A posting on another thread reminded me of the old Q days at Prairie Portage. The struggle to even get the permit on the day that you wanted so you were at your phone at 6 am five months before your entry. The single outhouse. The terribly long line to get your permit and fishing licenses. An hour wait was not uncommon early in the a.m. Sometimes Q staff that were not all too friendly. The rule that you not cross a certain line outside the door until it was your turn, even in the rain. The great conversations with other trippers about where they were headed and where they had been. And then the trip over to Customs to check in with them before you could depart.

A lot has changed. But much remains the same.

I think they switched the customs at Prairie Portage just as I started to go--so missed that, I have had the not Friendly Q staff (also have had exceptional staff--more so lately), still remember calling exactly at 6am 5 months prior to my entry and only getting my chosen entry 50% of the time. See A LOT less people now. That's good and bad...

I love that you can get your fishing licenses a head of time on the Internet, really speeds up the line. Except I always seem to be right behind the group of nine who are afraid of the Internet and all need a fishing license still :)

I recall the quotas being filled early and the cabin to the east and staying off the steps. Missed customs at PP - always rabc. Do wish they'd develop the partner program that started with Quetico100 and a few more outfitters in the US would sign on.

First time through Prarie Portage was while leading a youth group. Tom & Woods outfitters secured our permit reservation for us so no problems there. Visit to the Custom cabin was a breeze. Then over to to the Ranger cabin for permit & fishing licenses. Had to follow Ranger Sampson's instructions to the letter. Everything was fine until one of my kids sat on the edge of his desk. It went down hill fast from there. LOL

I think Mike and Darla were the old rangers back in the day. I remember when they had to break out the old ham radio to radio back to the HQ to run checks on credit card numbers. I remember the old slider they used with carbon paper to run over your credit card to make a receipt. And always everybody warning each other that when you fill out your fishing license to make sure you didn't mix up the dates because Canada used a different sequence for their dates.

One time, I was sitting in line waiting for the ranger station to open, there was a woman in front of me and we started talking about everything to do with the Boundary Waters, from fishing to dog sledding to truck portage closings to motors in the park, just about everything for an hour.

Then, right before they opened, we introduced ourselves and she said her name was Mary. That's when it hit me, she is part of the famous guiding duo of Harry and Mary Lambirth. I used to watch them all of the time when they would guide Jerry McKinnis from the fishing show The Fishin' Hole. I asked where's Harry and she said down by the shore talking to the clients. Then Harry came up and I got to meet him as well. It was great meeting the two, I won't forget that moment.

quote timatkn: "I think they switched the customs at Prairie Portage just as I started to go--so missed that, I have had the not Friendly Q staff (also have had exceptional staff--more so lately), still remember calling exactly at 6am 5 months prior to my entry and only getting my chosen entry 50% of the time. See A LOT less people now. That's good and bad...

I love that you can get your fishing licenses a head of time on the Internet, really speeds up the line. Except I always seem to be right behind the group of nine who are afraid of the Internet and all need a fishing license still :) "

People buying fishing licenses really slowed down the process. Get a group of six or more and each buying a fishing license took forever.

Quetico Mike:

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry McGinnis and Indiana coach Bobby Knight at Canadian Border Outfitters on Moose Lake back in the mid-80's. They were just getting in from a Quetico smallmouth fishing trip.

I was just going out for a 10-day trip to Kawnipi. We traded some stories over a beer.

Being a Purdue Boilermaker it was a bit tough to talk smallmouth fishing with Bobby Knight. Those two were quite a pair.

At least Customs at Prairie Portage was in the general vicinity of the Ranger cabin. When entering Quetico through Cache Bay, it required a paddle to the Customs cabin that was northeast of the put-in on Saganaga Lake yet several miles southeast of the Cache Bay Ranger station. (Picture shown below of the Canadian Customs cabin on Saganaga Lake. Circa Fall 1987)

Hans Solo

quote Wally13: "Quetico Mike:

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry McGinnis and Indiana coach Bobby Knight at Canadian Border Outfitters on Moose Lake back in the mid-80's. They were just getting in from a Quetico smallmouth fishing trip.

I was just going out for a 10-day trip to Kawnipi. We traded some stories over a beer.

Being a Purdue Boilermaker it was a bit tough to talk smallmouth fishing with Bobby Knight. Those two were quite a pair. "

That would have been cool. I'm sure I saw the show they did in Quetico, never missed the show. I think Bobby might have been doing some fly fishing. I met Jerry at a boat show a few years before I met Harry and Mary. I was wearing a Boundary Waters sweatshirt and he says to me "Ely, Minnesota, my favorite place in the world". Then he asks me if I had ever met Harry and Mary and I told him that Quetico was a pretty big place and I doubt I will ever run into them. Well, I was wrong and did in fact end of meeting them. I actually ran into them 2 weeks later at Prairie Portage again. I did an 8 day trip, drove a thousand miles home and then turned around at the end of the next week and drove back up to Ely for another 8 day trip. I think it was back in 1998.

I never liked Bobby Knight when he was coaching, being a Buckeye myself, but I always had respect for the guy.

In the 1980's I had a chance, while waiting for over an hour to get into the ranger cabin, to talk to "Jackpine" Bob Cary. I started fly fishing in the late 60's as a kid and I found fly fishing for Smallies in Quetico to be heaven on earth. Cary had been writing fly fishing articles for years and it was great to be "stuck" waiting an hour with him and talking fly fishing.

On another occasion, my son David and I shared a tow from Tom and Woods with a older gentleman who was going on a solo trip to North Bay. Jeff Hway was drove the tow boat. When we got across Prairie Portage the other guy went to the ranger cabin and I pointed out that he had to go through customs first. He said that you had to go to both places and the line at the ranger cabin was smaller than the line at customs. Just after Dave and I got into line at customs, a giant group of scouts got in line behind us. When we got out of customs the poor solo tripper was behind almost 30 people in the customs line and said he was told that he had to enter the country before he could enter the park. I also remember that he had a lawn chair with his gear and I thought that I would never bring a chair; I was wrong, I have been bringing some sort of chair every trip since I turned 50.

Another time about ten years later, we were waiting in line when I recognized Rich Osthoff just behind us. Rich used to work at the original Gander Mountain in Wilmot WI and had held fly tying classes there in the late 70 and 80's. We started talking and he introduced us to his brother Stu. I recognized Stu as the editor of the BWJ but I had not realized that they were brothers.

When Tom and Woods sold their business and Jeff Hway bought Beland's,
we used them for our tows when we outfitted out of Ely.

Good memories of the finest vacation spot in the world!

quote HansSolo: "
At least Customs at Prairie Portage was in the general vicinity of the Ranger cabin. When entering Quetico through Cache Bay, it required a paddle to the Customs cabin that was northeast of the put-in on Saganaga Lake yet several miles southeast of the Cache Bay Ranger station. (Picture shown below of the Canadian Customs cabin on Saganaga Lake. Circa Fall 1987)

Hans Solo

"

And a trip to the Chippewa Inn! May 1983.

butthead

The most harrowing paddle of my life occurred in 1990 going from the
Saganaga customs office to the Cache Bay ranger station in the face of huge whitecaps paddling with my 14-year old cousin on his first BWCA/Quetico trip. My right forearm still hurts to this day from that paddle...

Back in the day, 1978-83, we never went through customs or range cabins. On my first trip we didn't actually know we had entered Canada until a few days had gone by. We just paddled up Basswood and found campsites. On my next 4 trips we entered Canada as if it was the 51st state. We were young and could paddle miles and miles in a day.

quote Capsize: "The most harrowing paddle of my life occurred in 1990 going from the
Saganaga customs office to the Cache Bay ranger station in the face of huge whitecaps paddling with my 14-year old cousin on his first BWCA/Quetico trip. My right forearm still hurts to this day from that paddle..."

I remember having to make that 2-stop haul on Sag a few times. Once in the early 90's doing that with a big northerly wind, upper 30's temps and on-and-off snow in mid-May. Realizing that if we flipped the boat in the middle of Sag we'd probably freeze to death. Fun times!

Now we're older and not on a college budget, so we'd pay for the boat hop to Hook Island. And the customs stop isn't even necessary anymore, right?

quote DancesWithTrees: "

quote Capsize: "The most harrowing paddle of my life occurred in 1990 going from the
Saganaga customs office to the Cache Bay ranger station in the face of huge whitecaps paddling with my 14-year old cousin on his first BWCA/Quetico trip. My right forearm still hurts to this day from that paddle..."

I remember having to make that 2-stop haul on Sag a few times. Once in the early 90's doing that with a big northerly wind, upper 30's temps and on-and-off snow in mid-May. Realizing that if we flipped the boat in the middle of Sag we'd probably freeze to death. Fun times!


Now we're older and not on a college budget, so we'd pay for the boat hop to Hook Island. And the customs stop isn't even necessary anymore, right?
"

There isn't Customs any longer, but don't you still have to go through the ranger station if going to Quetico?

quote QueticoMike: "

quote DancesWithTrees: "

quote Capsize: "The most harrowing paddle of my life occurred in 1990 going from the
Saganaga customs office to the Cache Bay ranger station in the face of huge whitecaps paddling with my 14-year old cousin on his first BWCA/Quetico trip. My right forearm still hurts to this day from that paddle..."

I remember having to make that 2-stop haul on Sag a few times. Once in the early 90's doing that with a big northerly wind, upper 30's temps and on-and-off snow in mid-May. Realizing that if we flipped the boat in the middle of Sag we'd probably freeze to death. Fun times!



Now we're older and not on a college budget, so we'd pay for the boat hop to Hook Island. And the customs stop isn't even necessary anymore, right?
"

There isn't Customs any longer, but don't you still have to go through the ranger station if going to Quetico?


"

Yes,except for the self service period you self register at the station.