Monday, June 01, 2020

Wanting to get back to the cities at a decent time we woke at 5, quick breakfast and broke down camp. At 6:45 we were off for the 8 portages back to Round lake via the Brandt Lake EP. Portages were fine, a few of them very buggy and wet slogs. The stairway landing on Gotter was missing 2 steps in a row, making the climb to the flat area a little tricky. Some of these lakes have cool features but not much to note along this route. Back to Tuscarora outfitters around 10:15. We split up the gear, pack the cars and head back to the cities with a quick stop at Northern Waters Smokehaus to stock up on smoked fish. It was a great trip. 3 layover days with 3 travel days, the perfect mix for our group.

~Bat Lake, Green Lake, Flying Lake, Gotter Lake, Brant Lake, Round Lake

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A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Tuscarora Outfitters is awesome. We only used the bunkhouse and breakfast but we’re all very impressed. Kind and helpful, the grounds are really nice and the facilities are clean and updated. Would definitely recommend staying here.

It was our first time in this area and we are all looking forward to being back in the near future.

Talking to groups on the way in and reading reports the week prior to our trip we were expecting big crowds. We came across very few people the whole trip.

Bugs (mostly black flies) were bad, but not as bad as expected.

If traveling from Little Sag to Gillis, I would highly recommend traveling through the Virgin/West Fern/Powell route. It’s very cool seeing the turndown areas.

Portages along this whole route were tough. Rugged, rocky, hilly and mostly wet portages made for some challenging travel.

We ate 3 different Trout from 3 different lake and they all had different flesh colors and taste. The one from West Fern was by far the darkest/red and most flavorful.

CACHE LAKE FOODS:

Overall Amazing! We used their meals for a lot of our menu and were impressed.

Breakfast scrambles - Excellent. We brought shredded cheese to add and wrapped the scramble in tortillas. Great breakfast and packs very small.

Biscuits and Gravy - Really really good. The biscuits are tedious to cook over a pocket stove due to the heat but the patience is worth it. Gravy is excellent.

Blueberry pancakes with Powdered syrup - Really good, the powdered syrup was so much easier than packing in real syrup although it was a little runny, we could have used less water than was recommended.

Fish Chowder - Better than expected, would be fine without he fresh fish, but with it it was excellent.

Fry Bread - All of the breads we had were very good and welcome additions to the meals, especially the fish chowder.

Chili Mac and Spaghetti - Good, not great. The sauces were difficult to break down and incorporate but the flavor was good.

Chocolate pie - Really good. Easy to make.

[All of the items were vegetarian and many used meat substitutes, the meat eaters in the crew didn’t even seem to notice.]

NOTABLE GEAR THOUGHTS:

Nemo Cosmo 25L Insulated Sleeping Pad: First time taking a pad with a pump and I will never go back to a mouth inflated pad. This pad is excellent. Easy to inflate and not noisy. It can get a little springy if over inflated but that is easy to avoid.

Xtratuff 15” boots: I usually wetfoot with Chaco and wool socks. Decided to try these out for this trip. They are awesome boots. Got a little swampy on the long travel days that were hot and humid, but overall I loved them. Comfortable and great traction on the wet rocks. Will definitely use them during shoulder season trips in the future. The only drawback with the boots or any other dry boots is that you need to know the water depth limit you can step out of the canoe in. I had one instance of stepping over the top of he boot. Took a day in the sun to dry out. Thinking about making a mark on the paddle blade so I can test the depth before stepping out.

Nemo Bugout Shelter: It was fine. Enough coverage to hideout from the small amount of rain we had. A couple of times we retreated to escape the mid-day black flies but it was annoying going in and out with chair/gear using the corner zip. We opted to pack it in without poles, we used trees and 1 stick which worked well. Didn’t like the design of it overall with 2 of the corners being very low. Considering we usually go in mid-May I probably wouldn’t bring this again.

Fjallraven Abisko Lite Long Trekking Trouser: I wore these the entire trip start to finish. They are the ideal paddling pant for me. They have breathable sections and are reinforced where they should be, plus a couple of zip vents on the side. It got really warm a couple of days and I was comfortable. One the cold nights I threw on a pair of merino long underwear and was plenty warm. They do come with a metal gaiter attachment on the cuff to attach to shoelaces, I removed that right when I got them. That wouldn’t work stuffed into a dry boot. They may have stopped making them cause I am having a hard time finding another pair, can only find zip-offs in this model, which I refuse to buy.

Cotopaxi Sueno Sleeping Bag: Favorite sleeping bag I have owned. Super comfortable and the engineering is superb. From the foot vent to zipper backing the prevents a stuck zipper, stuff pocket for pillow. Really excellent bag. Stuffs down super small, I can fit the bag, Nemo pillow and Sea to Summit pillow in a small Sea to Summit compression bag.

Wenonah Sling-style, clamp-on Portage pads: These are hot garbage. Started falling apart on the long portage to Tuscarora and were in pieces by the end of our first day. None of the metal parts are welded and they basically just fell apart. The rest of the trip the canoe was carried with the pads along duck taped to the portage yoke. Superior or Borquin style pads are the only way to go in my opinion.

Voyageur Maps: These are the premier maps in my opinion. The most recently manufactured, so they seem to be the most accurate. They have great historical information that is fun to read on an off day in camp. Backside has a large overview map of the entire park. DNR fish sample info for each lake on the map.

Lakes Traveled:   Bat Lake, Green Lake, Flying Lake, Gotter Lake, Brant Lake, Round Lake,