Northeast Quetico - September 9-14 2000
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This year instead of my usual two week-and-a-half canoe trips I planned for one 3 week plunge. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. The good news is I did manage to squeeze in six days. I left on short notice, I didn't have nearly enough time to prepare and pack properly. It really didn't look like I had enough food, but I've never taken such a short trip. I'm so used to seeing at least twice as much, but I ended up with plenty. In fact I'm eating some now. The only thing I forgot was a decent flashlight, but the full moon and a wimpy penlight were more than adequate.

For my first day the weather channel promised morning showers followed by small craft advisories. Not a great forecast for one out of shape person paddling a tandem canoe down Pickerel. I putzed around long enough to miss the rain and the wind was out of the south/southeast so I was feeling pretty lucky. A half hour into my trip I thought I saw a dark spot that I thought could have been a moose or (probably) just a rock in a down wind bay. I wasn't about to paddle down wind knowing it would probably turn out to be a rock, so I did some indecisive drifting and studied it hoping it would move. It didn't take long before I was close enough to see it had that distinctive moose shape. I only had to paddle enough to keep from drifting into her on the first pass. By the third pass we were both tired of my schannagans and wandered off.

Spent a few more hours hugging the south shore, only venturing out when there were islands to catch me if things got out of hand. I have developed a healthy respect for Pickerel over the years.

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