Canoe Camping in Canada

[Michael]

Just got back from a awesome canoe camping trip with Jon and family in Canada.

They picked me up in Chicago and we spent the night at Aunt Jeans. The next day we drove on to Uncle Dave and Aunt Pat's place in Nestor Falls. The next day we canoed in from Pinus lake up through Wigwam lakes and on to Kishkutena Lake. We camped on a little Island on Kishkutena that Uncle Dave and Aunt Pat had camped at before. We caught a bunch of small mouth bass on and around that island. We also did pretty well at hooking some muskies and bass by trolling around the island in the area. The muskies were so big that they were hard to tell from the bottom of lake. We caught plenty of fish so we didn't go hungry. For breakfast we had oatmeal with fresh blueberries. The mosquitoes weren't too bad but Jon and I both picked up a couple leeches. We camped at Kish for a few days and then paddled out to Wigwam where we camped at a little island that was full of mice.

On the last day we hung out with Uncle Dave and Aunt Pat at their place in Nestor Falls. Uncle Dave took us out fishing for Walleyes and we caught out limit.

It was great to see Uncle Dave, Aunt Pat and Aunt Jean. It was also great to hang out with Jon and Carrie and the nephs.

You can check out all the pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mikebabkk/C ... oeTrip2009#
:HG:

[rusty]

Wow, looks like it was an amazing trip. I am sooo jell-ous! It looks like some of those walleyes would have made good bait for the Muskies.

[Jon]

Don't know about the walleyes but Mike pulled a large muskie up to the canoe only to have it spit out an 8-inch smallmouth bass that was hooked.

We want to go next year again. Maybe push a bit further back in. Anyone interested?

Mike and I did some exploratory stuff that was a blast (see yellow line on map to Carver lake) Need to do more of it next year!

[Katie]

I am definately keen to come! This looks like the ultimate trip.

What time of year do you go? I will be finishing up at Uni in California mid June... And I don't have to be back in Aus for my next semester until mid July.

So I have around a month in between June and July '10. Is this a good time? If not- I'd really like to do another cool trip somewhere if anyone knows somewhere cool to go. :thumbright:

[Chris]

Ada and I are tossing our hats into the lake too... keep us in the loop while planning the next trip.

Have canoe, will travel.

[Michael]

I think that portage to Kay Lake is doable. :HG:

[Jon]

Sounds like we need to plan a trip for 2010! I agree with you Mike. The Kay lake portage seems very do-able (at least from 50 miles up). I am thinking that a 7 day trip with a couple days on each end for getting there and back would be awesome! I am going to block off my calendar right now to hold June 28-July 11. The later we go the better as there will be fewer and less aggressive bugs. Having said that however I am very flexible and the trip can be set up for any time within Katie's window of opportunity. For those who might fly in we can pick up at O'hare or some other central airport. indy's obviously a good bet if you are not as pressed for time. Gear won't be a problem. Katie, when you get some fixed dates let us know and we will get it all laid out.

[Katie]

i have attached my academic calendar for next year. i will be at either san fransisco, san diego or sonoma and will find out exactly which one in a couple weeks. is this enough to work with? how cool!