The Crew

1. John - Dad Energy
2. Marissa - Trail Hippy
3. Kim - Tactical
4. Autumn - Admiral
5. Tim - Rope Master
6. Doug - Navy Seal

The Proletariat Paddle

Kim, Tim, and Doug

1. We are rowing, not paddling.
2. The people have declared that these are ores.
3. Pro canal
4. Beavers are bourgeois-Decadence
5. There is no planned strikes…. wink

Day -1 (August 19th, 2024): Haul your ass north

Our trip north was delayed. The original intent had been to get up to the hotel early and enjoy the sights along the way. But sadly in a post covid world we need to play it safe. Kim ended up getting covid and delayed his flight till the last possible minute 3 PM on Monday.

With the goal of getting our rental equipment between 7 and 9 PM, and a 4.5 to 5 hour drive in front of us, we were cutting it close. Luckily around 8:10 PM as the sun is setting around us we pull into the SawBill Outfitters.

They are very confused as to why we are there. But we managed to get our permit and our 3 canoes before backtracking 40 minutes to the resort. The Super Blue Full Moon lit our path along the gravel road.

Sadly by the time we settle down and realize we need some food the gas station has closed (10 PM).

We head to our rooms and try to get some sleep. We have an early morning ahead of us, and a long day.

Day 0: Back to SawBill

6 AM alarms start going off. Get the coffee brewing. Kim volunteers to drive to the gas station for eggs and sausage. Early breakfast, and start packing our frozen.

Driving north into Sawbill we start to accumulate a list of the things we have forgotten. (See below)

trip:

1. Sawbill Lake
2. 80 rod portage
3. Ada Creek
4. 80 rod portage
5. Ada Lake
6. 110(15) rod portage**
7. Skoop Lake
8. 180 rod portage
9. Cherokee Creek
10. Cherokee Lake

110 (15) Rod Portage**

** As we approached the portage to Skoop Lake we joked about taking the marsh up and around to avoid the long portage. As we approached the marsh we saw a beaver dam blocking us. But we couldn’t find the portage.

We backtracked and found something we believed to be the portage. The problem was there was only room for one canoe at a time. Tim and Doug got out and started the long hike. Marissa and I got out next. I got the canoe up onto my shoulders when Tim came running back to let us know that the trail ended about .2 miles down the trail.

So then we back paddled and went around the beaver dam. Biking through the marsh was really cool!

Cherokee Lake Campsites

We really wanted to camp on an island, we made plans to try for 1 of 3 island sites. Sadly all 3 were taken. so we made plans for a site on a peninsula. But as far as we could tell the site didn’t exist.

Luckily we made it to a site and were able to make camp before dark. However after dinner we tried to haul the food bags up into the air….. Turns out we have A LOT of food!

luckily we were able to make it work with three ropes and a large force of group pulling.

1. Tim had a sausage mug, and that is upsetting.
2. Doug double fisting meat.
3. That moon is beautiful

Day 1: Tims birthday

Today was Tim’s birthday. We wanted to make sure we didn’t forget, so we packed a 4 pack of cider and his birthday present.

Happy birthday Tim!

Team firewood made another great push to collect fresh firewood so Autumn could cook bacon for us! Bacon and Oatmeal made a great morning meal.

Canoe adventure

The afternoon was full of a canoe adventure. We took two canoes and headed south to the nearby islands. We watched some birds and enjoyed the lovely sights. At a certain point Tim, Kim and I all got off to explore a rock. While the other canoe went around an island.

The three of us went and explored a nearby bay, and found an unmarked campsite. On the other side of the campsite was a small lake, Sniff Lake. We soon left our little find and paddled out of the bay.

Sadly it turns out there was a miscommunication and the secondary canoe was very concerned about where we were. We ate lunch and agreed to communicate better on our adventures.

Tim and I consulted the map and determined that we thought we could get our canoes through to Sniff Lake with maybe just a short portage. We were correct!

Sniff lake was beautiful and sarine. We canoed out onto and saw a giant bird. possibly a turkey Vulture. We continued canoeing to the south side of Sniff Lake where we heard running water.

Tim and I left the canoe and followed the tiny water fall to a large marsh where a beaver dam was. We were able to hear the beaver growl angrily at us. We decided to leave the beaver to his home, and head back to ours.

Later that night Marissa and I decided to do a sunset canoe trip back to Sniff Lake. Sadly we didn’t see any animals. But it was worth a shot.

1. New anime: Tim vs Log
2. kim-dling (Log cutter)

Day 2: The day trip marsh bath

This trip is going by too quickly. We are already making plans for how we will leave. We have decided we want to make it a slightly longer trip that will allow us to see (what we assume are) some bluffs.

This morning we moved camp on Cherokee¹ to get closer to our portage into Town Lake. We simply got there, dropped our bags, and hung the bear bags.

Our trip today took us north to Gordon Lake. Which was a long and pretty canoe. At the end of Gordon Lake we took a 140 Rod portage across to Unload Lake. Marissa and I decided to double carry the canoe, she did a great job helping me!

At Unload Lake Marissa and I took point. I was pretty tired and believed that if we paddled up to the beaver dam we could easily cross it, rather than taking the 40 rod portage to Frost Lake.

Unload Lake was very marshy, and although the bottom looked very close. It wasn’t solid ground for about 4 feet. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that the canoes kept getting a little stuck on some plants. Marissa and I made it through and told people that It was a real 40/40 on if this was the right path.

Tim and Doug came behind us and got stuck in the same place we did. At that moment Tim and Doug stuck their paddles into the marsh and couldn’t hit bottom. This wouldn’t have been a problem except they both dug their paddles into the left and side of the canoe, tipping it!

Doug quickly saved the day packs as best he could. but there was nowhere to really stand. Tim found a floating island and pulled himself up. Doug maneuvered around the boat and found solid enough ground to stand on.

We had a short discussion on what we were going to do next. The plan was as follows:

1. Tim would paddle the sunken canoe to us.
2. Kim and autumn would swing by Doug and grab his packs.
3. They would then come to us and drop off the packs.
4. Autumn would then take the canoe back to rescue Doug.

someone this plan managed to go off without any problems. Doug and Tim had mud all over their faces and bodies, but were safe. Everyone was in as good of a mood as they could be as we pulled into Frost Lake for Lunch.

Frost Lake back to home.

We pulled into frost lake and stopped at the first campsite for lunch and a bath. This campsite was gorgeous and had a ton of GIANT trees. After our lunch 5 of us took the canoe out onto the Lake to visit the Sandy Beaches we had been told about.

The beach was amazing, both Marissa and I had never seen anything like it up here.

1. Crayfish
2. Snake Skin

We paddled out to a big rock and then headed back for Doug. The weather was taking a turn, some clouds were moving in and the wind was picking up. The way back was a lot of hard paddles in the wind. Doug and Tim decided that the 40 rod portage was better than going across the beaver dam again.

We got back into camp and set up tents and a rain fly. Just as some rain started. Luckily the rain stopped pretty quickly.

The next two days we are going to be long and hard.

Day 3: Muskrat closing time

Today was a quesadilla, tomorrow is gonna be an even bigger quesadilla. (See Quote #1).

At around 5 in the morning the rain started. But luckily it seems the gods were happy with us and it only rained for an hour and then sprinkled for a while longer.

Doug wasn’t feeling the greatest this morning, but some ibuprofen really helped.

The day consisted of small little lakes and medium length portages. We went the long way home so we could see the bluffs and they were absolutely beautiful!

Many of these portages were really hard, and I had to dig deep to keep going. Rowan kept coming to my mind as I crossed with a canoe on my head. I’m just so excited to hear him say “Daddy!” I haven’t mentioned it in the blog. But every night Marissa and I talk about Rowan and about how much we miss him. I love you sooo much buddy!

At the portage into Calm Lake we found some moose tracks. It was very clear that some moose had been there recently. There were a lot of wallows that the moose had clearly rolled around in.

We were able to make it to South Temperance Lake in a pretty good time. But had to stop because there was a very limited number of campsites on the next lakes.

That night over sunset we canoed back through a marshy area and saw lots of birds and 3 muskrats. One of the muskrats came very close to us. We think it must not have seen us, because after it got within 5 feet of us. It literally jumped a foot and dove under the water. If muskrats could talk we are certain it would say “Ohhh Fuck!”

When we got home afterwards, Marissa roasted her socks over the fire to try and dry them out.

Day 4: Run from the bear

Last night just after everyone got into their tents. I heard a pack being dragged on the ground. Initially I wasn’t sure, but several seconds later I heard it again. I yelled out to the other tents to ask if anyone wanted to help me scare it off. Tim answered the call of duty. I quickly threw on some clothes and grabbed my knife. As I got out of the tent I was startled by Tim who was already outside my tent. Tim, Marissa and I checked on all ours and later realized that the noise must have come from Doug’s tent.

The next morning Tim made fun of me for bringing a knife to a bear fight. He’s probably right it wouldn’t be useful, but it made me feel better. We are now referring to my knife as the bear knife.

The day started early again but this time everything was fogged over. I couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of our canoe. As we passed a campsite early in the morning there were two people fishing in the mist.

We made our way to the portage. It was 240 rods, and the river/marsh looked passable so we canoed up a way to see if we could go around it. Fairly shortly we came upon a beaver dam. Autumn ran ahead and determined that it was going to be too rocky so we turned back. In the end the 240 portage wasn’t that bad…. This is what we call foreshadowing.

The next couple of lakes were small and very marshy. Marissa found more moose tracks, but sadly no moose. At several of the lakes we had to cross some beaver dams to get to the portages. We found the best way to cross it was at RAMMING SPEED! We were able to get the front person onto the dam, and from there we could pull ourselves across. We were really glad we had alumacrafts so we didn’t need to worry about breaking them.

We had two back-to-back long skinny lakes before the end of the day. Between them was a 65 rod portage. But from looking at the map, it looked like there was a large amount of water around the portage. We took a look, there were two rocky dams and then a shallow part, but we thought it should be possible. Tim and Doug said “No Way”, and headed for the portage.

Once we got our boats to the shallow section we got out and walked with them. We had to pull them over some rocks, but it didn’t look too bad…. That was until we turned a corner and found an extremely shallow and extremely rocky section….. We soldiered on… Very loudly. In the end we had to carry our bags so we could try to pull the canoes across. At one point I had to lift a downed tree so the canoes could go under it. We saw at the bottom of the rocky shallow rapids a large pond. We knew if we could get it there we would be home-free…. Yeah, not so much, we had three more dams to run and pull the boat over. When finally we reached the Lake I saw people staring at us. It was NOT Tim and Doug. That’s when I realized that right next to the portage and section we crossed was a beaver dam. It was 11 in the morning and we had absolutely destroyed these people’s serenity. We gave an ashamed hand wave and left as quickly as possible.

Tim and Doug for their part, knowing they had done the right thing, and we had not….. Took every opportunity to rub it in and talk about how nice the portage was, how beautiful it was, and how the sounds of us struggling made the 65 rods just speed right by. All that said, it was a great and memorable experience.

That however was not the end of the day. At a minimum we wanted to get to Burnt Lake, but smoke would be even better. But on our first day the permit office had told us that they were two VERY popular lakes for walleye fishing so it might be hard to get a campsite. Because of that warning we created a plan where if we found a campsite on burnt one canoe would stay there. One canoe would stay at the portage and finally One canoe (Kim and Autumn) would forge ahead to look for a campsite in smoke….. The first campsite they came to was open.

The campsite was huge! it had great places for our bear bags, the people before us had left firewood. It was amazing. The one problem we had with it…. It was close to the last portage, and on that portage we found fresh bear poop and some bear paw prints. We decided we needed to be extra careful with our food tonight. We found some very tall trees but were struggling to hit the branches we needed. Doug however hit them both in less than 3 tries. Were pretty certain in order to obtain the ability to throw the rope so well he had to give himself to the swamp to become a navy seal.

After everyone settled in, Marissa started dinner and tried to rehydrate. After dinner we had some time to rest so I took a nap in my hammock. I knew that it had a small hole in it, and as I got in I tried to position myself carefully so the hole wouldn’t get weighted. I failed slightly and the hole ripped a little extra, but I was able to completely fall asleep there for an hour. I woke up because dessert was ready. So I slowly started to turn myself so I could get off…. Then suddenly there was a RIP and nothing below me. I Ianded on the ground and did a backwards somersault but was safe and unhurt.

That night we roasted marshmallows over the fire and talked and joked. We then started looking at the stars. The last couple of nights our stargazing was ruined by the early moon-rise. But tonight it was clear and the moon stayed down enough that we could see a ton of stars. In the pitch dark we took out two canoes and paddled into the middle of the lake to look at the stars. I was very happy to see the milky way because it had been several years since I had seen it. A great way to spend it our final night.

Forgotten heros ( You will always be forgotten )

1. Tims hammock straps.
2. frozen bagels.
3. frozen Pita.
4. Aluminum Foil
5. Sanity
6. Walky Talkies

Redemtion Story

1. Dougs rain coat was left behind TWICE, but in the end it made it.

Designated Herotic strikes again

1. Everyone had agreed to not bring their chairs. But when I (Jonn) was packing I packed our chairs anyways.

Quotes

1. “That’s a lot” - Rowan after eating an entire quesadilla. The group has begun saying this A LOT.
2. “Are there Gators there?” - Someone’s parents
3. “Trees are just long grass” - Tim
4. “Ohh wow look at all these beautiful meadows” - Autumn (while looking at the forest of trees (long grass))
5. “Thunder dome/box” and “Lighting box” - The toilet.
6. “Kim, did you camp as a child?” “…. Do you count a refugee camp?”
7. “Lake bidet is not best bidet, but lake bidet is good”
8. “We’re all fat bearded comrades in the woods” -Doug
9. “Its muskrat closing time, they’re clocking out and becoming regular rats” - Marissa
10. “Does anybody want to lick peanut butter off my spoon” - Autumn
11. “My lifty arms no more lift.” - John
12. “If you cant love me at my swamp Doug, you cant have me at my best Doug” - Marissa
13. “Where is the lake narrows sign? Why don’t we have road widens signs?” - someone
14. “What the hell is Top The Tater?” - NY faction