Fish Counts as Meat

So recently I was sent into another of my cycles of anger at people who calls themselves vegetarian or vegan yet still eat things like fish and shellfish. Hell, some 'vegetarians' eat chicken from time to time.
I'm not a big fan of labels. I've never really fit any typical labels and never tried to. (No, sarcastic prick does not count as a label.) And I really don't care what other people decide to label themselves if they so choose. If you to make a life decision and put a label on it, that's your call. I will however get miffed if you don't actually live up to that label. The only thing worse that giving yourself a label is giving yourself a label that you're not. Do you see me walking around telling people I'm half black?
Back to my earlier beef (pun intended), fish and shellfish count as meat. There is no moral difference between a tilapia filet and a filet mignon. They are both the muscle tissue of something that used to have a brain and feelings. If the only meat you can bring yourself to eat is clams and mussels I have no problem with that. You just can't call yourself a vegetarian.
This time I did give it real thought and softened my stance a bit. Turns out pretty much everyone does this at least occasionally. Raise your hand if you call yourself Catholic and actually follow every letter of the laws set by the bible and Pope. Anyone? Thought so. Not even priests can claim that they do this. However, without getting into a discussion regarding my stance on the Catholic church and their slowly changing bible interpretations, I will say that it is different to bend the laws of one's religion than the details that determine a semi-arbitrary label. There is no central dogma of being a vegetarian. It's not ethical or no vegetarians would wear leather and suede. It's not about responsibility to the planet, since they don't make any concessions for locally and responsibly raised livestock. And it's definitely not because meat is icky, as you can turn most 'vegetarians' back to the good side with just a couple strips of delicious thick-cut smoked bacon. Mmmm...bacon.
And now that I'm thinking of some delicious grass-fed pasture-raised ribeye steaks from my meat guy I need to go. It's pretty much impossible to put together an intelligent thought when all I can think about is grilling a locally raised cow.
I will take a second to recommend that everyone take some time and check out www.epicmealtime.com It's absolutely incredible.
PEACE!

Friday Night Party!!

So here it is; Friday night! Time to rip it up! Unless your wife is a doctor and you own a furry wrecking ball of a dog. Then you have to stay home alone managing this 70lb monster while the wife pulls a 24-hour shift. Yes, your Friday nights take on a whole new meaning.
Funny thing is, I revert back to college Jarod as soon as Hayley leaves me home alone on a Friday/Saturday night. Almost. In college we'd be over at the 406 spiking beers (whole 'nother story), throwing parking cones into a ceiling fan, and probably roaming campus looking for couches we can rip apart and throw into trees. But since I didn't want to come home to a ruined house, I was home around 7:30pm to start entertaining the monster. If it wasn't for Tyler I'd still be out enjoying our post-work wobbly pops instead of home doing this. But that's when the downsides started.
Dinner tonight was essentially a child's dinner. I had a hot dog sandwich and tater tots. That means 3 kosher beef hot dogs, a handful of shredded sharp cheddar, 2 slices of bread, and a toaster oven tray of tots. Yeah, that'll seem like a great idea tomorrow morning. How old am I again?
I do get to enjoy some truly bad action movies that I otherwise wouldn't be able to watch in peace. Hayley requires silly things like plots and acting skills in her movies. I'm plenty happy with good special effects, car chases, fight scenes, and scantily clothed actresses. Tonight's selection was Death Race. A quality flick that even gave me a topic for a future blog. Puppy wasn't as much of a fan as all the explosions and gun fire seemed to interrupt his sleeping. It was 2 hours of everything I love and Hayley hates.
And now it's only 10:45pm and I'm running out of energy and bad TV to watch. It's a little disturbing how little watchable TV is on for a Friday night. You'd think there would be some reasonably garbage on right now. And you'd think I'd be able to put something a bit more interesting/coherent together. But I guess that's what happens you drink delicious craft beer while watching bad movies and wrestling with a now snoring loudly dog.
PEACE!!

Selling our House

So the process of selling our house is officially underway. 1 open house has been completed, we're listed on MLS as of last week, and our boy Phil Smith (Prudential Realty) is working his magic to get this thing sold.
I know it's clique-ic, but it's very true that your house never looks as good as it does right before you leave. In our case that's mostly due to laziness and scheduling. Hayley's schedule didn't leave her much time to paint and decorate and the like; my laziness did the same. I also don't really have the urge for decorating. I'm more of a fix-it and project guy. Painting rooms, hanging pictures, that's just not my thing. I personalize through things I build and the messes I make. And of course my TV rig and my butt-dent in the couch. Watching countless hours of college football and Cubs games teach you nothing if not how to properly set up your couch, tables, and remotes.
The other downside to selling is putting the glaring light on all of your house's flaws. What seem like quirks to you are issues that need fixing to someone else. The little patch of bad carpet in the landing from where I built that linen closet and moved the attic stairs? Hayley and I know exactly how awesome the new setup is and gladly overlook that spot. But not these strangers that are wandering around my house poking at everything. It's just another thing on their "this will have to get fixed" list. If they only knew what it used to be. Same with the yard. It's rough, I know it. But 4 years ago it was mostly crab grass with a touch of real grass mixed in. I've worked awfully hard to get it to where there is very little crab grass left.
But I'm not entirely sad about all these things. I'm proud of the jobs I did and I will miss finishing a few and not doing some others. But I'm glad to have had the experience. This being our first home I learned quite a bit. It's one thing to grow up helping your dad do all these projects. But once you're the big man with the tool belt and power saw it's a whole different ball game. Suddenly the phrase 'measure twice cut once' takes on a whole new meaning. Pads of graph paper left over from college once again have a use. The fine folks at Lowe's become your favorite people in the world. And the next time I get to do these things I'll be that much better at it.
Speaking of which, 1 big bummer is going back to renting for 3 years. While we initially wanted to buy in Philly, it's just not going to be cost effective. We'd have to close June 1st and hope the market doesn't drop just to break even. And then hope we like our new sight-unseen neighborhood. So no more ambitious house projects. No more randomly tearing things apart just because I can. And while we will still have a yard, it won't be as rewarding to spend all those hours working on it. I guess I'll just have to befriend people with homes I can work on when I'm bored.
In the interim, wish us luck in our selling efforts and our ability to find a nice house to rent in Philly. And of course keep your eyes and ears peeled for notice of our going-away party. Hayley will cry alot; I'll drink alot; all will be as it always was.
PEACE!

Tackling Drills

Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if NFL defenders get worse and worse at tackling every year. I'd like to think that it's just the offensive players getting more and more elusive, but from the look of the terrible technique that isn't very likely. Everyone seems to be going for the giant highlight-reel hit instead of breaking down and making a solid form tackle.
I just watched Michael Turner run through 3 or 4 Packers defenders en route to a touchdown. And most of those guys were just throwing shoulders and arms trying to bring down a big powerful running back. That's just not going to happen. Does it look glamorous to have a guy bowl you over while making a tackle? No. But it's better than whiffing on the hit and watching him run down the field for big yards.
In high school you work on form tackling starting on day 1 and continuing until the very last day of the season. Every practice involves some type of tackling drill. You get trained on how to come in under control, get you head across their body, shoulder into the midsection, wrap up, and drive with your legs. You don't tuck in your arms and try to knock them down. You don't throw your body at their knees. You don't sprint in out of control so they only have to move by 12" to make you go flying by.
I remember my senior year playing on kick-off coverage. We were playing Palatine HS who had their stud (who was voted Mr. Illinois at the end of the year) returning kicks. The guy was a beast. 6-4 240lbs. And sure enough me, all of 5-9 180, had a shot at him on the opening kick. I'd love to say that I came in there and blew him up. Quite the opposite. Tackling him was like tackling a telephone pole. But it was a perfect form tackle. Shoulder to the gut, wrapped him up, and even though he ran through me, he only got a couple more yards before I had him on the ground. (And not for nothing, the coaches did single the play out in our video session on Monday.)
I'd love to see a return to some quality tackling in the NFL and college ranks. I love to see big crushing hits as much as anyone. But I only really respect the guys that did it with good technique. With the renewed focus on limiting shots to the head and dangerous hits, I think we may see a return of proper form. Players will finally be rewarded for tackling the correct way instead of glorifying the guys that don't.

Drunk Driving Overhaul

I’m sure everyone has their opinion on the perfect way to spend your Columbus Day. Some people hit up parades and rallies in support of Columbus and what he did. Others go out in protest against the way our society praises him for what he did. Others have to go to work knowing they’re missing out on a free day of fun, however you decide to generate that fun. The one thing we can probably all agree on is that a poor choice for your Columbus Day would be rear-ending the chief of the Massachusetts State Police at a red light at 11:45am … while driving drunk … for the 5th documented time.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/10/12/driver_faces_oui_charge_after_hitting_cruiser/
This is now her 5th DUI charge. 5th!! They already suspended her license and probably have collected a pretty good pile of money in fees from her. If this was an isolated case I’d brush it off as just a random moron. No matter what you do, there’s always a moron that just refuses to obey the laws. However, this is far from an isolated case. You often see reports of people getting caught for driving drunk with previous DUIs. I don’t have any hard numbers, but it’s pretty common. This to me says the system is just not working. The punishment is clearly not serious enough to serve as a legitimate deterrent. And the potential effects of the crime are severe. If drunks would confine themselves to single-car crashes I wouldn’t really mind. Even if they had a passenger. If you get hammered, decide to drive your car, and wrap it around an oak tree and kill yourself, that’s none of my concern. If someone was foolish enough to get in the car with you while you were in that condition, that’s also none of my concern. The affected parties did something stupid and paid a price for it. However, that is not always the case. Drunks usually take an innocent person out with them when they go. I’m not saying that drunk drivers usually kill a person every time they drive. That’s stupid. I’m saying that when they do wreck their car while driving drunk, they rarely go solo.
Unless someone can think of a way to keep drunks from killing innocent people, we need to find a way to keep people from driving drunk. And find a way that actually works. I think Mark and I came up with a pretty good solution today. First step is really just taking the current penalties and harshening them up. After you first DUI, you lose your license for a year. After your second, you lose it for good. But now is where it gets fun, and where Mark and I diverge. Clearly just suspending a person’s license isn’t sufficient. The woman that triggered this story was driving on a suspend license. And you’re dealing with people who have no concern for the DUI law, so why would they care about the license laws?
Mark’s solution is for every time you get caught after your 2nd DUI you lose a finger. Feel free to keep doing it if you want; you’ll just want to have a good priority list so you know how many, and which ones, you can afford to lose. Eventually people will either lose too many fingers to keep driving or they’ll finally get down to the fingers they can’t afford to lose.
I’m okay with going the non-mutilation route. If you get caught driving on a suspended license, whatever car you were driving, and everything in it, is now the property of the state and will be sold at auction. Assuming of course that the car wasn’t stolen. But before your buddy tries to claim it stolen before you get busted, know that you’ll then be charged with grand theft auto and will be facing some additional prison time. The prison time for the DUI offense will go up exponentially every time you’re caught. 3rd time, 2 years; 4th time, 4 years; 5th time, 8 years. Etc, etc, etc. And if we can find a way to sneak an extra clause into the law, the cops each get to take 1 shot at you when they pull you over starting with offense #3. Anywhere except the head, and with anything they normally carry with them. The no-headshot part pretty much rules out pistol whipping, but taking a baton to the ribs ain’t no picnic. Butt of the gun to a kneecap? That stings a bit. Or just a good old fashioned kick to the gut. But I doubt there’s any legal way to get that in there. And since I’m not a total monster, the state would offer discounted home breathalyzers for a short time after the change was announced. That way everyone could just keep one in their car and check real fast before they drove off. It also removes the argument that people had no idea they were over the limit of 0.08%.
This solution fixes so many problems. First and foremost, I have to believe this would put a sizable dent in the number of people driving drunk. But it also would generate extra revenue when the state gets to sell off a bunch of cars full of stuff. Think of all the bonus goodies that are common in cars. After-market stereo equipment, GPS units, CDs, iPods, laptops, cell phones. Everything in the car becomes the state’s and gets sold for profit. Genius! I think we all should start lobbying our politicians now to get this reform put in place. The Chauncey Michaels Statutes are the new future!!

Camping 2008 Part 2

Sorry for the delay. Seems even when I'm just copying and pasting someone else's work I still can't update this in a timely manner. Oh well, here's the 2nd installment of the '08 journal.


9-1-08. Monday.
To celebrate Labor Day, we had hot cocoa and pancakes for breakfast. It is so much faster when using the stove and the first cakes don’t turn out with a black hide on them. It was so warm that we slept with both ends of the tent open last night. With the new angle of the tent, the sun sets out the back and rises in the front. Now that is a dream house. I had a very restless night sleeping on the uneven ground. Getting enough restful sleep is a real trick.

The sun was hot but it was tolerable once we got in the wind. There were whitecaps all day, so that worked well for us. Alpha was the first stop of the trip. There was a new law that did not allow leaches and all hooks had to be barbless. Bending the existing barbs was allowed. Leaches were always the sure fire thing for all these years, so we were feeling very anxious without them. We brought a wide variety of Berkley Gulp to have scent on the hook and hoped for the best.

We got a few Walleye and smallies but not the fast action we looked forward to for the last 50 weeks. I did get a 19” smallie and Jarod got a 28” walleye. The slow action was the same on Beta and the south point to Fillet Island. Jarod hooked a sinker to his Rapala Fat Rap and worked it on the bottom. It did as well as jigging at several times. Adapt and survive. Later in the day Jarod also got a 28” pike.

We noticed right away that we were loosing hookups. This never happened in previous years. As much as we told ourselves that it wasn’t the barbless hooks, by the time the trip was over, we were sure of it. Even thought the TV commercials would never lie, we saw right away that the Gulp was no match for live leaches. We never did get into action as fast as previous years. If these two new rules were to slow down the fish catching, it was a big success.

In the morning one canoe came from the Wawiag and crossed over into McVicor bay. In the afternoon a canoe came from the south and crossed into a camp north of us. It may have been the same canoe. We had lunch on the cliff but moved into the shade rather than sit out in the sun. Without the wind, it was way too hot to enjoy sunbathing today. We came in early to cool off and planned on going out after supper when the sun and wind settled down. I washed my head, took a standing bath, and then just sat with my feet in the water to get my core temperature down where I felt comfortable.

A gull found our entrails and would follow us for the rest of the week. Alpha gave us nothing at sunset even though we threw stick baits, jigs, spoons, and anything else we had. We have never done well fishing on Alpha at sunset but we also never regretted trying. This night we stayed out late and watched the Milky Way from the middle of the lake. What a great experience.

One of the other new items we brought this year were LED headlamps. Jarod had high and low beam, I had white and red light. We laughed that his high beam was so bright we could almost see shore. The lights sure made it easy to get the canoe in after dark and we would use them around camp every night and in the tent. Hard to beat hands free light. We smoked cigars and went to bed about 10:30 PM. Both of us were very tired from fighting the sun and wind all day.

9-2-09. Tuesday.
The south wind blew all night and again today. This was the 3rd day like that but at least today was solid overcast. Hopefully it will be better fishing without the sun. While we ate breakfast, the canoe from the north camp settled on Alpha and stayed all morning. They must have known about it before they saw us on it yesterday.

We started on Beta but again didn’t do well so we moved to Filet south point where things were better. The constant wind blew in rain which started as a slow drizzle, then built to rain, and finally turned into a heavy downpour. The fishing was good, so we sat tight while the canoe began to fill up with rain water and things started to float inside the canoe. It poured so hard we couldn’t see shore for awhile. After about an hour it stopped and the canoe on Alpha was gone. Wimps. Several years ago we found Alpha in the rain; didn’t they know rain was good?

We fished a little while longer and then decided to have lunch at camp. Any shore lunch spots would be soaked which would require us to eat lunch in our rain suits. After sitting in the rain suits for the last few hours, we looked forward to getting out of them. Our camp was flooded but inside the tent was nice and dry. That was another new thing this year; a new ground cloth for inside the tent.

We took our time in camp and got a late start hoping the wind would go down; it didn’t. Alpha gave up fish for supper and we saw 2 gulls fight for the entrails. We hadn’t seen that in years. By the end of the day the wind shifted from the NW and cooler air was coming in. It cleared up enough for us to watch the stars for a short while before they were covered by clouds again.

By the time we went to bed, I was sleeping in my long johns with the tent flaps zipped up and I was inside the sleeping bag. Now that is more like it. Jarod woke me up at 4 AM concerned that the canoe needed to be tied down because the wind sounded awfully noisy in the trees. We got up, with our headlamps on, and satisfied ourselves that it didn’t need to be tied down. It was safely tucked into rocks and a tree, but it was better to be safe and check it out anyway. It started to rain again after we returned to the tent. It felt good to be inside and dry, out of the wind and water. All there was to do was sleep so we got busy doing it.

9-3-09. Wednesday.
We both slept about an hour later than usual and got up at 7 AM to a very wet campsite. Yesterday morning was warm, dry, and we were glad for overcast. Today was 60 degrees, wet, and we were hoping the clouds would go away. The heavy overcast slowly changed and by midmorning the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

I was actually glad to have to put on a wool T-shirt, shirt, fleece jacket, wind breaker, long johns, and mittens. The wood was nice and dry under the tarp and a hot wood fire sure felt good on this cool morning. Our traditional roles were for Jarod to fix and care for the fire and for me to prepare and cook the food and wash the dishes. Today I noticed that Jarod was getting the food out of the packs, doing some mixing, and caring for the food while it was on the fire. If he saw it needed being done, he just did it. In all the years of camping, this was the first time he had done that. I could tell that being the cook at home had conditioned him to do those things out here. Once I was aware of it, I leaned back and thought how proud I was of him.

We stayed layered up all morning as we sat on Alpha and Beta in the north wind. The fishing was slow although we did catch several fish. Jarod got a 33” pike and I got a big walleye on Alpha. Jarod had several hook sets that were lost before he could get them to the canoe. I got bit off once and broke off the white helicopter jig. Wally caught a nice pike which when filleted for lunch, had a 10” smallie inside its stomach. We saw one canoe heading east and one canoe in the north bay.

Today was a perfect day for lunch on the cliff. It afforded us to get out of the constant wind and strip down to only two layers of clothes while we sat in the sun. We saw an eagle sitting on gull rock and earlier during breakfast another was in one of the tall trees above camp. They never did take the entrails while we were on the cliff. Even on Fillet Island, we had to be out of site before the eagles would come down to the ground.

Being out of the wind was nice so we fished the west bay next to gull rock. I paddled slowly as Jarod cast a spoon for pike as we did a slow counter clockwise circle around the bay. He had a few strikes and did catch a very nice pike. It was very enjoyable to just watch him cast knowing that every cast could be a fish. We were in no hurry, so we just savored the moment of working together in the canoe on such a perfect spot of the universe.

After supper, we cast from camp shore in the dead calm water. Once again Jarod caught something with his homemade perch topwater. That thing is a fish catching machine. I gave up on the jitterbug this year and bought a new Rapala Skitter Pop. On one of my casts, I stopped reeling about half way in and I saw a pike do a slow roll out of the water to swallow it. It is so exciting when the fish come out of the water to hit a topwater.

As we sat smoking our cigars, we noticed a thin line of white clouds directly to the north. It took a few minutes for us to realize that it was dark and we couldn’t see white clouds. This was the northern lights! Right on the horizon, one white spot appeared, then a couple more, until a continuous line was formed. Then they started to swirl and grow taller, then fall, then start over again. We sat speechless as we watched something that appeared so spectacular that it must be man made but we knew it was all natural.

Slowly the entire sky to the north lit up with a white, illuminating haze. The sky and lake to the left of us was black while the sky and lake to the right of us were bright white. Every 5 minutes something else developed that we had never seen before. Then the haze developed into several bands that stretched over us from the east horizon to the west horizon. Under them to the north were bands of northern lights. It was like watching a screen saver in slow motion as it kept morphing into different designs.

It was still going on when we went to bed an hour later. When I got up to pee about 1 AM, it was still dead calm with light spots in the north and a heavy white haze all around the sky.

9-4-08. Thursday.
This is the day that signals we are half way through the trip. It was only 45 degrees this morning as I loaded up with all the layers that I had before climbing out of the tent. Now we were camping! The heavy dew deposited tiny water drops on everything in sight. A solid overcast sky prevented the sun from burning off the fog which was rolling across to the west. There were dozens of thin white spikes of fog all the same height which gave the illusion of an army of fog soldiers slowly marching across the water. As the fog began to lift, a family of 12 mergansers left the rocks just north of camp and swam off across the open water to the east.

Our buddies were sitting on Alpha again so we decided to return the favor and fish by their campsite. We went to the rock pile that is in the middle of the north channel of the bay that leads to the Wawiag. Jigging 12 cranks deep, we got several walleye, pike, and small mouth. Jarod caught a pike with his big bucktail so it gets to come back next year.

Next we moved to Walleye Island. As we paddled past Alpha, our friends had moved up shallow close to the rock piles. The rest of the morning was spent catching walleye and smallies in the little bay behind Walleye Island. We had lunch on Suick Island at a little campsite on the very tip by the main channel. It was good to see that the whole island was full of 10-15 foot pine trees spaced about 4 feet apart. The branches were all touching each other which made it a small thick forest. Lunch was spent the usual way for a cool day; sitting in the sun, out of the breeze, watching the lake and the sky. In this case we had a great view of the SE end of Kawnipi and Suick Bay.

The afternoon was spent moving around Suick Bay catching dozens of pike and smallies. We started out in the deep main channel and slowly moved into the shallow back bay. The larger pike and small mouth were in the deeper channel water and the smaller pike were in the shallow weeds. I got a smallie on a Johnson minnow while trying to catch pike. Jarod did well with his homemade perch bait, as always. We laughed as a pike jumped completely out of the water trying to hit his bait. A little while later he pulled off a fishing first and had a hooked pike jump into the canoe. He reeled the fish in next to canoe when it made a predicted run. The water exploded, the pole bent, we heard the metal sound of the lure hitting the leader, and the next thing we knew the fish came over the side and into the canoe. By the time the action had stopped, that fish must have flopped a hundred times and the entire midsection of the canoe was coated with pike slime.

Camping 2008 Part 1

Here we go, first few days of the camping journal. Nothing real exciting, but maybe that's the point. For us it is. Just a chill, relaxing trip into the woods. Oddly enough, this trip opens with probably our only competitive incident in a decade. I can only think of 2 times we've gotten into an unofficial race with a canoe. This was #2.

And to avoid confusion, "alpha" and "beta" refer to fishing spots and were spawned as jokes. We typically give our best spots nicknames so we can keep them straight. After finding alpha we went back and forth on names. After having most of mine rejected by Dad I jokingly said something about naming 'location alpha' and made some other Navy Seal joke. The name just kinda stuck. After that, beta was a pretty easy move. Yes, we get a bit strange after all that time in the woods. Might not come up in today's post, but I wanted it out there. I think I'll just do the travel days today and start next time with fishing/camping days.
Janice is the Quetico Park ranger who is almost always at the Cache Bay Station. She's only gone for 2 weeks when she gets her vacation.




A lot has happened since last year’s trip. Emily & Mike got married in October 2007, Emily and Mike bought a house in Arlington Heights, and Jarod and Hayley got married in July 2008. I felt privileged that Jarod was going to go camping with me before he even went on his own honeymoon.

9-29-08. Friday.
Jarod flew in at about 9:30 A.M. which gave us time to do some shopping. We bought a new metal gas bottle after going to several places. Last year our original plastic bottle started to leak after many years, so we replaced it with 2 new metal cans. That would give us enough fuel to cook breakfast with gas plus do our daily shore lunch. On cold days it was nice to have a fire in the morning to get warm, but if is warm or wet, using the gas sure sped up the process.

Emily got a new Boston terrier, Zinny, at the start of summer so that she could have it house broken before she went back to school in the fall. It is a high energy chewing machine and we looked after it all day. Needless to say, Zinny and Jarod got along well. We had everything packed and in the car before Mike and Emily came over for a pizza supper.

It has been very dry at home and I have been watering for several weeks. The park website said that there was no fire ban, but we never know what to expect when we actually set foot in the park.

8-30-08. Saturday.
We did the traditional up at 4 AM and on the road by 4:45 AM. The sky was clear all the way with the temperature in the 80’s. There was much more traffic than normal because Labor Day weekend was in full swing. Grand Marais was full of people as we just stopped for gas and kept on going to Clearwater. The help were all out working when we arrived at 3 PM, so we just went to BlackBear for supper a little early. It was good we did because the locals all started showing up between 4 and 5. When we got back to Clearwater, we checked in, got settled in the bunk house, and got the canoe. It was completely overgrown by wild raspberry bushes but in good shape. We noticed that the Clearwater people had been patching canoes on the back porch and left some Bondo. After Lynn gave us permission to use what was left, we mixed it up and put it on the front and back of our canoe to cover the exposed fabric. It worked very well and was dry before we put the canoe back on the car.

In the lodge we met a couple from just north of Louisville who were going to do a fly-in the next day. They had camped for years and now flew in and stayed in a cabin. No cold and wet camping for them anymore. It did sound nice. The night before entry is always an anxious time knowing that we were just sitting around killing time now but in a few hours we were going to have a huge amount of work to do. Everything in its own time and now all we could do was wait. It always seems like a treat to be in the bunk house. It has a solid roof, solid wood floors, windows, and indoor plumbing plus lots of room to walk around and a light switch. It started to get dark around 9 PM and so we got our pillows from the lodge and went to bed.

8-31-08. Sunday.
The night was dry and cool which made for good sleeping. I was already awake when the alarm rang at 5AM. Getting dressed we knew that this was the last time we would be so comfortable for quite a while. It was still dark as we walked to the lodge to use their milk with the cereal we brought with us. We left Clearwater by 6 AM and were at the landing by 6:45 in time for our 7AM pickup. We quickly loaded our gear into the tow boat and pushed off. The boat was newer than we were used to and even had a two way radio for the pilot. The radio was calling before we ever got more than 20 yards from the shore. When the pilot asked who we were, I knew what was up. We were on the wrong boat; this one was a Seagull boat and intended to take a different group. Our boat was just now coming into the bay. We circled around and unloaded all our gear just as a vehicle from Seagull came and unloaded a canoe and two people.

This was the first time anyone else had gone out the same time we had. They did not act gracious and let us get out first. They loaded their boat right next to ours with a sense of urgency that seemed they felt we were in their way. We got our gear loaded into the correct boat and left just seconds before they did. I felt very competitive at that point and found myself unhappy at the prospect that we got up in the dark, arrived at the landing 30 minutes before they did but yet they might leave first. My civilization ways hadn’t left me yet and for some reason it was important to be first.

We got to Hook Island and spent about 10 minutes talking to the pilot about good fishing spots and techniques he knew about on Kawnipi. I had to dig a hole and leave a present on the island before we started out for Janice. I knew that the other boat would be coming right behind us so we shouldn’t waist time, but our 3 packs were ready to just drop into the canoe as soon as they would pull into the bay. To our surprise, they didn’t pull into the bay but instead they stopped out in the opening, dropped their canoe into the water and loaded it from the tow boat. I was correct; they were deliberately trying to beat us to Janice. That hole was going to have to wait.

As we saw them start to paddle, it was our turn to just let them go first, or not. NOT. We jumped into our canoe and started after them. They were clearly trying to beat us and now it was an issue of honor. The west wind was picking up as they headed straight into it towards Janice. Although we were racing, I didn’t want to run them down in such an obvious fashion so I headed for the shoreline on the right. It was a longer course but we could get out of the wind and I knew that we could really fly on calm water.

Jarod knew what I was doing but expressed his belief that it wasn’t going to work. They were pulling away as we headed North rather than West. It was quite a dilemma to figure out the correct course. To just cut over and get into calmer water sooner, we would have to travel farther. To cut the angle and travel a shorter distance, we had to stay in the wind and intersect the shore farther up. I was determined to pay the distance price and work our way over sooner and get into the calm or else my plan had no advantage at all. By the time we were in the shelter of the shoreline, it seemed that we had managed to keep the distance between canoes about the same as when we started. Now we closed the gap and managed to get to the point entering Cache Bay in front of them. We were very careful to not make eye contact with them but they knew we were racing and we knew they were racing. I could see in my peripheral vision that once we got to the point their stroke count dropped and they knew they were beat.

It still was a couple miles in the wind to the ranger island and I always was wondering if they would try a last ditch effort and pass us. We kept paddling strong so as to not let them get any ideas of making a run for it. In the end, we were successful in getting to the dock first. It was a good feeling. These guys were not amateurs and we beat them.
Janice was on vacation for the week so we had a nice talk with Lisa. While we filled out the paperwork, the radio told Lisa that the forecast was for strong winds and the temperatures highs were going down to 50 later in the week. Yikes!

There was so much snow last winter and then so much spring rain that they had 50 year high water in the early summer. Only experienced people were allowed to go through the Falls Chain. First timers were not allowed to go through and had to change their trip plans. The water for us was only about two feet lower than the spring highs. The BWCA had a total fire ban but the Quetico had none although the fire danger was high.

The other canoe came in a short time after we did and they sat outside the ranger house while we finished with Lisa. I took the time to take advantage of the latrine behind the ranger cabin. It was long overdue and I knew that I couldn’t make it to Silver Falls without a stop. This way I got to sit on the throne of the victorious.

We pulled our canoe and gear over to the side of the Silver Falls portage and took time to rest. It is always fun to mix up the Gatorade, take 4 granola bars, and sit on the rocks right by the edge of the falls. It is the first time in the trip that getting wet or dirty doesn’t matter; we start to just do whatever feels right at the time. If we are tired, just sit on the dirty ground.

After about 20 minutes or so, we finished and walked back to our canoe. The other canoe was just coming into the portage as we were closing our pack. A couple minutes sooner and we would have hiked over the portage in front of them, but now we just stood there and watched them. They were very good and we were correct in thinking they were experienced. The first person got out, took a big pack, some gear, and started to portage. The other guy put the canoe on his shoulders while it was still in the water and he followed on the portage. No chance of passing them on their return trip, they were single portaging like us. That was the last time we ever saw them.

We had the wind at our backs all the way down Saganagons which really helped with our energy levels. It was hot and clear all day long; what a beautiful day. Jarod was so pleased with the BWJ pack I got him last year that he got me one this year. It did a really good job of getting the weight off my shoulders and onto my hips. Thanks son.

We mentioned to Lisa that we saw a green canoe last year in Canyon Falls when we were coming out. She told us that it had gotten away from a group of girls, nobody was hurt. After the high water washed it down in the spring, people had been breaking it up and carrying it out. We saw pieces of it on the campsite at the base of the falls as we passed by.

We were into a strong wind all the way down Wet Lake which always is very tiring by that point in the day. By the time we got the Kawnipi, there were white caps forming. We stayed close to the south shore but it took a real effort to cross the white caps to get to our camp. The water level was so high we just paddled right up to the front of camp. Jarod made the decision to move the tent to a small space just to the west of the normal spot. It worked out well as we avoided sleeping on a tree root and a rock.

I bought a new rain fly for camp and got the next larger size. It turned out to be huge. We laughed as we put it up and joked that if it were just a little bit bigger, we could move the tent under it. It was very nice to not have any leaks and it served us well the entire time we were there.

We used the gas stove to cook noodles for supper and then had our cigars while watching the night sky. There was no moon so we just watched stars and eventually were amazed at the size and brightness of the Milky Way. I had spent the summer cutting down at least a dozen trees buy hand and chopping them up into fire wood. My cardio was off the charts and it really helped me today. I was tired but not exhausted like some years.

I bought new portage shoes which worked out very well. They provided good traction, dried quickly, and offered good support. A couple weeks earlier Genelle had put a patch on the knees of my pants which she told me wouldn’t hold but I knew better. As I sat in camp at the end of the first day, both knees had already blown out. Man, I hate it when she is right like that. Now I have to go the whole trip with only one pair of pants.

Old Camping Journal

Most of you probably don't know that every summer around Labor Day my dad and I head up into the Canadian wilderness for a 1.5-2 week camping trip in the Quetico Park. And no, this is nothing like Jellystone Park or other camp grounds you may be thinking of. It's pure, untouched wilderness that has been designated as a wilderness park to keep it that way. The little island we spend our time is here: 48.377713,-91.209903. The trek begins roughly 10 miles (as the eagle flies) south east in Saganaga Lake. There is a little island, Hook Island, on US-Canada boarder (48.225049,-90.963367). We get dropped off there at ~7:30am with our 3 packs and our canoe. These are packs weighing 70, 35, and 30 lbs each, along with an extra 65lbs for the canoe once the roads and other gear gets lashed in. From there we paddle out south west, around Cache Point, and into Cache Bay to stop at the ranger station for our camping and fishing permits and to catch up with Ranger Janice. She's been manning that station for 26 years now, and we've seen her all but 1 of our ~14 trips there. After that we head north and up what is known as the "Falls Chain" route into the park. It gets it's name from the 8 or so waterfalls/rapids that must be portaged around in order to make it to Kawnipi Lake. Portages are best described as poorly-maintained trails through the woods. They are rocky, rooty, marshy, terrible things. As long as you can physically get a canoe from start to finish, no maintenance is done. You often find downed trees you have to step over, creeks you need to leap across, along with some truly dangerous drops less than a foot off of the narrow portage. All while carrying over 100lbs of gear (2 packs or a pack and the canoe). All in all, we travel something like 20 miles of portages and paddling in a really long, 10-12 hour travel day. Much longer than any outfitter would recommend, but we want to get to our little island asap so we can set up for some fishing and only make camp once.
Lucky for us, that first day is the most energy we'll have to expend for quite awhile. We'll spend the next 5-8 days just chilling on Kawnipi and fishing. We've even cut down our exploring over the years as we find more and more great fishing spots in close proximity. Each one works better/worse in various weather conditions, so we just wake up and see what mother nature has in store for us and head out to the appropriate spot. Fish for a few hours keeping only enough for lunch, then pull off at any number of great spots for shore lunch of fresh fried fillets. You really can't get any better fish than what we have. Within about 30 minutes the fish for from swimming around on the stringer to being fried and on our plates. Typically we eat mainly walleye, but depending on what we get first it could also be smallmouth bass or northern pike. You never know what they day will bring, so we just keep the first 2-3 fish we catch. After lunch and the occasional short nap we repeat the sequence for dinner. 1 less fish and a side dish is really the only difference. It's the perfect life.
Dad wisely keeps a journal during the trips so we can actually remember what happened when afterwards. It's shocking how everything just blends together even after a couple days. And you see so many incredible things, it's easy to forget some of them. Everything including fishing highlights, weather conditions, wildlife seen gets written down. Dad will then type it all up in later in a more concise and flowing form. It's always interesting to see how many comments we make about the weather when we're there. Unlike home life, it really is the driving factor in everything you do. Where you fish, what you wear, even whether or not it's safe to even leave camp. We usually have at least 1 day every trip where a front moves in and the wind/waves prevent us from safely being out in the canoe. So the journal has constant references to temperature, cloud cover, wind speed and direction, etc.
So that's the gist of what we do. And for the first time, I'm going to start publishing the journal entries here. I'll start with the 2008 trip while dad assembles the official 2010 version. (We had to skip 2009 due to my shitty job working for hellish IQuum. Not that I'm bitter or anything...)
I'll start this week and put them out there in reasonable chunks with some edits made. I'm sure no one really wants to read every detail about the trip. Anyone that wants to hear more can just let me know and you can get the unedited version. And of course I can offer up many many stories from trips past.

Lessons Learned While Biking

So I've been riding my bike to work for about 6 months now. Not every day; just 2-3 days a week. I won't ride in the rain and won't ride if I have a hockey game or something similar that night. I wouldn't say I've necessarily learned anything new about drivers, pedestrians, and other bikers during that time, but I've certainly clarified some things. Boston drivers not only are complete assholes, but they have a complete lack of respect for the 'right of way' rules.
First, the right-of-way issues. It's unexpected, but it's actually not drivers not yielding to someone else's right-of-way that pisses me off the most. It's morons stopping for absolutely no reason to let someone else go. Like when I'm waiting to cross a road and patiently for the cars that have green lights to just get out of the way so we can all move on with our lives in the most efficient way. Exactly the way that the traffic engineers that designed this system intended. But no, 1 moron decides that they should be nice to me and screw it up for everyone. 1) I'm probably not paying attention and instead taking in the scenery while I wait for their light to turn red. Meaning they sit there frustrated with me for not noticing their idiocy while other drivers do their best not to hit them. 2) I'm not going anywhere until I know everyone else on the road won't run me down. So even when I notice your stupidity, I still have to stand there until either the other drivers also stop or your light turns red. Even though it's technically a no-lose situation for me, it annoys the piss out of me. It makes other drivers hate bikers even though it's moron drivers that really caused the problem.
People talking on cell phones while driving terrify me. I see quite alot of bad driving now that I'm on the road a bit longer and really need to watch every car since they're not watching me. And while not every bad driving move I see involves a cell phone, the vast majority do. It's a simple fact of the human brain; you can't have an involved cell phone conversation and pay attention to your surroundings. Study after study has proved this out. Me watching people on their phones while driving proves this out. Yes, science has proven that roughly 2% of the US population can actually multitask. However, that means that 98% of everyone can't. Guess what...you're in that 98%!! Hang up the f'n phone and drive your car. Listen to the radio. Take in some sights and sounds. Pay f'n attention to what your doing. We all know that whatever conversation you're having can wait until you get to where you're going. I'm once again making my pledge to completely stop taking on the phone while driving. I already only do it at red lights and while stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but it's going back to a complete ban. It's comically dangerous and just unnecessary. It's also why God invented voice mail and satellite radio.

Travel "light"

This is probably going to be the first time I'll be happy that Hayley never reads these. She always claims to, but the closest she ever really gets is running her eyes over it and not really reading it. As a side note, I'm getting myself in trouble twice in this one post. Efficiency people, it's what engineers do.
Hayley is off on another interview trip this weekend, which means another round of packing and trying to shoe-horn it all into a carry-on bag. As I have seen this process a dozen times, I'm well aware of the short-comings and weaknesses. Her achilles heel is her bag of liquids. And ever time I watch this process I ask the obvious question...{dramatic pause so you all can say it with me}...do you really need all of this shit? Moisturizers, creams, gels, sprays, soaps, pastes, tubes, cylinders, bottles, it's a boggling array of shapes and colors and textures.
Today I missed the packing show, but did talk to her post-security when her flight was delayed because of weather. (Oddly enough, she should have called after landing by now. Maybe I should check on her flight...) She claims she actually made it through with more than her allotted 3-1-1 bag. Which of course prompts me to resume my "do you really need all that shit" questioning. Naturally I start with logical questions like, "What would happen if you just used hotel soap instead of your face wash?" "What if you didn't use moisturizer for a couple days?" "Can't you just use hotel shampoo and conditioner for 2 days?" And so forth. And as expected the answers get more and more annoyed as I go. Turns out it's just not something you ask a girl. Who knew?! I've seen her spend 30 minutes or more trying to fit all her liquids into an array of 3oz bottles and fit them all into a quart ziploc bag. Sometimes she quits and just checks the bag; sometimes she hopes she can get away with a little extra. All because something terrible happens if she uses hotel conditioner for 2 days.
Not for nothing, apparently similar things happen if you don't have 2 pairs of shoes for every day along with your own hair drier. But hey, I'm a guy and what do I know.
And now just to round this out in the usual way, Tyler is doing quite well. He's up to 30lbs and showing no signs of slowing down. He even got his first real big-dog tooth. Top-left canine. He's been sans tooth for a few weeks, so it looks like I'm losing my tug-of-war advantage. He's also finally able to just jump up on the couch at will. A couch that he finds very comfortable. We don't always find him up there when he's alone, but it's up to about 50/50. He still can't get up on the bed, but we know that's just a matter of months at this point.
We also swung by the breeder's house over the weekend to see some prospective puppy-owners and let them see some dogs. He had a new litter that was just up to 8 weeks and ready to go to good homes. It was shocking to picture Tyler being that small. We look over the old pictures and see it, but it's just no match for live. It wasn't that long ago that he was all tiny and unsteady. Good times, good times.
And with that, it's time to enjoy some more international beers to celebrate International Beer Day.
Peace!!