Quetico May 2013

Annual Memorial Day weekend trip with Uncle Ben, Aidan, and Owen.  This year we decided to go into the Quetico, so we left a day earlier than normal to give enough time.  Got out of the Cities about 7, stopped by Grandma Miriam's a little about 10 to pick up the second canoe, and reached Grand Marais a little after midnight.  Settled into our hotel room and immediately fell asleep.

Got to Tuscarora Outfitters about 10 the next morning and got our gear all put together. I arranged for a tow to Hook Island (just inside the Quetico), which saved about 4 hours of paddling each way.  Money well spent!

 

Ready for the tow to Hook Island

The ride was a little chilly

I had forgotten our passports at home and was a little anxious about the border crossing. I had our Remote Area Border Crossing pass, which is technically all you should need, but was still a little apprehensive. It was all for naught as the ranger station wasn't officially open yet!  The crew tasked with opening the station for the season was just leaving and got picked up by a float plane while we were there.  We checked in using the off season permit and were on our way. 

Cache Bay Ranger Station

 

We were on some big water in Saganaga and Cache Bay, so it was good that the weather was nice and wind low.  We found our way to the portage to Saganagons, a 130-rod, rocky, up-and-down affair that parallels Silver Falls.  Sue at Tuscarora had recommended we stay in a series of islands in the NW corner of the lake, so we headed for that.  There's a long peninsula that juts out along the lake, and thankfully there was a short 58-rod portage that serves as a shortcut.  We took that and were a short paddle from our site.  We checked a couple out and settled on the middle island.  Decent site with nice tent pads.

Sean got the first fish - a northern off the campsite

It was after 5 by the time we got there, so there was little time for fishing after setting up camp.  We did get out for about an hour though.  Sean caught the first fish (northern) from shore and then almost immediately a nice smallmouth out in the canoe.  That was all for us that night, but Uncle Ben, Aidan, and Owen each caught really nice walleyes.  The lucky lure was this blue translucent rapala that Ben had - it killed the fish all weekend.  We were in high spirits!

Ben and Aidan's large walleye

Nice fish!

Walleye alley

Owen got a nice one rounding the corner into camp

Friday was a gorgeous day, almost too gorgeous!  The sun bore down on us all day, and we all got a bit red.  Breakfast of bacon and eggs then more fishing.  Sam got on board with a northern and a walleye.  Sean caught another northern or two and a smallmouth.  Lunch at camp and more fishing in the afternoon.  We continued to catch fish but not at the pace we did the first night.  Mostly trolling along the islands near our site.  We ended up with 3 walleyes and Sean's smallmouth - nice bit of meat for a fish fry!  Black beans and rice were the perfect complement!  Smores after dinner and nice campfire.  We were all tired.

Aidan sacking out

Wonder where he gets that from...

Nice island campsite

The boys and Friday's dinner



Sean's hungry for sushi!

Got up early Saturday morning at about 5:15.  Sean wasn't interested in getting up though, so Sam and I got out on the lake for a few hours.  It was a beautiful morning, and the lake was calm.  We headed up to the narrows leading to the Falls Chain where I caught a smallmouth (finally a fish - it was to be my only one :() and Sam caught a nice walleye and northern.  Got back to camp around 8 and twisted up some pancakes and Spam.  Took a little break and were back out fishing.  It was overcast most of the day and a little chilly when the wind kicked up.  We added one more walleye and had another fish fry that night.  Added some spaghetti for extra carbs.

Ben and Aidan staying warm

Worse than the kids...

Sam and Aidan out for a troll

Sam on Crap Island

I woke up at 6 Sunday morning and tried to persuade Sean to go out with me.  He had been asking to just go with the two of us, but again he wasn't interested!  We ended up having a leisurely breakfast and breaking down camp to start our journey back at about 11. 

Sam picked up a hitch hiker!

Justin Bieber joined us for much of the trip!

Skipping stones was a popular activity throughout the trip

 

We kept the rods strung up with the idea of trolling along Saganagons back to the big portage.  Owen caught a couple lakers - one nice one - that they kept, so Aidan had to run them across the portage to Saganaga.  Chorus of Fishrunner and "Runs with Fishes".  Funny!   

 

The couple campsites in the bay to Silver Falls were horrible, so we decided to push on to Cache Bay and the island site there.  Thankfully it was open.  Beautiful site - big pines, open undergrowth, nice fire pit, etc.  We set up for the night and had some jambalaya and Owen's lake trout - couldn't finish it all!

 

Sean relaxing in cool tree on Cache Island site

Owen and his lake trout

Up and out by 8 to meet our tow at 9.  We were glad we covered the extra 45 minutes the night before and only had a relatively short paddle in the morning.  We saw the tow boats coming in just as we reached Hook.  It felt great to speed along at 25 mph back to the landing site!  Showers were out at Tuscarora, so we pushed on home after lunch at Trail Center.  Finally got home about 7:30.  Great trip!!