Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Ensign to Disappointment - 2021
by walleyejunky

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/12/2021
Entry & Exit Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 8
Day 3 of 7
Monday, June 14, 2021

We woke up early again and were out on the lake ready to fish. We hit the bays where we had been catching fish and this morning the walleyes were active. We quickly limited out and release plenty more the rest of the morning. On our way back to camp we were treated to a nice suprise seeing a lone black wolf sunning himself on the rocks next to the lake. We got quite a few photos of him and it turned out to be the highlight of the trip and the start of an exciting day. As we were heading back to camp we met one of our group paddling away from the site. They were a little fired up as a bear had entered camp while they were preparing breakfast. I had heard quite a bit about bears being a problem on Ensign. We keep a pretty clean camp and have never had issues before but apparently our luck had run out today. We always hang our pack but in the excitement of the moment they left camp without taking care of the food packs. When we got back the bear had returned and made a mess of one of the packs. I think we scared him off as we approached before he could do to much damage to our food supply.

Once everyone was back to camp we made the decision that it would probably be in our best interest if we moved on. We were planning on actually having a nice relaxing trip basecamping on Ensign all week long but no one wanted the headache and stress of potentially more bear issues. It was decided we would move on to Disappointment as it is one of our favorite lakes. I quickly cleaned fish while everyone else packed up camp.

We left late morning for the long trip to Disappointment. We made good time and only stopped for a few minutes to enjoy Cattyman Falls. We made Disappointment late in the day and were worried we might not get one of our favorite sites. Every site was full except for #1385 so we grabbed it up. We would spend the rest of the week here.

After the long day we just enjoyed a nice fish dinner before lounging around camp. We all love to fish but were plenty tired after the long day of travel so we retired to our tents early.