (Some of these fish weigh 100 lbs and are nearly a century old…. and are generally not pleased to be netted) they then perform surgery, implanting a transponder into their abdomen. They have secreted underwater receivers near spawning areas and so track their movements. Neat stuff and nice people. I was hugely relieved when they asked if we owned the black SUV stashed at the put-in. I grinned - Chase had come through!

They went off to do their surveys, and Steve and I fished below the falls all morning. The fishing was good, but after catching countless Bass and a few angry Northerns, we caught but one Walleye which joined us for a shore lunch.

We also realized that the Ministry staff had inadvertently taken Steve's bent shaft wood paddle - lots of people, lots of stuff - it happens. We had a back-up paddle so were OK, but Steve had sentimental (and financial) attachment to that paddle and didn't want to lose it.

We left to find the put-in and my car, planning on leaving them a note on their windshield pleading to have them mail the paddle back to the States.

Did I mention that the Fisher map essentially ends at High Falls… and that I did not load the Canadian Topo map correctly into my Garmin, so at this point I was relying on ten year old memories to recall where on these vast lakes the actual put-in was?

My memory wasn't that good.

As we were paddling seeking the put-in we both noticed something swimming across Little Eva Lake. Too big to be a beaver, we first thought it might be a bear, but as we glided closer we realized that it was a wolf - no two wolves - swimming across. They saw us and reversed direction, leaping from the water and sprinting into the woods… wolves running exhibit such grace that they remind me of NBA players on the court.

We continued to try and flex my memory, but absent any maps - and stupidly lacking any Satellite intervention I was befuddled. All this way, and the last miles……..

Well, we knew that the Ministry people hadn't gone past, which meant that they were still on the job back on Bill Lake above the Falls, and we knew they knew the way!

We paddled back to the falls and waited. And waited. And waited. They worked late, but finally showed up - they'd netted seven Sturgeon… the largest today was 70 pounds.

The lead guy asked, with a twinkle in his eye, if we were missing a paddle. We were happy to have it back - and confessed that we were a bit vague on the actual location of my truck.

He laughed and offered a tow back to the put-in, an offer we accepted gratefully. And so the last miles were done under the power and auspices of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Ontario.

To put this into perspective, from the time we got the truck loaded to the time we got to International Falls, it took another 4 1/2 hours of driving on gravel roads and endless highways. It's good to have a full tank of gas up in the great North! I made it back to the US and International Falls in darkness on fumes.