Two small ponds and portages led us to Isabella. The portages were rather hilly compared to other portages throughout our trip. Past Isabella we went through Point and Nest Lakes. I don’t think this route sees too many people late in the season as the portage mud had impressions only that of animals and not boots. The little pond between Nest and North Bay is an interesting study. I envisioned this as a place where Shan Walshe would study his bog plants.

North Bay was quiet once again – just like it was when we entered the park. We cruised past Neil Island, Cigar Island, and finally the Island right in front of the Burke Lake portage. We portaged through this rocky area and pulled in the low waters of Burke Creek. Soon Burke Lake was upon us. This lake is one that signifies either coming or going in Quetico. I would be surprised if anybody considered this a destination lake. As we portages into Bayley bay we noticed a group camping right on the sandy portage. I can’t imagine being subjected to all the portage noise on top of all the messy sand to contend with. When we saw the kids come out from the woods it was evident why they were there.

Within an hour we were to Prairie Portage. Carrie greeted us and chatted with us for an hour. We sure learned a ton from her. We left a couple piles of gear with her that we were going to buy and take home with us in the morning. We had to catch a tow and thought that we would rather pay for it in the morning than pack it is with all our dirty gear.

We then went on through the portage and stayed on Birch Lake. We camped on an island in Birch Lake – barely making it in time before another couple came by to claim the other site. But guess what! We FINALLY got some walleyes! We had our midnight, beer battered walleyes. What a wonderful way to cap off a perfect trip with crispy fried walleyes.

We were hoping to see a moose, bear or wolf the last night considering we had not seen anything the whole trip. In all we saw bunch of eagles, loons, mergansers, coots, turtles, otters, and beaver. The closest we got the any mega fauna was that of a giant wolf print on the nest lake portage. Additionally we saw plenty of moose prints in many of the bogs that we portaged, but no moose. We thought we viewed some in the distance a couple of times, but no confirmed sightings. I guess the animals were happy from a great berry crop this year and they didn’t need to bother with us!

As the campfire stoked up that last night Mike and I took a small aquarium net that we brought along for this very purpose and caught about 50 Rusty Crayfish on the shore. We found that if you place the small net on top of them, you let them launch themselves into the net you pick them right up. If you tried scooping them up, you get a lot of gravel with them. We boiled a pot of water and threw the crawdads in and boiled until they were bright red. This typically takes about 15 minutes for lobsters, but a mere 5 minutes for crawdads. After cooking them up, we pulled the tails and dipped in melted butter. I will have to admit that it took a little more effort than it was worth, but they tasted great! You would have to have a couple hundred of these little guys to make a real meal. Bedtime came quick after another long day. Soon it was time to go home – often a difficult set of emotions arise at this juncture; happy to get home to see the family, but sad to leave the place that has been dreamt about for over 51 weeks of the past year.

Total fish count was Al 1, Andy 3, and Mike 1, with an additional walleye for each of us.

Sunday September, 03 – 75 degrees and Sunny

Paddle back to Prairie Portage. Get our tow at 11 am and head back to civilization. Check in at US customers North of Ely. Pizza Hut, beer and head home.

We awoke and headed for Prairie Portage once again. We went to the Quetico store and bought a bunch of items as mentioned previously. I should mention that just before we broke camp at Birch Lake, Mike did catch a bass at camp – officially making today’s count Mike 1sm, Al and Andy 0. Hence the total fish count was 50 fish and individually it is Al 18 – Mike 17 and Andy 15, with Mike the largest, Al the first and Al the most (YEAH!).

We got picked up by the outfitter’s boat and he took us back to our car. As I mentioned at the start of this article, we would return no longer spanking, civilization clean, but instead a little smelly, but definitely stronger, healthier, and tan as leather! We had a wonderful shower at the outfitters and liked the cold beer waiting for us gratis by the outfitter – thanks guys ?. We packed up then and drove back to Ely on the way home. When we exited, we stopped at the US boarder customs in Ely. The guy at first was tough, acted like he was trying to throw us trick questions to see if we were lying about where we were fishing, what we were doing, and if we were crooks. Once we started talking about the big northern Mike caught, his eyes lit up and he proceeded to tell us about his love of fish spearing through the ice. He told us about his house, how to cut the 3’ x 4’ rectangle, type of spear, how to spear them so it breaks their back, how to make the decoy fish lures (it seems that the owner of Zup’s grocery stores - John Zupancich is a work famous spear fisherman and decoy carver). Funny how people light up when you find out what is in their heart and soul. By the way, the custom folks now appear to be under the aegis of Homeland Security – for this gentlemen had a patch on one should saying he was a customs official, but the other had a patch displaying Homeland Security. Another sign that 9/11 has changed our lives.

We decided to stop and eat at the Grand Ely Lodge. We sat on the porch overlooking Shagawa Lake – a beautiful site. We had nice meal and a glass of Cabernet and started home. On our way I finally got into cell phone range I listened to my voice messages. To my surprise I found out about my Mom – while she was in church, appeared to be sleeping and my other son Tim had to carry her out. She stopped breathing and she had no heart beat. Much of the church came out and laid hands on her, and prayed for her recovery. Mom later told us that when she had “died” Jesus told her she was coming back to tell everyone that she loved them. Since that time, she makes a point to tell everyone “I love you, and really mean it.” She also says that she now must know what Lazarus felt like?.

I retrospect, we all initially felt a little gypped since we were not able to bring live leeches and minnows, nor allowed to seine for them in Quetico. Even so, we still are reminiscing about the adventures, the beauty of the land, the sites, the glory of the wilderness and solitude. We definitely left a part of our hearts up there, and I just think that we may have to go back again soon, to see if we can find that pesky piece of heart hiding in woods.