Friday, May 22, 2009 (Tow to Red Rock Bay and set up of camp in Red Rock Lake)

We got up around 7am and had a nice “quick start breakfast” and coffee. We loaded our stuff in the Seagull trailer and started the drive to the tow boat.

Our gear was quickly transferred to the tow boat and we were underway. The ride out was exhilarating. It was my first tow and my dad’s first real view of the BW. With the cold wind, it was also quite refreshing. We quickly made it to the entrance to Red Rock Lake. The tow driver, Jake, helped unload our gear. I paddled through the small creek into Red Rock Lake. My dad got in the canoe and we were officially in the BW…
Deb from Seagull had marked some good campsites. The entire lake was empty even though it was the Friday before Memorial Day. We looked at nearly all the campsites. They looked good but just didn’t seem “perfect”. When we got to the southernmost site, it seemed to be the best. It had a nice fire area. More importantly, it had some trees for hanging a rain tarp. It was still just mid May so I wanted to be able to install some protection from the weather.
I checked on the minnows. They were all DEAD. It was my fault. The girl at the bait shop put the minnows in a bag and blew in quite a bit of oxygen. I asked the girl to put the minnows in my bait king. The bag fit in the bait king but all the oxygen got squeezed out. It had only been about 16 hours but that was too long without oxygen...
We decided to just drop our packs and go fishing. So, we unloaded the packs, gathered our fishing gear and head out. Then, it happened…
I was sitting in the back of the canoe. My dad was getting in the front. I don’t really know what happened. One minute, I was sitting there. The next minute, we were both in the water swimming...
We got back on shore and surveyed the situation. The canoe was upright with just a little water in it. We emptied the canoe. Our clothes were wet. We took off all the cotton stuff and hung it up. We found dry clothes and quickly recovered. It was a warm, sunny, windy day. All our stuff would dry quickly.
The only casualty of our dip in the lake was my digital camera. Just before heading out, I took my fone (spare camera) and left it on shore. I was thinking “I really should put the camera in a ziplock bag”. But I didn’t. The camera eventually dried out and worked again but we lost the ability to take pictures for about 2 days. Always carry you camera in a ziplock bag!
As a side note, this was my first trip with a Bell Northwind Canoe. I'm sure our dip wasn't the sole fault of the canoe. But the Northwind did not seem to be nearly as stable as the Souris River canoes that I've used on previous trips.
We decided to fully set up camp. Once that was done, we had lunch (Backpackers Pantry Fettuccini Alfredo, it was okay).
We finally got our nerves back up and went back out fishing. We explored a few areas. My dad had a nice pike on his spoon but it broke the line near the boat.
We headed back to camp, had a nice steak dinner. The steak was from Seagull Outfitters. It was cooked over an open fire and much better than the Gunflint Lodge steak. Maybe it was the atmosphere…
We relaxed around the campfire. It was a good day…