In 1981 a friend and I were in our late 20's and decided that we had fished around the area long enough from a boat and motor. Sleeping in a cabin was great but we were hearing stories about the Quetico and wanted to do it right. We decided to try a trip from North to South and do it the hard way. We took 3lbs of shortening, some peanut butter and our tackle and some cloths. We had a tent, tarp and water filter. That was it as I remember. Off we went from Nym and South we headed. I don't remember all the lakes since I haven't been back on the route since, but we saw Sturgeon, Macyntire and Agnes. We paddled out through Wind to Basswood. It was thrilling to say the least. We only had one day of bad weather and it provided our best fishing. We felt like real voyageurs. We ate what we caught every day. We caught plenty of Walleye, Northern and Smalleys. It was our only food other than the PB which we used as finger food while we paddled. We used rapallas most of the time and never really got too hungry. Now this would not fly today as we are much smarter about conservation, but at the time it seemed pretty cool and rugged. It took us a week and was a trip I will never forget. We saw moose, bear and a number of deer, much to our surprise. It was a real test of our skills and our friendship. But we made it and avoided any kind of serious injury, just the standard quota of mosquito bites and burns from the sun.
The one thing it did was create a lasting memory of the area I will never forget. Maybe someday we will try again, except this time we will take a little food.

Posted by Tim on January 18, 2000 at 17:57