DAY ONE

July 2nd, Monday, 1934 hours

On a campsite on a point along the north shore of That Man Lake

GPS Location: N 48 degrees 07.918’, W 091 degrees 16.456’, Elevation 1398’

Lakes Traveled: Moose Lake, Newfound Lake, Sucker Lake, Birch Lake, Carp Lake, Sheridan Lake and That Man Lake

Total time: 7:30

Total miles: 17.5

I didn’t sleep that well last night. The wind picked up sometime during the night. It wasn’t raining when I woke up at 0538 hours. Just when I got all my stuff out of the tent, of course, it began to rain. I took down my tent and ate in the rain. Afterwards, I just threw all my gear in the Suburban and figured I would sort and pack for the trip at the Moose Lake Landing.

Upon leaving the Fall Lake campground driving to Moose Lake landing at 0712 hours I called my father and left him a voice mail since he didn’t answer his phone.

It was raining while I was driving on the Fernberg Trail to Moose Lake. In the early 1900 there was a platform rigged to a large pine tree used as a fire tower near the Kawishiwi River. It was originally made by following the waterways that were south of town then following them to the east. The tower was named the Fernberg Lookout. It was named using the combination of two forester’s names, Ole Fernlund and John Handburg. A trail was made from the tower back to Ely. Eventually, this road became to be known as the Fernberg Trail.

The temperature was 54 degrees, but dropped to 52 degrees as I pulled in at Moose Lake at 0738 hours. It rained the entire time I was getting prepared to hit the water. I really wish it wasn’t raining as I was somewhat disorganized in getting my gear together.

I’m finally on the water at 0855 hours in full rain gear. Five minutes after I started paddling it stopped raining. Time to take off my rain jacket and long sleeve poly-pro top. I was paddling in my t-shirt and everyone else was still in their rain gear. I kept my rain bibs on, since I didn’t want to pull over and take them off. I continued to pass several groups as I made my way to Prairie Portage to pick up my Quetico permit. I couldn’t believe all the large groups. There were either 4 canoes with two people each or three canoes with three people. I realized that many of the three aluminum canoes with three people were Boy Scouts. When paddling this section from Moose Lake, Newfound Lake, and Sucker Lake it’s hard to imagine that you’re in the “wilderness” due to the great number of canoes, people and motor boats. Many of the campsites were taken, also.

It took me 1 ½ hours to paddle to Prairie portage. I left my canoe down at the landing and walked the portage to the Canadian Ranger office to pay my money and get my permit. There was a couple already talking to the receptionist when I walked in the front door. The receptionist told them there haven’t been any reports of any bear problems. She continued to tell them that Quetico has three quarter less people that visit than the BWCA.

I was next and I paid an additional $160 dollars (total $260) for 13 days of travel. I asked her if she was aware if anyone had done the Hunter’s Island loop this year and she was not aware. She told me that the number of visitors to Quetico are down this year, but she didn’t know why. I mentioned maybe it was a combination of high gas prices and the fact, that when going through Prairie Portage the fee had been increased to $20 per night whereas, the other entry points charge about $5 less.

I walked back over to the portage and decided to have lunch before I continued on my journey. When I finished lunch, I was just about ready to head east to Carp Lake when I saw the three aluminum canoes with 9 people who I had passed earlier to get my permit. Their canoes were pointing to the east, just about to head the same direction as me. I asked them if they were headed through the “Man Chain” and they said, yes.

When I started paddling this morning I noticed there was a slight breeze from the southeast. On Birch Lake I noticed the wind had switched to the southwest. While I followed the international waters of Birch Lake I saw every campsite on the American side was taken. Each one of these campsites appeared to have a minimum of three canoes on shore. Wow!

My first portage with gear was the 40 rod portage from Birch Lake to Carp Lake. It was rocky with a slight incline, but it wasn’t a bad portage. There were a group of four people at the portage when I arrived, but they said they were going onto Knife Lake. On the other side of the portage another group was coming from Carp Lake. They were in a C-2 and a C-1.

When I turned to go from the border while on Carp Lake, there weren’t anymore canoes coming in my direction. The group that told me they were going up the “Man Chain” I last saw them about the middle of Birch Lake by the big island. Maybe I was going to be by myself the rest of the day.

It’s not known how the lakes in the “Man Chain” got their names, but many of the other lakes in Quetico have some known origin.

My original plan was to camp somewhere on Carp Lake, but it was too early to stop. I’m thinking it was around 1400 hours. I continued to the portage between Carp Lake and Sheridan Lake. It has a small put-in / take-out. The portage was about 10 rods, but it had an incline and then a sharp 10 foot drop down to Sheridan Lake. I grabbed both of my cameras and took some photos of some Blue Flag Iris by the waters edge with both cameras. After that I walked the length of the small water falls between the two lakes and took some more photos with both cameras. After spending quite a bit of time at this portage it was time to move on.

I was ready to continue on, looked at the map and I thought the distance marked on the map for the next portage was 148 yards. I said what the heck. There was an opening along the south shore on my right before the end of the lake where the marked portage was located. It didn’t look like a campsite, but I really wasn’t sure what it was. Well, I continued to the marked portage at the end of the lake. These portages aren’t actually marked, just marked on the map.There was a sandy landing here. This portage was actually 748 yards or about 136 rods. A little shy of a half mile. This portage was very muddy and it went up and down. There were some large flat rocks that were very slippery from the recent rains as well. I brought my large pack across first.

My normal procedure is to carry my large pack first with my nylon mesh bag that I have three Nalgene water bottles and my Model 1524 Pelican case with camera gear. I have carabineers on each shoulder strap on the front. I hook the nylon bag with water bottles on the left carabineer. There is a rope tied to the handle of the Pelican case. I pull the open end of the line through the right carabineer and then loop the open end around the handle of the Pelican case about an arm length away. This way when I walk with the case it keeps most of the strain off my right arm. Then I carry my food pack and canoe on the second trip.

Returning back for my other gear I noticed a trail that forked off to my left. I had come on the trail directly in front of me, but I decided to see if the trail to my left was any better in avoiding the very muddy section at the start of the portage. It started going off onto higher ground. This trail came out exactly at the spot that I was eyeing before I hit the original portage where I got out. Now I had to bushwhack through the thick low area that consisted mostly of Northern White Cedar trees back to the original portage. I threw my food pack back into the canoe and paddle over to the other landing / portage trail. I began with my food pack and canoe, but my portage yoke kept slipping. It slipped off the gunwale of the canoe dropping the canoe on my head. I put the canoe on the ground and continued across the portage with only my food pack. I didn’t want to risk slipping on any slippery rocks while at the same time fighting with my yoke.

While walking back to my canoe I heard some noise. There they were the group that I saw earlier at Prairie Portage. There are nine people in this group and they single portage, but they can’t keep up with me on the water.

I got my canoe and I wedge my bandana between the yoke and the gunwale to keep the yoke from sliding around. I made it back to the landing. When I got back to the landing the group had all their canoes in the water, but they were waiting for one more person in their group to show up. This person who I passed earlier on the trail appeared to be moving much slower than the rest of the group.

The group moved one of their canoes so I could drop mine in the water next to them. It was crowed with four canoes. Off I went in search of a campsite on That Man Lake. That Man Lake has some nice high buffs and is a very scenic lake. The last portage took me at least an hour, since I pretty much had to triple portage it. I could feel the muscles in my lower back tightening up. I though to myself, I’m going to be sore in the morning.

There were two campsites at the east end of That Man Lake and I wanted to have my pick of them. I decided on the campsite on a little peninsula that faces southeast. There is a island campsite about a quarter mile to my southeast and it faces to the west. I prefer to have a southeast (south or east) facing campsite, if possible. I like to stay out of the setting sun so I prefer to have the sunrise in the morning. I made it to the campsite at 1635 hours.

The next things that needed to get done were to put up my rain fly, tent, cooked dinner. Dinner consisted of venison spaghetti and for desert I had some lemon pudding.

The wind died down about an hour ago. It’s still cloudy, some haze in the distance. The birds have been singing and there’s a loon calling in the distance.

I don’t know where the other group camped, but they never came passed my site. There appeared to be a possible campsite on another island before this site, but I didn’t go up to it and check it out. I think this group has been this way before, since they mentioned they wanted to get across the last portage before calling it a day.

My calculations show I went about 17.5 miles today. I’ve been sitting hear listening to all the birds singing.

Earlier, I tried finding a suitable tree to hang my food pack. What a joke! There’s mostly spruce, jack pine and some really big red pine with no suitable branches. It took me about a half hour struggle to get the food pack off the ground about 4 feet. If someone would paddle by my campsite now and see the food pack they would just laugh. The problem with the food pack is that it’s so heavy and trying to hoist it up on a flimsy branch just doesn’t work that well.

I have a lot more gear on this trip. There’s the slightly bigger Pelican case, a tripod as well as too much food (again, I always say I have too much food). Today, I had a tougher time flipping my canoe, more so than usual. It might be because the tripod is lashed to the thwart behind my seat and there’s more gear in my seat bag. I shouldn’t have to struggle that much in flipping the canoe over my head. In about one week my food pack should be much lighter. Another problem was my tent was pretty wet when I packed it away today. I think I’m going to put the tripod in one of the packs for the rest of the trip.

Thank goodness, I didn’t bring my heavier Manfrotto 458B tripod with the Manfrotto 3265 head. I bought an inexpensive Manfrotto 725 B with a head attached already. The 725B weights 3.3 pounds, not including, the tripod bag. The 458B weights about 5.25 pounds, not including the head.

Another item I bought for this trip was a silk sleeping bag liner. Last night was the first time it was used. This is a luxury item, but it takes up very little room and doesn’t weight that much. I just keep it in my sleeping bag when I put the bag away in a compression sack. I wanted something on those really hot sticky nights. I found when sweating on those hot nights, my body sticks to the sleeping bag making me even hotter and very uncomfortable. I used to sometimes take a cotton sheet that took up more room and it was heavier than this silk liner.

I took some photos tonight using my Nikon D80 and tripod. My other camera is an Olympus Stylus 770 SW digital camera purchased about one week before this trip. I didn’t have time to figure the Olympus camera out prior to this trip. Tonight I had to get the manual out, because sometime today I accidentally put the camera on full auto mode and couldn’t figure out how to get it back to the program “P” mode.