This trip really only came into being due to the nice weather forecast for the Thanksgiving long weekend. We had watched the weather reports for a week to see if the long range forecast would hold and on the Wednesday night I came home and said to Christy, Rabbit River, Saturday and Sunday, she was all in.
I packed on the Friday, my usual day off and she did her part that night after her work day. The boat was on, all we needed to do was throw the gear in the next morning and hit the road. I normally get up around 4:30 every weekday for work so told her I wanted to be on the road for 6, hoping really we could be moving by 6:30 considering she rarely gets up that early.
Dark, very dark, as I loaded the truck Saturday morning and even with Christy making us both egg and bacon sandwiches we left just after 6. Nowadays it is almost 8am before the sun is up so we were most of the way there before we had any real light. The darkness just means having to strain more to see any deer that may have wandered out onto the roads in front of us, a daily ritual for me on my commute to work, but we didn't see any this morning.
We arrived at the River in about 2 1/2 hours and drove down to the water... where's the water!? The river was pretty much dried up, very little flow. We sat and pondered going elsewhere, but a friend from works vehicle was in the parking lot so I said we should just go find him if we could. We had been meaning to trip with Chad at some point this year, but missed our Spring trip, so this was going to be the only opportunity this year to do so. Chad is the only other person I work with that enjoys canoe tripping.
While standing pondering we were attacked by small flies and...And... Mosquito's! What the h.... it is October, there shouldn't be any mosquito's left alive having had several frosts already, but they persisted for the trip.
So, we loaded the boat and hit the water, poling more than paddling upstream. We did run totally out of water at one point and Christy got out and pulled the boat up the sand/gravel bar. She had sneakily brought her hip waders with her which turned out to beneficial in the long run.
We scraped our way out to the first wide point on the river and paddled up a slightly choppy lake. We could see Chad's canoe on the peanut island site and tried in vain to sneak up on him. We checked out the site and then another just across the channel but came back to this little island and set up in a nice flat spot up top.
Chad and we trip differently, we tend to go a bit on the heavy side, the only heavy thing Chad has is his canoe, a 15 foot orange Coleman he has been using for years. He watched as we set up, me taking care of the tent duties and Christy taking care of the kitchen. He was impressed with how it all came together, but it is always easier with two rather than one set of hands. He had a nice camp established already so we only needed sleeping quarters and kitchen. Rather than having him need to pump water we set up the Katadyn and filled our 2 gallon water jug in twenty minutes. Sharing is good karma.
It was likely still before noon and we set out to try to catch the mysterious pickerel of this section of the Rabbit River. Further upstream travel to Cole Lake was out of the question without any water to float even an empty Kevlar canoe. We caught our fair share of Northern Pike over the afternoon but nothing else would come to the boat for us. Chad suggested we go back downriver a short distance and portage into the next lake over a 36" beaver dam, which we did after having a quick bite to eat.
Just getting to the dam involved Christy getting out and dragging the canoe through the muck, but on the upside there was plenty of water to float in. It had continued to be a beautiful day and the forecast SW 30kph wind never arrived. We had mostly calm waters as we moved up the other lake fishing as we went.
Not much happening there either so I thought we could swing around a point and maybe go for more pike in a back bay.
We rounded that point first and I saw a large dark object in the water at the end of the bay, I stared hard and finally saw a tail swish sideways and quietly called out "Moose" to the others. I was being so soft spoken Chad didn't quite get it until he rounded the corner. I don't know what a moose's eyesight is like, but he lifted his head and stared in our direction for 30 seconds before possibly being spooked by Chad's orange boat. He slowly sauntered up onto the shore while I fumbled to get the zoom lens onto my camera, but he finally ran into the bush when I had accomplished that task.
I've only ever seen two bull moose in the bush and they have both been in that River system. That entire area is closed to moose hunting and has been for several years after they were almost wiped off the map. It is good to see both cow and bull moose in that area once again so perhaps they will re-establish in the years the ban is in effect.
It was getting late, the sun goes down before 7pm so we made our way back to our side of the river and back to camp for dinner and a long night around the fire and under the stars. My, what a beautiful night sky it was, calm as can be and as dark as it can only get out in the bush. Christy and I hit the sack long before Chad, he being 20 years younger.
The morning broke windless and sunny. The wind was keeping away thankfully. We had a nice breakfast and then packed up so we could head out early. The forecast was for wind from the West of 40kph gusting to 60 in the afternoon with rain that night and Monday, so we wanted to get out while it was still nice.
Before we left we had Chad paddle the Mattawa and use my ottertail and our carbon paddle so he could see the difference from what he is used to. He was quite impressed. As we headed down lake, fishing our way slowly, Chad called out as he found different pieces of kit we had forgotten... my coffee cup, Christy's life jacket, the horde of birch bark we had harvested the previous day from fallen timber, so we circled back through the bay and picked up our gear before heading down the lake and back to the truck.
It was quite the warm day by noon when we were all packed up to leave and enjoyed a leisurely trip back down to civilization, stopping several times to check out a river or take a stroll.
We have mostly only poplar and birch amongst the varied fir and spruce trees so the colours are yellow and green but we still have leaves on the trees to admire.
It was about as perfect a Autumn trip as we could have had, good company, excellent weather and some fun pike fishing.
Once home we found out there is a wind warning in effect with wind of 70kph gusting to 100 (45 - 60mph) for overnight and into Monday, so we are hoping Chad came out later on Sunday and doesn't stay another day.
I packed on the Friday, my usual day off and she did her part that night after her work day. The boat was on, all we needed to do was throw the gear in the next morning and hit the road. I normally get up around 4:30 every weekday for work so told her I wanted to be on the road for 6, hoping really we could be moving by 6:30 considering she rarely gets up that early.
Dark, very dark, as I loaded the truck Saturday morning and even with Christy making us both egg and bacon sandwiches we left just after 6. Nowadays it is almost 8am before the sun is up so we were most of the way there before we had any real light. The darkness just means having to strain more to see any deer that may have wandered out onto the roads in front of us, a daily ritual for me on my commute to work, but we didn't see any this morning.
We arrived at the River in about 2 1/2 hours and drove down to the water... where's the water!? The river was pretty much dried up, very little flow. We sat and pondered going elsewhere, but a friend from works vehicle was in the parking lot so I said we should just go find him if we could. We had been meaning to trip with Chad at some point this year, but missed our Spring trip, so this was going to be the only opportunity this year to do so. Chad is the only other person I work with that enjoys canoe tripping.
While standing pondering we were attacked by small flies and...And... Mosquito's! What the h.... it is October, there shouldn't be any mosquito's left alive having had several frosts already, but they persisted for the trip.
So, we loaded the boat and hit the water, poling more than paddling upstream. We did run totally out of water at one point and Christy got out and pulled the boat up the sand/gravel bar. She had sneakily brought her hip waders with her which turned out to beneficial in the long run.
We scraped our way out to the first wide point on the river and paddled up a slightly choppy lake. We could see Chad's canoe on the peanut island site and tried in vain to sneak up on him. We checked out the site and then another just across the channel but came back to this little island and set up in a nice flat spot up top.
Chad and we trip differently, we tend to go a bit on the heavy side, the only heavy thing Chad has is his canoe, a 15 foot orange Coleman he has been using for years. He watched as we set up, me taking care of the tent duties and Christy taking care of the kitchen. He was impressed with how it all came together, but it is always easier with two rather than one set of hands. He had a nice camp established already so we only needed sleeping quarters and kitchen. Rather than having him need to pump water we set up the Katadyn and filled our 2 gallon water jug in twenty minutes. Sharing is good karma.
It was likely still before noon and we set out to try to catch the mysterious pickerel of this section of the Rabbit River. Further upstream travel to Cole Lake was out of the question without any water to float even an empty Kevlar canoe. We caught our fair share of Northern Pike over the afternoon but nothing else would come to the boat for us. Chad suggested we go back downriver a short distance and portage into the next lake over a 36" beaver dam, which we did after having a quick bite to eat.
Just getting to the dam involved Christy getting out and dragging the canoe through the muck, but on the upside there was plenty of water to float in. It had continued to be a beautiful day and the forecast SW 30kph wind never arrived. We had mostly calm waters as we moved up the other lake fishing as we went.
Not much happening there either so I thought we could swing around a point and maybe go for more pike in a back bay.
We rounded that point first and I saw a large dark object in the water at the end of the bay, I stared hard and finally saw a tail swish sideways and quietly called out "Moose" to the others. I was being so soft spoken Chad didn't quite get it until he rounded the corner. I don't know what a moose's eyesight is like, but he lifted his head and stared in our direction for 30 seconds before possibly being spooked by Chad's orange boat. He slowly sauntered up onto the shore while I fumbled to get the zoom lens onto my camera, but he finally ran into the bush when I had accomplished that task.
I've only ever seen two bull moose in the bush and they have both been in that River system. That entire area is closed to moose hunting and has been for several years after they were almost wiped off the map. It is good to see both cow and bull moose in that area once again so perhaps they will re-establish in the years the ban is in effect.
It was getting late, the sun goes down before 7pm so we made our way back to our side of the river and back to camp for dinner and a long night around the fire and under the stars. My, what a beautiful night sky it was, calm as can be and as dark as it can only get out in the bush. Christy and I hit the sack long before Chad, he being 20 years younger.
The morning broke windless and sunny. The wind was keeping away thankfully. We had a nice breakfast and then packed up so we could head out early. The forecast was for wind from the West of 40kph gusting to 60 in the afternoon with rain that night and Monday, so we wanted to get out while it was still nice.
Before we left we had Chad paddle the Mattawa and use my ottertail and our carbon paddle so he could see the difference from what he is used to. He was quite impressed. As we headed down lake, fishing our way slowly, Chad called out as he found different pieces of kit we had forgotten... my coffee cup, Christy's life jacket, the horde of birch bark we had harvested the previous day from fallen timber, so we circled back through the bay and picked up our gear before heading down the lake and back to the truck.
It was quite the warm day by noon when we were all packed up to leave and enjoyed a leisurely trip back down to civilization, stopping several times to check out a river or take a stroll.
We have mostly only poplar and birch amongst the varied fir and spruce trees so the colours are yellow and green but we still have leaves on the trees to admire.
It was about as perfect a Autumn trip as we could have had, good company, excellent weather and some fun pike fishing.
Once home we found out there is a wind warning in effect with wind of 70kph gusting to 100 (45 - 60mph) for overnight and into Monday, so we are hoping Chad came out later on Sunday and doesn't stay another day.
