I'm responding just so I can be 'subscribed'.

Nice reflective shot today

Kahshapiwi wall and marsh.

I LOVE spider web photos, and that one is a beauty!!
Thanks.

Solus wrote on Mar 17^th, 2021 at 2:17pm:


Close.  Yesterday's was from southernmost campsite on McIntyre and today's was from midlake campsite on Robinson.....

Oops...I stand corrected....I was thinking yesterday's POD was the spiderweb shot....that was day before yesterday....mercy....please.... 

And just so ya know, the pizza on Robinson was exquisite....almost as good as the.cigar and vodka/gatorade drink.... 

Yup Tom and you can be assured many a red pine log has been burned in that pit.  That sandy beach is definitely a perk, especially for Luna.  Now a naked dog can hardly complain about naked people, but yeah - better watching her run around and swim than a bunch of old fat dudes in their bday suits! 

pd

Nice pic to herald the start of spring 
In the 60's here today. Shaved my winter beard into my summer goatee. Ready for some shorts and Tees too. 

Jimbo wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2021 at 1:11pm:


Jimbo.  Yes.  Today's POD is that last portage through the blowdown area leading to Basswood and Kings Point.  As I recall, you loved the ordeal from Robinson that included the steep uphill climb/cliff wall from Nub to unnamed, the steep decline into Kett and then the two longish portages to get into Kings Point.  At the campsite, I asked what you thought of the trek...your reply was a silent stare, but if looks could kill....well....   

Long it is, but the stretch from the no-name to the descent into the swamp is one of the most beautiful bedrock trails in the park, rivaling that wonderful rock crossing between no-name and Earl on the southern route from McIntyre.

We're out of PODs as of 04/02/21. Just saying...

If not, I can reload reruns.
~db 

PK, go for it!  I'm enjoying your pics.

Of course, we'll have to rename the page.  Maybe, "The Pine Knot Picture of the Day."  Better yet, "Pine Knot: A Pictorial Autobiography... Sapling to Tree."  I'm sure I could come up with a few more possibilities....

Jimbo   

Any POD is better than NO POD! 
 
  I enjoy them all even if I've seen them before.

Jimbo wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2021 at 9:22pm:


Not bad Jimbo. 

The Circle of Life.

PJ, we're out of whiskey . . . and it's only Wednesday.

OMG!  There were leeches in the BWCA latrine!

Jimbo   

When you think NOT wearing underwear was a big mistake! 

Blair Witch Project.....in the BWCA

Love the throwback pic today db 

db wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2021 at 9:45pm:


Just a guess, but I don't think that moose was killed by a predator. The bones would have been scattered more at least that's the way deer I've seen killed by coyotes were.

  I'd wager it might have been wounded by a wolf pack and wandered off to die in the bush. Small critters ate the remains but they couldn't move the skeleton. Maybe died of natural causes as well.

Animals will go off to die in the thick bush because being prey animals their instinct is to hide if they can't flee.

I've come across deer carcasses killed by wolves with largely intact skeletons. I've also seen them scattered. Not sure why one or the other.

I ran into 2 couples at the BH portage who had got in late the night before and ended up camping in the parking lot.

  We all ended up at the water about the same time.
  They had never been on a week-long trip and never
  in the Q or Canada for that matter.

  When they saw me solo they asked if I would show them the best way to get down the Jean lk.

  I was headed that way as I often do so I showed them the route, marked some campsites because I knew they wouldn't make it in one day.

I laid out their map orientating it in the direction of travel. I also marked their route with N/S/E/W cross like I do my own maps for quick reference.

  The 2 gals seemed a little confused when I was talking you head East down Quetico then South to Jean?

  One of the husbands said they didn't understand compass directions, they only went by Right/Left! 

I said that only works if your going in the right direction. He laughed and said his wife was reading the map as they drove from Sault St Marie. The whole time she had it upside down.

Didn't matter much when they were driving along Superior but when they turned inland at Thunder Bay things got really interesting until they stopped and got the map orientated in the right direction.

The other guy wasn't saying much about the map reading. Turns out he was a Left/Right person as well.

Today's POD would do well in a classy black & white art gallery dedicated to the North Woods.  I really like this one!

Jimbo 

Immediately, I'm thinking Ansel Adams.  Very nice.

pd

That's a nice reflection shot!   

Love the smell of bacon and wet tennis shoes in the morning

The first thing that struck me about today's throwback
POD is that everyone is actually doing something instead of being mesmerized by their phone.

  This world could use more outdoor/family time like this.

I believe I recognize the intrepid QJ camper featured in today's POD.

Jimbo 

Poke Boat?

I own a poke boat.  They are a nylon fabric composite. Very light.

a poke

Is that a Johnson "Country Mile" and a Zebco 202?

Today's POD brought a big smile to my face!
The looks on their faces say it all. 

ST,

I've been noticing that hat in the last couple pics.  It occurred to me yesterday that I had seen it in the 1956 movie, Forbidden Planet.

Here's the style that caught on for a while at the time: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Jimbo   

solotripper wrote on Apr 19^th, 2021 at 1:38pm:



French Foreign Legion utility cap......

The style is known as the flat top utility cap.
  Over the years different militaries used that style.

  French Foreign Legion Kepi hat is probably the most famous hat of that type?

  Maybe the owner of that POD will set us straight?
 

solotripper wrote on Apr 19^th, 2021 at 3:31pm:


Sorry to be absent for QJ for some time.  Thankfully Spartan2 alerted me to the post.  Yes, the hats are from the MN National guard, my father was captain, artillery officer.  Not sure why the NG had hats small enough for us kids.  I'm the youngest in the photos.  Attached is a picture of the whole gang.  Those pictures are from back in the late 50s and early 60s when it was just "Canoe Country." and my father was on the Governors Committee that established Voyageur National Park.  I've been canoeing ever since, including a trip down the Churchill River, following Sig Olsen's route in the Lonely Land (a friend of our family); and our annual canoe trips to the BWCA/Quetico. 

Starwatcher

Those hats are awesome. I'm thinkin' db could use a hat like that....

It appears that this military hat was 1952 vintage.  Maybe that’s where Castro got it.

17. In 1952, The Army would adopt its olive green shade utility uniform, which would see use in the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Starwatcher

Great pic of DM! Which island was her summer cabin set up on? I think I've only got out and stomped around the one that everyone says was her boat house. Just curious.

It is funny that you mention the bacon rock.  When we were there we were clueless about it and I have always regretted not seeing it, (and photographing it), since it seems to be iconic.

This photo was taken in '74, on our third canoe trip.  I was suffering from two limiting factors:  a pulled muscle in my shoulder causing muscle spasms in my upper back and neck, and also the very small amount of film (you do remember film, right?) that I had along with me.  Also, we knew that Dorothy was "famous" and that we were in the presence of someone special, so we sort of clammed up and didn't really talk to her much.  We looked for the fence of canoe paddles that were given to her by groups, and found the one from Camp Easton, which was where Spartan1 was introduced to canoe tripping in the summers of '65 and '67.  And I didn't even take a picture of that!!   We bought root beers, sat in the drizzle (it was a six-day trip with five days of rain), and we signed her book before we left.

If I had been there a decade later, I would have had more confidence and would have spoken with her at some length, and asked her some of the questions that were in my mind.

We have taken both of our grandchildren to the Dorothy Molter Museum in Ely.  It is a very interesting experience for people of any age, IMHO.

And thanks, Karl, for the compliment on the Johnson Falls photo.  I learned after the fact that most people actually bathe in the pool under the falls, but we didn't do that.  We did hike up to the upper falls, and we enjoyed all of it very much.  I think we visited Johnson Falls twice, maybe three times.  But that photo is probably my favorite.  Although the upper falls is very different and also quite beautiful.

Jimbo wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2021 at 12:51pm:


  That island campsite on Walter Lk seems to be a spot the Hares like. I've seen them every time I've camped there.

  What struck me is that if you don't startle them they'll let you get pretty close. That whole "Art" the Hare thing just came out of nowhere. That was a very emotional moment for me. 2nd to finding that Brass Memorial plaque to a fellow paddler on that Sturgeon lake island campsite.

  I've looked for that exact campsite every time I've been in that area and for the life of me, I can't find it?

Is that a snowshoe hare?  We base camped on an island site on Kasakokwog and a hare with larger than normal rear legs/feet came out in the open when we were in camp. After a couple of days of wondering why he came out when we were around I deduced (could be wrong) that he used us for cover because the neighboring island had an active eagle nest and we provided some safety.

zski wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2021 at 4:34pm:


zski,

I am quite familiar with that active eagle nest.  I was there mid-September one year when parent eagles were STILL trying to kick a young bird out of the nest to get it to fly.  For several days we watched and listened to all the commotion.  It didn't seem like that young eagle was going anywhere anytime soon.  THEN, one day, when the parents were gone, I tossed a fish carcass on the rocks of the south shore of the northern island.  I did it to see if it would encourage the youngster to leave the roost to investigate. As you know, that eagle nest sits atop a tree near the north end of the southern island.  So, my "bait" was easily visible from their nest.

Well, I waited & waited, then went back to doing chores around our camp kitchen.  After a bit, I went back to take another look.  I could no longer spot the young bird in the nest.  So, I got a little closer to where I had placed the fish carcass... and it was gone.  A minute or so later, I spotted the eagle with the fish in its talons.  It made repeated attempts to haul that walleye (not a large one) up to its nest.  I probably watched three or four such attempts - each separated by a substantial "rest period" - before I finally decided to get back to what I was doing around camp.

I circled back about half-an-hour later.  The young eagle was back in its nest.  The fish carcass was nowhere to be seen.  I'll never know whether or not the bird got lucky.  However, I DO believe those parent eagles owe me a favor!

I would have to believe that any hare rearing its head on those islands during canoeing season would be a goner....

Jimbo   

I have always assumed that the ones I saw in the canoe country were snowshoe hares.  But since I have never been there in the winter to see them when they are white, I suppose I could be assuming with no basis for the assumption.  But the ones up north sure do have BIG FEET!!

Well ah larned a lot about them hares. That they are good swimmers too.
That's a great story Jimbo! 
It could be that the adult eagle I saw was one of the ones you helped out.
That campsite was nice, and had a great canoe garage.

Quote:


  Not only are they good swimmers, those big hind feet on both rabbits/hares are not just for hopping?

My Grandfather on my Mother's side was a Irish immigrant. He was the greens-keeper for a big golf course just outside Detroit in the late 20's-30's.

My Grandparents kept rabbits they used for food.
The rabbits ran around their compound like free range chickens.

The neighbor next store had hunting dogs, Beagles to be exact. He let them run wild and they often went after the rabbits and other wild animals that lived on the golf course grounds.

My Grandfather warned the guy many times, threatening to shoot his dogs if they killed his rabbits.

One day won of his beagles came into the yard and went after a big male rabbit. The rabbit couldn't get to a safe space so it jumped into the small farm pond to escape the beagle.

Beagle jumps in pond in hot pursuit. By then my Grandmother is screaming for my Grandfather to shoot the beagle but he only had a shotgun and was afraid he hit the rabbit too! 

By then the neighbor had come over threatening my
Grandfather IF he shot his precious hunting dog.

Well things changed dramatically when that rabbit turned on that beagle, grabbed the dog with his front paws and using those big hind feet, DISEMBOWELED that poor dog in a few seconds.

  The beagles owner stood there in stunned silence!  They fished the dog out of pond and that was the last time those hunting dogs EVER ran loose again.

  Don't mess with BUG'S 

 

That's a heckuva story, ST!  Perhaps a good-sized hare might have a chance against an eagle... though I kind of doubt it.

Thirty years ago my father-in-law, recently widowed, drove his super-van up into snow-covered Alaska in the Springtime.  It was a kind of self-reflective, get-away-from-it all trip. One bright morning, he pulled his van to the side of the lonely county highway to videotape a red fox pouncing into deep snow, apparently going after a vole or some other varmint.  When you watch his film footage, you're following the antics of this bright red fox against the pure white snow when suddenly a large dark shadow appears beside the fox.  In the very next moment, a huge eagle swoops out of the clear blue sky, grabs the fox with both sets of talons, carries him ever upward.  The fox is fighting like hell.  My father-in-law tries to film the ascent and struggle but can only capture so much from the driver's side of the van before the view is cut off by the top of the passenger side window.  The camera is still running.  He considers jumping out of the van to regain the picture but, before he can, the fox suddenly comes back into view, plummeting like a red bomb, into a deep patch of snow.  My father-in-law once again trains the camera on the fox.  Now the critter is off to the races, a banshee bolting for the cover of the woods.  The eagle makes one more swoop but misses.  The fox narrowly escapes having a very bad day by diving into the brush.

It's a heckuva video.  Hares, fox, and similarly-sized animals up in that wilderness will do well when they keep one eye skyward much of the time.

Me?  As tough as he might be, I don't think I would want to be in a hare's snowshoe's when Mr. Eagle shows up.

Jimbo   

ST,

It remains one of my great hopes that we can make that campfire happen some year soon.  I know a bunch of folks on this forum who would make time to join such a rendezvous.

Given my imminent relocation south to the swamps of Florida, my next several months are pretty much spoken for.  That and with the border closed, pretty much all I will be able to do is "think" about Canadian campfires.  Beginning in 2022, however, I should be able to do something about it.

We may be getting old and rickety but most of us have at least a few good years of wilderness canoe travel left.  If we bring enough Geritol, stool softener, oatmeal, and Prevagen, we should be able to get by.

Later,

Jimbo   

@ Westwood and the rest of you bunny lovers- hares are born with fur (hair) and rabbits not.  Besides the physical differences, one of the main differentiators is that rabbits are born with eyes closed and usually in a nest/den, while hares are born with eyes open and basically ready to go.

On one trip to Q with some Scouts, we were camped on Sunday Lake and found a nest of baby bunnies in the long grass near the canoe landing.  We observed briefly, took some pics and then left them be undisturbed.  No doubt mama bunny was close by.

pd

[quote author=Spartan2 link=1615395723/83#83 date=1619042067]It is funny that you mention the bacon rock.  When we were there we were clueless about it and I have always regretted not seeing it, (and photographing it), since it seems to be iconic.

Enclosed is my photo of banded iron formation from another location. Maybe you can see why they call it bacon rock.

Starwatcher

oops, sorry, I didn't mean to hi-jack the tread.  Yes, nice misty morning POD shot.  My favorite on those late autumn days.

starwatcher

I don't think the Kingfisher's dog is feeling it in that picture. 

The first thing I thought was THIS is why my Dry-Fly tarp is the first thing up and the last thing down. 

No big hare-y deal Westwood!    I find it more interesting that they are born with their eyes open are ready to roll.  Mother Nature's way of tipping the survival odds in their favor.

pd

I've seen this view down Quetico Lake many times.
Still gets me primed at the start of a trip.

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 28^th, 2021 at 2:10pm:


  I think we will, the real issue will be if I'm still able to paddle down the lake before that happens?