Day Five September 16, Lonely to Sturgeon

No rain last night. We arose to low cloud cover and 46 degrees. We had coffee and oatmeal for breakfast again but it is Tony’s favorite, so whatever. We packed up camp and launched at 930am bound for Sturgeon. We trolled up the narrows but no fish. Crossing a short portage and heading down Lonely Creek toward the second portage, we saw a good sized beaver under the water exiting its lodge. Very cool.

Following that we had to negotiate a beaver dam in order to access the second muddy but short portage. We saw a lot of moose tracks on the trail but no moose. One final beaver dam to negotiate and we were into Sturgeon. Not sure if there are always this many dams along this route or if the beavers are especially active this time of year. We observed lots of new cuts on the dams. We headed on toward a camp on the east end of the lake trolling when I caught my first walleye! I have to admit I was relieved to finally catch a fish. We stopped at noon at the east end of Sturgeon and the camp was too good to pass up; sandy landing, nice fireplace, views from a rocky knob, and a sweet flat spot for the kitchen and tent. It even has great tree placement for the tarp. (5*) We set up camp, had lunch and then headed off toward the Sturgeon narrows to fish. We eventually headed west and trolled for a few miles circumnavigating a large island (into a medium headwind) but only trolled up six pike and a bass, none very large. The east end of Sturgeon is very beautiful with many rocks and islands. The wind died just in time for us to head back east, so plans of deploying the Kraken to sail home were deflated. We slogged the last couple of tired miles back to camp arriving at 530pm. The wind had died and the sun was warm so we took a brisk swim and washed up some clothes. Feeling more human, we had a dinner of Cuban beans and rice with toasted biscuits and honey. We sat around the fire sipping hot chocolate contentedly and then hit the hay. No other travelers today.

Day 6 September 17, East Sturgeon Lake to the “Best Campsite in the Quetico.”

I awoke at 500am to light rain and the wind shifting direction toward the west. I got up and pulled the clothes off the line but it must not have rained much because they were only damp. I went back to sleep until 700am but at that point the squirrels chattered incessantly insisting I get up. We lounged over coffee and decided to do camp chores for a while (relining a reel, drying clothes and the tarp) and target launching at 1100am. We had cheesy hash browns for breakfast with Spam. I discovered after ten years of marriage that Tony thinks Spam is disgusting. Oh well. . .We damp dried everything and packed up slowly. Tony caught two pike from the rocks in front of camp while testing his new line. We launched at 1115am and deployed the Kraken for a troll to “Walleye Narrows” but caught nothing. As we round the corner into the next bay I caught a baby bass and then Tony and I landed a couple of nice sized bass simultaneously.

Ok, Tony’s was bigger. Next I caught a large pike, a real fighter, but got greedy trying to get a picture and he escaped and took my favorite lure with him. Tony caught another bass and we headed to the south to have lunch at the “Best Campsite in the Quetico.” Tony caught another pike about a third of the way there near some mid lake reefs but it also escaped. Hmmm. . .The “Best Campsite in the Quetico” (BCintheQ) is a big peninsula with long sandy beaches east and west. There are lots of tall pines standing but also a lot of blow downs and widow makers. I understand why people like it (especially great for kids) but it was very windy today and the exposure on the point added to the cold. We moved on to explore another campsite across the lake. It was very windy and we sailed easily across the lake using the Kraken. We caught a bass and a small pike but ultimately couldn’t locate the aforementioned camp so we chose to backtrack into a stiff headwind to the BCintheQ after all. We hit landfall at about 500pm and camped well back in the trees to avoid the wind which blew until about 730pm. It never really warmed up today and was about 44 degrees as we prepared a dinner of cheesed up Mexican Rice with Chicken under the tarp (Love that CCS tarp!) We had a little Backpackers Pantry Crème Brulee for dessert and then strode down the beach for a while to warm up a bit before snuggling into the tent to read. Sure hope it’s warmer tomorrow. The GPS tells us we have traveled 65 miles in six days.