10,000 Lakes, But No Fish!

We left Brian and Janelle’s and traveled to Tomah, WI, on our way to Ely, MN. Around the Tomah area, Jane saw her first cranberry bogs which really fascinated her.

Our cabin

We arrived at Ely the next afternoon and checked into the Deer Ridge Resort on Garden Lake. Garden Lake connects to a series of other lakes that lead to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA).

No TV, radio, or phone, but nice for fishing

The BWCA is off limits to motorized vessels, so we are told where we can go and where we can’t. Our rental package included a boat, motor, and fish locator.

Rustic accommodations

We started fishing on Garden Lake the first day and found lots of fish in the areas we were told to look at.

Headin' out to a hot spot (yeah, right!)

We were fishing with leeches for bait the first two days, but couldn’t deliver any walleyes to the boat. We also tried the grassy wild rice beds for northern pike, but came up empty. We went into town and bought some minnows and fished with them for the next couple of days with the same results.

A hike to Kawishiwi Falls

Although the fishing was not what we had hoped, we did enjoy our cabin, walking the various trails, and cooking some fabulous meals. The only real negative was that the weather was really cool, actually too cool which was probably partly responsible for the poor fishing results.

Tryin' to rig a killer set

We fished every day except the last due to rain with no results. Captain Larry had previously lived in Minnesota for 5 years and never was unsuccessful in pulling in the walleyes. So it wasn’t a question of not knowing what to do, and Lord knows we tried everything.

Finally, a walleye dinner!

We had brought some oil to fry the fish we caught in and purchased 5 pounds of potatoes to make French fries, but ended up instead making potato soup and going out to the Ely Steakhouse for a walleye dinner! And so it goes.

Now that's a big walleye!

On our last day the rain kept us from fishing, but it didn’t stop us from visiting Ely-Winton Historical Museum at the Vermillion Community College. It was an historical collage of native, mining, logging, and trapping interests in the area over the years.

Garden Lake from our deck

We were surprised at how well the exhibits were done and how much we enjoyed it.

We left Ely and drove a really desolate road through the north woods of Minnesota to reach a highway that meanders along Lake Superior from Duluth to the Canadian border at Grand Portage. We were barely comfortable in the cool northern interior, but we found the temperature along the water to be around 10° cooler, bordering on freezing to our southern hides. The lakeshore highway took us to Grand Portage and the Grand Portage National Monument. Time to get another stamp! We had lunch in the mini-van (it was too cold to eat at the picnic area!) and then went into the visitor’s center.  The visitor center’s exhibits featured the role of the trappers, voyagers, and items from archaeological digs at the depot site.

A voyager exhibit

At Grand Portage National Monument

Voyagers transported furs and goods along an 8.5 mile route between Fort Charlotte at the terminus of the Pigeon River and Lake Superior. From Fort Charlotte the Pigeon River flows 22 miles east over hazardous rapids, cascades, and waterfalls to empty into Lake Superior. To avoid these obstacles, canoes and goods were portaged along the 8.5 mile Grand Portage with a 630 foot ascent (descent). Voyagers would typically carry two 90-pound packs over the course which would take 5-6 hours to complete. The Northwest Company depot was reconstructed to be a replica of the original. We had visited Voyagers National Park at International Falls, MN, which had a theme dedicated to the voyagers, but we thought that Grand Portage N.M. did a much better job and probably should have been the national park rather than Voyagers. We’re sure, however, that these decisions are based purely on politics.

Lake Superior at Grand Portage

Grand Portage N.M. focuses on the voyagers who transported furs and goods between Chippewa Indian trappers and the Northwest Company which brought the furs to England to be fashioned into hats and clothing for global distribution. Voyagers would leave Montreal in 40 foot birch bark canoes with blankets, beads, and personal and household hardware items and ply the waters of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes and arrive at the trading depot. At the same time, inland voyagers would bring furs in 24 foot canoes that were bartered with Indian trappers for the goods previously delivered from Montreal for a rendezvous at Grand Portage.