Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Northern in Canoe, Dog out of Canoe! Cross Creek to Long Island Lake
by paddelingruth

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/20/2017
Entry & Exit Point: Cross Bay Lake (EP 50)
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 2
Day 4 of 7
Wednesday, August 23, 2017 The sun is shining glories this am. We ate pancakes with the last of our blueberries, sat on our rock for a good while soaking up the sun, it was probably in the 60’s this am. We packed a lunch and headed out to enjoy and explore some more of Long Island. We also needed to pump some more water. We went around the NE corner of the lake. We fished all the way back there. Dan caught 3 Northern today that he let go. We also put different lures and hooks on for crappie and blue gill fishing no luck at all. We did gather some fire wood and found a different camp to check out for lunch, it had a good rock on one side with the warm sun shining we were warm in no time. We both decided to take a dip in the lake, the water was cold but refreshing. We saw 3 different canoes in the area, one of those canoes were also fishing. We also saw 2 other canoes loaded and headed out. NO RAIN TODAY! Yea! We did see bear scat that at camp and decided to move on. It was windy at times today but did great canoeing. Our dog Lil thought she should help Dan catch fish and assist him anytime he looked like he was getting a bite, which causes some concern when all the sudden the canoe shifts. She leans out of the canoe and it feels like the canoe is going to tip. When we were fishing the loons were around us. We had a family of 12 Merganser ducks right outside our camp, all week. They are so fun to watch. When we got back from fishing about 5:30 someone had moved in across the lake from us, unfortunately he likes to prance around his camp naked. Probably a 60 to 70-year-old guy. He just kept prancing! Just don’t want to see some guys naked butt even 250 yards away! We love to sit on the rock and that is the only place to look and be away from the mosquito's that time of evening. I figured we would probably have to move in the morning. While we were eating our Mountain House supper a family with two canoes came by our camp at about 6:00 p.m., looking for this camp-site, you could tell they were disappointed we were there, I am surprised Dan didn’t tell them they could have our site and we would move (naked butt). The family had entered thru 50 also. Tonight, we had Raspberry crumble w/ chocolate crunch on top. YUMMY! Dan decided to make a fire tonight, it felt so good. We Usually cook and eat on our big rock, to many mosquito's by the camp kitchen. The camp kitchen is a disaster, the logs are not for sitting on, or using they have rotted and roll away. I said many times how I wish I had a table. We used the big flat rocks on our big rock by the water to cook and do dishes on.