Day 6: 2 Miles, 1 Portage (12 Rods) 1 River, 1 Lake

~Crooked Lake, Basswood River

We haven't used our layover/rain day yet, so I opt for a new campsite and a trip up the Basswood River to see Basswood Falls and glimpse Basswood Lake. We pack up, hit the portage, and find the open campsite in the back of the bay straight across from the Lower Basswood Falls Portage.It is a good campsite, but I have a feeling it is used least of any in the vicinity of the Falls. There must have been some high winds 'round these parts within the last year. Lost of small trees snapped off 1-4 feet off the ground. The site has a great latrine path with a newer latrine. Fine open area out front, and nicely shaded in back. There is a nice waterfront trail going toward the back of the bay with a large rock that could be used as an elevated tent pad if one wanted supreme privacy. There was something about that rock.. Familiar? Like there was a presence there. I saw the trail widen and keep going. I think an old portage that would exit near the Horse River, but I never found out. There was a foul smell, so I stopped walking. It was a dead crow in the trail. It felt like a barrier. I know it sounds odd, but after the feeling I got at the rock, the dead crow in the path could have been predicted. Especially after visiting the pictographs the day before.

The power in the waters of the Basswood River is not to be taken lightly. There is an extremely powerful current here. We never made it to Wheelbarrow Portage. We were too uncomfortable with the boiling current here. We saw 4 canoes go upriver and never return, so it must be passable. We didn't want to risk it. I would consider going downstream in the future, but that was the end of the line on this journey.

Back at camp, the first thing you may notice about this site, if you've been here in the past is the lawn furniture around the fire grate. It looks like a 30 year old rotted pile of rubbish. I saw some straight Jack Pine laying on the ground by the Mystic Rock. I'm going to improve this site! I cut a 10" diameter log about 10 feet long and got it to camp by flipping it the long way, over and over. The second log was only about 8" diameter and I shouldered that 10 footer back to camp. I saw a 12+" diameter Jack standing dead, so I pushed it over and cut off a couple of 2' chunks for end risers. I notched a riser and set up 2 old bench logs on it. Perfect fit. A little low, but an improvement from the last benches. Now for the second bench. I set up the second riser and test fitted the two 10' logs I cut. Notched them and set it back in place for the perfect BW double log bench. We thought we could do better with the rocks around the grate, but.... Well, I sure hope there's someone out there that is as good with rock as I am with logs! We did our best.

A nice fire from the pyro team to break it all in, and off to bed for a big day tomorrow. Noises in the night... Squeaky chewing noises by the stashed Seal Line food pack made me think of a bear chewing into the rubber pack. Something slaps the water the full length of the bay. At the end, a loon reveals itself with an eerie call. Twigs snapping in the woods. An enlongated splash at the camp landing. Something getting out of the water. That was a strange night for wilderness noises.

Day 7: 6 Miles, 7 Portages (319 Rods), 2 Rivers, 2 Lakes

~Basswood River, Horse River, Horse Lake, Finger Lake, Tin Can Mike Lake

When I planned this trip, I should have done 2 things: More research on the Basswood River, and more research on the Horse River! I wasn't prepared for either. It may be because of the higher water levels, but it seems like the Horse river has a great big lack of adequately marked portages. The first one or two were fine. It all went awry at the 58 rod portage. McKenzie map says right shore, Fisher says left shore. The portage was fine and had a stellar boardwalk. At the end was a group hogging up the landing for an hour while they repaired their canoe, and another party coming our way from the other side. We had to boogie across some rapids. Why were there still rapids? Why wasn't the portage extended to accommodate the remaining rapids? It would have only been 10 or 15 rods longer. Anyhow, we got through with a fistful of gripes. The rest of the River went just like that one. Rapids with no marked portage. There were portages, so I suppose all is okay. The final rapids were kind of cool. It was the first time I lined the canoe. Accomplishment!

Horse Lake was not very nice to us with its wind and waves, but we made it safe to the other side. The portage to Tin Can Mike was muddy and rutted, but easy. We chose the camp site on the south shore for the cool breeze and a shady backdrop. It was a crummy site with a crummy landing and a crummy latrine and a crummy hanging tree and a crummy tenting area and a set of crummy benches and a crummy fire grate with no legs. USFS needs to get on that site like now!

Wind blew all through the night and into the morning and continued all throughout the day into the evening. This was definitely a rest day. We didn’t touch a canoe all day. Casual coffee, breakfast and morning fire stretched into chopping and splitting wood, fishing from shore and cribbage in the afternoon. A nice excuse to do nothing and just enjoy the scenery.

Breakfast - Cache Lake Egg & Sausage Scramble with tortillas

Dinner - Cache Lake Chili Mac, Cache Lake Chocolate Pie

~Little Saganaga Lake

Woke up early and broke down camp while the coffee percolated. Ate a quick pancake breakfast and said good bye to our temporary home. We battled a little wind as we head north to the portage into Virgin Lake. Our plan was to fish West Fern and Powell Lakes on our way into Gillis or possibly Bat.

Virgin Lake portage was like all of the others along this route, rocky and hilly. Took a quick break at the crest of the ridge mid portage and made our way to the lake. We were officially in the burn area. I’ve never traveled through a burn area and it was a really cool experience. Beautiful to see the regrowth of the forest in that stage.

Across Virgin and into West Fern Lake where we rigged up our fishing rods and set off trolling around the lake. West Fern is a beautiful lake with green blue water. We fished for a few hours and picked up a nice Trout that went on the stringer. We searched for the two campsites but were unsuccessful in finding either one of them. We decided we better get going if we were going to get to Gillis or Bat and wanted to make sure we had a sight for the night, not knowing how busy it would be since it was the start of the weekend.

Across the portage and into Powell, we searched for the campsites and contemplated camping there, but the only site we could locate was perched high up on a rock and was getting basted by the wind. This site would do in a pinch but not for us on this day. We headed onto the portage and into French Lake, checked a site but decided to venture on to Gillis. Sites on the North and West sides of Gillis were taken. We could have headed north to the site near the portage to Bat but instead we opted for the longer paddle to check out the Eastern Camp (#507) outside of the burn area. Luckily for us, it was unoccupied. This would be home for the next two nights. West facing site with a great view and numerous flat tent pads. Landing is a little tricky, but the rest of the camp made up for it. Got camp settled and fished from shore a bit. Had a couple of bites and follows but weren’t able to land anything. Dinner was started and we cut up the West Fern Lake Trout that we had hauled all the way to Gillis. This trout was a much different color than the Trout from Little Sag. A deep pink flesh, and the flavor was similar to a salmon. It was delicious and much better tasting than the Little Sag Trout.

Breakfast - Blueberry Pancakes

Dinner - Cache Lake Foods Spaghetti

~Little Saganaga Lake, Virgin Lake, West Fern Lake, Powell Lake, French Lake, Gillis Lake

Today is all about exploring Gillis and fishing. After coffee and breakfast we pack up lunch and head out. The wind has finally died down a little bit for the first time all trip. We explored the cliffs near out site and then head to the bay leading to Crooked Lake portage. Sat on a the large rock leading to the bay and caught several small Trout. After a break and snack we traveled to the Southwestern bay to check out the campsite. It’s a cool little site but only has one nice tent pad but it is very large and near the fire. Once back on the order the wind made for nice drifting back to the main part of the lake. Had a deep diving white and silver Reef Runner. As we approached the large island in the main part of the lake I got a big strike. Fought it for a minute or two with very little shaking. As the fish neared the surfaced he freaked out and shook the hook loose. The one that got away…I don’t know how big it was I just know it was bigger than the ones we had been catching. The other canoe in our group had a similar experience. We were told that all of the Trout in Gillis were the same size. After those two experiences we are convinced there are some big Trout in Gillis. We picked up a trout a little later for the stringer near the large island. Headed back to camp after a full day on the water and played some cribbage before roasting the other trout and making dinner.

Our last night was beautiful. Calm, beautiful sunset and a great fire from the cedar wood we collected while out on the lake. A perfect end to a pretty perfect trip.

Breakfast - Cache Lake Biscuits and Gravy

Dinner - Parmesan Noodles + Tuna Packets, Mashed Potatoes, Fire Roasted Lake Trout

~Gillis Lake

Wanting to get back to the cities at a decent time we woke at 5, quick breakfast and broke down camp. At 6:45 we were off for the 8 portages back to Round lake via the Brandt Lake EP. Portages were fine, a few of them very buggy and wet slogs. The stairway landing on Gotter was missing 2 steps in a row, making the climb to the flat area a little tricky. Some of these lakes have cool features but not much to note along this route. Back to Tuscarora outfitters around 10:15. We split up the gear, pack the cars and head back to the cities with a quick stop at Northern Waters Smokehaus to stock up on smoked fish. It was a great trip. 3 layover days with 3 travel days, the perfect mix for our group.

~Bat Lake, Green Lake, Flying Lake, Gotter Lake, Brant Lake, Round Lake

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A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Tuscarora Outfitters is awesome. We only used the bunkhouse and breakfast but we’re all very impressed. Kind and helpful, the grounds are really nice and the facilities are clean and updated. Would definitely recommend staying here.

It was our first time in this area and we are all looking forward to being back in the near future.

Talking to groups on the way in and reading reports the week prior to our trip we were expecting big crowds. We came across very few people the whole trip.

Bugs (mostly black flies) were bad, but not as bad as expected.

If traveling from Little Sag to Gillis, I would highly recommend traveling through the Virgin/West Fern/Powell route. It’s very cool seeing the turndown areas.

Portages along this whole route were tough. Rugged, rocky, hilly and mostly wet portages made for some challenging travel.

We ate 3 different Trout from 3 different lake and they all had different flesh colors and taste. The one from West Fern was by far the darkest/red and most flavorful.

CACHE LAKE FOODS:

Overall Amazing! We used their meals for a lot of our menu and were impressed.

Breakfast scrambles - Excellent. We brought shredded cheese to add and wrapped the scramble in tortillas. Great breakfast and packs very small.

Biscuits and Gravy - Really really good. The biscuits are tedious to cook over a pocket stove due to the heat but the patience is worth it. Gravy is excellent.

Blueberry pancakes with Powdered syrup - Really good, the powdered syrup was so much easier than packing in real syrup although it was a little runny, we could have used less water than was recommended.

Fish Chowder - Better than expected, would be fine without he fresh fish, but with it it was excellent.

Fry Bread - All of the breads we had were very good and welcome additions to the meals, especially the fish chowder.

Chili Mac and Spaghetti - Good, not great. The sauces were difficult to break down and incorporate but the flavor was good.

Chocolate pie - Really good. Easy to make.

[All of the items were vegetarian and many used meat substitutes, the meat eaters in the crew didn’t even seem to notice.]

NOTABLE GEAR THOUGHTS:

Nemo Cosmo 25L Insulated Sleeping Pad: First time taking a pad with a pump and I will never go back to a mouth inflated pad. This pad is excellent. Easy to inflate and not noisy. It can get a little springy if over inflated but that is easy to avoid.

Xtratuff 15” boots: I usually wetfoot with Chaco and wool socks. Decided to try these out for this trip. They are awesome boots. Got a little swampy on the long travel days that were hot and humid, but overall I loved them. Comfortable and great traction on the wet rocks. Will definitely use them during shoulder season trips in the future. The only drawback with the boots or any other dry boots is that you need to know the water depth limit you can step out of the canoe in. I had one instance of stepping over the top of he boot. Took a day in the sun to dry out. Thinking about making a mark on the paddle blade so I can test the depth before stepping out.

Nemo Bugout Shelter: It was fine. Enough coverage to hideout from the small amount of rain we had. A couple of times we retreated to escape the mid-day black flies but it was annoying going in and out with chair/gear using the corner zip. We opted to pack it in without poles, we used trees and 1 stick which worked well. Didn’t like the design of it overall with 2 of the corners being very low. Considering we usually go in mid-May I probably wouldn’t bring this again.

Fjallraven Abisko Lite Long Trekking Trouser: I wore these the entire trip start to finish. They are the ideal paddling pant for me. They have breathable sections and are reinforced where they should be, plus a couple of zip vents on the side. It got really warm a couple of days and I was comfortable. One the cold nights I threw on a pair of merino long underwear and was plenty warm. They do come with a metal gaiter attachment on the cuff to attach to shoelaces, I removed that right when I got them. That wouldn’t work stuffed into a dry boot. They may have stopped making them cause I am having a hard time finding another pair, can only find zip-offs in this model, which I refuse to buy.

Cotopaxi Sueno Sleeping Bag: Favorite sleeping bag I have owned. Super comfortable and the engineering is superb. From the foot vent to zipper backing the prevents a stuck zipper, stuff pocket for pillow. Really excellent bag. Stuffs down super small, I can fit the bag, Nemo pillow and Sea to Summit pillow in a small Sea to Summit compression bag.

Wenonah Sling-style, clamp-on Portage pads: These are hot garbage. Started falling apart on the long portage to Tuscarora and were in pieces by the end of our first day. None of the metal parts are welded and they basically just fell apart. The rest of the trip the canoe was carried with the pads along duck taped to the portage yoke. Superior or Borquin style pads are the only way to go in my opinion.

Voyageur Maps: These are the premier maps in my opinion. The most recently manufactured, so they seem to be the most accurate. They have great historical information that is fun to read on an off day in camp. Backside has a large overview map of the entire park. DNR fish sample info for each lake on the map.