New Trip Report posted by Canoodler

Trip Name: An Old Man Solo.

Entry Point: 4

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Nice report. Thanks for sharing. I'm always thinking of finally doing my first solo and your report is an inspiration. One of these days...

Great report! And I don't think this is going to be your last solo, call it a hunch.

nice route to do, esp solo. you really got a lot of history on your trip starting with Sig Olson's cabin and ending with Jeep LaTourell driving the tow boat.

Thanks for the report, Canoodler. I'm glad you got to make it again and I hope you get some more in too.

Good job Old Man. You are an inspiration to us youngsters in our mid fifties who want to trip for many more years.

Wow I am impressed. Way to go and congratulations. Your report gives me hope as I always wonder how many more years I will be able to keep going on my trips. Good job. God bless.

~JOE~

I enjoyed reading your report and just wanted to thank you for sharing it.

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments. I doubt that I will ever undertake such a challenging (for me) solo trip again. You become less able as you get older, of course. This trip was too hard for me. I do not have a "football player" physical stature, instead I am rather slight built. I will, however, continue to go on tandem trips or solo much easier ones.

impressive and inspiring, thanks.

Absolutely awesome trip report and reflection on life, well said. Happy trails to you.

Thanks! Especially enjoyable since I was in Q at same time - Sept 2 to 7 - so interesting to compare wind and weather.

I read your report with admiration and increased desire to try a solo of my own. Thank you for sharing.

I greatly enjoyed your trip report, Canoodler. I hope you are able to keep going to the canoe country. From what I've seen, it's the wiry folks like you who are still out there tripping into their 70s and 80s--not the football player types. Sig Olson paddled a tough route up to Hudson Bay when he was 65.

Good point, arctic. However, going solo is somewhat a handicap since there is a lack of partner help. The heavier food pack and tandem boat is more than offset by two workers. Maybe I am too down on myself but my right knee is a limiter and perhaps Olson was in much better shape than I was at age 65. Since his right shoulder was still hurting, I suspect the others in his group of "Voyageurs" took up at least some of the slack. But, yes, 16 days and 400 miles was quite a feat for that 65 year old. Thinking back, there was a difference in ability for me between age 65 and now too. Physical disability accelerates on the journey towards later life.

A story: on my previous trip to Robinson Lake I camped at Canadian point (near the old boat house) on my way out and there were two men and a dog that crashed in from the bush. I was startled. Where did you come from? "Well we are camped up the shoreline and since the woods are rather open we decided to explore the old ranger cabin and pushed on from the cabin to here!" One of the guys was a 76 year old retired biology professor from Adrian College, not too far away from where I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan!! (Small world sometimes.) Well, the old prof had this fit late fortyish fellow accompany him. The younger guy agreed to carry the heaviest loads in exchange, I suspect, for a week of education and entertainment from the very interesting and talkative old prof. The retired prof said that "hiring" this strong younger man was the only way he could continue coming to the Quetico (no way would he trip in the BW!!!) now. He wanted to stretch out his canoeing years as much as possible - all of our goals also! That is one way to do it, at least!

Bill, what route did you take in Quetico? Was it solo?

Good report and I appreciate your candid reflections on aging. Though I'm much younger I can appreciate how much being in the BW puts things into perspective. It's why we go, isn't it?

quote wezander: "Good report and I appreciate your candid reflections on aging. Though I'm much younger I can appreciate how much being in the BW puts things into perspective. It's why we go, isn't it?
"

Wezander, yes, this trip defined my limits, surely. And if this is bringing things into perspective, the trip sure did define my limits. Being in the Canoe Country (BW & Quetico) provides challenges that have to be overcome too and this is another reason we all go. The pride of accomplishment is a satisfaction which we all savor and I WAS proud of myself for what I was able to do, albeit with pain trade-offs!!

quote Canoodler: "Bill, what route did you take in Quetico? Was it solo?"

My oldest son and I started out to retrace the first route which we had done together 10 years ago - PP to Kahs through Isabella, Yum Yum, and back through North and Burke. We got to Kahs on day 2 and the island site near Yum Yum portage was burned - I later learned fire started there and went up north east side of Kahs - so went up through Trant and down S chain. Sept 2-7 - camped on Isabella, Kahs, Silence, North, and Burke.

Bill, sad to hear of the fire damage on Kahshapiwi; I canoed once through there MANY years ago. I would like to take the S Chain some day and come back via Sunday Lake to Bayley Bay. That route does not seem to be quite as challenging as the trip I described in my trip report though the two portages, bang! bang! from Agnes to Sunday Lake would take something out from you! Did you fish?

I believe you responded to my initial request for a partner. Keep that request in mind for next summer, please.

Was on the horse portage after you. Camped on it and had this deer in our site...








He was "hiding" in the river... :)



Anyway... Great you could do the trip. Keep on paddling!

Nctry, Must have been my doe's mate. Both are big deer. At least you had your camera handy!!!

Great report,- nice country to travel. You should give yourself more credit though, that route between Robinson and Kett is very rugged though quite beautiful.

I wonder if you could not find the Tuck River channel due to all the rice/reeds. I've been through that route in extremely low water conditions (had to drag the canoe through the channel shown in your picture from the Moose Bay campsite ) and was able to paddle the Tuck to Robinson.

Nice report, maybe I've still got a few trips left in me also?

quote Banksiana: "Great report,- nice country to travel. You should give yourself more credit though, that route between Robinson and Kett is very rugged though quite beautiful.


I wonder if you could not find the Tuck River channel due to all the rice/reeds. I've been through that route in extremely low water conditions (had to drag the canoe through the channel shown in your picture from the Moose Bay campsite ) and was able to paddle the Tuck to Robinson."

I sure could not find a channel out of the main part of Moose Bay. The map shows it just to the north of the last campsite on Moose Bay. I saw that campsite but after that it was almost dry land. I pulled my canoe over the wet ground for perhaps 50 yards and then I walked the rest of the way. I climbed a rock face and in the woods a short way I saw a beaver dam and the pond behind it but no indication of a river channel. I think the beaver dam changed everything by drying up the channel and creating a large wet lands below it. I may have continued through the beaver pond but it had dead and fallen trees all over it; it was not an open route.

Ozark Paddler, do you know Marty Koch? He goes by the same handle and lives in St. Louis. He leads trips on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, I believe.

The "channel" leaves the bay between a low point and a scrubby island- through a reed bed with a couple of rocks breaking the surface- once through this pinch you push through tall reeds parallel to the shoreline of the point then over the beaver dam through a shallow bit until you reach the pool below the rapids. It is pretty difficult to discern this path, especially in the full bloom of summer. I paddled this in early April this year in exceptionally low water (but the reeds were sparse), and again in May with lots of water. I traveled the Tuck the last week of August this year (but not between Robinson and Moose Bay), Robinson was much lower than it was in May, but not as low as it was in early April.

quote Canoodler: "Ozark Paddler, do you know Marty Koch? He goes by the same handle and lives in St. Louis. He leads trips on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, I believe."

Have met Marty a couple times. Personable fella who makes a darn good pot of Chili!

nice report,i'm 66 and told myself if i could make trips to 70 i would be happy.looks like i'll have to add a year or two on that after reading your story!