The Perfect BWCA Weekend

I had a great little BWCA canoe trip on the last weekend of September.  The weather was perfect, the lake trout were biting, and the company was entertaining.  It was my first actual BWCA canoe trip with a somewhat new friend, whom, at least until he earns (through some misfortune) a real nickname, we'll call "the Basement Brewer."

Thursday morning, we took off from Duluth and headed up the North Shore and then inland to a favorite spot.  After packing the canoe and making a decent paddle, we rigged up our lake trout gear and trolled our way to our preferred campsite.  The day was gray, but calm and fairly warm.  The Basement Brewer jumped out to a quick lead in the fishing department by connecting on a couple lakers using what we came to call "The Black Spotted Spoon of Death."  It ended up being the only trout lure he fished with all weekend and for good reason.  The spacious camp was welcoming and we set up our tents and rain tarps at a leisurely pace.  More trout were caught, mostly by the Brewer on his favorite lure, that afternoon.  The skies were clearing off by suppertime and the fried trout and dirty rice dish hit the spot.  The night was topped off with shooting stars and some northern lights.  

Friday was a gorgeous day.  We trolled for trout with great success, with the nod still going to the Black Spotted Spoon of Death as the hot lure.  We had a shore lunch and played around with the camp northern, a moderately sized pike that insisted on stealing our baits when fishing from shore.  Later, we tried some walleye fishing without success, but the trout obliged all day.  A great day was capped off with brats and sauer kraut for supper, a true northwoods day.  

Saturday was sunny, but quite breezy.  We had decided to do a fairly lengthy day trip to check out an new lake and we stuck with the plan despite our fishing success near camp.  The trip involved two moderate portages and a couple miles of paddling.  The wind kind of hampered our trolling runs, but we still made several passes through trout water, getting only one laker.  We did have the best snack break ever on a nice sand beach, thanks to the Brewer sneaking in some Northern Waters Smokehaus smoked fish and hard cheese.  We tried for walleyes on the entire way back to camp and only caught one hammerhandle pike.  That night we had a great supper of NWS Salamini and gnocchi in a creamy sundried tomato and red pepper sauce.  

Sunday dawned sunny still and warm.  It was beautiful again.  We got the gear packed up and loaded in the canoe.  We slowly trolled our way through the maze of islands on the way out, getting some more trout on the Spoon.  It was hard to leave when we got to the landing, it was so nice out.  We ran into some friends (the Colonel and Rocket Man) at a restaurant on the way home, and they reported they also had good trout fishing with the bonus of good grouse hunting.

There was a traffic jam in Two Harbors as the fall colors and beautiful day brought out many travelers.  We took some back roads around the mess and rolled into Duluth around 6pm.  It was a great trip.

Nature Moment: We had lots of interactions with eagles, loons and mergansers, and the good year for garter snakes continued, but in the fall, the rodents rule.  We had lots of friends in camp when the sun went down.  Our favorite is the long tailed, big eared, white-footed mouse.  They like to throw some hops into their movements, reminding us of mini-kangaroos.  They hopped around camp getting into the garbage bag once in a while, but for the most part minding their own business.

Quote of the Trip: Sunday morning as we slowly packed up, enjoying the warm sunshine, the Brewer looked at me and said, "I feel sorry for anyone that isn't in the Boundary Waters right now."  I agreed.

Hubs' Flub: Well, the title of this post is "The Perfect BWCA Weekend" - I can't think of a single flub!

Summer Fun

Once again, it has been some time since my last post...it has been a very busy summer and fall.  Here is a recap of my summer adventures.  

In June and July, I had some opportunities on calm days to fish Lake Superior right here in Duluth.  I got out about five times.  The big lake was a bit goofy this year because of the late spring and lingering cold water temps.  Fishing was overall quite slow, but we did get a couple fish (lake trout and coho salmon) most times out.  Even with slow fishing, there is something about fishing Lake Superior that makes it fun...maybe it is just the expanse of it all.  

A late July trip up to the Gunflint Trail was had with a friend that is a college student.  His younger perspective kept conversations interesting and we had good fishing for lake trout when the weather cooperated.  

In early August, My Wonderful Bride and I met up with some friends after dropping the Wonder Kid off for "Cousins Camp" with my folks.  We and our friends camped at a Wisconsin State Park near Hudson.  We had a lot of fun, despite some car trouble and a trip to urgent care for an eye infection.  We also were not impressed with Wisconsin State Parks.  The sites were overcrowded, the attractions were overcrowded, and, most notably, the restrooms were overcrowded.  We understood how busy weekends can be tough for staff to keep up with, but the toilet and shower conditions were deplorable.  Three facilities serving nearly 200 campsites is not enough.  The bathrooms were not cleaned one time in three days and became quite gross.  Oh well, we still had a lot of laughs.  

Later in August, we joined two other neighborhood families at Fall Lake National Forest Campground near Ely.  What a difference from our previous camping experience!  Fall Lake is compact, but not crowded, the bathrooms were impeccable, there isn't a speck of litter anywhere, and staff was super friendly.  The kids (all three families have only girls) had a great time fishing, swimming, running around, and enjoying campfires.  Everyone had a blast and we can't wait to do it again...in fact, an idea sprouted during the trip that is now growing on its own...more details another time.

My nephew and his dad came up one weekend to fish as well.  We did the always fun drift down a local river.  It offers rapids and smallmouth bass on nearly every cast.  The highlight was my nephew tying into a couple nice channel catfish that really wore out his arms.  

Finally I capped the summer off with a labor day weekend trip with my buddy Chief Many-Little-Bottles.  We took his boat to BWCA motor lake and trolled for lake trout.  The trout were not at all cooperative, but, as always, we had a great time with good food and lots of laughs.  

Our Ultimate Family Camping Kitchen

Motorboat Camping is a Good Change of Pace