Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

8 day 7 nights EP16 Boulder Bay, LLC, Ge-be-on-e-quet, Oyster, Agnes
by EasyFisher

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/15/2018
Entry & Exit Point: Moose/Portage River (north) (EP 16)
Number of Days: 8
Group Size: 9
Day 5 of 8
Thursday, July 19, 2018 The Campsite” Travel to Oyster

Matt, the kids, and myself packed up and left camp at 6:30am with a walkie talkie in hopes of getting the peninsula site on Oyster. We let the rest of the group tear down camp, and they weren’t too far behind. The portages were steep and Rocky. We had to 1.5 portage the first portage and we single portaged the 2nd and 3rd portage. Ben was excited as he was now able to carry the food pack that was now pretty much the trash pack. We stopped briefly on Rocky Lake in order to look at the pictographs on the west side. Just after you get past the peninsula with the large boulders, the cliff just south of the boulders has some pictos. I knew from reviews they weren’t too exciting, but I was glad we got to see them. They were easier to find than I thought as we were told by others they looked for them but couldn’t find them. They looked like a bunch of crosses and lines. We portaged into the north bay on Oyster in hopes for the first campsite the borders both sides of the peninsula and it was open! We arrived at camp at 9am and radioed the rest of the group who was now getting onto Rocky and could take their time looking for the pictos. The rest of the group arrived at 10am. There were plenty of tent pads, access to water on both sides, and it was just a very large campsite. It was really nice. Again we were the only ones on the lake when we arrived. We set up camp and went out to do a little fishing. An hour or so in and we caught our first and only lake trout. It was about 18-19” and was caught on a purpledesent deep diving Tail Dancer (large one). We had PBJ on tortillas for lunch with Patriot Pantry Banana Chips and the first pick me up of the trip Snickers bars!! These were a hit and stayed solid buried in the pack. People took naps, camp chores, and fished. A number of us put in a lot of hours trolling for lakers but only were able to mustard that one. Tara caught a 29 ¾” pike, which was perfect as we really wanted to eat some pike and we haven’t had an eater size pike on the trip when we weren’t traveling. We put him on the stringer and started back to camp. I had the funny feeling that the fish was going to get off the stringer. I asked a couple times if everything was tied down tight, hooked, locked, etc. Nothing we could do about it, but one big flop and the pike broke the stringer and away he swam with a stringer in his mouth. One other group had joined us across the lake, but it was a very peaceful lake with very little activity on it. The kids swam and jumped off the rock. Ben said “I can see a fish but I can’t stay under water with my lifejacket on.” “You want me to jump on you” said Lucy. “ya ya, jump on me”. “you want me to jump on you again.” “no you jumped on my butt, and it kind of hurt.” You want me to jump on you right here,” Lucy said pointed to the padding from her lifejacket on her back. “ya ya, do that!” as they continued jumping, swimming, and playing. We cooked patriot pantry mac and cheese (really good) and one MH mac and cheese to make a total of 11 serv. This is one meal that we voted that Patriot Pantry out did MH. The bugs came out and we moved to the tent to play cards. ~Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake, Green Lake, Rocky Lake, Oyster Lake