Fall Grouse Hunt

Sam sneaking up on the grouse - you can just make two of them out on the road ahead of him.

Bam!  First grouse. Birds were skittish this far into the season, and they scattered into the woods.  One popped its head out, and Sam didn't hesitate.

Three more on the last morning - Sam let me shoot one...

Beautiful morning

Fun weekend with Sam!

Lees Ferry, Arizona

 

Our Area of Operations




Mark watching Andy like a hawk.




So happy to be on the way - everything's bright and sunny...




Here we are just about to leave the "no wake" zone.  Unfortunately the entire river was a no wake zone as far as our boat was concerned.




If you look closely you can see us moving backward.

 




What a way to wake up.




0% chance of rain = more room for Dave and Pete






Three in a row (four including me).  We slaughtered them in this hole.




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I swear that Pete caught fish too - he just wasn't hanging around someone with a camera apparently.

Muskie Fishing - Hayward, WI

I was hoping to get away for a long weekend somewhere out West, but because of sports schedules and other constraints, we didn't have a lot of time.  I found a guide up in Hayward for a day of muskie fishing.  Sam's been dying to catch a muskie for two years and was super excited.  We headed up Saturday afternoon (3 hours) and had a nice evening in Hayward.  Sunday was bright and early to beat the heat, and we were out on the water with our guide, Bruce, by 7:30.

Fishing was tough (as is par for muskie fishing).  We worked hard from 7:30 to almost noon with only two follows.  I panicked on mine by stopping the retrieve (it looked like an alligator!), and Sam didn't see his.

We switched lakes and were down to our last hour of fishing when lighting struck for Sean.  He hauled in a nice 37-incher on a white bass lure! 

Sam was initially less than thrilled that his brother - who previously could have cared less about catching a muskie - caught the only one.  He rallied however, and ended up with a really nice smallmouth (some consolation).  We had a great day and will definitely be headed up again.

Memorial Day BWCA - Crocodile Lake

Headed up north for our annual Memorial Day sojourn into the wilderness.  In addition to me and the boys, we had my brother Ben, his two sons, and their dog, Millie.  Every year the minivan gets a little tighter, and we were somehow able to add the dog to the mix.  After a late start out of the cities (situation normal), we made a quick pit stop in Duluth at Grandma's house to pick up the second canoe and eventually made the Grand Marais Best Western sometime after 11. 

Day 1:  The Best Western actually has a pretty good breakfast buffet, so we loaded up there and made our usual stops in town: the Beaver House (very helpful), Holiday, Ranger Station for permit, and finally the coffee shop.  That's when the fun started...  You can reach Crocodile Lake via two entry points, East Bearskin and the Crocodile River.  Bearskin is the most established and right off the Gunflint Trail.  However it includes a steep portage, and given my recent ACL surgery Ben would be doing all the heavy lifting.  So we decided (firm consensus) to try the other route - longer paddle, but only one small portage.  Well, it's also more remote, and after travelling 30 miles of dirt road and several scouting hikes, we couldn't find it.  Score 1 for Wilderness.  No problem, I found a nice map shortcut back to the Trail, and we were soon on our way.  Well, the closer this shortcut got to the Trail, the more narrow and rustic it became, until we were eventually travelling what might have been just a snowmobile trail - in a Honda Odyssey.  We had to ford several small streams, and Ben was doing his part to hit every rock and boulder.  At one point I had to hop out and tuck a piece of the undercarriage back in its seat in order to stop the incessant scraping noise.  I opted not at that point to inform Ben about the separated molding behind the front tire.  Eventually we hit a stream that we couldn't cross and had to backtrack all the way out the way we came.  Score 2 for Wilderness.  So, 120 minutes into a 20 minute trip we pulled into the E. Bearskin camp ground and lake access point. 

I'm pretty sure this was all there when we started...

From there things started to look up: we made good time on the paddle, Millie was good in the canoe (a question mark at onset), and the portage only required a couple trips. Furthermore, we had Crocodile Lake all to ourselves!

We ended up taking the same campsite that Mark and I stayed at in February.  Remarkably (it was a couple weeks after fishing opener), no one had stayed at the campsite since.  At the very least, they didn't use the extra wood that Mark and I had left. 

Rain was in the forecast, so we proactively set up a little tarp city - wise move as it turned out.

After setting up camp, we headed out for a couple hours of fishing.  The rap on Crocodile is "a lot of walleyes, but no size".  This was fine with us, though I was starting to wonder about the size thing after my first fish.

No bigger than a rapala!

Day 2: 

Fishing Opener 2012

Caught a couple nice northerns at the outlet of Normandale Lake this morning.

RIP iPhone

My iPhone met an untimely demise while recording a river crossing during our walk on a nearby creek.

Winter BWCA - Crocodile Lake

I was not aware that the prospect of hang gliding would be popular enough to call out in the wilderness disclaimer message.

The portage wasn't long, but the first 30 rods were steep and tiring, especially since we'd just expended a bunch of energy following a trail to a shitter on an E. Bearskin campsite.  With all the snow, it looked like a portage!

The ice was slushy, so we set up camp on a point campsite.

I hauled in my ice fishing shelter, which provided nice relief the first day.  The tiny candle in the corner didn't emit much heat, but we were out of the wind.

Jugs cranking up the fire

It was too windy the second day for the shack, so we were back to building snow walls to cut down the wind.

Sean made a little Lego diarama to memorialize our trip