Possible canoe trip?

[Dan Lindberg]

All this talk of Woodland and flying into Red Lake reminds me of a fly-in fishing trip I went on many years ago.

A coworker liked to fly and was a member of a group that owned a plane (4 place) and he would dream up trips to justify flying the plane.
This trip was 4 of us.. 2 large guys and 2 smaller with the plan to Fly to Red Lake and use the local outfitter to supply canoes and camping gear.

Being that we had a lot of weight in the plane. we could only go about 100 miles at a time to maintain safety fuel.
This was planned for July which ment storms.. we left MPLS (Flying Cloud AP) and with a some refuel stops managed to get to Warroad MN after getting turned back from Kenora over the Lake of the Woods.. where we stayed the might in a motel and watched a high school football game.

The next day we took off hoping to get to Red Lake but again storms made us go back.. ended up at a private grass strip by Sioux Narrows.
We were very low on fuel so I and the other large guy hitchhicked down Can HW 1(?) while the pilot and other guy flew the plain hoping to get 20-30 miles down the road to the public airport that had fuel.

After fueling up.. we did manage to get to Red Lake (on the 3ed day) and got outfitted at/by the outfitter.
They took us out into the bush and dropped us off with a plan to bushwack through the woods (following a stream) to get to the HOT fishing lake.
We finished the portage and paddled across the lake/s to an island they had marked for us.
We thrashed the water a bit before supper and bed but no bites.
It was a long night as there were 4 of us in a Timberline 4 person A frame.. pitched on a slope.. such that the upper guys ended up sliding down on/into the guys near the door.

We woke in the morning to the sound of diesels from the logging taking place not far away.
We stayed at that site for 2-3 days not sure how many.. and paddled down the lake to the pickup point.

I dont remember any of us actually catching a fish. . I dont think so.

The flight home.. while long due to the frequent refueling..was uneventful.

This is my 1 experience with Red Lake.

Dan

 

[Dave Osborn]

Quetico was my go to. 34 times.
There are loop trips you can take with plenty of portages or base camp trips you can do and still have plenty of day trips, fishing, and fire poking.
Most of my trips were base camp trips without much portaging.
The area I liked was Pickerel Lake. Sprawling lake with lots of areas to explore and camp.
Great fishing, too.

 

[samb]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I was all ready to book WCPP as a solo when it was suggested that I ask my son.
The cost of the trip has shot up!
Sam

 

[SteveD]

I'm sure. Father-son is awesome though... (next best thing to solo LOL)

 

[MGC]

If you can, father and son is the better of the two. It's so hard to coordinate, but the memories are good for a lifetime. When my father and I first paddled from Greenville to Fort Kent, I was 12 years old. That paddle left me with a lifetime of vivid memories. I can draw on a vivid collection of experiences that I could spend hours sharing. God, how we fought to stay off the rocks one hard, hard day on Moosehead. But we were strong on Chesuncook and had the perfect line at Chase rips. We never had that much time together after that. It's amazing to me how much that paddle still influences my life. I've made the same trip with each of my sons. I was very grateful to have help and companionship on the long days, and on the carries and also someone to share a whiskey with at the end of the day.
Solo is also good, but time with family is precious.