Friday, August 15, 2025

I’m driving for about 4 hours and I arrive in Ely at Voyaguer North Canoe Outfitters. It’s dark, maybe about 930 pm. Someone called my phone a few minutes prior, but it was dark and I was driving for a while, and was so close to Ely I ignored the call. I had a hunch it was the outfitter. It was getting close to 10, and I had reserved a room to layover and pack my stuff. I needed to buy a few things in town early the next morning.

I went inside and they said they had just called me to make sure I was coming. The young man handed me a key and I went upstairs to bunkhouse number 1 and brought my gear and food to pack up.

It’s been sometime since I’ve been to Ely. Years actually. My trip begins tomorrow. I wanted it all organized. I charged my phone, portable weather radio, and made sure Avenza had all her maps, and all my analog directions were in order.

I packed my bear canister and food bag with pulleys and ropes and double checked my supplies. I foolishly put the cheese and summer sausage in the fridge. It didn’t even need to, as it was all unopened and sealed. But sure enough, I did, and I would later regret this.

Time for bed. It was hot in there upon my arrival, but I had got it cool enough to sleep, and that’s where I went. Dreamland.

I wake up at around 5 am to the sound of vans and canoes being loaded. It’s welcoming to me, as is the fresh and cool morning air. It’s smells like a Christmas tree here.

I got some free coffee and went back upstairs to pack the gear and other stuff I had left out.

I needed some things in town yet, but I decided on packing up everything into the vehicle first. I thought I double checked the entire bunkhouse before leaving. Little did I know I left a small grey and white cooler with some food I needed for the trip in it…

I headed to Piragis. Initially I was going to rent a canoe there, but since I picked one up already, all I needed was a solo portage yoke and my permit.

Once I go there, I had a chance to find a used bending branches bent shaft outfitter paddle, a new cvca portage yoke, and some bungee dealie bobs. Too bad they didn’t have any used yokes, but it’s mid august I didn’t expect any…

I saw a nice new trillium for sale, with aluminum trim. It was blue. Didn’t know they made blue. The trillium is the other canoe I wish I had besides the magic. I’m smaller framed at 5’4 or 5’5 and 130 lbs. It’s a little wider than my magic, and shorter. Lighter too obviously. It’s a downsized version of the northwind solo. So basically perfect for me if I’m trying to go really light or bushwhack. My ocd found some imperfections and I realized if I ever had money to buy a new one, I would need to inspect it first. The thwart wasn’t quite parallel with the seat mostly. Great looking canoe though, wow.

I talked with Adam in the shed when I watched my video, and bought my paddle. He let me know the good times to look for used gear there. I should have asked for a job too. I love this area.

Realizing how much I spent, but then remembering how nice the solo yoke is…mmmm…ahhh.

All that was left to do was drive to the entry point. Or so I thought.

I got to the entry point and it there were some people, but it wasn’t busy. Some outfitter employees waiting for their counterparts.

I took my sweet time unloading everything, repacking everything one last time, and realized something. I left half my food in the fridge in Ely.

Ughhhhhhhhhh was all I said. By then a lot of people had arrived and one of them heard me and said, “yeah unloading gear in the morning is a drag.” I agreed without telling her what the real reason was.

I set my canoe and packs off to the side on the beach and drove back to Ely. Not a good start for a solo trip.

They had to locate the cooler but they eventually found it. Woohoo.

Now let’s go. For real this time.

Get back, pack my food, and realize I’m missing one dealie bob somehow. Oh well. The fact that I’ve been so forgetful is a bad sign though. But luckily that was the last of it. In actuality, I would not be unorganized or lose anything for the remainder of my trip.

People commented on my new canoe. I said it was over 25 years old. The gentleman I bought it from took immaculate care of it and I had recently cleaned it up, sanded the trim and oiled it, and treated the inside with flood pendtrol. I’ve got a bright red ccs seat pad in there, and I admit, I too think it is a fine looking canoe.

My setup is my magic, seat cover, small 5’ rod (it was 5’5 but I slapped it and superglued it together, resulting in an overlap and loss of length) and reel bungeed to the boat. I have my bent shaft paddle I carry in hand, and a kayak paddle velcroed to the thwarts with those black piragis branded holders. My frost river pack has the basket inside and sits behind me. My food pack sits in the very front of the boat. The yoke right behind it with the pads facing down.

I have a leash of red 550 attached to the bow loop back to the food pack grab handle with a carabiner. At every portage I take out my food pack and use it as an anchor to shore while I wet foot unload. It is just long enough to loop around the portage yoke and back to the bow and stay taught, and I use it to help direct the canoe while I carry it. I also have a small red 550 tether to my pack behind me with a carabiner so it doesn’t float away if I dump. Same as the portage yoke. These three items all have a red carabiner on them. I attach them and detach them at every portage. It’s an easy chore, and a good habit to keep up.

PFD is always on unless I’m at camp.

I had a lot of new gear this time, and my aim was to spend a day or two refining my system before I really set out and covered water.

This meant I happily camped on the northwest side of lake three, near lake two. I played around with my new tarp, new cordage and lines, and set up my boat to double portage. I know single portaging is fast, but it’s not really easy. I can double very fast though. I pull my weight well. First pass is the canoe, second is the two packs and carry the paddle. Frost river goes on the back, food pack in front, paddle in hand. The pack in front actually balances my body better so I don’t have to lean forwards too much from the weight of my frost river pack. It’s easier to carry like this than just the big pack by itself imo.

Anyways, No fish to cook, so no cooking. There is a trail connecting this sight to the one just north of me. It’s not remote here obviously. Lots of wind on the water, and lots of noise from other campers too.

Easy to eat snacks and an easy to eat meal then off to bed.

Even more wind at 5 am. Took a nap. Awoke up at 7. Still windy. All night it was windy too. I’m on a point facing onto it, so no bugs. But paddling east across three and four and even horseshoe was not easy that day. I met a group on the portage to Insula, and Dave gave me some tips on where to camp and fish on Insula.

The breeze and the sound of rapids at the highest point of the portage is nice.

I battled the wind to northern Insula. For the day, wind was behind me for 10 minutes, 30 it was sideways, but the rest was head on.

I went through the channel north of “the rock” as water was high enough. A campsite on the island just west of Williamson was where I stopped. I was starving. I set up camp, listened to weather, ate some dinner, caught a worm, then caught and released a small walleye. Time for bed.

I paddled all around Insula all day checking out campsites and fishing. Caught and released a bass. Hooked a northern as fat as a football but lost it next to the canoe trying to land it. That thing was a monster.

Plastic bait and lures wasn’t really doing anything of note. I explored more and decided tomorrow I would make camp at Williamson island if no one was there still. Or the giant beach camp on the southeast side of the northern part of Insula not too far from Williamson.

I was going to go worm hunting after dinner, but I was tired and went to sleep.

Williamson island was drenched on fog on Tuesday morning. Same as the entire lake. I paddled around and it was magical. Once I made camp at Williamson, I set up my new tarp in the point. It was my favorite spot to hang out and eat, or look at maps, or listen to weather, or just watch the lake and listen to loons.

The latrine here is very nice up hill away from camp and a dry pine needle path to get there. You could easily put a small tarp over it with all the pine trees around.

Fish guts on the far side of the island are a good sign there are fish in the lake. Not that I needed to know that.

Setting up my tent in between the tarp area and the fire grate. It’s sheltered here and the ground is soft and just a nice spot for multiple tents.

The main fire grate area is a little grassy behind it, but I only used this area to cook and hang my water. It was my kitchen, but I was always over on the point in my little yellow chair. I had a tether to that so it wouldn’t blow away.

It was a nice day. No fish though. No keepers at least. I decided I would worm hunt tonight for bait. That was a success. They come out at 930 or so. But they are fast. Have a knife in your hand and get ready to pounce. They stay next to their holes, or partially in them, and it’s tough to tell which end of the worm is going into the hole. Once the light from your headlamp hits them you have about a second or two before the are a foot underground. I know because the ones I missed, that I tried to dig up were, farther down than I was digging.

Be fast and aim for one of the ends. Youll have a 50/50 shot at guessing right and if your fast you’ll get most of the worm. Only a few did I get without cutting. Most were cut while they were quickly retreating. I looked like a madman I’m sure, and I was talking to myself like I was. But I was victorious. I put them in my titanium cup, and off to bed after a quick check on the weather radio.

I paddled around the lake and fished most of the day. Live bait definitely helps. Once it was dinner time, or late afternoon I decided to keep a fish for supper. I caught a nice. Golden walleye just the right size for supper. Man it was good to eat a meal of fresh fish. I battered it and fried it in butter. Made some cilantro lime rice. Realized I had no spoon or fork, so I used my drink mix scoop (I have some Gatorade powder or sometimes some generic fruit punch mix that I often use when I’m filling up my water bottle). One other thing I had forgotten was a stringer, but I made one out of 550 and a stick.

Of note: I broke my fishing rod and fixed it with superglue and tpu tape on my last solo trip to Duncan rose and south. This works very well. The tape goes on first with two small strips to hold the two rod pieces together. Mine overlapped 5 inches. I ‘sanded’ the rod pieces that would be adjoined by scraping the graphite with my knife edge. The tpu tape comes right off even after letting super glue dry on it. It’s so handy. The rod never came apart after that either and I caught a lake trout by accident and a bunch of bass on that trip. Also a northern on Insula, and some very big and feisty bass in the pools between the the falls in between the numbered lakes and Insula, while on my way out. They were very aggressive fish. If you want fish in every cast, go there. Bass only in the ten I caught at least. I let them all go. Right next to the portage by the other short portages. They thrive there.

I put my camera down to record one, and boom, big bass in seconds. This was yet to come though so more on that later…

After eating the fish, cleaning the pan, and putting my stove away, I again retreated to the point with my green tarp. The sun was setting. I was full of fresh caught walleye from worms I caught the night before. I had my Powerade stable mix in me, some peach tea in me, some snacks, and man I felt good watching the sunset and the loons cry out. My tarp was taught and even in the wind held its form well. This was one of the things I was testing so I made sure it had a chance to be tested. It never budged though and I was satisfied with the way I set it up.

My faith in those little lime green yellow chartreuse? Dyneema lines has grown. I still had a 550 line above the tarp center with a carabiner for a pitch point. But I always do that.

The extra end of that 550 was the line I used for my chair leash. Most times I came around the corner, that chair was laying sideways or in a different spot so it did need the tether up there on the point.

I didn’t need to hang my food pack anymore, it all fit in the black udap canister by this time, actually after 2-3 days it all fit in there. Not that it’s hard to hang my food pack. It’s just nice to drop it and walk away. It has an AirTag in it in case it gets moved or I forget it somewhere. Also it beeps quietly when I retrieve it. It know when its being moved. I’m still amazed at some of the gadgets we have nowadays. Somehow, my food container is digitized. I don’t mind though. Even though I like my old school stuff, I’m a bit of a hybrid.

When I hang I use three 550 lines, two pulleys and a carabiner attached to each pulley for ease. They are red orange and pink and reflective lines easy to see on the ground when bundled up, but still basically disappear in the air in the daytime. I know two lines would also work, but I prefer three so they are all the same length and I don’t have to have one really long rope.

one line goes over a branch on one tree, one line over another branch on a different tree. Then I connect those lines . That’s my horizontal line. I connect the end of the rope for my pulley & pack at the junction of those two lines, or close, and that line runs down to my food pack, which has a pulley on the grab handle attached by carabiner. the line from there goes back up to the horizontal line where my second pulley is attached, basically right at or near the junction of the two horizontal lines again. Then the rope that hangs down is the one you pulled on and tie off.

These three ropes and those two pulleys don’t weigh much. The carabiners split duty between 1)the food pack pulleys and the tarp at camp, and 2) the canoe tethers for packs and my portage yokes during travel. I bring 4 total carabiners with me. And four total 50 ft lengths of 55o rope. These three ropes three mentioned above, and another yellow chartreuse one for the tarp center attachment point also mentioned above.

Technically I can get by with three carabiners, but I take four and likely a couple more next time.

Also, If you haven’t used Avenza yet, start now. Small Portable rechargeable weather radios are not cheating. Get one. And also wear your pfd everyone. Unless you’re older than me, than I probably won’t bother you about it. ;) I have a map and compass in my pfd chest pocket with an aid kit. Other chest pocket has a needle nose pliers, a small knife, a small handheld marine air horn, and a lighter.

Anyways, I’m thinking of heading out tomorrow. I’ve got two days left of supplies, two days left on my float plan, and about a full days paddle away from the entry point. I decide to pack up tomorrow morning and head towards lake one, knowing I will probably stop somewhere to camp one more night, and split return paddle duties into two days and arriving back at entry point as planned on day 7.

I sleep very good every night, this night as well.

Weather says 40% chance of rain on Friday with a possible thunderstorm. I decide to leave early ish and find a camp closer to the entry pint in case the weather predictions get worse by tomorrow. Then I can wait for good breaks in weather to get back, and split the return journey into two days. I don’t decide on a campsite when I set off, I just plan to paddle a decent amount, check the weather for late afternoon and tonight, as it might rain today too. We’ll see how far I get before I’m tired, hungry, or the weather gets iffy.

I clean up everything, pack it all up. My neighbors have all left this morning it seems. Possibly for the same reasons.

The wind is again very strong and in my face. Too bad it switched and I couldn’t ride it back. Sometimes the wind is just not ever on your side…

I quickly find myself back in burn territory. So fast it changes.

The lake seems smaller. That’s nice I guess.

Eventually I get to the portage to leave Insula. There’s a group ahead of me. I haven’t talked to anyone in about five or six days so it’s nice to see them. They are taking breaks in various spots after fighting the same wind. I passed them pretty fast on the portage since they were all taking breaks in various spots. I doubled back for my packs and by then had talked to all four of them. The oldest was 82, and he was quick on his feet. The others were all older than me by a quite a bit. I’m 45. Though one may have been my age at least three were decades older.

They commented on my canoe, and I told them it’s history, how I just picked it up, and showed them the new seat I webbed, and the sanded and oiled trim, and we all admired my new boat. It was nice to have it be so appreciated.

We traded some pictures and talked about how they still come here even as old as there are. They liked that I was solo, and my boat was tidy and my system seemed efficient. I think they were all from cornucopia. Or at least reside there currently. They seemed like knowledgeable paddlers and talked about kayaking superior.

I gave one some of my fruit punch mix and he was very happy to have some zing in his tummy. He was very thirsty, and I realized we all were, so I filled up my water filter quick and a couple of us refilled.

I had another quick erig sesh before they came back down the trail so I was in a chatty mood.

They left, almost without one of their maps, and I let them get some distance eon me so I wasn’t on their ass or passing them right way. I checked the time and it was already 1 somehow, we had chatted a long time. I move at a decent pace for a solo paddler sit and switch style, so I decided to fish a bit by the falls next to the portage. As mentioned before, easy pickings. I should have kept some for a gift for the group ahead of me, as I passed their campsite along the river a bit later in the day. They said hi one last time and I was by myself for the day after that. I liked that group of friends. They were very nice.

I ended up fighting wind the entire time. I paddled relentlessly after taking so much time at the portage with them, and then fishing. The. Louis were a bit ominous and the sun was gone. Weather predicted some rain by early evening and at 430 or so I found myself starving. I ate faster than most humans ever do at a portage where the next few short ones all are. Summer sausage, just flew off my knife into my mouth and disappeared like water does when your parched. Same as my Swiss cheese, and blueberry bagel I smashed up thin. I drank some fruit punch and decided I was going to power through to the entry point, even if it rains. So that ment I could exhaust my trail mix and last few sour watermelon Mike and Ike’s buried inside the pile.

2000 calories in 5 minutes.

Back to paddling.

Felt much better. My body was a machine at this point.

I landed at 745. The sun had come back out right at sunset and the wind died and the skeeters came out while I was rigging the canoe up to the jeep.

I left towards Ely, gas gauge on e after my double back error for the food cooler…

I got gas in town, and a drunk tourist in front of me bought 80 dollars of lotto tickets, and then complained how much his camels were to the young lady at the register. Then she said sorry and he gave her 5 bucks. I watched him walk out and I’m pretty sure he was driving the Audi r8 that was pulled over in town. Idk though.

See you out there.

I was already missing the woods after that.