Day 4: August 14 Haggart Lake to Bulging Lake

“Blueberries, Bears, and Bulls”

Awoke to seagulls circling and squawking around a nearby rocky island. It sounds like the rocky coast of Maine. It is a beautiful morning, clear with a light breeze from the west. Had hotdrinks, and the last of the bagels and cream cheese while the fly dried on a line. We paddled off toward Bulging fishing for pike or trout. Just when Tony mentioned this would be a great place for fishfinder he nabbed a nice eater-sized laker but let it go.

Hmmm, maybe we should have kept it. . . soon after that he hooked into a big pike but lost it boat-side. We paddled on to see a bear swimming across the lake to the opposite shore. We laughed, realizing that we had seen more bears than fish at this point in the trip. Didn’t see that coming. We paddled along, fishing a few likely spots when we spied two big bull moose grazing on the shoreline in the distance. We drifted toward them until they caught a whiff of us and moved into the forest and by forest, I mean the 2016 skeletal burn area. We had lunch on a rock after navigating the narrow swift heading north toward Bulging when we saw another bear on the next knob to the north. He saw us fishing and moseyed away into the blueberry fields. (And yes, they do go on forever here in The Burn.) “ I feel like I’m on a safari.” And “This is better than Yellowstone.” We paddled casually to the next short (50m), steep on both ends portage into Bulging and then stroked on with a tailwind to an unburned island camp across the lake (Moose Camp) with the clouds and wind building. We set up the tent and tarp and then with a couple of bags in the boat headed out to find a fish for dinner and gather some blueberries for scones in the am. We found the blueberries but no fish so after a while we headed back to camp for a quick swim and then watched a wall of wind and rain approach from the west. We dropped and adjusted the fly to avoid the worst of it and after about a half an hour we were rewarded with the full arc of a double rainbow. Storm over it was time for it was time for BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner. It was heavy and tasty. We had a team meeting after dinner to discuss our upcoming route and the goal of hitting some walleye lakes in the near future. We also discussed how truly “alive” the burn is and wild the WCPP feels compared to the Quetico.

Day 5: August 15 Bulging Lake to Black Otter Lake

“Trail Maintenance”

Got up to hotdrinks and blueberry scones with cream cheese frosting for breakfast.

We paddled north on Bulging to the 100m portage around some falls. It was a pretty little drop into the river, near a tiny, loud campsite. We startled a young bull moose three times as we pushed onto the 225m portage into Sea Horse Lake. It is a clear, pretty little lake with burned over campsites. We ate lunch on a rock in the semi-shade and then took the 400m portage into the next no-name pond. We had to do some portage maintenance here for the next 45 minutes or so, sawing (Tony) and clearing (me) about a dozen small fallen trees. It was a nice but sweaty break from portaging in the midday sun. Tony and I thought we heard/smelled a moose here in the underbrush, so we decided to stick together perchance we run into the beast. We paddled across the pond with a slight tailwind. Tony’s knee was aching (He hurt it on amazing Day #2.) so we triple portaged the final 400m portage into Black Otter Lake. We stroked up Black Otter to a camp at the far end. Looks like part of the lake burned and the other half was left unharmed. We set up camp in the shade of some tall pines and around 500pm took a swim to cool off and rinse off the sweat. Tony stretched out in the tent to read for a bit while I threw my line in from shore. I caught and released a small pike, then I hooked into the treasured walleye. I called softly to Tony who joined me to rustle up a couple for dinner. We paddled to a nearby island to clean our bounty and then returned to camp for a green curry walleye dinner then off to bed with a beaver slapping us goodnight.

Day 6: August 16th Black Otter to Donald to Black Otter

“Day of the Pike”

Got up to Tony’s scrumptious blueberry cornmeal pancakes for breakfast with a bit of maple syrup. We battened down camp and headed out on a fishing expedition to Donald Lake. We knew there was an “outpost” there but I guess knowing and feeling aren’t the same thing. Seeing two motorboats and the first trash since we entered the WCPP bummed us out, especially the broken beer bottles at the portage near the base of the falls. Huh, what is it with motorized access and trash? People should clean up after themselves. Period.

Joke of the day: “What’s the difference between a bass fisherman and a walleye fisherman?” “ A fishfinder.” Sorry, it was funny at the time . . .

Fishing on Donald Lake was like casting/trolling into the great unknown, so we turned back into the strong headwind and paddled back toward the creek. We stopped to take a breather in a small bay and threw a line in to see if there were any takers. Tony was fishing his frog near the weeds when a massive pike grabbed it near the boat and swirled away taking the frog and half of his rod with it. Wow. We turned the boat quickly and found the rod floating nearby.

Laughing, we paddled back to camp for a swim and a quick siesta before dinner, Szechwan chicken and rice with an iced oatmeal cookie for dessert. Relaxing we played gin for an hour or so until it was too dark to see the numbers. It rained for a while in the night.