6-29-07

It’s a great travel day; we wake early and are on our way at 9:30. We had planned to stop and camp on the way out but the weather was so good and what wind we had was in our favor, so we went for it and were heading out today. When we hit the bottle portage I see the cow in the same area, we get out our cameras as she eats her breakfast then suddenly she suddenly tire’s of us then she heads out of the water, then yell’s out in a short burst of air with her ears up and I tell TCW to get ready because she’s calling her calf and a few seconds later it bounds over like a child being called by her mother. What a sight another highlight of the trip I must say it gave me Goosebumps’s. As we make our way across Agnes Lake and head into the Moose River we see an Eagle and take some shot’s then we hear splashing and just a few yards away was another otter with a family nearby. As we head up the moose river we see a solo canoeist just a head of us then when we reach the portage there he was… a gruff middle aged man wearing a ponytail who obviously had been in for a while and wearing a skirt (okay it was a kilt) it was Khaki and pleated. Then he told us he had a back injury and was held up in his tent for 4 days and asked for our help so of course we obliged as we made our way across the portage TCW was stopped in the middle of the portage and said she couldn’t get by, I said get out of my way, I turn the corner and saw one of the largest snappers I ever saw it was using the trail, loaded down I wasn’t stopping for anything as I made my way pass it, it veered off the trail. When we reach the end, Kelly the kilt guy explains why he’s wearing a kilt; his wife from Australia bought it for him a few years back and was always saying that he wasn’t man enough to wear it. So to prove a point he wore it to the bwca thinking he’s alone except on potages who will ever know… Well that is until he had to ask for help it wasn’t an issue. So we help him out. As we make our way down the Nina moose river we see 3 very large buck’s the largest was already a 10 pointer in velvet by this fall that buck will be enormous, all these buck’s were within 100 yards of each other. And as we end our trip at ep 16 at 8:00 PM Kelly told me he still has a 6 mi hike to his truck, it was at the Little Indian Sioux river ep so we give him a lift and all is fine we make it back to Ely at 10:00 PM.

I consider this one of my favorite trip’s TCW hung in there and made it to our destination even though she was in some discomfort, I’m very proud of her, most men I know would’ve given up but not her. This trip had it all; fish, wildlife, great weather a great paddle partner and when I thought it couldn’t get any better a man wearing a kilt. till TCW finishes her photo's I can't post the photo of kilt man.