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       Trip Report - Quetico's Trees, Rocks and Water: A Solo Journey
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Date/Time: 03/28/2024 12:14PM
Trip Report - Quetico's Trees, Rocks and Water: A Solo Journey

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Previous Messages:
Author Message Text
fishguts 05/28/2010 03:38PM
Great trip report! Wow! Now I'm going to go back and re-read some of my favorite sections! Thanks, love the photos!
Jeriatric 09/13/2007 04:46PM
Forgot to mention that I love your self-portrait looking into the sunset.
Jeriatric 09/13/2007 03:28PM
My God!! The notes you must have taken!
bogwalker 09/13/2007 07:45AM
Congrats Chuck. I loved your report-you inspired me to consider a route such as yours.
Arkansas Man 09/13/2007 07:25AM
Congrats on the Win! I have not been able to paddle as much as I wanted to this summer, as the only canoe I have right now is a Souris River Quetico 18.5... not the best solo canoe with the freeboard if you know what I mean! I am looking to buy an Old Town Penobscot 16 for the kids to use when camping and to configure and use solo when I want to paddle, I am also looking to build a 38 special sometime in the near future for a solo boat! Take care, and I will be on the water more soon!

Bruce
CIIcanoe 09/12/2007 07:12PM
I just received an e-mail from Adam letting me know I won the August Trip Report contest for this trip report.

Thank you to all of you who voted for me/trip report. This was a fabulous trip and I enjoyed sharing it with those who either viewed the photos, read the narrative or both.

Chuck
eagle93 09/01/2007 09:35PM
Great report and photos Chuck. Some of those portages would probably killed me.
CIIcanoe 08/28/2007 12:00PM
I removed this post. I added 6 more photos and text and it threw the margins off again. So I think I'm done adding photos. Chuck
Beemer01 08/21/2007 05:39PM
Wonderful report and fine pictures - we were a few days behind you for quite a bit of your loop.
CIIcanoe 08/19/2007 02:04PM
Tom T,

I guess the main reason I don’t fish in the BWCA/Quetico is I like to paddle too much. I like to be on the move seeing new territory. By the time I’m ready to stop paddling, get all the chores done setting up camp, it still seems I don’t have that much time to relax as it is.

I used to take a fishing rod (lures, etc) and I seldom used it. I finally stopped bringing it along when I realized that I hadn’t used it on a few trips.

I did fish a lot when I was younger, but now the only time I’ve been fishing is during my annual trip to the Florida Keys.

There might be a time when I start again.

Chuck
TomT 08/19/2007 12:59PM
That's a good point about becoming windbound away from camp. It can easily happen without much weight in the stern and bow.

In my previous post I mentioned remembering when I thought I was having a heart attack on a portage. Well I finished reading your report and realized I was on those hellish portages you describe to the south of Sarah.

In 2001 I was solo on my 2nd day out (heavy packs, way too much food) and came to this series of up and downs. It was hot and I thought I was going to die at the top of that hill.

It was this experience where I promised myself I would pare my load down to the minimum on my next solo.

I've also stayed at that island site on McIntyre 2 seperate times where you laid over. It's a favorite of mine with the high rock slab overlooking the lake and the nice launch from down below.

I really enjoyed reading your adventure. Seems like you got a taste of a little of everything. One thing I'm curious about is why you don't fish?


CIIcanoe 08/19/2007 09:05AM
Arkansas Man and Tom T,

Thank you for the kind words about my trip report.

Arkansas Man- Have you been getting out in your canoe this summer? You probably didn’t think I would remember your post from earlier this year. It was either in March or April. Any ways, hope you were able to get out.

Tom T- I’ve done many solo trips before and every one of them has been where I move every day except one and that was last years trip.

Last year, I stayed at the same campsite on Iron Lake for one extra day and was going to take a side trip to LLC to see the pictographs. The pictographs were to the NW of me and the rest of my trip was to the east, so I though I would just take a simple day trip. I had to cross Bottle portage and the wind was whipping up pretty good on LLC so I decided to turn around. I probably would have seen the pictographs, but what was the wind going to do. If it intensified I might have become wind bound. How long, I don’t know! Last years trip narrative was, Big Water to No Water and Portages in Between.

I didn’t feel comfortable leaving all (most) of my gear at the campsite if I became wind bound somewhere else. I would rather have all my gear with me and if I had to stay somewhere unexpected I would just deal with it (with a little more comfort). This mostly applies on big lakes. I don’t know where you plan to base camp, but this something to consider as well. You probably are aware of it, but I wrote this for some more inexperienced solo travelers to think about This really only applies if traveling any distance from your base camp on big water or crossing portages into other big lakes.

Have a safe trip in September. I’m not sure if I can squeeze another trip in or not. Bear hunting season starts soon and I also bow hunt deer. Also, where I want to go needs to have some water in the river so that I can actually paddle it otherwise it could be one very long portage. There are several portages as it is without the low water. I still want to do the first 450 miles of the Mississippi River, but it looks like that’s put off another year.

Chuck.

TomT 08/19/2007 08:10AM
I printed this one out (as I do to most of these) and was surprised that it was 66 pages long. I said to the wife "How am I going to staple THIS one?" She simply pulled out an industrial stapler that I didn't know she bought and clamped that sucker together. Wasn't even mad about the paper consumption. How's that for a wife? :)

I'm about half way through it and will finish it shortly. Your detail is amazing. My three solo's in the past were just like yours where I traveled every day except I also like to fish.

It was exhausting to read about your portaging and broght back not so great memories of when I thought I was having a heart attack on one brutal portage my last time solo.

I'm going solo in Sept. but will for the most part be basecamping with day trips. I'm enjoying the read so far and thanks for taking the time.
Arkansas Man 08/18/2007 08:07AM
Great Report Chuck... Thanks for the read!! It was a pleasure after not getting to take a trip myself this year!

Bruce
Buck47 08/13/2007 01:03AM
Great Trip, Great Report, I truely enjoyed the read. I'll save your other one for another night.
Thanks For Sharing!
CIIcanoe 08/12/2007 09:47PM
I’m glad everyone is enjoying my report. The report is really written for me and what I went through while on this route. I don’t claim to be a great writer. I wish I would have done a journal on my earlier trips. Memories do fade.

It took me a considerable amount of time to do this report, but it was worth it. I will be able to go back, read it and refresh my memory. I know this report is long, but most of it was taken right from my journal. Again, it's mostly for me, but if anyone else enjoys it, that's great. If anyone has a question, let me know.

Bill- I took about three photos of you guys before I realized I was using the wrong setting on my camera. They were very dark, but it did lighten up pretty good in Elements 5. If you saw the original of it you would be surprised. Then I got the correct setting, but that time you were so far away I had to zoom in, but I had too much camera shake.

You can use the photo if you want, sorry it wasn't any better.

Buck47- You might be interested in reading my Big Water to No Water and Portages in Between. This was my solo trip from last year that's posted here on BWCA.com.

Adam- Thanks for doing your magic.

Chuck
Ho Ho 08/12/2007 09:25AM
I enjoyed the report, CII. You really make time out on the water! Makes me feel kind of plodding. I've been over most of your route. The first 4 days of your trip were the same as the first 5 days of a Man Chain/Kahshahpiwi trip we took in 2003. (We took two days to do your third day, but otherwise almost identical.) We stayed at the same campsite on Kenny Lake as you, and also I'm pretty sure the same campsite at the far end of Kawnipi before heading up Kahsh creek. I haven't been on the Sturgeon-Maligne stretch since I was a teenager in the '70s, though. I think you got hit by the front on North Bay worse than we did down on Burke, although it was pretty powerful there too. By the way, I "borrowed" your pic of us paddling down Burke on the last day for my desktop. Do you mind if I use it in my own trip report when I get to Day 8? Bill
Buck47 08/12/2007 09:24AM
The Warden just gave me "the look." My son has a hockey game in Blaine at 1PM and we have a couple of hours drive to get there.

I am at part 4 and can't wait to get back to the rest of the story.

While going solo you have so many conversations with yourself. I understand all your thoughts. I did the same thing on my solo. It is like meditating or something. It really clears the mind.

I am itching to get another solo trip in.

Can't wait to read the rest.
BWCA 08/11/2007 08:36PM

I have made a few changes to clear up the issues in most browsers. Thank you Chuck for sharing the wonderful report!
canoealingus 08/10/2007 05:15PM
This is a great report. Love the pics. To read the text click on the edit with mirosoft word icon in your browser, then click on veiw, choose normal. Anyone can read it then without dragging the mouse back and forth to see all the text.
old_salt 08/10/2007 04:46PM
I agree with HoHo.
Ho Ho 08/10/2007 09:36AM
On my Safari (Mac) browser, it all fit within the left and right edges of the screen, no need to scroll. Now I'm at work looking it at in Internet Explorer (PC), and it goes way off the right edge. So some html magic is probably needed.
CIIcanoe 08/10/2007 09:20AM
Day one has been inserted. I missed it when I cut and paste from the number of days format to number of parts format. Anyways, that is fixed.

Bill,

When you say the report looks fine, do you have to use the slider bar at the bottom and move it to the right to read to report left to right or do you see both the left and right margins without having to use the slider bar?

If anyone else is kind enough to comment on my report also, let me know how this report is viewed on your monitor. Thanks.

I think the problem is on one or two days at the end of that dat I inserted several photos and they just keep posting to the right and don't wrap around

I haven't heard back from Adam, yet.

Chuck

Ho Ho 08/10/2007 06:26AM
Yay, it's here! The format looks like it's been fixed because it looks fine on my Safari browser. I cheated and skipped down to the last day. I'm sure glad you made it safely across Bayley Bay since it seems we inspired you to head out that day! Our tandem Champlain is probably a little safer than your solo Prism, but then again, we're not marathon canoers, so it probably evened out.

Enjoyed the description of the trip up; changes to Route 1 bum me out too.

But then it seems like the entry for your first day of actual paddling is missing. You start on the Man Chain not Moose Lake. (At first I thought you got from Moose to Bell Lake in one day and I was blown away. A little relieved to see that it took you 2 days.) Hope you can get the first day of paddling inserted. I'm going to save the rest of the report for a leisurely read this weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

Bill
CIIcanoe 08/10/2007 12:39AM
I guess I'm going to need Adam's help with the margins!!!!!!!

After spending about 10 hours to post this, I'm not to happy about this outcome. E-mail has been sent to Adam. Chuck
CIIcanoe 08/10/2007 12:36AM
New Trip Report posted by CIIcanoe

Trip Name: Quetico's Trees, Rocks and Water: A Solo Journey.

Entry Point: Quetico

Click Here to View Trip Report wc-20070801-0845