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!