Kayaking the back country

[Mr Peat]

I'm by no means a thrill seeker. No white water for me. In fact, I paddle on still water most of the time.

Oh I understand. We paddled across Harlan County Dam when was was a teenager. We had to get the canoe back so I helped Pop canoe it in a nasty storm. It caused white caps and the waves was like 2 feet high. It was a pretty intense experience during a nasty T-storm that rolled through. That pretty much cured me of doing anything like white water rafting and what not.

The other thing that I always talked about was to canoe Lake Powell. Obviously not the whole thing. Just a nice section of it as when the water is lower, you find the Indian glyphs on the rock walls sometimes.

 

[blackfoot]

Well, I had bears on the brain when I picked my campsite. deep water all around and about a quarter mile to the nearest land. plus far away from othe campsites. The bear idea was probably silly. up there they don't give bears a second thought. the only ones you see are the ones stuffed inthe bait shops. but they are around. they won't come out to your campsite unless they have a reason to, so if you are careful with how you handle your food, I have decided not to worry about them. There are many good campsites in the quiet area. with the size of your group, I would look for one with a picnic table. On the west side not to deep in the woods so that the winds can keep the bugs away. sand rather than rock beach better for swimming and easier on your boat hull. for me, as far away from others as I can manage. Good luck, waiting with bated breath.

So you didn't see any bears? I was really hoping to see at least one. I would love to see a wolf but I know I won't. I would also like to see a moose, but I get the impression this is rare also.

Oh I understand. We paddled across Harlan County Dam when was was a teenager. We had to get the canoe back so I helped Pop canoe it in a nasty storm. It caused white caps and the waves was like 2 feet high. It was a pretty intense experience during a nasty T-storm that rolled through. That pretty much cured me of doing anything like white water rafting and what not.

The other thing that I always talked about was to canoe Lake Powell. Obviously not the whole thing. Just a nice section of it as when the water is lower, you find the Indian glyphs on the rock walls sometimes.

I had a friend as a teenager that was a huge influence on my life. He was an outdoorsman. He is the one that took me on my first day long canoe trip. He is also the one that got me into mountain biking and piqued my interest in backpacking. His wife and him moved to Texas when I was 17 and I haven't seen much of them since. He did fly back to be the best man in my wedding. He used to tell me about Lake Powell. He really enjoyed it there. I would love to travel out there and take a canoe trip on it myself.

 

[blackfoot]

Well, gentlemen, I am off. I am officially on vacation. See you when I get back.

 

[blackfoot]

Well, I am back! I know, it hasn't been the same without me. I have finally cought up on what I have missed here at B&B, so it is time to post about the trip.

We only saw one snake this time. Sadly, I saw no bears. However, someone I spoke to did see a couple earlier that morning. I could hear the wolves howling almost every night. It was awesome!

We got there at around 0700 in the morning. It was 37 degrees! Our friends hadn't packed anything very warm (God knows why) so we turned around and found a Walmart about 25 mile away in Ironwood, MI.

While there, I got an urge. I used to fish a lot. However, I never really like the taste of fish. After I got my first boat, I discovered what I truly loved was being on the water. So, I have not been fishing in about ten years. Suddenly, I wanted to go fishing. So, I bought a license and ran around buying some basics. Now, my uncle is an avid fisherman and taught me to be fairly picky about my gear. So,I bought a Shakespeare reel that was on sale. It wasn't anything real special, but decent. I prefer an Ugly Stick rod, but bought a Shakespeare imitation to save money. I have always had decent luck with Shakespeare products. I also bought some slip bobbers, hooks, weights and a spool of Spyder Wire monofiliment line. My friend said he had lures and things for me to use.

We returned to the boat ramp and loaded the boats and shoved off. Now, I had some difficulty in navigating because things did not look like they did on the map. Turns out, the water level is at one of the lowest most people remember ever seeing. So, groups of islands are one island. Once I figured this out, I was able to navigate better. We found the island we had hoped to camp on and found it empty, so we set up camp.

The first couple of days were not to eventful. I did find a guy camping on another island that was an avid paddler and worker for a company that was responsible for a paddling forum I used for research. He managed a retail store for them in Madison, WI. He was very nice and gave me some tips about the place. In fact, he pointed out the first bald eagle I saw to me. It was flying at a distance away, but was still fascinating. I have only seen a couple of eagle before, and they have always been at a distance.

Based on his advice, I got up at day break the next morning. I loaded my camera and fishing gear in my kayak and headed out. The first few days had yielded no fish and I found out no one was catching anything. This morning was the first I got up early and didn't fish from shore. I didn't catch anything. This was a few days into the trip, and we had planned on eating fish one day at least. However, they gave up hope of this and wanted to paddle to the truck to go back to Walmart for a couple of things. Thus was spent the afternoon. I also bought a Rapala floating F7. My friend only had three spoons.

Next morning, I got up and paddled out. 0830 hours and nothing. Then, something as great as fish. A bald eagle landed on a tree a little ahead of me. This was the second time I got to do this, but I was still excited. I drifted slowly towards the tree and took several photos. When I got too close, he flew away. He didn't go very far, however. He landed on another tree on a inlet. I followed him but didn't get close enough to run him off. I figured I had disturbed him enough. Then, I noticed he was looking at something other than me. It was a half dozen otters playing in the water. Several more photos were taken. Finally, I decided to back off. I backed up some and went back to fishing. Second cast and I had one! Nothing real big, but it was exciting. It was a pike. Now I don't like pike. Ugly scary fish they are, not to mention bony. I got him to the boat but wasn't sure what to do because at this point I realised I didn't have a net. He ended up getting off the hook. I caught a few more little guys, and then another pike. I actually got him onto the deck of my boat. He flipped really hard and popped the steel leader open a parted ways with me, taking my precious Rapala with him! I didn't have a stringer, either. I ended up using some paracord from my gear bag as a stringer. Even though I didn't have anything but some okay sized blue gill and perch, it was an incredible experience pulling in fish with otters playing a few yards off my port side and and eagle watching over my left shoulder.

The next day, I went back to Walmart. I bought three more lures, a small net, and a stringer. Next morning, I brought home some decent sized small mouth bass. I caught fish every morning and evening. Most were too small and I threw them back.

My wife and I would spend most of the afternoons paddling around on our own and return to camp for dinner. It got warmer and warmer as each day passed. I hadn't brought shorts because I didn't expect it to be warm at all. I ended up wearing my BDU's out fishing in the morning, return and eat breakfast and lay around camp until lunch time. Then change into my swimsuit and no shirt and paddle around all afternoon. I got back, changed into BDU's as it cooled off and ate dinner and watch the fire until bed time. It was darn near perfect. The loons were great, but noisy buggers. Dusk was especially noisy for the birds, but it just showed we were where we wanted to me, in the middle of no where in nature.

Last full day, same routine. It was evening time and I hadn't been catching anything worth keeping. I got a hit and the line went taut. It started racing around going in different directions and pulling my boat. He came back towards me, under the boat and the line snapped! He took my lure and leader. I was excited anyway. I went back to an F9 Rapala and caught some smaller bass. I went back to a semi-weedless spoon so that I could get into the weeds. Landed a decent pike on the first cast. A little while later, the moment of glory struck. Something hit, and hit hard! Again, I was being towed around. Again, it went under my boat. The tip of my rod bent up under the boat and I was leaning back trying not to roll and figure out how to release the drag or bale. Then, it went to the front of my kayak and jumped out of the water. It was the picture perfect scene of a huge Large-mouth Bass, hook perfectly placed, fish clear of the water and mouth wide open. That is a moment that is frozen in my mind. After about five minutes, or at least it seemed, I had a twenty inch large-mouth bass in my net. I literally let out a whoop of victory. I have never in my life pulled anything like that in and was an incredibly exciting experience.

Last morning there, I went back out at day break. I caught a small-mouth and a couple of pike, but nothing worth keeping. The funny thing is, the fish was delicious! I am definitely going to get back into fishing even though this trip may have ruined the experience for me since local fishing isn't anything like this.

My friend's wife moved here from Mexico when she was something like 11. The had a restaurant they loved in down town Chicago they wanted to stop at on the way home. I did not like this but didn't make a fuss. My truck is a little extra long being a extended cab with a full-size bed and grill guard. Plus, we had a bed full of gear and no way to secure it. We were able to park right in front of the place at about eleven at night, but had to parallel park to do so. That was a test of skill there. We couldn't see it real well. My friend saw someone suspicious who had been begging for change in the restaurant and he went out to make sure the guy didn't mess with the truck. While out there, there was another man hanging around. We live in a smaller community, but are not naive. This man, however, was legitimately nice and helped Larry deal with the pan-handler. So Larry asked if he would keep an eye on our truck for us while we ate for five bucks. The man did and was very nice. We still kept an eye out, but it was peace of mind. He even held the doors for us when we left. I was amused by the experience. We left the wilderness and entered an urban jungle. There were so many prostitutes, crack-heads, pan-handlers, and people talking to themselves, I felt like I was at work. We even saw a man at an intersection going from vehicle to vehicle offering to sell crack, openly displaying it. A police car was the first car at the light, even! It was quite an experience. But, the food at the restaurant was delicious.

Well, that was quite a long post and I apologise. If you read through that whole thing, thanks. It was a great trip and we loved this place loads more than the place in Kentucky. I will post some pictures later.

 

[Gruder]

That was a joy to read, Blake. Thanks. Gonna' have to add this to my to-visit list!

 

[blackfoot]

That was a joy to read, Blake. Thanks. Gonna' have to add this to my to-visit list!

My advise to anyone who wants serene nature, go when it is cooler or stay in the quiet zone. The rest of the place did have several recreational boats. That was one advantage of the water level being down, boats didn't dare go fast in most of the places we went.

Forgot to say thanks, Gruder.

 

[Gruder]

My advise to anyone who wants serene nature, go when it is cooler or stay in the quiet zone. The rest of the place did have several recreational boats. That was one advantage of the water level being down, boats didn't dare go fast in most of the places we went.

Forgot to say thanks, Gruder.

Next stop, backcountry permit on the shore of Lake Yellowstone. Fewer boats, more elk and bison.

 

[blackfoot]

Next stop, backcountry permit on the shore of Lake Yellowstone. Fewer boats, more elk and bison.

I would love to do that. It will be a while before I can afford it though. I actually am still hoping to go to the Boundary Waters this coming Spring or Fall.

On this trip, my wife said she would like to do a river trip. I told her that would be fun. Since there wouldn't be a base camp, the luxury items would be left behind, significantly reducing our load. I am thinking about doing a two or three day trip as a trial run. It isn't a lot different, but is different none-the-less. I have no idea where to go yet, but will look into it.

 

[gollum83]

My advise to anyone who wants serene nature, go when it is cooler or stay in the quiet zone. The rest of the place did have several recreational boats. That was one advantage of the water level being down, boats didn't dare go fast in most of the places we went.

Forgot to say thanks, Gruder.

Sounded like you had a nice time. And no poisonous man-eating snakes.

I may have to check this place out.

Next stop, backcountry permit on the shore of Lake Yellowstone. Fewer boats, more elk and bison.

Oh he doesn't have to go that far. Isle Royale is way more secluded. I've never done it, but you can kayak around the shoreline of the whole park.

Or there's the Boundary Waters over toward the Arrowhead of Minnesota.

 

[skklog]

I just found this tread , O MY GOD!!

 

[blackfoot]

Sounded like you had a nice time. And no poisonous man-eating snakes.

I may have to check this place out.



Oh he doesn't have to go that far. Isle Royale is way more secluded. I've never done it, but you can kayak around the shoreline of the whole park.

Or there's the Boundary Waters over toward the Arrowhead of Minnesota.

I thought about Isle Royale, but sea kayaking is a completely, and more dangerous, creature entirely. It isn't the difficulty, per se but the different skills and equipment that it takes.

 

[gollum83]

I just found this tread , O MY GOD!!

Did you get lost on your way over here?

 

[gollum83]

I thought about Isle Royale, but sea kayaking is a completely, and more dangerous, creature entirely. It isn't the difficulty, per se but the different skills and equipment that it takes.

Wait, so I've seen you talk about possibly considering maybe trying sea kayaking but then you post this?

 

[Gruder]

Wait, so I've seen you talk about possibly considering maybe trying sea kayaking but then you post this?

Quick Blake -- blame the wife.

 

[blackfoot]

Wait, so I've seen you talk about possibly considering maybe trying sea kayaking but then you post this?

I was thinking I would, but I am beginning to believe I would need different boats to do so. I am not ruling it out forever, just putting it away as a future to-do.

 

[gollum83]

Quick Blake -- blame the wife.

Blame the wife? I'll buy that.

 

[blackfoot]

Quick Blake -- blame the wife.

 

[skklog]

Blame the wife? I'll buy that.

And it's probably true.

 

[blackfoot]

And it's probably true.

It is our best stand-by excuse. If you don't believe it, then they may not believe it next time you use the excuse.

 

[MotoMike]

Well, I am back! .

Blake
Glad you had a good time. it is a great place, no doubt about it. I look forward to your photos. I have toyed with the idea of getting back up there before it gets too cold.