Wednesday September 12

Walt had occasion to step outside his tent at 3:30 a.m. The night sky was cloudless, and millions of stars predicted a beautiful morning to come. I arose at 7:00 a.m. to the sound of wind-driven rain out of the northwest hitting my tent. We had coffee and oatmeal for breakfast while sitting under a tarp which we had brought along for just such an occasion.

At noon, our canoe was loaded for the short hop over to the portage by the falls. The 325 meter portage followed the falls to the top and then

meandered through the woods to a mini lake. Five easy portages later, we entered Jake Lake, a lake with only pike in it. I made a few casts in a likely looking pike bay but no fish was interested in my spoon.

Paddling south on Jake, we found our next portage nestled at the end of a small, secluded bay. A short 40 meter hike led us to the pull throughs. We had hoped for one pull through but found that we had four to contend with. The first pull through was really a portage, as we had to unload our packs and transport them about 50 meters to a suitable re-entry point. The other three pull throughs could actually be negotiated as such. Further ahead, we came to a pull through which appeared to be the one we had marked on our topo maps. This was the fifth and final one we negotiated. Soon a 200 meter portage led us into Lunch Lake, and after a short paddle south of the portage, we found a campsite on a small island.

It was 5:00 p.m. by the time camp was set up. While Walt built a fire for the evening meal, I cast a Johnson Silver Minnow from shore. A few casts provided a small pike. The wind direction was out of the north, and as we tried to sit on a rock and eat, we had to contend with smoke from our fire. We were tired from the pull throughs and eight portages, so we didn’t seem to have the ambition to get up and move to another location to eat. It wasn’t long until Walt and I headed for our tents to stretch out and relax.

Thursday September 13

At 6:20 a.m., it was 43 degrees F. on our island in Lunch Lake. The sky was overcast, and it looked as though it was going to be a rainy, dreary day. However, after our oatmeal and coffee breakfast, the sun became visible, and a light breeze started blowing from the north.

We spread out our wet gear to dry then fished around the island from shore, drank coffee, and loafed for several hours. After the dry-out time we packed up and were on the water at 11:00 a.m.

The park service had changed several portages on the park map, so we were not quite sure if we had a portage or just what our path would be when we got to the southeast side of Lunch Lake. However, when we got off the main body of the lake this mystery cleared up. There was a narrows running south that turns to the east then to the northeast to a 150 meter portage out of Lunch Lake.

We did six portages and two pull throughs between Lunch Lake and Leano Lake. All the portages were in good shape; and both pull throughs were actually pull throughs, not short portages as we had encountered the previous day. The scenery was beautiful, and we had an enjoyable paddle to Leano Lake.

We started looking for a campsite as soon as we entered Leano. We found a very nice one at our entrance to the lake but decided to look for one closer to our exit point.

When we were about one mile from the exit point, we spotted a dilapidated fire pit on the west shore. This site looked as if it had not been used for a long time, but proved to be an excellent campsite.

We were soon settled in for our last night in the bush. It seemed like only minutes until the freeze-dried beef stroganoff was eaten, and we were enjoying our last campfire when a large mouse paid us a visit.

This mouse was not the least bit shy and was very intent on finding something to eat. We packed away everything which we thought the mouse might get into. I believe that we could have picked up the mouse, as it made no effort to run even when we got very close to it.

The mouse ended up winning us over. We had a complete change of heart and gave him a huge meal of left over stroganoff and crackers.

We sat by the fire watching the mouse gorge himself. About 9:30 p.m. Mel, the mouse, and I decided to call it a night, and all went to bed. Mel and I slept soundly. We think the mouse did, also, as none of our gear was mouse-chewed the next morning.

Friday September 14

Our last day in the bush dawned with some haze but otherwise pleasant. During the night I had been awakened by the sounds of heavy equipment operating somewhere on the eastern side of Leano Lake. Walt thought that crews had been working on the gravel road which we would soon be using to return to Red Lake.

I couldn’t resist making a few final casts while Walt made a small fire to boil water for breakfast. By the time the oats and coffee were ready, I had one small pike held out for a final picture.

As soon as breakfast was over and a few items were dried in the morning sunshine, we packed the canoe for the last leg of our journey, a short paddle up the lake to the exit point. The exit was not visible from the lake which caused Walt and I to have to backtrack to find it.

As Walt and I were nearing the exit, we heard voices. An old couple from Minnesota were trying to round up a couple of nervous dogs to take with them in their canoe. As soon as they had both dogs placed in the canoe, one dog made a leap to the shore, and the other dog jumped into the creek.

The landing area wasn’t large, so Walt and I relaxed in our canoe while we waited for the departure of the old couple.

Shortly, and with both dogs on board, the couple shoved off allowing us to pull in to the landing. The woman inquired as to where we were from. As we unloaded the canoe, we told her that we were from the States. "Oh." she said, "Then you haven’t heard that on Tuesday, terrorists flew large planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.