After packing the vehicle and readying the trailer on Friday night and a full day of driving to Ely on Saturday, we were as ready for our trip as we could be. The night before was spent at Lake Jeanette Campground after a great dinner and a few drinks at Insula in Ely. The mosquitoes we knew would be ever present for this trip after a wet spring surpassed expectations at Jeanette, but that didn't stop us from watching the sunset and making last minute preparations for Sunday's plunge day. By 9:20 after the winds died down, the hoards of mosquitoes drove us into our respective sleeping areas.

We woke up Sunday morning, did some quick packing and a pre-prepped fried egg and bacon sandwich breakfast had us on the Echo Trail before 6:00 AM. The first portage flew by as the mosquitoes were on some sort of temporary reprieve and the trail was in good shape despite the recent rains. We were on the water paddling before 7:30 as we knew the winds were forecast to be stronger and in our face most of the day. We planned to get to at least Boulder Bay, but when we hit an already slightly white-capped Nina Moose, we weren't sure if that was going to happen. The next sections of river were windy, especially the wider portions just south of Agnes, so progress was slow but steady. Thankfully when we hit Agnes, the winds were blowing across more west to east, and by sticking to the west shore we had no more issues.

All morning long we played leapfrog through the 7 portages with 2 other guys. They were always 1/2 a portage ahead of us, and while we could have passed them many times both on the water and at portages, we weren't in that much of a hurry and the extra rest was helpful. At the portage into Boulder Bay we finally parted ways with our portage pals, as they headed towards Tiger Bay and we took the middle site in Boulder Bay, satisfied with our effort for the day after the 5 hour 45 minute undertaking. After mostly gray skies, the sun poked out around 3:00 PM and made for a beautiful but breezy remainder of the day.

The middle campsite (#1820) was spacious, had level tent pads and good water access with the high water levels (might be trickier in regular/low water) and was much less buggy than we anticipated. The previous group had left a way too large log smoldering in the fire grate, which we dunked into the lake for a while and then carried off into the woods behind the site. I wish people would be more considerate of the dangers of such irresponsible acts.

Campsite setup for this day was purposefully slow, followed by a well deserved nap. We were woken by the sound of a motorboat going by around 4:30, quite unexpected as there are no motors allowed in that area of LLC. The boat was going slow and was across the bay from us, so we have no idea what the driver was up to. We ate dinner, fished for about an hour with no luck, watched a couple beavers swimming around and just allowed ourselves to soak in the surroundings. The wind died down around 7:00 PM and was calm by 9:30. A good campfire and conversations about the next days ended a great first day.

Monday started out calm and the winds stayed light and variable all day. Smooth as glass paddling through Boulder, Tiger and Never Fail bays while on our way to Fish Stake Narrows meant trolling while travelling would be the plan.

Each of us caught a couple fish while paddling with the biggest pike by me (27"), smallmouth bass by Curt (17") and walleye by both Jaden and Curt (15"). Nothing exceptional but since all were "bonus" fish, we were happy with the results. We crossed LLC west to east to go check out the pictos on the Canadian side. This was the first time for me seeing these particular pictos, and they were phenomenal, with more panels and clearer than I have seen, especially the moose.

After the pictos, we headed back to American waters and into the Fish Stake Narrows area. The first site east of FSN was open. We noted that, passed by and checked both island sites closer to FSN, which were unfortunately taken, so we turned around and claimed the island site as our camp for the next few days. It is a very nice site with plenty of space, trails to explore, a decent landing off to the side of the site and views of both sunrise and sunset.

Monday ending up getting fairly warm and stayed sunny all day. We fished for a couple hours in the afternoon between our site and the rock pile in FSN. Jaden and I boated 9 fish; a mixed bag, of pike, walleye, and bass; but Curt got blanked. There was someone else at FSN every time we went over the next few days, not surprising with the high water levels creating great current there. When we went back that night, we watched the live bait guys catch 30 or so while we caught only 2. Sometimes it's like that.

I discovered my in-camp diversion during this first evening on the island- someone had hidden toy soldiers around the site. One was in between the thick bark of a big pine tree near the side canoe landing, and the other was left to overlook the fire grate area. It was good to know the site was secured while we were away. This small LNT "violation" brought many smiles to my face and resulted in a half dozen searches over the next few days to see if more well hidden soldiers were left behind (there were!), which resulted in this island getting it's new name.

We finished the day with a long campfire until after 11:00, thanks in part to a large wood pile left behind by a previous visitor that we couldn't even burn through in the next 3 days despite our best efforts (thank you to whoever that was)! All the best planning, reminiscing, and storytelling happens at the campfire and we did plenty of that for sure!

As far as days in the wilderness goes, Tuesday was just one of those days where you take what you can get. Rain was forecast for much of the day and that’s what woke me up at 6:45. It rained lightly most of the morning until 10:00 or so, resulting in lots of time under the tarp. Curt and I fished near camp for a while in the late morning and caught a couple pike and bass, but otherwise it was a mostly low-key start to the day with some island exploration. Curt found an eagle feather up on the hill and I later found the eagle nest. We also found the Mio container that had mysteriously gone missing during dinner the night before, with a hole chewed in it by our resident camp red squirrel who must have needed the electrolyte boost. Two more toy soldiers were also discovered, bringing the squad up to 4 members.

We stayed in camp until about 2:00, then with a break in the weather, we headed to Toe Lake to try our luck fishing there. The portage was very muddy, extremely buggy and had sections with lots of poison ivy. In the back of my mind I just kept thinking, I hope this side-trip is worth it (it was). We knew it had gotten windier throughout the afternoon, but when we finished the portage from LLC to Toe, we were not expecting to see a white-capped and whipped up lake in front of us, but that's what it was. We decided to troll it anyway, and were rewarded with several upper 20's pike with good girth. We kept two for dinner and then headed back to Toy Soldier Island for a late dinner. We did catch a couple very nice walleye while trolling back to our camp (23 and 24"), but since we already had the 2 pike ready to eat, those walleye were quickly released.

After another long and late campfire, the sound of trilling toads, chirping tree frogs and wailing loons helped me drift off to a much needed night of sleep.

When you're used to wilderness mornings waking you up around 5:00 AM, sleeping in until 7:00 is an amazing accomplishment. Another morning of light on and off rain until lunchtime did not deter us from our plans for the day. We had trolled several deep water areas hoping for the ever elusive (to us anyway) lake trout and decided that Lady Boot Bay deserved that same effort. We trolled there and into the south end of the bay when the thunder started. Heavy rains quickly followed and we waited out the wind, rain, and lightning at site 155 for about 30 minutes. What once looked to be a decent site is still littered with trees from the big blowdown, and the site doesn't seem to get much use. The skies cleared up nicely afterwards, but with more storms forecast for later in the day, we decided to head back closer to camp. We did stop for lunch on some rocks closer to FSN and continued trolling as we went. We caught a few pike topping out at 28", a couple smallies, and Jaden caught his personal best 23" walleye as well, but despite our best efforts, zero lake trout. Curt did a bit better (but also no lake trout) with a few more fish than us and a 30"+ pike.

After returning from the Lady Boot Bay trek, I jumped in lake for the first time on this trip and was quickly reminded that early June and big, deep water means cold swimming. It was refreshing, but didn't last long. I found 3 more army men during my afternoon search, which was cut short by heavy rain and small hail about 4:30. Thankfully there was very little wind with this short 30 minute storm, which we found out later was much more severe in other parts of the Boundary Waters. Other storm clouds continued to roll in throughout the evening, but passed around us with no rain. We slowly packed up camp for an early morning exit from Fish Stake Narrows, followed by a short campfire.

We were on the water on Thursday morning by 7:30 AM and headed towards Pocket Creek with the ultimate goal of making it to Oyster Lake for the night. I decided to bring the toy soldiers with us, partly because LNT does mean LNT to me, and partly because they had become a unique little treasure and reminder of this visit to LLC.

The day started off with a light but steadily increasing breeze from the west/NW with lots of sunshine. We made quick work of most of LLC but the winds were up quite a bit by the time we reached Pocket Creek and surprisingly Ge-be-on-a-quet was a white capped mess. We had a rough crossing and it was Curt's first time in waves that big in his Magic, but both canoes handled it well and made it safely to the portage to Green. Perhaps that windy trek or the portage itself took more out of me than I thought, but I stumbled on a slippery rock and fell fully face first into the water on the Green side of that portage and banged my knee hard on a rock. It was scraped up and continued to stiffen and swell throughout the day. Thankfully it was warm enough for me not to get chilled.

There was a short burst of rain while we portaged between Green and Rocky lakes, after which the mosquitoes intensified greatly. It was almost as if each drop brought one more flying nuisance with it. We stopped on Rocky Lake to check out those pictos. Not much there but still a very cool palisade. Rocky is a very pretty lake and I wish we would have had more time to explore it.

When we got to Oyster, we could see the island pinch-point site was taken. With strong but steady SW winds funneling into that part of lake, we hugged shore along the island and checked out the other 2 island sites, neither of which were to our liking. We made the decision to cross the lake and head straight east to the site near the Oyster River portage as the winds didn't seem as bad in that portion of the lake. Less than half way into the 3/4 mile crossing, the winds shifted and nearly doubled in speed and the entire lake went instantly to 2 1/2-3 foot waves. After a very tense 10-15 minutes of riding the waves and tacking through the troughs, we got to shore safely. It was the most worried I've ever been in a canoe but everyone handled it well and stayed calm. We agreed afterwards that while what happened was not predictable, we would do our best to not allow ourselves to get into that type of predicament in the future.

After landing at the open site, catching our breath and starting to unload, Curt’s canoe flipped up into the wind and went flying off the rocks back into the lake. The waves luckily pushed it into shore not far from camp and we had to wade in to retrieve it. Yet another lesson learned- under the right (or wrong) circumstance, canoes can indeed fly. The canoe got some new scratches but other than that and some wet clothes, things were all ok. Heavy rains mixed with bouts of wind came and went, but most of those cloudbursts thankfully stayed to our south.

With the winds they way they were, we didn't have an option to go out fishing or do much of anything. The sun came back out in the later afternoon and we quickly noticed that the large uprooted tree near the water's edge was a garter snake sunning spot. Multiple snakes were there warming back up after the rain and wind from earlier. Curt and I explored a trail leading from camp to the portage. He found an old weather beaten set of antlers near that portage, a nice surprise for what had been a day full of bad ones to that point.

The winds did die down enough for late evening into dark that we fished for about 90 minutes, but no luck once again. The skies completely cleared by dark and the star watching was perfect. Temps dropped quickly after the clearing and ended up in the upper 40's overnight, but we were all well-tucked in and sleeping by that time.

After our one-night stay on Oyster, we packed up camp to head back closer for our quickly approaching exit day at EP 16. That lake trout taunted us that morning, swimming around grabbing bait fish as we packed up camp. In a last-ditch effort to meet our goal of catching one on this trip, we tried in vane to attract a bite, but it was not meant to be.

We departed camp about 7:45 and with the higher water levels, we took the Oyster River shortcut, bypassing the longer portage into Agnes and coming back into the Moose River south of Agnes. It was a great time saver, but in low water I would never recommend going that direction. I had been worried about my swollen knee not holding up well for that portage, so skipping it was an even bigger bonus for us.

We arrived on a busy Nina Moose around 11:00 am and found many sites already full. Despite this, we somehow ended up with the island peninsula campsite and watched as the rest of the sites on the lake were filled by 3:00, all with large groups. The site is overgrown with poison ivy and only had one decent spot for a hammock, so I set up there and Curt and Jaden pitched their tents on rocks near the front of camp. It worked out well despite my severe allergy to poison ivy, but I had to walk carefully along the trail to the toilet area.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon with a steady breeze, but it was our last day and we really wanted one more fish dinner. Jaden and I started out casting for pike, but after catching a couple smaller ones, we ended up over by Curt who tipped us off to the crappie bite he was onto. Nine nice crappies, several smaller perch, and a nice bluegill later, we had our dinner.

While hanging around camp before and after fishing, we watched a large jackrabbit that seemed to have some ongoing territorial battle with two resident chipmunks. We watched multiple times as the rabbit hopped right through camp chasing them. The chipmunks were clearly as entertained as us, goading the rabbit into chasing them time and time again with their constant chatter. It was a strange and comical sight for sure. The site was also a 10/10 on the mosquito scale, so we tried to hang out in the open areas near shore as much as possible. We finished our trip with a short campfire and were in bed by 10:00 PM, mostly because we were out of Captain Morgan.

The only goals we ever have for our departure day are an early start and a safe drive home, both of which were met.

After a quick paddle through Nina Moose and the river and the short portages along it, we were back to the parking lot by 8:30 and driving a few minutes after 9:00 AM. The mosquitoes were horrendous at the EP parking lot and we were happy to be away from them at that point. The drive home was broken up by lunch at Culver's in Superior, with talk about future trips (both Curt and i have solos planned for later this summer) and what we would do better/different for our next group trip. Before the trip, Jaden had been somewhat nervous about going with someone new, but he and Curt seemed to get along very well and Jaden is now looking forward to the opportunity for group trips in the future.

While the fishing was just ok; especially for early June; and the weather was a bit hit or miss, we had a great trip. The crazy weather including heavy rains and flooding that followed just a few days after we left made our trip all that much more meaningful, as we know we would not have been able to do what we did had we decided to plan our trip for one-week later as we had hoped to do back in January. Sometimes it's the options that you don't choose that end up being the best decisions for a trip!