The planning began ever so slowly and everything fell into place easily. I met up with Amok’s family – Ken and his wife, Felicia, Amok’s cousin Stephen and his wife, Rebecca and of course, Katie in Grand Marais. We set out to retrace Amok’s last paddle and camp on his site. We came with our gear along with Amok’s trip report, pictures and his personal journal that he had on that trip. Katie had her dad’s paddle, PFD, tent and pack. The night before our put in, we had a fun evening at Tuscarora Lodge where I did an “unplugged” concert for staff, lodge guests and friends. The Divas showed up to put on their harmonies and wonderful magic to the music. We put in the next day at EP 54, Seagull Lake. Several people believed Amok’s campsite was the one at the south end of Fishhook Island, so we first paddled there. Once we got there it was obvious that it wasn’t the right site. The famous “Morning Fog Has Lifted” photo that Amok took of the landing site didn’t match and even more so, the notched and knarled tree that he tied his canoe to wasn’t there. We moved on. We headed west. The second site was at a narrows just north of 3 mile island and it didn’t fit either. The famous tree wasn’t there. Okay, we are now not only on a quest, but an adventure. Where is that site? We spent the rest of the day paddling Seagull looking and investigating 8 sites and got nowhere. How could it elude us? We were worn out and finally settled on a wonderful site with an awesome sand beach north of Mile Island. We spent that night by the campfire pouring over maps, trip report pics, Amok’s description of his journey in his personal journal. Reading, re-reading, conjecturing, theorizing and more re-reading. Stephen and I both agreed that the second site we visited fit the trip report best. Mabe we looked it over too quickly the first time and didn’t see the obvious. We decided to go back there and investigate.

Here I am singing with the Divas:

"Concert" poster:

Katie entering the BW

Looking over maps trying to determine Amok's site:

Looking through Amok's journal

Katie making sure we had a dinner fire:

Awesome grilled kebob dinner!: