Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Granite River to Big Sag
by BananaHammock

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/19/2012
Entry Point: Magnetic Lake (EP 57)
Exit Point: Saganaga Lake Only (EP 55A)  
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 2
Day 3 of 7
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 I awoke at 5am this morning, after a fantastic night of sleep. I was a little slow getting up this morning as two days of canoeing and portaging were something i wasnt accostum to. A cup of coffee and two IbProfen later I was ready to go. The same could not be said for Sean, the night before he only slept a couple hours, so that was his 3rd day in a row with little or no sleep. I let him sleep and fished for about an hour. I decided to throw a crankbait i have had since I was a small boy and have never caught a fish on. I landed a nice 2# smallmouth moments after I began casting. At 8am, I packed up and started making breakfast as Sean was just waking up. After some coaxing and coffee, and IbProfen, i got Sean going and we were in the canoe at 9am heading out of Marabouef. 
  We saw someone had taken the site we passed on the day before. We made good time to Horsetail Rapids portage, only stopping once to eat some trail mix and watch a bald eagle we spotted in a tree. Horsetail Rapids portage was a little sketchy in areas but was my favorite. At the end of the portage there was a tree down that was perfect for walking out on and getting a good look at the falls we portaged around, probably not the safest thing I did on the trip.
 Next was a short paddle to Saganaga Falls portage 39rods. 
 We looked over two campsites on an island just after the falls. After passing on the first site, that was extremly windy and had a long walk to the latrine, we settle at the later. Just after we set up camp, we planned to fish. As I walked to the canoe a group of 2 passed by our island. The girl in the front of the canoe exclaimed, "There is a bear right there!" Pointing to the north shorline of our island. I quickly alerted Sean and asked her where exactly is it and she said it was not on shore but swimming away from the island. She probably thought I was crazy because I just said thank you and we decided since it left the island, the bear wanted nothing to do with us. We did hang our food high that night to be safe. We paddled out to fish shortly after and the bear was nowhere to be found. We paddled back to the falls and some luck catching a couple snake pike. Later, Sean took a long cast into a small shallow weedy bay with a spinner tied on, with a leader this time, and thats when things took an exciting turn. He hooked something big, I immediatelly grab the video camera, catching a full body out of the water jump from what ended up being a 40" pike. We released her quickly, as it was a hot day. We were both shaking from the expierence, this being the biggest fish(aside from salmon fishing) either of us had landed, and in a canoe was something to be proud of. We felt a little redemption from the big one that got off on Maraboeuf Lake. That night was another perfect night, mountain house food and a few sips of moonshine would finish off a perfect day! That night at 1am I awoke to the sound of giant footsteps near to where I was sleeping. I yelled at Sean, he heard them, but there was no telling what it was. Kind of makes me want to bring a deer cam on my next trip.