And I’m back from another great trip with another fantastic crew! The trip was 9 days on water; we covered 126 miles in 8 days of paddling (we had one layover day where we did not move campsites). My crew already had a route planned when they came up so I did not help much with that. I did offer campsite suggestions and the addition of a layover day instead of a couple of very short days at the end of the trip.
Day 1: Base (Moose Lake) to North Bay (Basswood Lake)
We got out off base even faster than my first trip, despite not having gotten canoes the day before. We reached Prairie Portage well before noon, checked in, saw a float plane resupplying the station, and moved on before lunch. We ate on an island in Burke Lake before moving on to an island in North Bay. The island was clearly a frequently used campsite, which has its pluses and minuses. On one hand, the tent pads were well developed and there was plenty of room to teach the participants about setting up camp. On the other hand, there were clear Leave No Trace issues (I’ll go into Leave No Trace in another post). It was a good first day.
 |
| Float plane resupplying Prairie Portage ranger station |
 |
| Sunset on North Bay |
 |
| Sunset on North Bay |
Day 2: North Bay (Basswood Lake) to Moose Bay (Crooked Lake)
We woke up decently early & got out of camp, paddling south-west out of North Bay down below White Island toward the Basswood River. The first portage we hit on the Basswood River was the mile-long Horse Portage. For my crew, many who had never portaged before a day earlier, it was rough. Despite the adversity, my scouts pushed through, refusing to give up their packs and insisting that they wanted to finish it. They did a great job and then went on and pushed through three more portages (though none were nearly as long)! Once we made it to Crooked Lake, we stopped briefly at the pictographs left by the Objibwe people and before stopping at Moose Bay. That evening my crew went swimming and fishing, with one of the youth catching his first fish ever, a good sized bass (unfortunately I was not there and did not get a picture).
 |
| North Bay in the morning |
Day 3: Moose Bay (Crooked Lake) to Argo Lake
We got another good start the next morning up Crooked Lake. We only had one portage (later in the day), so we had a nice long paddle. We had several small breaks, including one at the remnants of a 1924 Buick. It’s a random site to see in the park, but certainly interesting. After lunch we too the western-most portage into Argo from Crooked. Argo Lake has some of the clearest water in the Quetico and it was apparent at the end of the portage trail. We fought some wind to get up to our desired campsite on Birch Island, but I thought it was worth it. The campsite has a gradually sloping shelf that extends maybe 50-100 ft. out into the lake that you can walk out on before it gets too deep. After making camp, I spent some time on the shelf fishing and caught several bass (most which were too small to keep). We did catch two bass and a trout worth keeping, which we cooked up and ate along with some great chocolate chip muffins.
 |
| Two bass and a lake trout. One of the bass is mine; unfortunately I was blinking |
 |
| Chocolate Chip Muffins! |
Day 4: Argo Lake layover day
The next day we stayed on Argo all day. Most of the crew slept in, but I woke up at 5:30 to take out a canoe and try to find some walleye. Unfortunately, I did not have much luck with anything until I went back in closer to shore with one of the adults. There I caught a good sized bass and hooked an even bigger one before it broke the line right before we got it in the boat. Back at camp, everyone else was beginning to stir. I started breakfast, pancakes, before handing it off to one of the youth, who did an excellent job.
 |
| Making (really good) Pancakes |
Later in the day I went with my crew down to some small cliffs. Most of them were too high to jump off, but there were a couple of places less than 5 feet high (the maximum height allowed for jumping at Northern Tier). I could not see the bottom of the rock face underwater, despite Argo’s clarity. When we first arrived I did see about 10-12 good sized fish swimming along the rock face. It was pretty cool.
Back at the campsite we watched an ant drag around a horsefly we had swatted (random, I know, but horseflies are evil incarnate). The sunset was great too.
 |
| Go ant go! |
 |
| Scout eating at sunset |
Day 5: Argo Lake to McAree Lake
Day 5 was our waterfall day. We paddled west on Argo before heading southwest on the Siobhan River back to Crooked. Several of my youth tried carrying the canoes (and did quite well). From Crooked Lake we passed Curtain Fall into Iron and Rebecca Falls into McAree, where we ate lunch. We faced a strong wind paddling up McAree, but we eventually made it it to our campsite at the far end of the lake.
 |
| Curtain Falls |
 |
| Rebecca Falls |
There were a couple things I did not like about McAree Lake and out campsite. Firstly, we saw some motorboats. Generally these are not allowed into the Quetico, but guides from the adjacent reservations are allowed to take them out on a few certain lakes. Secondly, the campsite had some issues with Leave No Trace. In this campsite the fire rings (multiple!) were much too big, there were fire grates left there, and someone had cut into a couple of trees to wedge in a rock to form a table. Things like this don’t really make me happy. Otherwise, it was a pretty good day.
Day 6: McAree Lake to Brent Lake
This might have been our most challenging day. Fortunately by this point my crew had portaging down, so the fact that some were pretty hard wasn’t too bad. From McAree we came into Minn Lake and crossed to Darky (also known as Darkwater) River. We were paddling upstream, which caused some difficulties (especially at the mouth of the river), but we were able to work around them. Occasionally we would have to walk the canoe through some swifts around the portage or avoid a tricky tree fallen across the river, but we made it to Darky Lake without too much issue, where we had lunch at an expansive, very nice island campsite in north Darky. From there we continued the other section of the Darky River, which has a difficult but manageable 182 rod portage. My crew dubbed it “the portage from hell” due to its wonderful combination of length, moose muck, bad footing, and steepness. It was certainly the most difficult portage we had all trip.
After the portage we made camp on the south side of an island in the west end of Brent (look for the grouping of 4 campsites on Fischer maps). Our campsite was nice, but someone at the northern campsite had built a table and left it, which I had to take apart while my crew got settled into camp.
Day 7: Brent Lake to Sarah Lake
The next day I got my crew up to do a quasi-dawn paddle. They did not want to get up early enough for a true dawn paddle, but we still got on the water fairly early. Brent Lake was as still as glass. Reflections were perfect. It was an amazing paddle down Brent. We portaged into McIntyre and then into Sarah.
I passed one of my Brigade Leaders, Matt, and naturally had an interpreter hug. I teach my crews to say “Brace” and wait for a response from the other people in the boat every time they get in or out of the boat so that no one is taken by surprise. So Matt’s and my boat get close and I tell the person in the front of my boat “Brace!” and jumped out without giving him any clue to what I’m doing. When I talked to him later, he said he was thinking “Brace! Wait… what?!?” It was pretty fun.
We made our camp in a sheltered campsite on Sarah that my crew had stayed at on their last trip. It would prove to be a good choice. Most of our day was relaxed with fishing and napping, but it was hot and muggy. An evening swimming was great for cooling off. It was 4th of July, so I made a yellow cake with chocolate swirl.
 |
| Boat with Irises |
That evening we had the biggest storm I have seen up here. Fortunately, it was sheltered, so the fury of The Storm was somewhat diminished. There was rain, lightning at 2-second intervals, and large gusts of wind. It was enough to blow around some dishes and loosen a dining fly, but we were spared the worst. Crews in other parts of the park had trees come down and canoes get blown into the water. We were very fortunate.
Day 8: Sarah Lake to Burke Lake
The next morning I woke up early and made cinnamon rolls and let the crew sleep in a little bit later than usual after The Storm. After breaking camp we headed south out of Sarah. The way out of Sarah toward North Bay is several medium length portages divided up by small lakes. The longest and worst is the very first out of Sarah. In previous years these adults had called it “the portage from hell,” but because it was either at the beginning of the day, late in the trip, or because my crew was so good at portaging, they agreed that it was not nearly as bad as they had remembered.
Isabella Creek is probably now one of my favorite parts of the park. A short portage leads you to the creek, where you can paddle. It is a small winding creek with several beaver dams. However, water is clear and shallow; you can see the beautiful sandy bottom. When you do have to get out of the boat to go over beaver dams, it is even pleasant to step out.
We camped on the island across from the Yellow Brick Road in Burke Lake (the same one as I did my last night my last trip). This time we were rewarded with ripe blueberries on the top of hill! By chance I had saved cheese cake for our last dessert, to which we added blueberries. It was one of the best desserts I have had up here ever.
 |
| Blueberry Cheese Cake!!! |
 |
| Sunset on Burke |
Day 9: Burke Lake to Base (Moose Lake)
Our last day was another perfect day. We cruised across Yellow Brick Road. Our youngest scout carried the canoe and did a fantastic job. We stopped by the ranger station, chilled on an island (not Scout Island) for a brief while before coming into base.
The youth of my crew put on a great skit about Leave No Trace at Rendezvous, which started out with things we did and got more and more ridiculous.
So far this year I have been blessed with two outstanding crews. If the rest of my crews can match them, I will be one of the luckiest interpreters on base. Props to them for making these trips so wonderful.
Posts
