Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

4 Days on Pine October 2014
by adludwig

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 10/02/2014
Entry & Exit Point: Pine Lake (EP 68)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 4
Friday, October 03, 2014

Just after midnight the wind picked up. The switch for the wind stayed on the rest of our trip. With the wind came a very heavy rain overnight. We woke up in the morning to a little water in the tent and a little chill in the air. We had big plans today, so we got to work on a large breakfast. We cooked up bacon and eggs and wolfed them down to get ready for our journey to Vale Lake.


Our plan was to spend most of the day on the lake, eat a little lunch up there, and hopefully bring some trout back to camp for dinner. We got to the portage which was conveniently close to our campsite and thought that we would walk our gear up the portage before grabbing the canoe. We were both surprised about how steep this little portage was. When I finally saw the lake, I turned around to see how far Pine Lake was below me.


The trip up the portage with the canoe was pretty rough. I made it most of the way, before I came to one of the giant rock walls that cannot be walked up. My buddy helped me get the canoe up the last couple of rises. The wind was roaring on Pine Lake already, so we were pleasantly surprised to see the wind just lightly battering this lake. We got to fishing right away, as we were both so excited to catch that first brook trout. After the first half hour, I had hooked into one! Only to have it jump up and spit my lure back at me... It wasn't too long after that when my buddy put one in the canoe.

We decided to work the area where we caught our first trout a little bit more with some crawlers, etc. It wasn't too long before my buddy had anpther fish on. Soon he brought to the surface one of Vale Lake's famous suckers. We had quite a laugh over our second fish of the day.

We took a break soon after that to have a bite to eat along the Northern shore of the lake. There were a couple of spots that you could tell were well used along that shoreline. I was starting to get a little frustrated that I still had not boated one of these beautys. We hit the water again, and then it happened! I boated my first trout of the trip and it was a beauty!

Soon after that we experienced a small flurry! We got into a bunch of them and just had a blast catching quite a few more! One of them stood out as the most vibrant colored fish of the trip.

We decided to head back with a few of them kept for dinner, while the rest got photographed and let go to swim another day. We slogged back down the hill and prepared our feast of a dinner. The day of fishing and the prospect of a good dinner had really lifted our spirits and helped us forget how miserable the weather around us had been all day. The trout on the campfire was one of the best meals of fish I had ever eaten in my life!

We cleaned up dinner and then sat and looked at the waves still rolling across the lake. The wind had now been blowing for nearly 24 hours. We knew it was going to maintain its might tomorrow.

It was off to bed, wearing nearly all of the clothing we had brought. We knew it was going to be a cold night, but we both settled in to a decent night of sleep.