Now that the "have-you-seen-bear?” thread seems to have exhausted itself, here’s another question: What’s the latest (in the season) canoe trip you’ve taken, either to Quetico, the Boundary Waters or other points north?

For me it was Oct. 17-24 out of Prairie Portage back in ’98. I don’t remember the original intended destination, but we entered the park late and therefore camped on Burke, headed north and ran into wind and sleet and decided to stop on North Bay, and the next day we changed direction and headed east through South, West and the stream to Jeff, which involved crossing an array of beaver dams, stepping in and out of the cold water to maneuver over rocks and around tight corners and finally running out of water. After staying on Jeff for three days or so we went to lower Agnes and came out on Sunday Lake, a trip of no distance whatsoever but it seemed more impressive at the time given the weather, the aluminum canoe and my canoe-mate being a first-timer. Our travel days seem like really short jaunts, but I remember we slept in every morning and it seemed to take forever to break camp, plus the cold just seemed to sap our energy. It was like everything was in slow-motion. The sun finally came out and it warmed up the last few days, which ended the trip on a high note.

Looking through my journal, I see references to:

-      Most wildlife ever, with four moose, two whitetail, several grouse and various small animals.
-      Hazy display of the Northern Lights from the Channel Island on Sunday Lake (our last-night campsite because of early tow-time the next morning.
-      Cutting a leech off my foot.
-      Forceful wind collapsing half the tent on us while we slept on Burke (I don’t remember the exact location, my notes say only “island”).   
-      Lots of sleet and snow flurries, and frost on the packs and ice in the canoe in the morning.
-      Terrible fishing, with four fish caught the whole week. (On the tow out, we asked the outfitter “How do people catch fish in October?” and he answered “People DON’T catch fish in October” and we said, “For the people who DO catch fish, how do they do it?” and he said “People DON’T catch fish in October" and we said something like "Seriously?" and him just giving us a "y'all are stupid" look.
-      Having to set my pen near the fire to warm up so the ink would flow so I could write.
-      Hiking trips, and bushwhacking to at least one unnamed lake off of Jeff to fish.
-      Cutting a lot of firewood.
-      Seeing just one other canoe the whole week, and that was pulled up on the bank on Agnes – so we never actually saw a person. The outfitter said he expected we were one of the last groups to come out before the lakes froze, and in fact he had predicted we’d hit some skim ice, tho we never did.

Word-for-word snippets: “very windy all night” … “wool socks, wool hat, wool vest, wool gloves” … “I’ve almost had frostbite on feet several times now” … “we paddled an amazing stream through thick marshland, often not more than a foot wider than the canoe” … "Can't get a bite -- where are you, Mr. Fish?" ... “snow flurried on and off but it’s mostly been light sleet” … “the silence is loud.”

-      kypaddler

I love October trips and my latest exited in Halloween. CCO said we were their last group for the year.

This year my son is talking about a December trip - but pull and hot tent, not canoe.

kypaddler,

People don't catch fish in November, either.

I had been living in MN less than a year back in 2001.  We had Indian Summer down in the Twin Cities so I decided to work in one last trip - a solo trip - to a lake somewhat near the perimeter of the BWCA.  My destination was Lake Polly.

I never got there.

It was the end of the first week of November.  I arrived late and parked my car near the entry at Kawishiwi Lake and set up camp there.  Though is was only just 5pm it was nearly pitch black darkness already.  Nevertheless, I got in several casts from shore before giving it up and fixing my supper.  Didn't get a bite then.  Didn't get a bite that entire short trip.

After a LONG cold night, I awoke the next morning (if you could call it that) and it was still pitch-black.  It was foggier than hell, to boot.  However, even before I fixed my coffee, I decided to see if my fishing luck had changed.  So, I went back to the very spot I had been casting from the evening before... and a strange thing happened.

My lure sailed through the air - unseen by me - with predictable smoothness, like normal.  However, instead of "kerplunk", what I heard was more of a whizzing/skidding noise.  Unbeknownst to me, everything had frozen over during the night.  Heck, I KNEW it had been chilly that night but when I cast off, it being dark and the fog so thick, I could hardly see the end of my rod.  I had no idea it had frozen-over.  That was a real eye-opener (or, more aptly... an "ear-opener") for me.

This trip would be unlike any I had ever done before.

Though tempted to go back to bed, I instead fixed my coffee & ate a leisurely breakfast.  Eventually there was enough light that I didn't need to keep a lantern going.  However, I wasn't going anywhere.  The fog wouldn't lift.  I didn't dare venture into the woods very far for fear of losing my way back to camp!  9:00am came & went.  So did 10am, 11am...etc.  The ice wasn't so thick that my royalex canoe couldn't break it so, as it approached Noon, without breaking camp, I decided to go out & test the waters of Kawishiwi Lake.

I didn't have a GPS in those days... not that they are much good in heavy fog, anyway (I found that out just three weeks ago on big Pickerel Lake in Quetico!).  Therefore I kept to the shoreline or, at least, what I could barely see of it.  That was the first and only time I have ever paddled in that area.  Never have I been out in such heavy fog!

The ONLY thing that became clear was that I would be going nowhere that day.  Well, maybe not the "only" thing.  It soon became evident I could do as well "fishing" in some contaminated chemical waste pit in the vicinity of Newark, NJ.  There was nothing doing, not even the hint of a bite.

Around about 2:00pm as I slowly edged my way back to my Kawishiwi Lake camp I thought I saw something on the shoreline through a rent in the mists.  It was very white and about the size of a smallish dog.  At first, it seemed like it was stealthily oozing along and around the boulders.  At other times it seemed to "hopping" (sort of) over big roots and ledges.  Every time I got closer to investigate, it faded off into the woods.  Two or three minutes later, it would reappear at the shoreline, almost like it was taunting me.  This kept on going for about 12-15 minutes.

I never did determine what the danged thing was.  At the time I thought it was possibly a snowshoe hare or, maybe, a lynx.  Over the years, I've pretty much decided it must have been a lynx but I really don't know.

By 4:00pm it was getting quite dark, again.  The fog never really lifted much.  Fishing?  WHAT fishing?  Having a line in the water was worthless. 

I considered my options.  That process didn't consume much time.  NO way I was going to break camp and head to Polly.  The notion was growing on me that I might have to smash my way through ice in order to get back!  Besides, I had doubts I could even find Lake Polly in this fog.  Who knew if the mists were going to lift tomorrow or even the next day?  Finally, it was really beginning to register with me just how MUCH less daylight there is here at this time of year versus what I enjoyed on summer trips.

Live and learn.

It might be Indian Summer back in the Cities but prospects of cold, dark fishless camps in the BWCA in November sure seemed to suck.

I stayed one more night and then went home to Indian Summer.

Short trip!  Lesson learned. 

Jimbo    

MossBack wrote on Oct 25^th, 2016 at 3:02pm:


Ha ha,

Yeah, as I was reading his account, I had a vision of the final scene of "The Shining," and Jack Nicholson's face, and his body frozen in a snowdrift ... only it was Jimbo, frozen in a canoe, because as he was stubbornly trying to catch a fish the ice had crept up and frozen him in place, 300 yards from shore, and he sat there all winter like the Tian Tan Buddha, as a warning against reckless travelers.

- kypaddler

Jimbo wrote on Oct 25^th, 2016 at 2:43pm:

It is clear that I need to take you aside and give you a few lessons on using a GPS.  I think I first noticed that you were "GPS challenged" on a trip to WCPP when you apparently wanted to head "cross-country" to Paull Lake from Middle Kilburn, without first going through Upper Kilburn (but that's another story).

This past year (alone), I navigated from near the portage to Argo across Roland Lake in fog so thick that you absolutely couldn't see 30 feet away.  Yet, I managed to easily navigate through channels where I couldn't see the shore line and across a big chunk of open water and go directly to the landing for the portage to Middle Roland.  Once pushing off from the campsite on Roland, it was literally "IFR" all the way.  It was definitely a case of "trusting your instruments" ... definitely no way I would have attempted it without a GPS, and transit time was just about what I would have expected under normal conditions.  (A bonus produced by virtue of the conditions that day ... the lake was absolutely like glass.)

During the crossing, I reflected on the possibility of running over other  canoeist during my adventure.  But then it occurred to me ... probably NO one else would be on the lake under these conditions.

dd