New Trip Report posted by Mad_Angler

Trip Name: Family Base Camp Trip to Horse Lake.

Entry Point: 23

Click Here to View Trip Report

Gear that worked:
- Jordan's Outfitters
- Litter pails for tables and food containers
- Lowrance X67 depth finder
- Bungie dealie bobs
- 2x4s to put canoes on van's factory luggage rack
- Hammock (the hammock nearly always had a girl or four in it)
- CCS tarp
- Exped Synmat 9 (by far the most comfortable mat out there)
- Carabiners for hanging food pack. Made it much easier since rope didn't have to slide over the limb
- Souris River 18.5 canoe. Plenty of room for 3 per canoe
- Cache Lake foods, especially Biscuits and Gravy. A must have!
- RAM mount for GPS. Much easier than resting on floor of canoe.
- Leeches. We caught most of our fish on leeches and slip bobbers
- Topwater poppers. Catching fish on topwater is really fun.

Gear that didn't work:
- Thermocell. It worked in other places but the BW mosquitoes were not impressed.

Nice Mad Angler!

Apparently I should have watched you fishing and stole your "spot". I didn't catch squat when we were there (though fishing isn't a high priority for me, at least that's what I say when I don't catch anything)

I figured that someone would start to wonder when I went to exact same spot all day, every day.

My only regret is that I didn't try it at night to catch more walleye...

Lovely report - thanks so much for sharing... and validating the use of GPS technology to catch fish!

Mad_Angler,

Enjoyed your trip report and terrific pictures - glad the camera survived the dunking. Good job on finding the submerged island. Hope you are all able to repeat it again.

Boppa

Enjoyed your report along with the pics. The girls looked like they had a great time.
I was on Horse Lake in June but only spent one night on the island campsite you mentioned. We did a loop from Fall lake up around the falls and back down into Jackfish bay then back to Fall. It wish I could have stayed longer.

I found amusing in one of your pics that one of the teen daughters was looking at her cell phone. She had the look of "please let me get a signal out here!!" on her face. It's great to get the whole family out and bonding.

Yep. That daughter is addicted to her cell phone. I didn't argue with her because we both knew that her battery would only last for the first day.

Once it died, she dealt with the withdrawal pretty well...

Great report - I'll bet you'll keep that spot on record for future trips -I'll bet you must feel like this discovery is like a "mother load!"

Great family time M.A., plus a big bonus honey hole for dad!
Hey, I see you're in Milton. I have friends there and I'm not too far away over in Brodhead. Maybe we can cross paths sometime.
cowdoc

cowdoc,

It was good. A good time was had by all.

Maybe our paths will cross. Your profile says you are a hunter. Maybe we'll meet in a marsh somewhere, a goose field, or a spring turkey hunt...

Hey MA, I saw on your report that you used some 2x4's across your roof rack for your canoes. You said it worked for you for the short trip to the EP. Do you think it would work for hauling a couple of canoes about 900 miles?

Ozark,

I would carry canoes on the 2x4s. They were plenty solid.

I would make sure to tie the front of the canoe to the front of the care/van and tie the back of the canoe to the back of the car/van. Those ropes are really doing all the work.

Here is a longer thread with more opinions:
van top link

The link even have pictures of the canoes tied to my van.

I carried 1 canoe on a 2X4 roof rack on a 3200 mile trip with no problem. I did screw in a large screw eye on the end (top of the 2X4, not the cut end) of each 2X4, so the canoe was tied down in 2 places on the rack. It was also tied down in the front and back. One hint- drive for 1/2 hour or so and stop and check all the ropes. Sometimes they need to be tightened down after a bit.

Great Report, very useful to me as my dad and I are going up in a few days. How big of a flat is the shallow spot off the East bank of Horse? If I may be so bold to ask. Thanks again, sounds like a good family trip.

good report thanks for sharing I never been there before thought about
going there but did not get the entry point for camping on Horse

Nice trip report. That is quite a trip for the whole family.

Thanks for that report, sounds like it's about my speed with kids along. Congrats to all of them for the accomplishment - thanks for sharing it all with us.

Great report, sounds like a wonderful time with the famlily. My daughters loved going to the BWCA and they still do.

Awesome report, thank you.

Seeing the smile on your daughters face while she was holding that big bass put a smile on my face. My kids are grown and off on their own. Your report brought back good memories. In 25 years I hope you will be reading someone else’s report and having fond memories.

May I ask, what do you put in the cat litter bins? Is that for food, like a bear barrel?

Seemed like a great trip - I poked at that route last year and was worried a day trip to basswood would be too long - it is now on the list of trips to do