Awesome! It means so much to me to know the messages survived.  I have sent you a PM.

Wow, Jimbo 11 canoes coming off of Camel?  Not sure if you recall, but we ran into you at the French Lake landing on our way in you were the "welcoming committee".  After French we didn't see a soul for almost 5 days.  We started running into people around Russell as well.  Once off Russell we only saw a couple groups all the way out to French lake again.  I think we saw like 8 groups in total, probably 5 on Russell.  We did run into Lawrence after he left you guys and had a nice little chat with him.  He said he was going out the same way we came in.  Did anyone here how his trip went for him?  Very nice guy. 

Mav

I had not seen this post prior to my june 2011 Q trip but i can say that i own one of the 40 or so names and 20 or so stories in the message cache on hoare lake. Me and my best man (for my wedding coming up in august) made the bushwack over from camel on june 16th this year. I will admit that he is not kidding when he says it's not easy. IT took the two of us, single portaging mind you, about 6 hours to make it in. The "raspberry portage" is about 3/4 of a mile. At one point a beaver has dammed the creek that you follow making it pretty rough goig around or through. The second little jump is about 150 yards long that isnt very bad. The final push into hoare from the little pond isn't a easry down hill walk. There has been some major wind damage to the area and it's more like a maze of up down and around and then a very steep downhill at the end.

I do agree that all the pain and bugs are worth it. Hoare lake is incredibly clear and cool. There are numerous trees that look like they have been keeping watch there for thousands of years. And the lake trout are Plentiful!!! Just in case anyone was wondering we did not catch any other species in hoare despite a full day of trying. The campsite hadn't seen a tired body in 5 years according to the infamous message cache and it showed in how grown over it was.

On a different note. We pushed hard later in the day to make hoare on the second day of our trip out of stanton bay and payed for it that night. In our haste to push hard and make our destination we dropped the compression sack that held our tent and sleeping bags. By starting as late as we did we were unable to find it in the dark that night and slept under a tarp stretched between two trees. Luckily the bugs were almost nonexsistent in the constant east wind. Ad it didn't rain that night! We rose early just to backtrack almost all the way back to camel before we found our lost equipment. Needless to say we enjoyed another full day on hoare fishing, eating and resting before we left our peaceful lake headed north again.

Regretfully i did not know of the "challenge" so i did not copy any of the names in the new and improved nalgalene bottle that must have replaced the metal container. there was a moose shed that was placed over top of the rockpile by one of the previous visitors. They had apparently found it in camel lake and carried it all the way in with them!

I will have some pictures in a couple weeks and if anyone wants to know more, or specific info about getting there or anything i would be happy to help. 

Bingo!  Water volume may have been a touch higher; we had 4 inches of rain a couple days earlier.

Yes, the "swim" was actually quite refreshing. 

Fortunately my paddling partner -whom I had not met before - turned out to be a fabulous guy with a super sense of humor about this mishap (and others).  Hauling water-laden food packs over the long portage into Fern required a REAL sense of humor!  Later, we had 30 mph tail winds hustling us out of big Pickerel Lake on our last day (we covered 14 miles in no time).  All that "surfing" was a bit unnerving even for our experienced members. 

This fellow took it all in stride.  I hope I can hold a similar temperament when I turn 70!

Jimbo   

Jimbo wrote on Jul 6^th, 2011 at 10:05pm:

Here?
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Nice place to go for a swim at least.

Mmmmmm,
Let's see, MT dumps his canoe in Superior after his line breaks while he's in a less than ideal position. The fact that he was the experinced paddler and was worried about the "newbies" isn't lost on me

You "browbeat" a senior into attempting a paddle that was probably doomed for the start I mean you don't ask someone who dozes off impromtu to be one half of the little paddles that could

I see a new subject for discussion here?
When seasoned paddlers lead Newbies astray

I'm really looking forward to those pics

Had great company, dd!  Very fine fellows including Matunik, whom you know.

I had a 70 year-old park newbie paddling in the bow of my canoe.  He did great on those portages and mostly fine on the water with only a couple of exceptions.  He dozed off taking impromptu unannounced naps.  One such time when I wasn't watching closely enough, he dropped his paddle while we were trolling on Russell Lake.  We had to paddle a quarter mile back to retrieve it.  The second issue was more my fault.  I attempted to paddle up the small set of rapids that you encounter just before you reach the long portage connecting Oliphaunt to Fern Lake.  While Matunik & his 60+ year old paddling partner (wisely) lined it upstream, I talked my partner into "going for the gusto".  BAD MOVE.  Despite the fact that my partner teaches canoe safety & rescue back in New Jersey, for the first time EVER, I managed to flip a fully loaded canoe.  We just didn't have the horsepower.

Oh well.  The water was warm & we didn't lose a thing... except our pride, maybe.  Matunik was laughing so hard & so much more interested in taking photos of us that it was ten minutes or more before they got around to our "rescue"!

The guys had a great attitude & we had a wonderful trip.  I hope your venture into WCP next week goes equally well!

Later,

Jimbo   

Jimbo -

Sorry to hear that you had some foul weather.  Wow.  Eleven canoes coming out of the Camel area!  That's quite the flotilla. 

Glad you made it out safely ... maybe you'll have a more pleasant trip next time.  But, I bet you still had good company.

dd

Well, I regret to report we were unable to attempt the Hoare Lake challenge this year.  We DID get to Camel but our arrival was delayed by a couple days, leaving us one legitimate day to make the attempt (given the other group goals for this particular trip).  Anyway, we were pretty badly socked in by extreme weather over that 24 hour period (thunder storms, four inches of rain, high winds, etc.).  Our group decision was to leave the challenge for a more cooperative day during some future trip.

This is a beautiful area of the park & we had a fine trip, overall.  The biggest negative I have to report is - after my three year hiatus from Quetico - I returned to experience heavier canoe camper traffic than on any previous trip ever... especially in the Russell Lake area.  For that matter, we were passed by eleven canoes coming out of Camel as we were about to enter!

My well-wishes go with whomever might attempt Rob's "Hoare Lake Challenge".

Jimbo   

Jimbo.   I wish you the best on taking the Hoare Lake Challenge.  Good luck and fair winds my friend.