Paddle Planner.com - BWCA, Quetico, Sylvania, and other paddling places

First Tastes 3


By Riley Smith Print Icon Print Report View/Leave Comments (0)
Dates:June 3-6, 2005
Entry Point:61 - Daniels Lake (BWCA)
Type:Canoeing
Lakes:Bearskin, Daniels, Rove

This was our third trip into the BWCA during my childhood. Our group of three dads and three sons grew again into four dads and four sons. We were all friends from school and for this trip were 8 and 9 years old respectively. We paddled into the same familiar lake: West Bearskin into Daniels. This trip we stayed at a different campsite than we had in the past. We stayed at the site directly to the North of our previous site. This different site was known to our group as "Camp Maugrim" after the wolf in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." The reason for the name is that my dad came up to the BWCA during his cancer treatment the summer before and had seen a wolf in this campsite upon his arrival. We loved the site and made even more memories in this place. We took another trip into Rove and hooked into some monstrous fish. Unfortunately a wind storm tossed us around some as an 8 year old is still not much help with a paddle or weight in a bow. Back on Daniels, I hooked two smalleys at the same time on the same lure again: once more reenforcing the magic of this place. The group took a difficult sightseeing day trip to a different lake, but half of us stayed behind to fish for lakers on Daniels. I still was asking my dad all sorts of questions about the place and the wonders of nature. This was the final young childhood trip for us. The group would do one more trip the following year with another dad and son taking our place. They apparantly took an incredibly difficult route that many of the dads said was the most pain they had ever been in! We, however, wouldn't return to the BWCA for another 5 years.


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