Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Brothers Trip2010
by Unas10

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 05/20/2010
Entry & Exit Point: Snowbank Lake (EP 27)
Number of Days: 6
Group Size: 6
Day 2 of 6
Friday, May 21, 2010

Up at 5:00AM. Breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. Break camp and load the canoes and we are off. While still a ways away from the portage to Ahsub I tell E that there is something on the portage trail that is moving into the woods. When we get closer L asks if we saw the moose. I guess that counts as a wildlife sighting doesn’t it?

The portages are quick and easy and we cover the distance on the fly with our now much beloved SR Q17’s. Disappointment, Ahsub, Jitterbug, Adventure, Cattyman, Jordan and into Ima. I am wetfooting this year for the first time and it makes things so much easier. If the temps had been colder I might think differently, but this is my choice for the future.

By 10:30 AM we are set up in our home for the next three nights. We landed at the northernmost site on Ima. It has a great landing and passable tent pads. Finding a good hanging tree was a bit of a challenge. L serves up his leftover burritos for lunch and then we all head off in different directions to secure dinner.

L and J fish the east shore of Ima. The rest off us meander into the northern bays. C and T go into Snatch. I hook a small northern near the passage to Reflection but it throws the hook about five feet from the canoe.

The northeastern shore of Ima is fascinating. It is acres of one almost unbroken slab of granite. Trees are growing out of five or six inches of accumulated duff. Some have blown over showing their tenacious root system. I also come across an iron ring anchored to the rock. I figure it must have been used to anchor a log boom. There is one much like it in our camp a quarter mile away.

It is a wash for fishing for everyone. Since we had the burritos for lunch no one is starving and supper consists of our usual lunch fare of PBJ’s. We notice a painted turtle or two hanging around. We figure that they, like the gulls, have become conditioned to scraps being available around dinner time. Bed feels very welcome this evening.