Kash
by greybeard
Today we tried my new 3 foil pan Dutch oven concept with corn bread. You start with 3 10” x 10” aluminum foil pans you can buy at the grocery store. I found that you better wash the pans initially – they stink. To pack them, you gently fold down the sides of the individual pans and squash them flat. You then fold them in half and squash them. You do this to all three and wrap tight with Saran Wrap. This ends up being a small, couple ounce Dutch oven that can be used multiple times. Here is how you get it to work. You need an old fire that has a nice bed of deep coals. You re-open the pans to their original size. You fill one with ½ diameter rocks, then place the inside - nested. You fill this pan with a box of corn bread mix – which requires only water – bought from Cub Food. You then invert the other pan on top like a lid – you crimped the edges together and gently place the contraption in a bed of coals and pile coals on top. Highly recommended! This with sausage gravy on it makes a super meal.
The corn bread mix does not stick to pan, even though we did not put grease in the inner pans. This is great, because we realized that we could use them again for this purpose. It opens up the possibilities of baked beer bread, cookies, cake, or anything you need to bake. We also found another excellent use for the pans – after the corn bread we took two of the pans and some bass fillet (not the ideal fish species for eating in my opinion, but we had not caught any walleye’s yet), and put in some olive oil and seasoning, sealed on the top, threw it in the fire and put some coals on top. Flaky white bass was not that bad!
I should mention that fires did flare up on the shore line again and the helicopter came to the rescue at this time. It looked like they had a canoe and gear strapped to the aircraft and dropped it to the lake while hovering. With a little portable pump they drenched the shoreline – this was evident with the low hum of a generator disturbing the peacefulness of a normal serene Quetico. We still figured that our firefighting skills slowed if not saved a good chunk of real estate on the lake.
Before we left the campsite Andy counted rings on a downed tree in camp – it was a mere 8 inch diameter pine with a total of 170 growth rings. That seemed astounding to me!!!! I also counted it to confirm before boldly making the claim. That means that that little 8 inch tree was a little seedling in 1836 – long before the Civil War, long before my great grandfather was born in Norway, long before cars, and planes, and just about all of the modern history we have. WOW! Slow growth in sparse wilderness. It was 76F today. Fish count was Andy 4 sm, Mike 7 sm, and Al 7 sm.
Wed August 30 – 80 degrees and Sunny
Kahshahpiwi, 88 r, Butterfly Lake (unnamed), 115 r, Joyce, 40 r, unnamed, 68 r, Marj, p, pond, p, Darky (Darkwater) River, 24 r, river, 40 r, Suzanette, Basecamp
We woke up to a chilly morning on Kahshahpiwi. The wind was probably the highest it had been so far, pushing at a ferocious 10 mph ?. We were hoping that is would stay at that speed with the amount of miles that we were about to traverse through the middle of Quetico that day. We packed up camp in about 45 minutes and set off towards the Darky River. I had heard from some of the members of Quiet Journey that there were a couple of nice campsites that were close to being 5 stars hidden along this stretch.
Our first portage from Kahshahpiwi to Butterfly was rather difficult to locate. At one point paddle north to find another series of portages into the lake, but that too was overgrown and non-existent. We went back to the southern portage and just as we were to give up and head out of Kahshahpiwi through the south end we spotted a rock cairn off in the distance (thank you brothers!). The portage was delightful and the hint of fall in the air made it a great portage to start the morning. Butterfly was very isolated and had extremely bog-stained water. I thought of Native Americans for some reason when I went through this area.
The portage over to Joyce was rather easy as well except for a boggy area that needed extreme balance to get over. After that the trail fed us into Joyce. What a gem of a lake. Large, and sprawling, its shores were very inviting. Interesting enough, it looks as though this lake is just a big open lake, but the island produce a neat effect that actually breaks the lake up into smaller segments. We stopped for a bite at a campsite and it was one of the best sites I have ever been on. There was only room for one tent, but plenty of exploration and fishing was to be had only if we had more time. The giant White and Red Pine were sure welcoming and it seemed as though they were inviting us to stay there. Unfortunately we had to bid farewell to the island and head towards out next camp.
The portage out of Joyce had some mammoth White Pine – Wow! There were also some very old cedars in a stream bed near the portage. Marj was up next. She had Caribbean-colored water that tasted excellent, but not as good as North Bay (which had a clove taste). We stopped at a pretty island site for recon, headed over to our next portage. The portage was near a nice sandy white beach and it was kind of tricky to find. Once found, the portage was simple and brought us over to the Darky River on the other side. We had planned to stay here and meet up with another Quiet Journey party (Maverick and company), but once we saw another group on one of the sites we were targeting we decided to move on to seek the solitude we had not experienced since North Bay. Our next decision took us to Suzanette. I had always wanted to stay where, but did not realize that it would be on this trip. We scouted out all the campsites and found a gem on a long island in the North body of the lake. This is where we stayed for the next two nights.
After seeing a 7 pound walleye floating on shore I got the itch to try for one of the live specimens lurking underneath Suz’s gin clear water. Gin clear was the problem though. It was Late August and this water color probably has pushed the big boys pretty deep this late in the summer. We tried everything we had in our tackle boxes to no avail. Fishing plain stunk so far this trip. We were hoping a day trip to dark-watered Conmee would solve this problem.
Sitting around the campfire that night having our Maker’s Mark cocktails, we talked about life, death, eternity, and then back to trip issues - the first of these being the ease of the portages so far. We had heard they were suppose to be fairly challenging, but I guess the dry weather had made things easy going so far. One thing we did notice was that the portage crews were out working hard to make sure the Tag Alder was kept in check, but on some on the portages deep in Quetico they had not had a chance to get their machetes out! With brush so dense and you have a Kevlar canoe on your head have you ever noticed that the branches brushing up against the canoe sounds a lot like people or spirits talking or sighing or crying? Really – listen some day. I kept hearing Andy calling me – but it was the branches.
After pouring another Maker’s Mark, conversation was serious and we started logging down some equipment improvement ideas, some general thoughts, and wise aphorisms. One of the main issues plaguing us was that of drink mix. We noted that Crystal Light is a killer on the stomach. It caused heart burn and made me in particular have a feeling of very high blood pressure with the sound of my heart pumping in my ears, and beating radically at times. All it took was a sip!! No more of that stuff. In fact, I swear that anything artificial is bad news. Stick with butter, olive oil, sugar, and so forth. I have a hunch we are killing ourselves slowly with so much artificial stuff in our society.
Also another disturbing thought – what on earth are we doing with pollution and the wilderness. This global warming is becoming a mind boggling event. We are perceptibly melting the ice caps, making the cold north to have maples and oaks and possums, and other flora and fauna changes that are just a sad commentary on our greed and selfishness! This damage is slow, but I think you will all agree that the damage has started and will only move in the wrong direction without a firm attempt by all to stop it! I just read in the paper that the petroleum companies are actually happy about the ice caps melting, because that will only make it easier for them to drill for more oil - CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! What’s next? reversing the 1978 wilderness act allowing mining in the heart the BWCAW for copper? Fish count, Andy with 2 sm, Mike 2 sm and Al 2 sm.
Thursday August, 31 – 78 Degrees and Sunny
68 r, Conmee, 40 r, then go back to Suzanette, eat fish and drink Maker’s Mark ?
We all come up to canoe country for its sheer beauty, but I tend to think that we all have select unique characteristics that keep us pouring over maps in the dead of winter. I know that Andy loves his three W’s – Walleye, White Pine and Whisky. Mike has a love for fishing, exploring, and for building a good fire and relaxing with a nice Everclear concoction. My personal quests are somewhat different. These include the message caches that are set up for passing on info and history to fellow travelers, hidden ice caves (those proverbial areas I have heard about for years that are deep cavernous areas in the rocky shore that hold winter ice well into the summer time (I found a small one finally on this trip – see the picture – but unfortunately - it’s locations is a secret), interesting rocks for my rock tumbling obsession, unique features of the wilderness as outlined in books and made famous in wilderness lore, and of course walleyes!
On Suzanette my quest for a message cache came into fruition. We found it on a high bluff!! We spent over an hour reading every single message in the cache; messages that have accumulated over the course of 5 years. We all thought it was very fascinating! It is great to see so many people enjoying the wilderness and appreciating it for the good things, and not getting discouraged by the bad. In fact, if I have learned anything in life, it is what I call the Bill Murray philosophy of life (ala Meat Balls) – IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER, IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!!!! It is a bit of an existential thought, that if you assume “stuff” happens in life, then when it happens it does not come as something unexpectedly bad. It just happens. Like black flies, no-see-ums, mosquitoes, bears, cold rain and sweat! It is obvious that this view was held by one of the avid campers who wrote in the cache, “the weather was blistering, the flies were terrible, but is this ever beautiful here – I wouldn’t pass this up for anything in the world, and I hope my kids, and their kids and their kids can stand on this same spot and feel my presence here – going on before them in the eternal wilderness”.
An interesting message in the cache had to do with Quetico Joe. So here was the message – someone noted that he had been at our campsite a couple of years before with the ashes of someone he called “Quetico Joe”. The only person I knew who could have had that name might have been Joe Selliga the canoe maker out of Ely. Only Joe died in 2005 and I believe his Moniker did not include Quetico. Evidently this was another Quetico Joe? In any case, his ashes were integrated into the rigolith of the campsite that we were staying in – hence we were very respectful of his name while camping and even asked his favor in catching some walleyes ?
After a fantastic side trip to the cache was finished, we marched on to Conmee. I had always wanted to stay on Conmee, but it just was not in the cards this trip. We tied on some crankbaits at the portage and decided to troll to an area indicated in Rom’s book where the Delahay flowed into Conmee from the Death March Portages. This was noted as one of the best walleye spots in all of Quetico - but that is for you find out. We also had quite an interesting experience with that lake giving up one of the two biggest fish that we got on the whole trip. As we passed to the North of the narrows on the east end Mike snagged into a fighting machine that was big enough to scare anyone. It was a 20+ lb Northern that took close to a half hour to bring in. The fish was exhausted as was Mike. We nursed it back into the lake of course and massaged it in the water until it slowly swam away. After we released the brute we headed down the narrows into a very “fishy” area. I would bet that this area would be worth checking out sometime in the future(-:
On our way back from Conmee we stopped by the survey marker pegged right on the portage trail. It designates the three way divide of the land into the major water sheds. It has an interesting notation about anyone taking this marker will be in the penalty of serving a 7 year imprisonment!!! Yikes. Who on earth would do such a thing – but of course we can not forget the creeps that stole one of two canoes from a party of 4 portaging near the Man Chain. I always thought there was honor among outdoorsmen!
With no Walleye in the boat yet this trip, we headed out after one bowl of very hot chili! The habanera pepper Andy brought out of the garden ripen to perfection after 5 days! We hit all the great points, drop-offs, and humps, but did not coax one marble eye to nibble. The silver lining came when I caught a huge Smalley right as the sun went down. I had to be a few ounces over 5 pounds. She was a beauty!
We had a cocktail and hit the hay……very tired!
Fish count was Mike 4 and one was a 20 lb NP, Andy 4 SMB, and Al 2 - one was a 5 lb SMB.
Friday September, 01 – 75 degrees and sunny
Suzanette, 15 r, pond, 38 r, Brent, 18 r, pond, 4 r, McIntyre, 24 r, Sara (no h in Sara to honor Mike and Andy’s wives names).
The morning sun embraced the opposite shore in splendid fashion as it so often does in canoe country. It was our last hour on Suzanette and we were reluctant to leave such a beautiful lake. Still we had to push forward and start our journey south towards Sarah. Our initial goal was to stay on one of the islands on Tuck, but we figured we would cut a couple hours off our next day’s travel time if we were to veer east instead of west. Considering we were exhausted from all the paddling and portaging we have done so far on this trip, a couple hours extra to relax sounded just fine to all of us! This decision to bypass Tuck left me with a desire to revisit the area one day, but I am sure glad that we experienced Sarah because she sure was one of the most beautiful lakes on our loop if not in the Quetico.
In route to Sarah we skirted the eastern shore of Brent Lake for about an hour. Too bad we could not have spent a night there and tried for one of its beefy walleye. In 1998 we really did well on this lake, but that was in June and now that we were fishing clear water lakes in August it felt like we were fishing lifeless lakes! After one very pretty portage entering the lake we, unfortunately, were soon landing at the start of a pull-over heading towards McIntyre.
McIntyre was an intriguing lake with its heavily pine-studded islands and shoreline. There is a campsite west of the main basin that is known to have a hidden message cache detailing where some of the Lake Trout hotspots are. Rumor has it that many messages were originally written by many of the old-school local guides. Just to think that Beland, Rom, Olson, Latourelle and many other were sitting around smoking a cigar at the very same site where we camp today! Perhaps McIntyre’s reputation has spread since the days of the old guys because we all felt as though it had become a destination lake and somewhat over-used.
The portage south of the “goat portage” was very pleasant. I found it to be refreshing to see such a grand stand of new growth White Pine in a land that is slowing converting to aspen, birch, maple and jack pine. It is evident that the deer population in the area is very low or else this tender shoots of this new growth would have been considered a delicacy to a white-tailed deer. Through the pine the portage opened up to a very beautiful bay looking out into a very inviting lake.
Sarah Lake is an irregular lake with it twisty corridors and numerous islands providing a unique base camp option. Someday I will bring my family back to this lake to swim along its white sand and explore among its inviting virgin pine forests. The fishing is supposedly excellent for Lakers and Smalleys, but we decided to explore more than fish.
We camped at the North end of Sarah’s narrow channel. The emerald blue waters created the feeling of being in the tropics surrounded by a blue lagoon. I emphasized the blueness of it only because it truly was the most beautiful emerald color that you could imagine. We all noted that the water color changed so dramatically on our trip. We had blue/green colored water in Kash, coffee brown in Conmee, Caribbean blue in Marj, Mountain Dew yellow in Shade, and emerald blue in Sarah. Sarah is Mike Prouty’s favorite lake – a die-hard outdoorsman and writer for the Boundary Waters Journal. His detailed descriptions and routing of this trip after our weekly racquetball hour made me want to get there sooner after each time we looked over our maps! This site was one recommended by Mike and it was a rather interesting camp site with a steep slope; it would have been bad news in a downpour – the only decent tent pad was at the bottom of the hill. My theory is to ALWAYS plan for the worst, but expect the best, which reflects my years of Boy Scout and Explorer Scout memorization of the motto – “Be Prepared.” That and Davy Crockett’s admonition to “Make sure you are right then go ahead and do it” are bits of advice that can make your life oh so much better in the wilderness. Hence in camp, I always look where the tent should be placed in case of a downpour, plus I map out an escape route as to where to hide or get shelter if there was a tornado or straight line winds (in a rocky shelter – cleft in the rocks, etc).
This far along in our trip we had managed to only get in the water once and that was on Kahshapiwi. We all came to the conclusion that a thorough scrubbing was in order to rid ourselves of the retched stench we had acquired. As we bathed in our lagoon we spotted fish swimming very close and on one occasion we witnessed a solitary loon darting past in search of a quick meal. Around the fire pit we had our share of the typical voles, mice, chipmunks, and squirrels that frequent such densely populated Red Pine habitat. The mice literally crawled around our feet and up into our pants and the squirrels loved to chatter at us to get out of their territory.
I noted that we had worked out a good routine for camp set-up and tear-down as well as for paddling. As soon as we landed at the spot we wanted, I put up the tent, Andy got the food prep area set up, and Mike did the unloading and organizing of the gear. Thee same for tear down, but in reverse order of course. For paddling we are all ambidextrous but we did seem to fit into the nature placement in the canoe, and the strong side for us to paddle. As for paddling, I just have to tell you that the Souris River 18.5 we bought MUST be the best canoe ever made. Of course I am prejudice, but we have paddled 17 foot Alumacraft for 21 years and when I first paddled the canoe, and when I finished paddling the 70th mile on our trip, I knew we made the right choice. I singly could paddle the canoe as fast as 3 could paddle the Alumacraft. It stayed on course straight as an arrow (something I didn’t think possible without a keel – but then I did not know about the canoe rocker idea).
The temperature today was 72 F and it looked like there was a threat of rain but it never materialized. The fish count was Mike 0, Andy 0, and Al 1 sm.
Saturday Sept, 02 – 73 degrees and Sunny
Sara, 112 r, Side, 55 r, Pond, 45 r, Pond, 30 r, Isabella, 24 r, Point, 165 r, Nest, 10 r, Pond, 18 r, North Bay, 10 r, Burke Creek, 4 r, Burke Lake, 80 r, Bayley Bay (Basswood Lake), Inlet Bay, Prairie Portage, then to Birch lake and camp for the night.
Seasonal changes were in full swing by this point in the trip. Not only were the leaves of the Moose Maple changing, but the classic fog hanging above the water was in full swing. The temps dipped below 40 degrees this 2nd to last morning. We packed up camp with flannel and fleece garments keeping us nice and toasty. These layers were soon shed as we made out way to the first portage by paddle. Dave at Williams and Hall told us to take the long portage rather than the three small ones. We had planned to take his advise, but an error in trail spotting took us throgh a low swamp with tons of rock and heavy cover preventing us from a clean carry. At Side Lake we wondered where we went wrong. None-the-less we made it to the other side and we were on out way through a series of small lakes and moderate portages en route to either North Bay or Birch Lake on the Border. We were going to make a decision to go on mid-day.
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