TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chippew

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sgatz
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TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chippew

Post by sgatz »

The characters:
Shawn (that’s me)
Steve (my dad)
Doug sr. (Steve’s brother/my uncle)
Doug jr. (Doug sr.’s son/my cousin)
Quincy (my nephew)
Tristan (Doug sr.’s nephew)

Prologue
Left Maryland on July 15. Dad (Steve) and I were in the GMC Jimmy with mom and my three girls in the Prius. It wouldn’t have been a drive even worth mentioning, but the heat was stuck in the “On” position and it was well over 90 degrees outside. I brought with me some flexible aluminum dryer duct piping, which I used as an air scoop. We put it out the rear window, rolled the window up on it so the opening would be held facing forward, and aimed the other end down by our feet. Keeping the windows rolled down helped a lot, but made conversing at a normal level impossible. Things went well until we ran into a heavy down pour, and the Jimmy turned into a sauna. We made it to my grandparent’s home on Lincoln Lake (central MI) and spent that week in there with my three and my sister’s three kids.

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The Hot Jimmy

July 22nd
My dad and I left Lincoln Lake at 10:00 est. Dad drove 200 mi down around the bottom of Lake Michigan and through Chicago. There was a strong thunderstorm passing through Chicago and the wind gusts were very strong and was pushing us all over the road. When dad got tired I took over the wheel and drove until we got to the Wisconsin line where we stopped at the welcome center rest stop. I tried to sleep but it was too hot and I couldn’t get comfortable in the reclined drivers seat. I opened the sunroof and finally slept. After an hour and a half… my alarm went off but I had to get a bit more sleep. An hour later we were back on the road…. About half way through WI Tristan called to say he had landed then Doug sr. called and said that they would be going right past MSP airport on their way from Salt Lake City UT. When we were about an hour from the airport Doug and I decided that it would save time and gas if they picked up Tristan and Quincy from the airport and we would meet on the north side of town. Quincy then texted us to tell us he had landed. Things were going quite well…. then just as we entered St Paul a guy in a truck pulled up beside us and told us our shock on the right side of our trailer was hanging down and almost dragging. We pulled over and sure enough, the shock had broken off (metal was sheared through) from the axel and was just hanging. The spring was operational and we had put only one canoe on that side, so we just bungeed the shock up so it wouldn’t rub. Doug sr. who had converted the old boat trailer into a canoe trailer would have to look at it.

We met up just north of MSP to rearranged riders and Doug looked at the broken shock. It needed to be fixed. Steve and Doug saw a place that did auto repairs and went to check if he could weld it, and the rest of the party found a salad bar & pizza buffet (thanks Doug Jr. for picking up the tab).
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About 30 minutes later, Steve and Doug joined the rest of us and had some food. The mechanic was able to weld it back together, but Doug was not sure it was a great weld job. Back on the road north. Just south of Duluth MN Doug called over the walkie talkie that the shock had broken again and was hanging down; the unreinforced weld had broken. Back to using the bungee cord. ☹
The trailer bounced and rattled the remaining hours north.

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Beautiful drive up Rt. 61

Around 7:30 until we reached the Grand Portage Casino Marina & RV Park. We drove down to the marina office and paid $15 for first tent $10 for 2nd and $10 for the third. Doug & Doug also got their MI fishing licenses for 3 days (Steve & I had gotten ours earlier in MI, Quincy declined, and Tristan didn’t require one). The lady in the office also gave us the name and number of an auto mechanic in town that might be able to fix the trailer, but that will have to wait for the return trip.
We set up our tents overlooking the marina and started going through all of the gear exchanging and sharing things as needed.
http://www.grandportage.com/marina.php 218-475-2476
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The nearly full moon rising above the marina.

Doug sr. and I stayed in camp while the rest of the party went back to get their last taste of “civilized food” and to make a few calls. There is NO PHONE RECEPTION at the campsite so they had to drive back to Grand Marque (off the Indian land and far enough from Canada as to not get “international charges”) to get US reception.

Wednesday, July 24
Up at 5:15 to break camp
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Sun rise

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Is that IR peeking through?

We were at the dock by 6:45.
I was parking and getting the last few things from the vehicle when Doug jr. came running up. “They don’t have Tristan on the boat roster, and the captain is saying things like: I wish people could get their stuff together!” So I hoofed it down to the dock with my laptop to show the captain his reservation. When I asked him what the problem was, he informed me that Tristan was NOT on his roster. I then reminded him (and any other employee that might be listening) about how after I had made Tristan’s reservation a captain had CALLED ME to clear up a mistake in the rest of the groups’ reservation. At this point an older man stepped up (who I believe to be the “other captain” and rattled off the details of Tristan’s reservation, and told him to look on the 2nd page. The captain turned to the 2nd page and said “Oh there it is…” When I went to pay him the $36 ($4/day NPS fee), he said that I owed him $72. Doug jr. told me that he had already paid the fee for himself, his dad, and Quincy, and that I needed to pay $108 for my self, my dad, and Tristan (once the “no Tristan on the roster got worked out”). So I reminded him that Doug jr. had paid $108 and we still owed him $108 for the rest of our crew. He said OK and took my money. I just wanted them to have the correct amount when they gave it to the NPS.
Before long we were loaded up and heading across the lake. It was a beautiful day and the ride was smooth. We brought two bags of freshly picked blueberries (we had picked 85 pounds three days before in MI). We ate one and gave the other to the captain and his mate to share.
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At Windigo we unloaded for the required ranger talk on the dock, took a quick group picture…
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Tristan - Quincy - Doug jr. - Doug sr. - Steve - Shawn

…and I hurried up to the ranger station on the hill to submit our planned itinerary. I was waiting for a couple when the ship’s horn blew. Ranger: “Well that’s not going to happen.” He was trying to help a couple who couldn’t figure out how long they were going to stay on the island or when they were going to get picked up. Finally he got to me, he typed in several mistakes, but had our route correct so for in the sake of time I just let it go. On the way back down to the boat I had to run in and take a pee. When I made it to the dock the two rangers and the captain along with several others were “waiting” for me. Thanks to Doug jr. for not letting them leave when the ranger came down and told the captain that he had finished checking everyone in. The ride to McCargoe Cove was beautiful, but uneventful so Doug jr. and I went down into the less noisy sitting area of the boat and had a nap. I think the Dramamine we took had something to do with it…

I woke a few minutes before we arrived at the opening to the Cove, but only had my I-phone to take a few quick pics as we entered.
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Looking back out from McCargoe into Superior

As soon as the boat was tied up, I hurried up the hill to find an empty shelter (#6). In the following minutes, no less then 6 people asked me if I was leaving or if they could share it with me. I told them that the other 5 members of my group were on their way up from the dock. McCargo was very busy with most of our boat getting off, and just as many hikers arriving shortly after.
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We settled into the shelter. I set up a tent inside to make sure no sneaky mosquitoes made a meal of me that night. It ended up being over-kill; the bugs just were not that bad.
Pic of inside shelter
We went down by the dock to get some water to filter. I was surprised at how many people were there dangling their filter tubes off the dock pumping away for minutes. There were also people wading out off the point to the left of the dock doing the same. I just filled up our two “dirty” gallon jugs, took them back to our shelter. We used two Sawyer Squeeze filters hung from the shelter that filtered the water into the two “clean” gallon jugs we had. After everyone had enough water, we refilled the filters so we would have some water waiting for us when we returned. We walked behind our shelter and onto the Minong trail. We hiked up to Minong Mine and had fun exploring. We found quite a few “green rocks” that were made of the corroded copper. And a few of the rounded, harder pounding stones used by the natives to smash the copper bearing rocks.
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How do we get to Minong Mine Doug?

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Copper carbonate in the mine

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Flooded end of mine

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Small bits of copper

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Mine filled with water...
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...makes a good home for frogs

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Steve found some yummy treats on the way back.
He teaches edible wild plants classes back in MD so he had quite the time pointing out the edible plants on our trip and explaining how they could be prepared. There were some plants that he didn’t “know” so he had us take pictures for later identification.

When we got back we decided to use the MI fishing licenses we had bought. Steve and Tristan went to the weeds across from the dock, Doug jr. and I went back up McCargo to the weedy cove we passed on the right on the way in. Steve caught a 24” pike and released it. Doug jr. and I had a few hits and “follow-ups” to the canoe, but didn’t land anything.
After fishing Steve and Quincy carried their canoe 0.3 mi down the trail before it got too dark to continue. They wanted to get a jump on the next day’s portage.

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Time for supper.
***While preparing for the trip I had read about “freezer bag” cooking and decided that I would try my own variation on a larger scale. I did this, because for meals, we split our group in two. So each group had its own meals to bring, carry and eat (we did share).
For all of our meals we heated one pot of water (about 4-6 qts at a time). Then we put the ingredients into a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner, add the needed water to the bag, mixed and place it back into the boiling pot of water. When done you serve it up (I ate my portion from the bag = nothing to wash).
The first night we had chicken flavored rice, mashed potatoes, and teriyaki noodles.
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We were all in bed by 10:30, but I stayed up to journal the day’s events.
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Steve gets an after supper snack.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Sorry to those who have slow internet, but I like pictures!
Days 2-9 coming...
(any posting recommendations are welcome)
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by MikeT »

Nice report and pictures! Looking forward to the rest.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by hooky »

There's no need to apologize as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by NancyT »

Great report so far, looking forward to the rest. We have Rafiki #2 here...
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by Lucky Chicken »

nice report! I look forward to the rest... the pictures just make me want to be there, and not want to be at work ;)
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Day 2
Thursday July 25th
Up at 6:30ish, heated up the same pot of water and put it into freezer bags which were holding: 1 cup of quick oats, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of powdered milk, some dried fruit. YUM! I also had some instant coffee that was premixed with flavored creamer. Some of us ate granola bars for breakfast.
In the shelter I saw this little spider that was eating "full" mosquitoes.
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Doug & Doug were first to get all packed up and under their canoe. Quincy joined them with his pack (his partner Steve was cleaning up the shelter and the surrounding area). Tristan and I were about 5-10 min. behind them. About 100 yds before the Chickenbone East /Chickenbone West trail spilt, Tristan and I met a group of teen girls that were coming from the direction of Chickenbone East. They asked us if the canoe ahead of us was part of our group. The girls told us that the people carrying the canoe were headed the wrong direction (toward CBE). I asked them what color was the canoe they were carrying, and they said: “Silver”. Well that was good news! Doug and Doug were carrying a blue canoe. Tristan and I took frequent breaks due to the way we were carrying our canoe, and this gave us a chance to see some wildlife.
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The small stream that flows from Chickenbone to McCargoe

Steve followed behind us with his pack. The trail between McCargoe and the trail split was quite muddy and tore up in spots. We tried not to walk on the edges and widen the trail, but after almost loosing a hiking sandal to the muck, I stayed out of the deep stuff.
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But when we got to the portage it was evident that Doug, Doug, and Quincy had gone the wrong way! And then I remembered that the blue canoe that they were shouldering had aluminum seats and supports on the inside. Well there was nothing we could do except head back to camp for our packs. We returned to shelter #6 and got our packs on. Mine was the heaviest in the group weighing in around 55-60 pounds (depending how much water I felt like carrying). Tristan’s felt like less then half that, with everyone else’s somewhere between. We also carried buckets that had water/air tight lids to keep some of our things in. I kept my “good camera” in my smaller “half bucket”, while Doug and Doug kept everything from fishing supplies to food in theirs.
The buckets might seem like a pain to carry, but they make great camp seats, and give you a place to sit/rest your pack while on the trail. Plus they are easy to tie into a canoe. We were not as concerned with weight, due to our canoeing a lot of the way.
Here is a link to the bucket lids:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gamma-Seal-Li ... B007KAY4S2

We were loading up our packs when Quincy showed up. They had indeed carried their (Doug & Doug) canoe to the east end of Chickenbone, and Quincy his pack. We were almost back to the split when we met the tired Doug and Doug on their way back to the shelter to get their packs. When they arrived at the far end they figured something was wrong, but didn’t realize that they had overlooked the <-P-> (portage marker) along the correct trail. I asked Doug jr. what he though the “P” stood for and he replied: “Parking???”. This became a running joke for the trip. Whenever we finished a paddle and saw the “P” on a post we would call out that we had found the parking spot!
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"Parking?"

Tristan and I carried our packs to the portage, with Steve and Quincy carrying their canoe. I dropped my bags off and went back to see if Doug and Doug needed any help with their supplies. I met them just at the trail junction and carried their 7 gal. bucket to the parking…. ahem… I mean portage onto CB. Doug jr. unfortunately had forgotten the padded belt for his pack back at Grand Portage, so he had to carry all of his pack weight on his shoulders (not his hips). Steve and Quincy had loaded up their stuff, including my pack and already were crossing CB. This allowed Tristan and I to take one of the Doug’s packs and their buckets with us. I told them that Steve should be dropping things off at CB west camp, and would be back to get them soon. The portage was only 0.95 mi from the dock and 0.45 mi from the trail junction. This confused me because according to everything I had read, the portage was 1.2 mi. After paddling out from the swampy end of CB, which included forcing our way through the weeds to get around a mostly submerged log, I saw the “old” 1.2 mi. portage launch place.
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As Tristan and I entered the main part of CB (out of the swampy end) we had a small cloud of flies buzzing around us, but they just seemed content to buzz around and land on our hats. They were not biting! :)
Soon we saw that Steve and Quincy had not headed over to the campsite, but were fishing and still on the north end of the lake. Annoyed, I yelled over that Doug and Doug were waiting at the portage and expected him (Steve) to be back soon to get them. Steve replied that he had already caught 3 medium pike and was enjoying fishing. I yelled back over that they were just “stories” and he didn’t have any proof. Quincy was quiet on the matter and was not interested in fishing so he just continued to be Steve’s “trolling motor” for a bit longer until we had passed them and Steve had caught another pike. To which he proudly displayed for all to see. I pulled out my camera and took this pic telling him: “See, this is how you show everyone that you really caught fish…not by telling STORIES!”
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I told Quincy to ignore my dad and to get the stuff over to the campsite.
Tristan and I made it to site #6 with Steve and Quincy right behind us. I quickly unloaded our canoe and mumbled that I guess that I would have to go back to get Doug and Doug and that they needed to set up the tents. I had a hard time paddling against the northeast wind in the aluminum canoe (that didn’t have a keel). It took me almost 25 minutes to get back to the north end of the lake. Just after I had forced my way though the thick weeds around the big log blocking the way, I saw Doug and Doug. They had begun to wonder if anyone was coming back to get them and had just started walking down the trail. I called them back to the portage where we put the last pack down in the canoe and had Doug sr. sit on the floor with his back against it. Doug jr. and I didn’t have much of a problem going south with the wind, but when we turned the corner and headed to the other end (where they had dropped their canoe and Quincy’s pack), well that was another matter. Doug sr. tried to help pull his weight in the canoe, but couldn’t paddle effectively from his seated position. More then and hour after I had left the CB west camp we found their canoe. The rest of the way to the camp Doug and Doug towed me while I fished the south edge of the lake. I caught this 24” pike on a spinner the way.
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0.7 miles before camp noticed the parking … ahem… portage post that started the 0.2 mi. trail to Lake Livermore. Just after the parking … ahem… portage, there were several large old pines on the edge of the lake. A bald eagle flew from one as we came towards it, and soared down and past the CB west camp. I didn’t go back out fishing (I had enough paddling for that day), but Steve and Tristan went out after camp was all set up. Steve caught several nice pike and a good-sized walleye (all on a dardevil spoon). Tristan caught several pike using a folding & telescoping rod that Doug had brought. He had gotten bored and was just jigging his spoon in about 10” of water. This attracted two small pike that they could see from the boat. Suddenly a large pike came out of the weeds and took the spoon! Tristan reeled it in, but just as Steve grabbed the net, the line went slack. Steve told Tristan to keep reeling (thinking that Tristan had accidentally pressed the cast button). But when he looked up, Tristan was just sitting there, looking dumbfounded, with only the 3” handle of the rod in his hands! The “monster” had broken it off and took the rod and reel back into Chickenbone with him! Steve quickly cast out his own line and tried to hook Tristan’s pole or line, but it was gone. They came back to camp and told their story, which of course led to the rest of the party retelling the story: Doug jr: “IT WAS SIX FEET LONG!!!! AND THAT WAS ONLY THE PART WE GOT OUT OF THE WATER!!!” Shawn: “YES!!! AND THAT SIX FEET WAS ONLY DOWN TO THE MONSTER”S GILLS!!!”
We had quite a bit of fun with their story, but “agreed” in the end that Steve and Tristan had stepped on the pole, broke it and just dumped the “evidence” overboard. That is what the ranger told us at Windigo… “Leave no EVIDENCE”… right Tristan???
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Tristan with a net full of supper.

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Steve's Walleye

This would not be the only “The big one that got away” story on this trip, but that is for a later day…
Doug jr. and I went for a swim out in deeper water (too keep away from the leeches).
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Doug sr. expertly fried the fish so we had a great dinner with some 4 cheese mashed potatoes.
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We shared CB west with several others. There was a group at site #3. We had some extra fish so I went to offer some. As I walked up the short side trail to their site, I saw a young teen boy with his back to me. I said “Hi” but when he didn’t turn around I realized that he was spreading liquid fertilizer on the bushes at the edge of the clearing… I quickly offered the fish and made a hasty retreat when they declined. AKWARD! I then went down to camp #2 where I met a father and son from central WI that were nearing the end of their week-long trip on the island. It was their first (but not last) trip to IR. They had just finished 2 bags of Mountain House and were quite full.
When asked at the end of our trip, several in our party mentioned this site as being one of their favorites. I think it was because they got to rest after the “extra long portage”. There were several red squirrels that seemed to be the camp hosts.
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The let us know that we were the visitors, and that they would appreciate it when we packed up and moved out. Doug jr. seemed to draw a lot of their chattering. After supper was cleaned up I treated myself to a hot cup of coco after fishing out the kamikaze mosquitoes that had plunged to the death into my hot water.
It started to sprinkle so we turned in. I finished journaling at 11:30 and turned off my light.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by NancyT »

One day trip reports every four days is gonna torture me....
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by Tampico »

Wow. You guys travel with a LOT of stuff!

Thanks for the report. I'm looking forward to more.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Sorry Nancy, I had to catch up on stuff around here, and we were down on the beach (Assateague Island National Park) this weekend. Caught some rays, whiting, and a dusky shark. I will try to post the rest ASAP! :wink:
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by NancyT »

Shawn, I completely understand. It's a tough transition back into "real" life.
Meanwhile....tapping fingers on table waiting...
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Day 3
Friday 7/26

Up at 8:00.
A stiff wind was blowing down Chickenbone (from the east) so we looked at the map. We had two options: 1. Continue with our previous plan of portaging to Livermore then to LaSage, and finally to Richie. 2. Carry the canoes from Chickenbone on the trail to LaSage, skipping the headwind on Chickenbone, and going past Livermore altogether. We decided to carry our packs and buckets on the option #2; it would save us loading & unloading the gear twice, and would let us check out the trail. The first 0.25 mile of the trail leaving Chickenbone up to the top of the Greenstone ridge (trail junction) helped us make our decision. As we rested at the trail junction we decided there was no way we were going to carry the canoes up that steep path.

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Doug and Doug resting - Doug jr. had pulled a small muscle in his foot while getting out of the canoe after fishing at McCargoe and was "feeling it".

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Steve and Quincy at the Greenstone-Chickenbone E/W trail junction


We would have to put three or four persons per canoe, but the path was narrow and had several switchbacks. There were tight corners that the canoes just couldn’t fit around without one person going off the trail, and with the small trees and bushes growing thickly on the sides…it just wasn’t worth it. We walked down the other side of the Greenstone and across several long boardwalks. Several places had trees growing right beside it and reinforced our decision not to take the canoes on this trail.

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Doug sr. and his heavy load on a boardwalk

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Tristan, Steve, Me (checking the GPS), Doug sr. (peeking over me), Quincy



We soon arrived at the Lake Livermore portage pull out spot and saw what we would have to carry the canoes up; a steep hill.

We continued hiking and were happy to find a clear spot at the top of the climb from Livermore where we could drop the canoes for a rest when we had to carry them later that day. Quincy being in the best shape (and having a light pack) went on ahead with his headphones in (listening to Pink Floyd). I was behind him, but stopped several times to take pictures of interesting fungi or flowers. When I arrived at the short side trail marked with a “P”, I could see Lake LeSage through the trees. I walked down the muddy trail, but something was wrong. Quincy was missing! He had bebopped right on past the portage maker and had some how missed seeing the lake. I quickly dropped my pack, ran back up to the trail and tore down the trail after Quincy. After a mile (of the 3.4 mi) of running and yelling I realized that he couldn’t hear me due to his music, and he would stop when he got to the trail junction between Lake LeSage and Lake Richie. I jogged back to the LaSage portage and met the rest of the party who had deducted what had happened. We knew that when we didn’t show up, Quincy would back track to find us. It was threatening to rain so we put all of our stuff under a tarp, but left this note on a bucket on the main trail.

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On our walk back toward Chickenbone west, we discussed how we were going to “punish” Quincy by giving him more weight to carry or making him walk in the back of the group (that would have truly tortured him).
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Half of a boardwalk-we are the dark shapes at the end

In the end we decided that the extra 6 miles he hiked was probably sufficient "punishment". Back at Chickenbone Steve and Tristan took one canoe, Doug and Doug were in their blue one, and that left me in the aluminum canoe. We tied the front of mine to the back of Doug & Doug’s canoe to keep me going straight. The wind had picked up and there were a few white caps on the lake.
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We paddled 0.7 mi up-wind to the portage to Lake Livermore. While getting out of his canoe Steve fell backward into a small tree and scraped his face.
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"SCRAPE"
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Steve and I carried the red canoe on the portage until the trail split.
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There we put it down and told Tristan to scout which way to go. We went back to get the aluminum one. Doug and Doug took their canoe to the top, past the dropped red one and onto the trail that led right. Steve and I were just behind them. All four of us went back to get the red canoe.
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Doug doing "chin-ups" in the middle


Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Water Routes by Jim Dufresne says that Lake Livermore was not that great for fishing, but Steve caught two pike on the first three casts! That prompted Doug sr. and I get out our poles and catch a few. We continued to fish as the stiff wind pushed us down the lake. The only paddling necessary was to keep us the optimal distance from the bank. Doug caught a nice pike, and I had a large one jump out of the water after my spoon. I didn’t catch it, but did hook one about 15 feet further down the shore. Steve caught and released two more pike.
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Looking back toward the portage while drifting southwest down Lake Livermore

When we got to the southwest end of Livermore we found Quincy waiting for us. Quincy told us how he had thought that we were “really slow” and finally realized after sitting and reading his book that we were not coming.
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Quincy tells his "story"...
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... but Doug jr. just wants the sun to come out

As he was sitting there he saw two moose crossed the trail just down from where he sat. He didn’t have time to get out his camera, so of course we had to tell him he didn’t need to make up “stories” to justify him missing Lake LaSage. We tripled up on the canoes for the steep climb up from Livermore, and set them at the top.
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When all of the canoes were up the steep hill, each pair took their canoe to Lake LeSage. It was a muddy launch into LeSage and with the sky getting darker we didn’t take the time to even cast once.
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Launching into Lake LeSage

It did seem to have some very promising weed beds though. Again we paddled up-wind until we passed through the channel connecting the two halves of the lake. On the portage take-out Steve did hook onto something big: Quincy. Steve had not taken the hook off the end of his rod and it caught the bottom of Quincy’s pants as they were unloading their canoe.
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"Sucker"

This led the rest of us to say that Steve had caught a “ huge sucker”. The canoes went up and off we went. We passed where Quincy had sat waiting for us and saw the moose tracks in the swampy area along the boardwalk (just south of the trail junction).
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Quincy's moose tracks

The portage from LeSage to Lake Richie seemed longer then the posted 0.6 mi, but it was our third portage of the day.
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The shoulder-high ferns were impressive

After a steep decent to Lake Richie we dropped our canoes and walked back to LeSage to get our packs.
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Launching out onto Lake Richie

We paddled out into Lake Richie and down to the rocky point that holds the Lake Richie Canoe campsite. On the point of rocks a boy pulled in a pike… Uggg we would have to “share” the camp with other people. As we paddled around the point we could see there were quite a few people already there, but there was only one canoe. As we unloaded we talked to them and discovered they were a family (of 5 or 6) that were on vacation from Switzerland! They had left Rock Harbor (some canoeing some hiking) and had camped at Daisy Farm and Moskey Basin. They carried their light 30-pound canoe (yes were were jealous of the light canoe) the 2 miles from Mosky to Lake Richie, where the father “ferried” them out to the canoe campsite. They had set up in the sites closest to the point so we took the one furthest down the shore. We set up camp and soon had water boiling for a supper of “pizza in a pot”
http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/pizza-pot, which was quite a treat. We also had some mashed potatoes, rice and peach tea.
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Doug jr. dropped his supper...
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... on Doug sr.'s shoe

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I made sure my dish was clean!
** note the small jar of sun-dried tomato pesto (on the log) was heavy to carry, but well worth its weight in flavor in the "pizza"
Link to Trail pizza: http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/pizza-pot
We were visited by a curious snowshoe hare that hopped in and out of our camp. By the end of supper it was 10 pm and time for some much-deserved rest. I stayed up and journaled. At 11:20 there were splashes in the lake; some beavers must be having fun.
Last edited by sgatz on Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sgatz
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Day 4
Saturday 7/27

Morning was cool, overcast, and misting. Around 7:30 we could see some blue sky peaking through. Because it was still quite cool I wore a tee shirt, hooded sweatshirt, a nylon windbreaker, and two hats. We all got up and had breakfast: oatmeal with dried apricots and coffee.
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Cool morning on Lake Richie
The best news of the day… NO PORTAGING!!! After breakfast was cleaned up, I walked down to the point to look at the fire damage discussed here:
http://isleroyaleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2207
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Here is the burnt area covered by some branches..."I hope these are branches from trail maintenance"

Steve and I headed out onto the lake for some fishing. We let the wind push us westward along the edge of the weed beds. Fishing was great. We caught quite a few pike (about 20 each) as we drifted along the northern shore. It seemed about every 15-20 feet produced another one.
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Steve was reminded that pike have very sharp teeth. :roll:
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He tried to remove a hook without using the pliers, and got 4 cuts across the end of his finger. That is why he is wearing a glove in the previous picture.
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Here I am with a medium-small pike
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Doug and Doug went out and fished the northern side of Hastings Island and hooked onto a few of their own, but didn't have a camera with them to "document" it so of course any story they tell is "suspect". :wink:
Later in the afternoon I dropped Steve off to clean the couple of fish we kept and took Quincy out to the south side of Hasting Island. After casting into some good looking weed beds for 7-10 minutes and not getting a bite Quincy concluded that his initial evaluation of fishing was indeed “boring”. We let the wind push us to the west end of the island where I made a few casts and hooked one that was about 25”. Quincy then caught a small pike and the hooked a larger one two casts later.
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Quincy's first pike

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Now that is more like it!

We found the coves at the west end of the island to be most productive. We then crossed over and fished the cove to the northwest (the one nearest the portage), and caught 7-9 each; throwing them all back. We were getting hungry so we headed around the rocky point to the camp where they asked us how many pike we had with us for supper. We needed more for supper, but had released all of them, so Steve and I went back out and quickly caught another. Doug sr. got out his twig stove and used it to add some heat (it was still overcast and cold), and to cook the fish. Tristan didn't go out on the lake, but used the day for some much needed rest. This was his first real camping trip! For supper we we had more fresh fish, mashed potatoes, pasta, and some wonderful Apricot Cobbler Scramble I found here:
http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/apr ... r-scramble
Ours turned out more like a pudding (not a cobbler), but was gone in no time at all. :D
Then it was off to bed.
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by NancyT »

And the suspense contiunes....
~ISLE ROYALE INFO~
"A Comprehensive Guide to Isle Royale National Park"
http://www.isleroyale.info
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sgatz
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Re: TR:7/24-8/1/13 [Paddling] [McCargoe-CBW-Ritchie-Wood-Chi

Post by sgatz »

Day 5
Sunday 7/28

I woke at 3:30 am to the sound of our stove and cooking pot, and windshield traveling from one side our camp to the other. In my sleepy haze I first thought it was some marauding creature, but soon realized it was due to the strong wind whipping through our camp. RAIN! It started soon after, and still had not let up, by the time it was supposed to be light.
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Steve got up and went from tent to tent to get the consensus. We all decided to wait in our tents to see if it would let up. So breakfast was of the “bar” variety. Some slept,
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This is how Tristan spent his morning

some played a few games on their phones; some (Quincy) read a book. By noon the wind had started to die down but it was still raining so we “sheltered in place”. By 1:30 the heavier rain had stopped, but we waited another 30 minutes for the wind to blow most of the water off the trees. It was still misting when we decided to stick to our schedule and head for Wood Lake. So everything got packed up, we said “good bye” to Lake Richie Canoe camping site, and with the winds help, headed across Lake Richie to the portage to Intermediate Lake.
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Leaving Lake Richie.

This was an easy portage, and on our way back to get our packs we noticed this birch that had been hit by lighting.
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The put in at Intermediate Lake was covered with small toads and in the water we could see them in all stages of development.
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When we were launching our canoes two guys came paddling up in theirs. One was Michigan while his buddy was from Chicago. They were camping at the Intermediate Lake site with several others. They told us that a moose had come out and was eating weeds while we were going back to get our packs. AHHHHH!!! :? We had just missed it.
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The portage point on the northeast end of Intermediate Lake

We paddled down and threw out a couple of casts on the way. Doug sr. caught a small pike, but no one else had anything.
We soon found ourselves at the other end of the lake and covered with mosquitoes. It seemed that all of the Intermediate Lake mosquitoes had been blown to that end. Plagued by the bloodthirsty insects we made the 0.4 mile portage to the end of Siskwit Lake, and launched as fast as we could. The mosquitoes had found a meal (us) and were not keen to give it up so easily and followed us to the rocky point where we turned left (south) toward Wood Lake.
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Launching onto Siskwit

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Rounding the rocky point and heading south

There was no wind and the end of Siskwit was like glass. We enjoyed paddling through and past the RAVEN Isles. In the “depository” at Wood Lake I saw this sign about them.
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An old tree on one of the RAVEN Isles

We passed through the narrow, but deep channel between Siskwit and Wood and pulled up to the rocks that marked the Wood Lake camp. After scouting around we choose the driest looking site(s) at the top of the rocks. We had Quincy and Tristan share a tent at this campground. The reason was two-fold; they would get the experience of setting up and taking down their own tent (before this they had been with Steve and I). They would have to carry the tent for the last leg of the journey, and the reason we told them was neither had a good sleeping pad and we had given them the “softest” looking site.
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Quincy & Tristan’s site

With the thickest blow up mattresses Steve and I set up out tent not far away on a flat ridge of rocks.
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Steve and I used the logs to hold out our tent fly.

Doug and Doug got “creative” with their tarp, but fortunately the rain was gone and it was not needed.
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Doug's tent the next morning

It was 10 pm by the time all of the tents were pitched, and 10:35 before supper was ready. The mosquitoes were quite thick so Doug sr. and I put on our head nets. Doug kept forgetting that he had one on and tried to eat through it.
Preferring to keep his shorts on, Quincy doused himself with repellent. After eating rice with beef crumbles most of the mosquitoes were gone and it was easier to enter the tents. With the clearing skies it was the coldest night yet. Even though it was heavy, I was glad I had brought my warm military sleep system (bag).
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