Any how, we made it into Birch Lake finally. It was now something like 1pm or there abouts. As we rounded the bend we passed 3 very beautiful cedar/fiberglass canoes. The crew all had voyageur style paddles, long and narrow. The canoes looked like they were well babied. I need to build one. 

We started our crusade for a campsite. Since we are pretty close to all the Ely entry points it was no surprise that several of them were already filled. But we did finally find a nice grassy site and called it home for the night. Now so far all day it has been very overcast and cool. But to the West and North, it was starting to look worse. We hit shore and assumed our roles in setting up camp. I tore apart the fire place, cleaned it out, then rebuilt it. Coffee found the toilet then helped Bacon with the Tent. Then I tackled the poor bench set up. There wasn’t any great logs but I made due with what I had. At this point, benches we mandatory for me because my knees wouldn’t allow me to get up from sitting on the ground with out a lot of pain so anything that could get me up a bit was gold. I then strung up the fly. I need to work on remembering to string up the fly low to the ground to help keep out the elements from the stuff it protects. Also to put things under the canoes if I really want them to stay dry. That and also upgrading to a real nylon dining fly would be best, and not a vestibule and some nylon cord. We had a quick lunch and kept on working.

Now Buzz got his eye on a paper birch that was rotting standing up and he just couldn’t resist. Out came the saw and he slowly but surely started cutting thru it from 3 sides about 4 feet above the ground. Bacon grabbed a bear rope and tied it another 2-3 feet higher. I looked this over and shook my head. I grabbed a paddle and pushed the rope up another 4 feet so we could get a better pull on it. All four of us got on the end of the rope. Bacon and I used sticks wrapped around the cord to pull be…kind of. After about 30 seconds of pulling my stick breaks and hit me in the under arm then Bacons does the same and get his tricep. We were both now marked with wonderful red lines. All I can say if ouch, f’ing ouch man. So after some cursing. I walked back to the tree and shook my head a little more and grabbed the saw and spend a minute or two sawing at it a little more. Note the saw has a mouth 12” wide by 4” deep and this is a 9” caliper birch. So after frustrating myself with the saw I go back and Buzz and I just bounce on the rope really quick, before Coffee and Bacon can even get on and the damn thing just falls over. “ Alright, now it is down. What are you gonna do with it?” I asked…silenced loomed. “We could use if for benches.” Bacon finally answers. I looked at Buzz and even he had lost all intentions of sawing it after having to saw through it while it was a standing tree. So we took the 4-5’ end that broke off and added to the already large wood pile.

Well Now that camp was set up, we decided to screw around…a little. Now there is a fine art form in the canoeing world called “Gunwale Humping.” It was developed by some really bored guides the learned you can make a canoe move forward (quickly if done well) by emptying it out and standing up as far back and up on the stern as possible. Now that all sounds easy until you try and get your feet up on the little triangle plate on the top end of the stern. When I worked up here I’d usually try this once a trip to see how many of the grubbers would try it so I could get a good laugh. Well I had suckered Bacon into. I paddled out, solo, into our little bay and up wind. I locked my paddle in the thwarts and yoke. Then proceeded to stand up on the rear seat. Now I’m about as graceful as a blind polar bear fishing, (and likely as fat) so it wasn’t but 1 or 2 bounces in before I fell to the side and into the water. So Coffee and Bacon canoed over and got the tub while I swam to shore. Now it was Bacon’s turn, so let the fun begin. Well he got out there and the first time he just stood in the bottom of the canoe and did. I explained that any idiot could do that. He needed to get his foot work up higher and further back. Well after some resistance, he finally tired it and, of course, drank some lake water. But, and this where the fun viewing pleasure really is, he didn’t want to give up. He could do it, right? Now I was impressed by his ability to hop in the canoe from while swimming aside while we held it for him from our canoe. Well he did a good job making me laugh. The piece du resistance was when he fell off the last time and yelled over to Buzz on the shore to show him how he could ungracefully get back in the canoe. 1…2…3 he went up the canoe rolled over and he took a gunwale to the head. Damn that’s got to hurt. Needless to say that put an end to our little shoreline show. But as usual, it was worth doing.

Well we returned to shore to fart around. The ominous weather was getting closer and the wind getting a little more. We did see a Charlie crew go by so I shouted a cheerful “Holry” to them as they paddled on. Hopefully they find a camp before the weather gets too bad. Now for some reason we were plagued with yet another ground squinty that was by no means scared or threatened by us. He kept coming up under the upturned canoe and snooping around. So being bored we started tossing little rocks at him. He didn’t even flinch. A couple he dodged, I think he was just having a laugh at us for even trying. After a couple more bounce right in front of him and over his head he decided perhaps the woods were a better place. Well Buzz went off and tried casting a few times and came back with a 10” small mouth bass in his hands. I grabbed the camera and took a picture so we had proof that the fish did, in fact, exist up here. I had to sadden him when I told him he was too small to keep and eat. So Buzz tossed him back so we could get him next time we venture up here. Well it was dinner time and so we busted out the camp stoves and prepped us some grub. Being that the evening was turning pretty crappy we setup the bear bag and adjourned indoors for a few hands of cards then it was off to bed.

09.03.2010 Grrr, 6 sucks! Well it rained most of the night. Pulled back the sleeping bag and it was cold. Not cool, cold. I grabbed my clothes and stuck them in my sleeping bag to warm them up. Got dressed, packed up, dawned my sandals and started packing up my pack. Since it rained all night and our Fly didn’t do much. My socks were still wet and cold. So I opted to switch back to my dirty yet dry trail socks from before. It was a nice bonus for a crumby day. I put on nylon pants, life jacket, and rain coat. One would be surprised by how much body heat the life jacket helps keep in. I guess it isn’t shocking as all it is a closed cell foam. We made up some hot water for the hot cocoa and a bottle of instant milk for the granola. Today would have been a good day for oatmeal, but oh well. Looking out at the lake wasn’t promising either, 1’-3’ swells, all white capped. Man today is just shaping up to be a beast. I was originally thinking we’d go up into Basswood to tool around but who knows now. Well we slowly pack up camp and hit the water. I think today was the latest we had all trip 9:20 ish. Well once we cleared the point in our tubs the wind was hell. The rain wasn’t heavy but it was cold and horizontal, so it sung the face a little. Now Bacon, a.k.a. Merc-cruiser, and Buzz, a.k.a. Rudder Paddled like no other and tired to hide in the wind shadow of two small islands. Meanwhile Coffee, a.k.a. Johnson, and myself just B-lined it for the narrows that connect up to Sucker Lake. Once in the narrows the wind was no longer an issue. So we could leisurely paddle again. Our journey was blessed again by a quietly perched bald eagle. We skimmed along the water has he looked over his wing to watch us. As we crossed into Sucker, we ran across a LaTourell’s crew and guide. He asked how long we had been out and asked how the fishing was. He seemed discouraged when we told him in 6 days we had only shored 1 small smallmouth. As we entered Sucker we also rejoin the motor boats. We paddled over to Prairie Portage, the location of the Canadian ranger’s station. We hopped down the portage trail and as we looked out over Jackfish bay Basswood we cringed. 3’+ swells and pretty evil looking whities capping them all. Goo! Well I guess we won’t be paddling over this way to just to jack around. So we venture up to the ranger’s cabin to check things out. It seems like they added a lot of merchandising from what I recall, but seeing as I only came thru here maybe twice my mind my may just be foggy. They did have a nice patch for the portage that I thought was cool enough to buy. So Bacon and I ventured back up to the canoes and got the money stores and returned. We chatted with the ranger for a time. We learned that it was 53°F out and that tonight is to be a low of 40°F. We journeyed back to the dam at the top end and shot some photos. Then it was back to our canoes and on to find a campsite. Now there are two groupings of campsites, the east end of Newfound and the East end of Moose. The boys felt like having a easy day on the last day so we push through the wind to the east of Moose. Now down Sucker the swells were small 1’-2’ and at our back. But when we turned westward it became an evil cross wind. The deep swells and white caps were in full force. Several of the waves broke over the side of the gunwales. After Horseshoe Island it was just misery. Merc-cruiser and Rudder again tried tacking straight into the wind. I just lowered my head while Johnson and I just cut straight across. Now the motorboat wakes weren’t too bad as the waves just ate them up. As we rounded into Moose Lake, I kind of expected to find all the camp sites open. Let’s be honest, who camps 2 miles from their resorts? Well I guess a lot of people do. The first two were taken. We paddled looking for the next one and found a slippery ledge rock landing and a narrow trail going up. Bacon ran up and confirmed it was a camp. They landed on the rock and Coffee and I had circle back and land at a little gravel spot just around the point. While our spot wasn’t slippery, it did have a 6’ vertical mud climb to get up to the trail. We grabbed our stuff and passed in up the climb them helped each other up. The campsite was worst one we had come across. (The weather wasn’t helping that appraisal either) There were 2 small logs on the ground, 2 small rocks pretending to protect the fire pit which had a bad direction/setting given the day’s wind. The tent sight wasn’t too bad. It was back into the woods and below a little ridge so the wind didn’t try to blow it away. Coffee and I went back to our canoe and paddled out for some water. As we got blown back to shore, I noticed one of the other crews was leaving their campsite. I was tempted to say we just move over there but we had already lugged everything up there, so eh. We paddled back to shore and I handed the water up the climb to Coffee and then collected all the large rocks I could for the fire place and passed them up until I could climb up. This fire place was bad because it had quite a drop on the side that we needed to have open. We situated the logs as best we could. Bacon was putting up the fly and at this point I must have been tired because I lost my tactfulness and try and explain that we need to get it low so it protects us from the rain and the wind if possible and not up high so it does little. Sorry Bacon and gang I was a little malcontent at the moment. So after wrestling with it (and tearing the fly) I remove myself from the situation and went off to set up the tent. Now when it is raining you have to change the way you erect your tent so the tent body stays dry. First you set up the poles then put the fly over the frame, then erect the tent body under the protection of the tent’s fly. Coffee came down and gave me a hand about half way through. The tent was up. I went back up to the fire and fiddled with the fly a little more to see if it could protect us a bit better. Did I mention a proper fly would have really paid off here? Using this old vestibule really had its down falls. The center of the thing kept drooping down so I grabbed the Buzz’s base issued paddle and placed that on the edge of the fire grate to hole up the middle. Of course though when the wind picked up the paddle would fall over. Buzz got to work trying to light wet wood. We were having a hell of a time so I pulled out the stoves and we tried using one of them to help get the wood get started.

So it is now around 2pm. While Buzz and I are having fun with that. Bacon was off looking for dry or drier wood. At first he came back with brown cedar sprigs that were wet but burned up quickly one they got started. The he found a good stash of dry tinder. Also by no w we had some good wood burning via the stove that we were able to put into the rest of the fire to really get it going. But once the wood started burning, the smoke was evil and almost intently in our faces. We had placed some of the extra wood on top of the fire place to help dry it out. Coffee started breaking out lunch and as Buzz and I fussed about, now the lit stove decided to slide down and rolls towards his leg inches away. I just simply reacted and tried to grab it before it hit his leg. I didn’t see him grabbing for it as well. As he did, he pulled it down and away while I tried to put it towards myself. My hand got pulled into the bottom of the very hot burner plate. I quickly released my hand. The webbing between my pointer finger and thumb turned white instantly and hurt for just a second. Coffee scrambled and got me the first aid kit and got the Vaseline and I greased my hand up as quick as I could. After that I sat down and tried to enjoy lunch. The Sesame/Flax seed crackers and Tillamook Smoked Cheddar were very tasted and helped take my mind off my hand. It was about then that the paddle fell and I caught it with my freshly burnt hand…Ouch! Which also greased Buzz’s paddle shaft! Wait that just sounds wrong! Also for lunch was one of my favorite, sesame sticks. Then ensued Bacon’s and my argument as to where we were. Now I had paddled Moose chain so much that I only needed the map today to find the campsites. I have never camped this close to base before. But Bacon was hell bent on ensuring me that we weren’t even on Moose yet. I tried to explain it via nav. Points but it just didn’t seem to help any so I dropped it and told him I know where I am. By this point now we all had started getting smoked out and Buzz had to get up and out. So he ventured to the tent. Shortly followed by Coffee. So Bacon and I packed up lunch. I ate the rest of the sesame sticks. We put the fire out, grabbed the left over trail mixes from the trip and hid out in the tent. At least it wasn’t raining and windy in here! So the deck of cards was broken out and we start playing some hearts and munching on food. After a good hour or so we put the cards down and all took naps. Apparently we needed them as we slept until 7:30 when someone woke up and remembered we needed to hang the bear bag. Since we had just eaten no one was hungry so the consensus was to skip dinner and go back to the tent. So we all stumbled out of the tent, packed up the bag and hoisted it into the air for the evening. Then we quietly slipped back into our warm sleeping bags and back to sleep for the night.

09.04.2010 Hey guess what time we woke up this morning? Ah come on guess! Yep 6am, surprise, surprise, surprise. Eh at least this morning I was well rested. It was super cold this morning and we just wanted to get into base. We got some water on the stoves and made up some hot cocoa and oatmeal to help warm ourselves up then got to tearing down camp and packing up. We must have had our shit together as we hit the water by 7:30. The earliest yet! Now I reminded kindly (and jokingly) reminded Bacon we were on Moose Lake and only had about 2 miles to paddle this morning. Oh good news the wind had died out over night. Yea! So with a couple of quick strokes of the paddle we made the landing by 8am. We treated it just like a portage and hauled the canoes up to the yard, returned our paddle and PFD’s to the tent drying house to air dry. We were so ready to come off, we again for got to photo our return and looked for the Bay Post Manager but to no avail. So we walked out to the Tahoe at the edge of where the voyageur re- enactors were. We dug out our dry shoes and got things packed up. We had found out that they had shoot a nuisance black bear last night and were cleaning him and smoked some of the meat. After checking that out we turned our attention to getting our refund for having to switch to alumi-tubs. So we checked the Admin office, nope, so then it was on to the Trading Post and Dining hall. Yep. We apparently needed to talk to “Carl” who didn’t seem to be on top of his game this AM. My guess is that he was just trying to keep up with all the Alumni who were up here for the Rendezvous. Any how, He went to Admin. to look for our bill. Mean while we waited at the TP for him. We bought a couple patches and then sat and waited…and waited. Finally Coffee and I ventured down to see if we could “help?” And Carl was just lost to say it best. He finally thumbed back past our card but couldn’t figure out how to do the math and just simply said he’d have Joe take care of it when he got back in on Monday. Not wanting to cause a hassle and knowing Joe would take care of me, I said “fine.” We went back and got the others and paraded down to the truck. And so we took off to go get the Jeep. As soon as we reached cell service on the Fernburg, we all called our wives to let them know we survived. I had to leave a message with Nedra on the CCU floor for Darci. We stopped in town for gas and then pushed the truck through the curves of Highway 1. Now I really noticed how bad my brakes were getting. When I get home I should take car of those. We had to stop in Isabella for a piss break. Otherwise we made good time all the way to Grand Marias, where we stopped again for puffy tacos at Hughie’s. On the way in I was able to call my friend, Lion, to let him know that he can take off from Minneapolis. Then it was back up to Grand Portage. We took some time to enjoy the Welcome Center and the Fort. It would be a lot of fun to come up and visit when they are doing the full reenactment. It also would have been fun to have set down a canoe after 8.9 miles of hiking in Lake Superior. Oh well, next time right! After that Doug and Chris went to get the Jeep and Charlie and I went for the Tahoe and drove over to them. We loaded them up with their gear and stuff. Then we turned around and headed back to Ely. I let Charlie drive as I was getting a little tired. The others all got naps on the drive over. About 20 minutes outside of town Lion called and let me know he landed. So Charlie and I turned in at the airport to pick him and Geppy up. He gave us a tour of his little puddle jumper. Then we all poured into the Tahoe and went off to the Grand Ely Lodge, the only hotel to stay at when visiting the Ely area. We stopped at Mike’s Liquor on the way in (an important store from my time working up here) and got some indulgence…Moose Drool beer, and some of Dorothy’s root beer.