Last week we took our annual Canadian fishing trip to Keystone Lodge in Ontario. After spending a couple weeks gathering groceries, going through our old gear and buying some new necessary gear – okay, stuff I wanted whether I needed it or not anyway, booking a hotel, and visiting the Shetler boys up on Oak Ridge to purchase some night crawlers, we went south. Our often-time Canadian traveling companion and niece Angie Wright (she is Barb and Chuck's baby) was married to Brent Flesh on June 21 in Potosi. Her godmother, Ellen and I (did I mention that I'm her favorite uncle?) photographed her wedding day. It was a tad hot but perfect with lots of family and friends, laughter, speeches, good food, good drink, good music, and beautiful subjects for pictures. We stayed that night with my sister, Carolyn and her husband Jamie Scholl in Cassville.
On Sunday morning, Carolyn made coffee and served us muffins and long johns filled with raspberry cream while she warmed up a spicy breakfast casserole that Jamie made on Saturday. We visited for an hour and head north to home.
We weren't there for more than an hour. Poor Scout. She followed me to the pickup and back a couple times, obviously waiting for an invitation into the back. She gets good care from Jake and Pearl, so I am not worried about her too much. We headed out of Proksch Coulee by 11:30 – destination International Falls, Minnesota. We listened to a book on CD, John Grisham's Calico Joe. Good baseball story. We started a Louis Lamour novel on CD after that. We got a Subway at 7 PM that night in International Falls and checked into our hotel. It did not take either one of us long to crash that night after motoring the full length of Wisconsin and Minnesota north to south.
After breakfast Monday morning, I looked out our window and there was a guy opening up his rig, a Subaru pulling a Tiny Trailer. I called to him from our second floor room and asked if they ever slept in this little “camper.” He said, “Come on down and I'll show it to you.” This Tiny Trailer, is, well, tiny. It looks like an overgrown car top ski carrier. It is aerodynamically beetle shaped, maybe seven feet long. The elderly man, okay maybe 10 years older than me, opened up the rear hatch to display a full camp kitchen complete with gas camping stove, dishes, silverware, a place to work, and even USB ports. Inside the sleeping area, there is a 6' 3” mattress. His wife came along and said they had slept in it over 40 times in 2014. “It has more room than a pup tent,” she said, “and if the weather looks threatening, we get a hotel.” They were pulling it with a loaded down Subaru Forester, and she said they averaged over 20 miles to the gallon. (I didn't tell them that we were getting over 21 mpg with our loaded to the gills four-wheel drive Ranger pickup.) The catch on the cute little camper is the price. New, it sells for $15,000; I can get a whole lot of hotel rooms where there is a hot shower and at least queen-sized beds for that much folding money, and usually there is breakfast and hot coffee, that we don't have to make. Okay, I think I would become claustrophobic in that little space too. The couple was really nice though. They said they have been to some get-togethers of Tiny Camper people and really enjoyed them I wished them well, and I did not ask them why they were staying at a motel on this beautiful 90-degree plus day.
Monday morning must be the doldrums at the US/Canadian border, at least at International Falls and Fort Frances. After paying our $6 bridge crossing toll, we drove right up to the one and only border gate open. The young man was polite, checked our passports, asked a couple of questions, and wished us a good trip. Gasoline in Ontario is a hefty $5.60 a gallon or $1.49 a liter.
We got to Dryden and then Vermillion Bay and then Keystone Lodge without incident. On the way, Ellen spotted a sow and cub bear along the highway and she got some pictures. The lupine and indian paintbrush are flowering and there are millions of dragon flies or helicopter bugs. There was evidence of high water and flooding in a lot of places, but we only had to drive through water over a highway once, north of Vermillion Bay and there were Canadian DOT types monitoring each trip through the flood. (We could see the yellow and white lines on the road, so it wasn't so bad I guess.)
The 8 miles of gravel, rock, and dirt road into Keystone showed the wear and tear of many inches of rain, but it was easily traversed. There were flowers and butterflies all along the drive that is surrounded by “the bush,” thicker than usual I think. Our host, Dave Frostiak welcomed us at the lodge office and we visited some. The rest of his crew were in town filling up on supplies for the camp fry and week in camp.
El unpacked our coolers and supplies in cabin 11, while I took the pickup down to the boat launch and outfitted our fishing boat with our depth finder and trolling motor. It was warm and humid and windy and gray and the sky promised rain, but we were on the lake by 2:30 that afternoon. We started at a 2013 hot perch fishing spot several miles across the lake. We got nada, fishwise at first, but we did get wet. There was thunder and then a downpour. We sat under our big umbrellas and continued to fish. When it let up, we motored to Portage Bay and tried another favorite perch weed line. There had been enough rain that as soon as the boat got up on plane, I pulled the rear plug to drain the bilge. In Portage Bay, we hammered the perch, little bitty ones mostly – no keepers. We did put a few nice walleyes in the boat though, so we had enough for a fish fry. We got wet again, on the ride back across the lake, bouncing and bucking from one whitecap to another, splashing spray up into the wind and into our faces. El fixed boiled potatoes for supper and I fried the walleyes. After a hot shower, I made popcorn and we watched part of Lonesome Dove (we could only watch one episode as I forgot the DVD controller and it doesn't have front buttons to choose options like episode 2). I saved the evening by grabbing out Grumpy Old Men. We crashed at 11 PM, just after dark. It was still storming out.
On Tuesday morning, the temperature dropped dramatically and the storm continued; it was windy and rainy. I fried bacon while Ellen prepared eggs and toast for breakfast, and then we put on our rain gear and we went visiting; Leann Frostiak met us in the bait shop and invited us in to warm up. We visited with the Frostiak's long enough to have coffee and solve the problems of the world. Leann lost her mother to cancer in the winter and she has a long hard time of it. Daughter Heather has only one year of college yet to finish her nursing degree. Dave said, of my three sons, only Doug stayed on at the lodge. Doug has a degree in resort management and wants to do this as a career. Mike and Jeff work at the mines at Red Lake. He said minimum wage to start there was $23 an hour. “I can't compete with that here,” he said.
We got on the water by midday, motoring to Convention Bay and some good walleye and perch spots – usually. Here and there we picked up a fish. Ellen is famous for all the northerns she hooks and she finally hooked a little slimer – northern pike are slick with slime and stink like garbage, think wet dog - after rolling in fish guts on a hot day, when you get them in the boat. The rain held off and the wind started to subside. We were back in time for the 4 PM camp fry where all the camp comes out for a dinner prepared by the hosts. This year's main entree was pulled pork sandwiches, but the usual baked beans, potato salad, and wonderful cakes were present. El and I sat with a group of guys from Dallas, Texas. We discussed the Cowboys and their beloved owner – yes, I am being facetious – they all hate Jerry Jones. They are not real thrilled by their prospects again this season. One guy was a Bear fan who lived in Minneapolis for much of his life, hating the Vikings and Packers. Ouch. We were too tired to go fishing and started watching Hidalgo before we had to hit the sack.
Until next time, get out – more next time. Have a great 4th of July! Enjoy.
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