Fishguts 2008 Quetico Chronicles
by fishguts
23rd. On this morning I sat by the fire drinking my wife Elizabeth’s favorite ”Foffee” hot chocolate and coffee. The lake was still and like a mirror. I know I may have jinxed us but we have started to notice that we haven’t seen anyone since we left McAree. It’s like Quetico is empty….just us…deserted! Day after day lake after lake, not a soul, just us. The solitude is wonderful! Yesterday on our fishing trip we visited another campsite. It is down across from the lower tip of our island. It is a big open site with pines and a nice fireplace but it is remarkable for the big Moose Skull and antlers that are there. We took our pictures holding the antlers we hope they come out! As I fixed breakfast there was not a cloud in the sky and not a breeze. We think we will stay here a second night. We took off after breakfast and fished down the arm of Suzanette that goes towards the Brent portages but we had little luck. So we paddled back to the Moose Skull Camp and went down the arm of Suzanette that goes to the Darky River and Burt Lake. We caught a few Smallmouth Bass and then came to the first rapids, here Thomas caught a giant Smallmouth in the 5 Lbs. range. Then a big Northern followed Thomas’ lure right up to the canoe but didn’t bite. I was fishing in the same spot with a Zulu and another big Northern jumped out of the water and snapped off my Zulu. This was really exciting fishing! Later the wind picked up and we paddled back to Moose Skull Camp and had lunch, Peanut butter and jelly on tortillas and rye crisp and lemon drink. Then we headed back to our camp to bathe and read and nap. Thomas has been going through the snack bag and says we have to increase our consumption of candy bars and gorp. He says we can’t take any home. Ah! The bath and shampoo was wonderful! It was a warm afternoon with warm breezes and we some laundry that we dried on the rain tarp line.
We had a dinner of chicken gravy and mashed potatoes..lots of mashed potatoes. There was also apple sauce that was weird….ground too fine, like apple flour paste or wallpaper paste. Ugh! And a dessert of strawberry cheesecake. After dinner we went fishing, we caught lots of little bas. Then we saw fish rising out in the middle of Suzanette. The wind had stopped and the lake was smooth as glass and there was a strange overcast sky. We trolled out in the middle of the lake with the only ripples being ours. Thomas hooked something, he reeled it in and right next to the canoe it jumped and thrashed and out came the barb less hooks… it was a nice Lake Trout. We fished some more but didn’t get another bite. We trolled around on the glassy lake and then went back to camp and had our strawberry cheesecake.24th. I got up and had coffee by the campfire, Thomas got up and had hot chocolate and then went back to bed. I made breakfast and then we packed up and headed up the Darky River toward Burt and Paulene. As we were packing up a black cloud came rolling over our camp with thunder then rain. Thomas was back in the tent where he had taken both sleeping mattresses and both pillows and was taking it easy. The thunder roused him from his lethargy. We did get the tent packed before the rain hit and we stood under the rain fly and watched the storm roll through. When the rain stopped we loaded the canoe and headed out for the Darky River. We paddled down to the first rapids and tried fishing again. Thomas caught another big Smallmouth Bass and Northern and I caught a bunch of fish too and took pictures. Then we made the short 40-rod portage into the next section of the Darky River and paddled up to the next rapids. We had great luck fishing here too fish after fish, mostly Smallmouth but with a few Northern Pike thrown in for fun. I lost a couple of Zulus because my line was getting funky. So while I messed around with re tying, Thomas crossed the 24-rod portage and fished the pool above the rapids and caught a beautiful 21-inch Walleye…We would have a fish dinner tonight!
We then paddled up the Darky River to where it Ys with one are going into Burt Lake and the other going to the portage to Paulene. We found a nice campsite here and stopped for lunch. Peanut butter and jelly on tortillas & rye crisp. Thomas changed out my fishing line and put on some new tri-lean. He also adjusted my reel that had gotten sloppy with all the fish we had caught. After lunch we headed into Burt Lake fishing along the way and looking for the Indian Pictographs on the cliff entering Burt. We found the cliff; it had a big bird nest towards the top…an Eagle or vulture maybe. We looked all over and only found some red smudges that could have been pictographs. Maybe we were looking in the wrong area??? We gave up and paddled into Burt to check out a campsite. The wind was blowing and Burt is a huge lake. We didn’t find that campsite but we did get a good view of Burt and saw the area where Gamble Mater is located. We decided to go check out Paulene. So back we paddled to the Y in the Darky River and down to the portage to Paulene. This portage is marked 39 rods but seemed much longer and had some nasty rock gardens to negotiate and moose mud too. We were looking for a campsite and found one marginal one but the map had one marked at the other end of the lake so we went down there to check it out. We didn’t find a site so we decided to keep going. This meant we had to cross the 112-rod portage into McIntyre Lake. We single portaged this one and it was no problem, it was quite a nice portage, only a little moose mud at the very end of the portage. We were still on the hunt for a good campsite so we continued into the narrows of McIntyre. This is where we saw a canoe. This was the first person we had seen since leaving McAree. We had 6 full days in Quetico without seeing another human. Talk about solitude! It has been wonderful; the lakes have been all ours!Since that site was taken we decided to head down toward Cedar Point Camp where we had stayed in 05. It was a long paddle with some wind to contend with but we finally rounded the last point and there it was, Cedar Point Camp, un-occupied. This is a beautiful campsite and has a message jar back in the woods behind camp. We set up camp and retrieved the message jar, it is good to see some of my acquaintances from the BWCA.com have made it here and left messages. We had a great dinner of Darky River Walleye with macaroni and cheese and peas with lemon pie for dessert. We did the dishes and hung the food pack and went to bed. We were pooped!