057: Heart O the Park I

Episode Transcript

[0:00:36 – 0:01:01] Erik: welcome to tumble home live in the field we’re coming to you from the round lake axis my name is adam and with me here is my good friend eric hello we’re here we’re doing it it’s a beautiful morning dead calm and we made a little bit of an audible already we were intending on maybe a uh
[0:01:03 – 0:01:18] Erik: 8 a.m. put the feed bag on trail center breakfast, but our wind forecasts look like maybe some heavier west winds coming in, and we wanted to get our butts across Tuscarora before that started, and so we’re here.
[0:01:20 – 0:01:23] Erik: Yeah, yeah, I hope you can pick up these bird audio out here.
[0:01:31 – 0:01:41] Erik: And as always, we are sponsored by Clearwater Historic Lodge and Canoe Outfitters, as well as New Trail Brewing Company.
[0:01:43 – 0:01:46] Erik: It’s a good name for the sponsor this week.
[0:01:46 – 0:01:49] Erik: We are hopefully getting out on some new trails.
[0:01:50 – 0:01:54] Erik: This is actually from Mike, friend and listener of the show.
[0:01:54 – 0:01:55] Erik: Thanks, Mike.
[0:01:55 – 0:01:58] Erik: Hopefully the name of this beer isn’t indicative of anything.
[0:01:59 – 0:02:02] Erik: This is a Broken Heels Hazy IPA.
[0:02:02 – 0:02:02] Adam: Oh, God.
[0:02:08 – 0:02:08] Weather Radio: Cheers.
[0:02:09 – 0:02:10] Weather Radio: Cheers, Mike.
[0:02:10 – 0:02:10] Weather Radio: Thank you.
[0:02:11 – 0:02:13] Weather Radio: Thank you, kind sir.
[0:02:13 – 0:02:13] Weather Radio: Ah.
[0:02:16 – 0:02:21] Weather Radio: Nothing like a 6.30 a.m. hazy IPA in a parking lot.
[0:02:21 – 0:02:27] Weather Radio: I was just telling you, I had brought a whole thermos of coffee, and I kind of forgot about it until I hit Loon Lake.
[0:02:27 – 0:02:31] Weather Radio: So I just pounded a whole thermos of coffee, and now I’m following that up with a beer.
[0:02:31 – 0:02:33] Weather Radio: This is the breakfast of champions, truly.
[0:02:35 – 0:02:40] Erik: Yeah, so I think our eyes are set on a little sag this morning, and we’ll see what ends up happening.
[0:02:40 – 0:02:46] Erik: We have two hefty, hefty packs, but we are, I would say,
[0:02:47 – 0:03:13] Erik: tightly packed yeah i’m packed pretty light i mean i didn’t even bring party lights i know i did bring a large bag of trito trito yeah we’ve got uh a lot of liquids with uh it’s they’re dense the bags are dense there’s not a lot of loose items which is my pet peeve but uh it’s gonna be uh i think we’re gonna be huffing and puffing
[0:03:14 – 0:03:41] Weather Radio: across those first two portages yeah we’re just gonna have to help each other get the packs on don’t overdo it we don’t want to get zapped in the first couple portages but what is it in little sag i think i counted there’s seven portages yeah does that sound right that sounds about right you brought your uh nat geo map i’ve got the fishers yes correct i have the nat geo and i believe it’s seven into little sag and i was listening to the uh mining episode uh last night while i was packing and
[0:03:42 – 0:03:46] Weather Radio: I believe we did say we were going to try and get a little sag and preview.
[0:03:47 – 0:03:48] Weather Radio: Check what’s in the bag.
[0:03:48 – 0:03:48] Weather Radio: Oh, yeah.
[0:03:48 – 0:03:52] Weather Radio: We’ll be hopefully doing some video of that project once we get out there.
[0:03:52 – 0:03:59] Weather Radio: And I’d like to secure a campsite perhaps out on the west side there near Elton, is it?
[0:04:00 – 0:04:03] Erik: I don’t know what’s just past Little Sag off the top of my head.
[0:04:04 – 0:04:08] Erik: To the north is Gabby, and then down to the south, yeah, is like an Elton or something.
[0:04:08 – 0:04:13] Weather Radio: Yeah, I think it’s right when you cross into Lake County there at the west end of Little Sag, then you go into Elton.
[0:04:14 – 0:04:27] Weather Radio: I think there’s a couple, there’s a good grouping of campsites down there, and with the projected western wind coming in, it’d be nice to get all the way down there, I think, and get ourselves out of that wind and then maybe set up and
[0:04:27 – 0:04:54] Erik: relax and maybe get out and do some fishing today yeah definitely thinking about going for some lake trout we have some printed uh dnr fish reports for some of the lakes we’re going through today and we might sit around the campfire and uh do a little uh impromptu in the field lake reviews i don’t think we’ll be doing all of the campsites that are on little sag but we can talk about some of the fishing numbers and maybe even eat one of those little trouts that are in there
[0:04:54 – 0:04:59] Weather Radio: Yeah, we got some stuff to eat a trout for sure.
[0:05:00 – 0:05:04] Weather Radio: But, yeah, I’ve not seen any of these fishing numbers at all.
[0:05:04 – 0:05:08] Weather Radio: I just have the little yellow book that I got from the bait shop way back when.
[0:05:08 – 0:05:09] Weather Radio: Oh, yes.
[0:05:09 – 0:05:16] Weather Radio: The ugly baby has these little books, and they just list the lake, and then, like, they access, and then what’s in them.
[0:05:16 – 0:05:19] Weather Radio: And so, like, it was, like, little sag, portage.
[0:05:20 – 0:05:49] Erik: good numbers of lake trout like that’s what i know about little sag yeah big water big fish yeah that’s another common one from the little yellow book yeah that would be a fun one to go through someday just read some of the passages from the books that were like handmade in the 70s so yeah i think we should uh get in the canoe and get moving thanks for joining us and i think it’s going to be a fun four days on the water smokes i can’t believe we got four days and this is pretty wild
[0:05:49 – 0:05:59] Erik: Yeah, the last check of the forecast, we’re looking like the only chance of rain is Tuesday, our exit date, with maybe a breezier couple of days coming up.
[0:05:59 – 0:06:03] Erik: But we’re taking advantage of the early morning calm and are going to get out on the water.
[0:06:03 – 0:06:04] Weather Radio: Absolutely.
[0:06:04 – 0:06:05] Weather Radio: Yeah, it’s glass calm.
[0:06:05 – 0:06:06] Weather Radio: The steam was rising.
[0:06:06 – 0:06:07] Weather Radio: The birds are chirping.
[0:06:07 – 0:06:09] Weather Radio: This is going to be a beautiful June trip.
[0:06:09 – 0:06:10] Weather Radio: Let’s get out there.
[0:06:25 – 0:06:29] Erik: See how long we can go before people wonder what the heck we’re doing?
[0:06:30 – 0:06:31] Erik: Oh, they know.
[0:06:31 – 0:06:31] Erik: Do they?
[0:06:32 – 0:06:37] Erik: Most people probably do.
[0:06:39 – 0:06:42] UNKNOWN: The pressure was 29.87 inches and falling.
[0:06:43 – 0:06:46] Weather Radio: Around the area, the temperatures were 64 degrees.
[0:06:47 – 0:06:49] Weather Radio: At Thunder Bay, it was partly sunny.
[0:06:50 – 0:06:52] Weather Radio: It was fair at Silver Bay and Two Harbors.
[0:06:53 – 0:06:58] Weather Radio: Elsewhere, at International Falls, it was partly sunny with a temperature of 63.
[0:06:58 – 0:07:04] Weather Radio: It was fair with a temperature of 67 at Duluth and 72 at Minneapolis.
[0:07:05 – 0:07:09] Weather Radio: Hazard information for the following counties, Northern Cook, Northern Lake, Minnesota.
[0:07:10 – 0:07:14] Weather Radio: Free as warning in effect from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time Sunday.
[0:07:15 – 0:07:22] Weather Radio: The National Weather Service in Duluth has issued a freeze warning, which is in effect from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time Sunday.
[0:07:23 – 0:07:25] Weather Radio: The frost advisory is no longer in effect.
[0:07:26 – 0:07:33] Weather Radio: The areas affected include Cootiching, North St. Louis, Northern Cook and Lake and Central St. Louis counties.
[0:07:33 – 0:07:36] Weather Radio: Temperatures 28 to 32.
[0:07:36 – 0:07:38] Weather Radio: The following impacts are expected.
[0:07:38 – 0:07:43] Weather Radio: Freezing temperatures could kill sensitive vegetation and damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.
[0:07:44 – 0:07:46] Weather Radio: Frost could harm sensitive outdoor vegetation.
[0:07:46 – 0:07:50] Weather Radio: Timing, late tonight into early Sunday morning.
[0:07:50 – 0:07:54] Weather Radio: A freeze warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely.
[0:08:11 – 0:08:13] Erik: Can you hear it?
[0:08:17 – 0:08:17] Erik: Welcome back.
[0:08:20 – 0:08:21] Erik: After we…
[0:08:21 – 0:08:23] Erik: Since we have last left you…
[0:08:25 – 0:08:28] Erik: We have found our way out to our destination.
[0:08:28 – 0:08:34] Erik: And we are on Little Sag, campsite which we have deemed 20.
[0:08:34 – 0:08:37] Adam: Yeah, we’re on LS20.
[0:08:39 – 0:08:39] Erik: We counted them.
[0:08:39 – 0:08:45] Erik: There’s 24, and in the system that we count them, we came up with it being 20.
[0:08:46 – 0:08:55] Erik: It’s on the south side, about halfway across from east to west, out on a point.
[0:08:55 – 0:08:58] Erik: We’ll talk specifics on the campsite in the review probably tomorrow morning.
[0:08:59 – 0:09:02] Erik: But let’s talk about how we got here today.
[0:09:03 – 0:09:09] Erik: So where we last left you, we were finishing a 6.30 a.m. beer in the parking lot.
[0:09:09 – 0:09:10] Adam: Yeah, that was fun.
[0:09:11 – 0:09:11] Adam: That was good.
[0:09:11 – 0:09:12] Adam: Quite memorable.
[0:09:13 – 0:09:14] Erik: A very tasty beer for sure.
[0:09:17 – 0:09:25] Adam: And we made our way across round, kind of got down, took off some layers, made our way into Missing Link.
[0:09:26 – 0:09:31] Adam: And then we single portaged the monster into Tuscarora.
[0:09:32 – 0:09:38] Adam: Eric here did a heroic effort and took the food pack and the canoe that entire way.
[0:09:38 – 0:09:44] Adam: We had originally talked about like he would maybe drop the canoe halfway and then we’d go back and get it.
[0:09:45 – 0:09:49] Adam: No, this man is a real hero and he took it the whole way.
[0:09:49 – 0:09:51] Adam: And that kind of set the tone for the whole day.
[0:09:51 – 0:09:52] Erik: Well, I appreciate that.
[0:09:52 – 0:10:06] Erik: It’s one of those things, like, we got to the other side, and I was like, yeah, I wasn’t feeling, like, great in the shoulders, but once you get the canoe up and you’re moving, it’s just way easier for me, personally, to just keep moving.
[0:10:06 – 0:10:13] Erik: And every time you do that, and we measured it last year, and it is, in fact, 355 rods.
[0:10:14 – 0:10:16] Erik: I think much shorter than most of the other maps.
[0:10:17 – 0:10:18] Adam: Even that geo says 363, and it’s not even…
[0:10:21 – 0:10:22] Adam: 350 something.
[0:10:23 – 0:10:24] Erik: It is the closest.
[0:10:24 – 0:10:35] Erik: I think the Fisher has it at like a well over 400, but even like, even at 355, it’s like, yeah, that, I mean, it, it definitely feels like it’s a 400 plus rod portage.
[0:10:36 – 0:10:56] Adam: yeah it’s a challenging one you know a lot of sucker holes where you think like is that it nope nope no that’s just another little pond or something it’s a lot of up and down and um just tricky footing on it too for like a portage it’s only two in you think it would be a little more like highway like but it’s not it’s just not
[0:10:56 – 0:10:57] Erik: The landings are great.
[0:10:57 – 0:11:00] Erik: On the Missing Link side, you’ve got a nice sandy beach.
[0:11:00 – 0:11:05] Erik: And then on the Tuscarora side, you just kind of walk right into the lake, and it’s perfect.
[0:11:05 – 0:11:05] Erik: It’s beautiful.
[0:11:05 – 0:11:07] Erik: And then we were…
[0:11:07 – 0:11:09] Erik: I mean, the morning, it was beautiful.
[0:11:09 – 0:11:13] Erik: Just glass calm, a little slight ripple from the south here and there.
[0:11:14 – 0:11:20] Erik: Nothing really to even think about more than just, it’s kind of maybe blowing a little bit.
[0:11:20 – 0:11:23] Erik: And we mentioned to start that the reason that we…
[0:11:25 – 0:11:39] Erik: Adjusted plans to a little bit of an earlier start and forewent the trail center breakfast was because of the wind forecast and we made good time across Tuscarora.
[0:11:40 – 0:11:42] Erik: Pretty straightforward portage into Owl.
[0:11:42 – 0:11:44] Erik: Straight shot over to Crooked.
[0:11:45 – 0:11:50] Erik: We actually didn’t even pull out the map until we got on the little sag down through Terry.
[0:11:51 – 0:11:53] Adam: Oh, our good friend Terry flaps.
[0:11:53 – 0:11:54] Adam: That’s a fine little lake there.
[0:11:56 – 0:12:00] Adam: The Terry rapids and falls coming in from Crooked are quite impeccable.
[0:12:01 – 0:12:02] Erik: Yeah.
[0:12:02 – 0:12:07] Erik: So, I mean, the sun was shining, the lakes were fine to us.
[0:12:07 – 0:12:14] Erik: I think we maybe swatted at a mosquito or two, maybe a black fly here and there.
[0:12:15 – 0:12:20] Erik: Nothing really, you know, it wasn’t one of those dealers like, hurry up, get in the canoe, we got to go.
[0:12:20 – 0:12:24] Erik: Some of those landings can get nasty, especially by like the running water.
[0:12:25 – 0:12:26] Erik: But the…
[0:12:27 – 0:12:34] Erik: Our favorite portage of the day, I would say, at least mine, is the last one that we took into Little Sag from Mora.
[0:12:34 – 0:12:35] Adam: Yeah, really cool.
[0:12:36 – 0:12:39] Adam: Just an incredible amount of moving water.
[0:12:39 – 0:12:42] Adam: You’re kind of just right on the edge of it the whole way down.
[0:12:42 – 0:12:48] Adam: Big rocks, big pudding top rocks in the water and big current coming in there.
[0:12:49 – 0:12:57] Weather Radio: We did at one point on that portage see a juvenile eagle like, yeah, fly off a rock, but
[0:12:58 – 0:12:59] Weather Radio: We’re above it.
[0:12:59 – 0:13:04] Adam: To see our eagle flying from above is truly a sight to behold.
[0:13:04 – 0:13:04] Erik: Yeah.
[0:13:05 – 0:13:08] Erik: So we came around the back southwest.
[0:13:10 – 0:13:39] Erik: eastern bay on little sag and it was kind of starting to blow a little bit you know the forecast was for 10 to 15 out of the west maybe gusting as high as 20 plus and kind of wanted to get out you know little sags big water uh and we were kind of eyeing the group of campsites on the south side because we’re uh heading to for sure elton tomorrow and our eyes are still still honed in on the island on adams at this point we’ve been looking at the map today
[0:13:40 – 0:13:56] Erik: And so there was a group of like six or seven campsites and we were like, well, we’ll kind of get down in this area and we’ll see what looks good and what doesn’t and whatever.
[0:13:56 – 0:14:01] Erik: The first campsite that was like, well, this is the first one that we could consider taking.
[0:14:02 – 0:14:07] Erik: I was like, well, it may be nice to get a little closer to those portages tomorrow and be, you know, just out of the wind a little bit more.
[0:14:08 – 0:14:11] Erik: It’s really going to have to be a campsite that speaks to us to take it.
[0:14:12 – 0:14:12] Adam: Absolutely.
[0:14:13 – 0:14:16] Erik: And we came around the corner and it’s this like…
[0:14:16 – 0:14:17] Adam: There should be one here.
[0:14:17 – 0:14:23] Adam: And then as we came around the corner, like it just kind of like slowly revealed and then we saw the fire grate.
[0:14:24 – 0:14:28] Adam: and it’s up on this huge rock, like way up above the lake.
[0:14:29 – 0:14:30] Adam: Wow, is that the fire grate?
[0:14:31 – 0:14:32] Adam: We may have to investigate.
[0:14:32 – 0:14:38] Erik: Yeah, I was basically, like I said, unless this thing is, like, incredible, we should push on.
[0:14:39 – 0:14:42] Erik: And we were like, hey, let’s check this out.
[0:14:42 – 0:14:45] Erik: That looks great from the water.
[0:14:46 – 0:14:47] Erik: And the landing was pretty nice.
[0:14:48 – 0:14:49] Erik: And we came up into camp.
[0:14:49 – 0:14:58] Erik: And, like, honest to God, it might be one of the finest Bonjouard’s views I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending an afternoon enjoying.
[0:14:59 – 0:14:59] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:15:00 – 0:15:00] Adam: And…
[0:15:02 – 0:15:09] Adam: Yeah, we were just saying, too, like, it’s got to be, like, an impeccable thing and something we really want to stay at.
[0:15:12 – 0:15:19] Adam: You know, it just, the view down the lake and the way it invited us in, like, it was truly meant to be.
[0:15:19 – 0:15:24] Adam: The one thing is, though, neither of us had done any research.
[0:15:24 – 0:15:26] Adam: Eric has been on Little Sag before.
[0:15:26 – 0:15:27] Adam: I have never been to Little Sag.
[0:15:28 – 0:15:32] Adam: But I didn’t do any, like, looking at Paddle Planner to see campsite reviews.
[0:15:32 – 0:15:35] Adam: I didn’t really try and look up anything on it.
[0:15:35 – 0:15:39] Adam: I kind of wanted to come into this blind just so this sort of thing could happen.
[0:15:40 – 0:15:41] Erik: It’s a lot more fulfilling when it does.
[0:15:41 – 0:15:45] Adam: Yeah, when you just stumble into a site and you’re like, this is perfect.
[0:15:45 – 0:15:47] Adam: This is absolutely amazing.
[0:15:47 – 0:15:47] Erik: Yeah.
[0:15:47 – 0:15:59] Erik: No, I totally agree, and I think that I don’t know if it was conscious or not, but, yeah, I didn’t do any pre-campsite clicking on the paddle planner or bwc80.com or whatever.
[0:15:59 – 0:16:00] Erik: You know what I think?
[0:16:00 – 0:16:07] Adam: We had heard, because we had kind of posted a few things, and people were like, well, the island site on Adams in Boulder, got to have them.
[0:16:08 – 0:16:08] Adam: Right.
[0:16:08 – 0:16:09] Adam: Well, yeah.
[0:16:09 – 0:16:10] Adam: They kind of look like they’re…
[0:16:10 – 0:16:11] Adam: I was really looking at those.
[0:16:11 – 0:16:12] Adam: I didn’t need somebody to tell me that.
[0:16:12 – 0:16:12] Adam: Yeah.
[0:16:13 – 0:16:25] Erik: But, you know, so it was like very, like, just we got up here, and it felt like, I don’t know if we ever got an official time on anything, but it was like, it felt early, and it was like…
[0:16:25 – 0:16:40] Erik: kind of starting to blow and I’m like maybe we could go a little bit farther but this view this opening just this whole the feeling of this site and then we took a walk back into the campsite and I immediately found like two like perfect
[0:16:41 – 0:16:42] Erik: That really sealed the deal.
[0:16:42 – 0:16:44] Erik: Yeah, dead standing cedars.
[0:16:45 – 0:16:56] Erik: And the fishing opportunities around this point seemed like they had, like, big drop-offs, easily casting, like, 270 degrees of, like, surrounding.
[0:16:56 – 0:16:58] Erik: You can just move around.
[0:16:58 – 0:16:59] Erik: And we…
[0:16:59 – 0:17:18] Erik: haven’t had any luck doing that but um and then yet and uh so yeah we uh we decided to do something that we haven’t done very many times if ever which is like call it kind of almost it felt like before noon
[0:17:19 – 0:17:19] Weather Radio: It was.
[0:17:19 – 0:17:22] Adam: I think it was definitely before noon when we got here.
[0:17:22 – 0:17:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:17:23 – 0:17:26] Adam: And we were like, well, no, let’s just shut it down.
[0:17:27 – 0:17:35] Adam: There’s no point in pushing, and we had said this on a previous episode, you don’t want to go out and push too hard on the first day of your first trip of the year.
[0:17:36 – 0:17:40] Adam: And while we do have big plans for mileage on this trip, and we still do,
[0:17:42 – 0:17:46] Adam: there’s no point, especially with the wind forecast and the way it did start to blow today.
[0:17:46 – 0:17:52] Adam: I’m very happy with our decision to just, you know, do a hard morning.
[0:17:52 – 0:17:53] Adam: It was a hard morning.
[0:17:53 – 0:17:54] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:17:54 – 0:17:59] Adam: And then now we’re just relaxing and having ourselves a nice time here in this beautiful campsite.
[0:18:00 – 0:18:05] Erik: Yes, and that was, like, it’d be one thing if it was, like, oh, we’re just kind of, here’s a campsite.
[0:18:05 – 0:18:08] Erik: It’s down in the back bay and kind of in the woods or whatever.
[0:18:08 – 0:18:25] Erik: But, like, we’ve had the opportunity, and we’ve been talking about this, to just, like, literally sit and watch, like, an afternoon go by in the Boundary Waters, which it’s…
[0:18:26 – 0:18:37] Erik: I feel very fortunate that we’ve been able to do it, and it’s just one of those things that we kind of forget a lot when we try to do those two-day trips where we’re just like sun up to sun down.
[0:18:38 – 0:18:53] Erik: I love those trips, but there’s a part of me that’s like, these are kind of the trips that I used to be able to take where it was like paddle real early, stop early, and then have the rest of the day to relax and enjoy where you are.
[0:18:53 – 0:18:56] Adam: Yeah, take it all in and appreciate it.
[0:18:58 – 0:19:12] Adam: We still are moving fast and working hard, but the opportunity to actually relax and take one’s surroundings in and enjoy them, pretty great if you can afford the time to do it.
[0:19:12 – 0:19:20] Adam: I feel like the trip plan here, too, is not that this was an easy day, but an easier day.
[0:19:20 – 0:19:22] Adam: But we got four days here.
[0:19:22 – 0:19:22] Erik: Yeah.
[0:19:22 – 0:19:24] Adam: And so we can kind of build on it.
[0:19:25 – 0:19:33] Adam: And anybody who’s been on a trip out here knows the third day, the fourth day, you start to get those trail muscles going.
[0:19:34 – 0:19:38] Adam: You just start to get in this mode where you can portage and run all day.
[0:19:38 – 0:19:38] Adam: Yeah.
[0:19:38 – 0:19:42] Adam: So what is the point in trying to push all the way to Boulder today?
[0:19:42 – 0:19:43] Adam: Yeah.
[0:19:43 – 0:19:45] Adam: Well, that’s silly, especially with the wind.
[0:19:46 – 0:19:48] Erik: And full, like, food packs and everything.
[0:19:48 – 0:19:49] Erik: Silly food packs.
[0:19:49 – 0:19:49] Erik: Yeah.
[0:19:49 – 0:19:50] Adam: You know, let’s just shut it down.
[0:19:51 – 0:19:52] Adam: We’ll drink a little wine.
[0:19:52 – 0:19:53] Adam: Yeah.
[0:19:53 – 0:19:54] Adam: Lighten the load a little.
[0:19:54 – 0:19:55] Adam: Eat some pizza biters.
[0:19:55 – 0:19:55] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:19:55 – 0:20:06] Erik: So we, like, almost within the half hour of setting up and doing the What’s in Your Gear Bag episode, which is out or not.
[0:20:06 – 0:20:08] Erik: I haven’t decided on what the order is there, but…
[0:20:09 – 0:20:13] Erik: We started a small little fire, maybe like the earliest fire I’ve ever started.
[0:20:14 – 0:20:14] Erik: For sure.
[0:20:14 – 0:20:22] Erik: And Adam did, in fact, buy the full jumbo bag of 50 pizza biters.
[0:20:22 – 0:20:24] Erik: With 50 pizza biters.
[0:20:24 – 0:20:28] Adam: I don’t know what it was the upgrade from 40, 45, 48, 49 or something.
[0:20:28 – 0:20:30] Adam: But now there’s 50 of them.
[0:20:30 – 0:20:35] Erik: Threw the cast iron on and cooked all of them and ate every single one of them.
[0:20:35 – 0:20:43] Erik: And then after we had done that, sat down with the bag and went through the dictionary length ingredients list.
[0:20:43 – 0:20:47] Adam: Oh boy, I did not know about this synthetic mozzarella cheese, folks.
[0:20:48 – 0:20:49] Adam: Be careful out there.
[0:20:50 – 0:20:53] Adam: Just so you know, pizza biters don’t have real cheese in them.
[0:20:54 – 0:20:56] Erik: It is imitation, and it does say it on the back.
[0:20:56 – 0:21:09] Erik: But yeah, well, we did obviously, we fell into the pitfall that is everybody’s experience with pizza biters slash rolls slash dumplings.
[0:21:10 – 0:21:15] Erik: We burned our mouths, and we won’t be able to taste anything as fully for the rest of the trip.
[0:21:15 – 0:21:17] Adam: It’s sad, but it’s true.
[0:21:17 – 0:21:17] Erik: Yeah.
[0:21:17 – 0:21:22] Erik: And after going through the ingredients list, it was like, well, no wonder the inside’s like molten.
[0:21:22 – 0:21:23] Erik: It’s all just oil.
[0:21:23 – 0:21:31] Erik: It’s just like synthetic oils and reductions of other chemicals from plants somewhere in Minneapolis.
[0:21:32 – 0:21:35] Adam: It was like oiled paprika at some point in there.
[0:21:35 – 0:21:37] Adam: Like, how do you oil a paprika?
[0:21:37 – 0:21:37] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[0:21:37 – 0:21:38] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:21:38 – 0:21:40] Adam: And I don’t want to know.
[0:21:41 – 0:21:45] Erik: So, yeah, after that, we kind of got things set up.
[0:21:45 – 0:21:47] Erik: We’ve got a couple of nice hammock sets.
[0:21:47 – 0:21:50] Erik: And then the wind, like, truly did pick up.
[0:21:50 – 0:21:52] Adam: And I was like, I’m going to lay down for a bit.
[0:21:53 – 0:21:58] Adam: It’s been a mixture, a weird mixture of, like, I want to get down to my Obama T-shirt.
[0:21:58 – 0:22:01] Adam: And I want to also be wearing all my layers at once.
[0:22:02 – 0:22:05] Adam: Because the sun has kind of been peeking on us.
[0:22:05 – 0:22:05] Adam: Yeah.
[0:22:06 – 0:22:31] Adam: here and there and so it’s like 80 degrees and hot in in one moment and then the next moment it’s cloudy and 50 degrees with a vicious wind down to like a wind chill of 40 yeah and then we had the weather radio on which you may or may not have heard about but there’s a frost warning on tonight a freeze warning freeze not even a frost warning they’re like the frost warning has been lifted yeah now it’s a freeze warning yeah
[0:22:31 – 0:23:00] Adam: so delicate plants and outdoor plumbing should be protected i hope that natalie has gotten the message and covers the tomato plants i uh i did crawl into the hammock at one point i was like i just gotta take the boots off and let the feet out and get in the hammock and apparently had an airplane fly over oh yeah i i didn’t even think i fell asleep but i guess i did zonk off because i missed the entire airplane episode what happened
[0:23:00 – 0:23:06] Erik: So yeah, just a little overview of our experiences with humankind today.
[0:23:06 – 0:23:11] Erik: We did encounter a group of four on Tuscarora that were kind of…
[0:23:12 – 0:23:14] Erik: It seemed like just leaving camp and maybe going out fishing.
[0:23:14 – 0:23:16] Erik: Didn’t really interact with them.
[0:23:17 – 0:23:22] Erik: And since then, we have not seen another canoe or obviously another person.
[0:23:22 – 0:23:24] Erik: But when you were laying down, I was just kind of sitting…
[0:23:26 – 0:23:33] Erik: Looking out on the lake, looking at the map, and then all of a sudden the distant din kind of became a distant hum.
[0:23:34 – 0:23:38] Erik: And then all of a sudden it was just a directly overhead roar.
[0:23:38 – 0:23:43] Erik: I’ve never had a seaplane fly directly overhead ever out here.
[0:23:43 – 0:23:45] Erik: I’ve heard them kind of off in the distance.
[0:23:45 – 0:23:46] Adam: Yeah, I’ve seen them off in the distance.
[0:23:46 – 0:23:53] Adam: Like when we did our Frost River trip last year, I saw one and I was like, it looks like it’s kind of over by Little Seg.
[0:23:54 – 0:23:57] Adam: So I don’t know what’s going on over here.
[0:23:57 – 0:23:59] Erik: It was heading, it came straight from the east.
[0:23:59 – 0:24:02] Erik: Definitely over the park.
[0:24:03 – 0:24:05] Adam: Definitely underneath the ceiling.
[0:24:06 – 0:24:07] Adam: We know it’s you, Forest Service.
[0:24:07 – 0:24:08] Erik: We know it’s you.
[0:24:08 – 0:24:09] Adam: What are you guys up to out there?
[0:24:10 – 0:24:12] Erik: It was straight east to west.
[0:24:12 – 0:24:17] Erik: It wasn’t looping or turning, but it was like, what are the odds that that thing went directly overhead this campsite?
[0:24:19 – 0:24:22] Adam: The only campsite on Little Sag that is occupied.
[0:24:22 – 0:24:25] Adam: We literally are the only people on this lake today.
[0:24:25 – 0:24:29] Erik: I don’t know about literally, because we have only paddled by five of them.
[0:24:31 – 0:24:32] Erik: There could be other people out there.
[0:24:34 – 0:24:35] Erik: We just don’t see them.
[0:24:35 – 0:24:39] Erik: And considering the wind, I don’t know if there’s going to be too many people moving.
[0:24:39 – 0:24:41] Adam: Yeah, I think everybody’s just kind of hunkered down.
[0:24:41 – 0:24:45] Erik: Yeah, there was three or four vehicles that the Ron Lake put in and…
[0:24:46 – 0:24:56] Erik: But, yeah, so I think the decision to forego the breakfast, I think, definitely saved us a little bit of work, at least on Little Sag.
[0:24:56 – 0:24:59] Adam: Sure, and we made up for it with the pizza dumplings.
[0:24:59 – 0:25:01] Adam: So no big deal there.
[0:25:02 – 0:25:05] Adam: And it sounds like you also brought some pizza dumplings.
[0:25:05 – 0:25:06] Erik: I did.
[0:25:06 – 0:25:07] Adam: All right.
[0:25:07 – 0:25:09] Adam: So we didn’t really lose out on that either.
[0:25:09 – 0:25:13] Adam: I mean, I was at the grocer, and I said, well,
[0:25:14 – 0:25:18] Adam: You can get the little pack, but for a dollar more, you can get 50.
[0:25:19 – 0:25:22] Adam: We found out Totino’s are made in the Twin Cities.
[0:25:22 – 0:25:24] Adam: There’s synthetic cheese and all of that.
[0:25:24 – 0:25:33] Erik: I knew that they were from the Twin Cities because the Totino family is like some way, shape, or form involved with Totino Grace, the high school.
[0:25:33 – 0:25:34] Erik: Sick.
[0:25:34 – 0:25:36] Erik: It’s probably all they have for school lunches.
[0:25:36 – 0:25:42] Erik: Just pizza biters and those weird cracker crust pizzas that feed like a child, barely.
[0:25:43 – 0:25:54] Erik: So, yeah, we did, like I said, one of the first times in a long time we’ve had an afternoon out here like this of just kind of enjoying it.
[0:25:54 – 0:26:01] Erik: And the best part about it is it’s just been like a constant kind of rolling of like these crazy clouds that are like.
[0:26:01 – 0:26:03] Erik: I saw one that looked like a dragon before.
[0:26:03 – 0:26:04] Erik: It was amazing.
[0:26:04 – 0:26:07] Erik: Yeah, we’ve been having a good time just watching the day go by.
[0:26:07 – 0:26:07] Erik: We don’t.
[0:26:08 – 0:26:11] Adam: just shut her down early like this very often.
[0:26:11 – 0:26:12] Adam: And so it has been very enjoyable.
[0:26:13 – 0:26:13] Erik: Yeah.
[0:26:13 – 0:26:17] Erik: No, and if you can’t tell, we’re sort of, like, trying to… Hey, hey, hey, we…
[0:26:18 – 0:26:19] Erik: It was a relatively hard morning.
[0:26:19 – 0:26:20] Erik: Don’t worry.
[0:26:20 – 0:26:23] Erik: Because, like, we’re trying to make up for it because I still haven’t, like…
[0:26:24 – 0:26:31] Erik: I haven’t accepted that we’ve done it fully yet because we rarely do it, but I’m glad we did.
[0:26:31 – 0:26:37] Adam: Yeah, and I am too, especially as we had said in an earlier episode, you don’t want to go too hard early in the season.
[0:26:38 – 0:26:42] Adam: This is literally the first day I have put a paddle in the water.
[0:26:42 – 0:26:43] Adam: You’ve been out.
[0:26:43 – 0:26:45] Adam: I’ve been out, but I have not been portaging.
[0:26:45 – 0:26:46] Adam: Not like crazy or anything.
[0:26:46 – 0:26:47] Adam: No, not at all.
[0:26:48 – 0:26:49] Adam: I mean, I’m sore.
[0:26:49 – 0:26:55] Adam: You know, we, I don’t know what, we didn’t calculate the mileage, but that was seven portages, including the Tuscarora portage.
[0:26:57 – 0:27:00] Adam: And that’s a tough first day for the season.
[0:27:00 – 0:27:01] Adam: So you don’t want to go too hard.
[0:27:01 – 0:27:14] Erik: Well, when it’s the fully loaded, dense as a dying sun food pack and gear bag, it’s, I mean, it’s just the process of lifting and dropping them into the canoes more than anything else that you’re
[0:27:14 – 0:27:39] Erik: twisting and wrenching muscles that you haven’t used in like eight months oh i’m so sore i’m sore in many ways right now only things that uh red wine can can soothe yeah and we are soothing with the red wine as of right now i’m sure you can tell but um do you have anything else to cover in terms of the day’s events happenings conversations that we had that
[0:27:39 – 0:27:47] Adam: Well, I would just like to mention the milky pollen.
[0:27:47 – 0:27:50] Adam: What the fuck is going on with this pollen?
[0:27:50 – 0:27:51] Adam: It’s everywhere.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:56] Adam: I’ve never seen pollen like this, and I would definitely need to mention this.
[0:27:56 – 0:28:03] Adam: Every time we’ve come to a landing on the west side of a lake, there’s literally been a blanket of pollen.
[0:28:04 – 0:28:06] Adam: I’ve seen pollen before, folks.
[0:28:07 – 0:28:09] Adam: I’ve never seen pollen like this.
[0:28:09 – 0:28:13] Adam: It’s literally, you can wave it and wrinkle it like a blanket.
[0:28:13 – 0:28:16] Erik: Yeah, you can scoop it up with your hand without even touching the water.
[0:28:16 – 0:28:16] Adam: It’s gross.
[0:28:16 – 0:28:17] Adam: It’s really gross.
[0:28:17 – 0:28:19] Adam: I mean, it’s gross, but it’s like…
[0:28:19 – 0:28:49] Erik: also interesting yeah no it’s also interesting in a gross way so like the other fun thing with that is today we’ve been watching it like it’ll like that pollen will like come whipping around the island that’s out in front of us and then just like form like a crazy streak of a line down the lake it’s just just watching it is like like you said like i’ve been out here i’ve seen pollen we get pollen at clear water every spring but this is the heaviest pollen and i don’t know why but it’s thick as a blanket
[0:28:49 – 0:29:17] Adam: yeah who knows anyways that’s the deal out here you want to go over the fishing numbers quick i think we should run down not that we’ve uh been out doing too much but it’s too windy too windy and i got my slippers on and i really don’t feel like getting back in the canoe at this point but perhaps in the morning we will try we’ve eric’s cast a few times off the shore here we i’m sure we’ll definitely cast off the shore as we hit the sunset bite but uh what do you got for fishing numbers
[0:29:20 – 0:29:23] Erik: So, Little Saganaga.
[0:29:24 – 0:29:25] Erik: Saganaga?
[0:29:25 – 0:29:26] Erik: Saganaga.
[0:29:26 – 0:29:27] Erik: Saganaga.
[0:29:27 – 0:29:28] Erik: That one I heard the other day.
[0:29:28 – 0:29:29] Erik: Saganaga.
[0:29:29 – 0:29:29] Erik: Saganaga.
[0:29:30 – 0:29:32] Erik: Little Saganaga Lake.
[0:29:32 – 0:29:36] Erik: We were talking also, like, a lake of this size in the Bon Jovi that says little.
[0:29:37 – 0:29:39] Erik: It’s only because it’s compared to the big one.
[0:29:39 – 0:29:40] Adam: It’s the Little Sebastian of lakes.
[0:29:41 – 0:29:43] Erik: That majestic beast.
[0:29:43 – 0:29:45] Erik: Little Sebastian.
[0:29:45 – 0:29:48] Adam: Ten thousand candles in the wind.
[0:29:50 – 0:29:54] Erik: So I just want to point out right away that there are slimy sculpin in here.
[0:29:55 – 0:29:56] Adam: Sick.
[0:29:56 – 0:29:59] Adam: I mean, could you… That would explain all the pollen.
[0:30:00 – 0:30:01] Erik: Yeah, it’s the slimy sculpin.
[0:30:01 – 0:30:02] Adam: I’ve never been here.
[0:30:02 – 0:30:03] Adam: That makes sense.
[0:30:03 – 0:30:04] Erik: All right.
[0:30:04 – 0:30:08] Erik: Well, it’s just like, come on, you can think of a better name for a fish than that.
[0:30:09 – 0:30:11] Erik: So little Saganaga.
[0:30:12 – 0:30:19] Erik: It’s got burbot, eel pout, that is, lake trout, northern pike, white sucker, and perch.
[0:30:20 – 0:30:23] Erik: It’s got a relatively low number on the burbots.
[0:30:24 – 0:30:31] Erik: Honestly, for the size of the lake, a relatively low-looking number in terms of lake trout and size.
[0:30:32 – 0:30:34] Erik: They only caught 15 between 12 and 24.
[0:30:34 – 0:30:35] Adam: What year is this, Dan?
[0:30:35 – 0:30:36] Adam: 2011.
[0:30:36 – 0:30:36] Adam: Okay.
[0:30:37 – 0:30:37] Erik: Okay.
[0:30:41 – 0:30:48] Erik: Northern pike seems like the highest numbers of anything besides the white sucker, which are running pretty, well, I don’t know.
[0:30:48 – 0:30:49] Adam: Yeah, I got one big one.
[0:30:49 – 0:30:50] Erik: One big northern.
[0:30:51 – 0:30:53] Adam: It looks like a lake that would have some big pike in it.
[0:30:53 – 0:30:54] Erik: Oh, yeah, for sure.
[0:30:54 – 0:30:56] Adam: Especially considering the amount of feed in here.
[0:30:56 – 0:30:57] Erik: Yeah.
[0:30:58 – 0:31:00] Erik: White sucker, there’s 95 of them netted.
[0:31:00 – 0:31:03] Erik: 51 between 15 and 19.
[0:31:03 – 0:31:09] Erik: And then a pretty decent amount of small yellow perch.
[0:31:10 – 0:31:13] Erik: I’m just going to read a little bit off here the status of the fishery.
[0:31:15 – 0:31:18] Erik: The lake has low to medium density population of lake trout.
[0:31:19 – 0:31:29] Erik: The 2011 catch was slightly higher than catches in 1987, 93, and 98, but remained near the low end of the usual range for this class of lake.
[0:31:30 – 0:31:33] Erik: Size of lake trout taken in assessments have been small to medium.
[0:31:34 – 0:31:38] Erik: None have ever been taken over 24 inches, but anglers have taken larger fish, I’m sure.
[0:31:40 – 0:31:47] Erik: Mean weight from the 2011 assessment was within range of mean weight from previous assessments.
[0:31:48 – 0:31:50] Erik: I wonder why this lake doesn’t have larger lake trout in it.
[0:31:51 – 0:31:53] Erik: It seems like it’s like a classic…
[0:31:54 – 0:32:11] Adam: lake trout lake i don’t know like it does but they just aren’t they can’t net them maybe that’s it yeah they’re netting uh whatever nets they’re using aren’t designed or maybe you know i mean there’s always the thing with big lake trout they’re wily yeah very very smart they can avoid nets
[0:32:12 – 0:32:13] Adam: It’s kind of like smallies.
[0:32:13 – 0:32:15] Adam: You always say, like, yeah, smallies are harder than that.
[0:32:15 – 0:32:16] Adam: So are big lake trout.
[0:32:16 – 0:32:25] Adam: Any lake trout that can live to be the size of 25 inches can also kind of like, hey, they have pretty good eyes, I would say.
[0:32:25 – 0:32:32] Erik: Well, I mean, that could definitely play into it, but this next paragraph here might explain it a little bit, at least according to the Minnesota DNR.
[0:32:33 – 0:32:40] Erik: So lake trout have not been stocked here since 1950, so natural reproduction was responsible for the entire 2011 catch.
[0:32:42 – 0:32:46] Adam: I can’t believe how much they used to stock all these lakes up here.
[0:32:46 – 0:32:46] Adam: Yeah.
[0:32:46 – 0:32:47] Erik: It’s ridiculous.
[0:32:48 – 0:32:48] Erik: Yeah.
[0:32:48 – 0:32:51] Erik: But here, this is, I think, maybe the explanation we’re looking for.
[0:32:52 – 0:32:54] Erik: Several year classes were present.
[0:32:54 – 0:32:59] Erik: Growth rates appeared to have been about average or slightly slower compared to other lakes in this class.
[0:33:00 – 0:33:05] Erik: The lake has no high-quality forage fish species that would…
[0:33:05 – 0:33:14] Erik: Well, they’re saying that because the lake doesn’t have any high quality forage, fish species that would promote growth to larger sizes, that’s why they’re smaller trout.
[0:33:15 – 0:33:24] Erik: So that is based also on the fact that the ones that they were netting were found to only have yellow perch and sculpin in their stomachs.
[0:33:24 – 0:33:25] Erik: Oh, that’s slimy.
[0:33:26 – 0:33:26] Erik: Yeah.
[0:33:28 – 0:33:28] Erik: Oh, my gosh.
[0:33:28 – 0:33:30] Erik: I’m going to have so much work to do.
[0:33:30 – 0:33:31] Erik: Yeah.
[0:33:31 – 0:33:32] Erik: I can’t even think.
[0:33:32 – 0:33:33] Erik: How many is that now?
[0:33:33 – 0:33:34] Erik: That’s a lot.
[0:33:34 – 0:33:35] Adam: That’s like four or five.
[0:33:35 – 0:33:37] Adam: That’s at least three or four slimy Sculpins.
[0:33:37 – 0:33:39] Erik: Yeah.
[0:33:39 – 0:33:42] Adam: You want to bleep those out because you don’t want people hearing about the Sculpin.
[0:33:42 – 0:33:50] Erik: We were talking about your America Expletive Yeah hat as well on the gear show.
[0:33:52 – 0:33:53] Erik: I’m just living my life.
[0:33:53 – 0:33:57] Erik: I’m not going to criticize you for not being censored out in the park here.
[0:33:57 – 0:34:03] Erik: We were talking about some things before that if the mic was on, you guys would all probably… Stop listening.
[0:34:03 – 0:34:05] Erik: No, become popping-a-wheelers.
[0:34:05 – 0:34:06] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:34:06 – 0:34:08] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:34:08 – 0:34:09] Adam: That sounds right.
[0:34:09 – 0:34:10] Adam: Yeah, that sounds about right.
[0:34:10 – 0:34:14] Erik: So, yeah, everything else is just on Northern Pike, White Sucker, and Burbot.
[0:34:14 – 0:34:15] Erik: I was mostly interested in the lake trout.
[0:34:16 – 0:34:17] Adam: What about the Northern Pike?
[0:34:17 – 0:34:18] Adam: All right.
[0:34:18 – 0:34:18] Adam: What does this have to say?
[0:34:18 – 0:34:19] Adam: I’d love to hear about the pike.
[0:34:20 – 0:34:20] Erik: Okay.
[0:34:20 – 0:34:21] Erik: I’m a big pike fan.
[0:34:22 – 0:34:23] Erik: Big pike fan.
[0:34:24 – 0:34:26] Adam: I’ve had two pike in my life over 40.
[0:34:26 – 0:34:28] Adam: Is there any of those in here?
[0:34:28 – 0:34:28] Erik: No.
[0:34:28 – 0:34:36] Adam: I know they didn’t claim to catch them, but I feel like this is a lake that definitely has a lot of beefy pike in it.
[0:34:36 – 0:34:37] Erik: I could see it, yeah.
[0:34:37 – 0:34:41] Erik: I mean, I would say any lake of this size has that potential.
[0:34:42 – 0:34:46] Erik: They said that the northern pike catches in Little Saganaga.
[0:34:48 – 0:34:51] Erik: have been generally high for this class of lake.
[0:34:52 – 0:34:55] Erik: The 2011 catch was slightly higher than previous catches.
[0:34:56 – 0:35:05] Erik: Natural reproduction appears to have been consistently successful in the lake, and several year classes contributed to the 2011 catch.
[0:35:05 – 0:35:09] Erik: Growth rates of northern pike had been close to average for the lake class.
[0:35:10 – 0:35:16] Erik: So not as much information there on the northern pike than they were providing on the lake trout for this lake, so…
[0:35:16 – 0:35:19] Adam: Well, that’s not… Yeah, they’re not getting the funding to study the pike.
[0:35:20 – 0:35:31] Erik: Yeah, well, that’s like half of the ones we were looking at, we were kind of going through some of the lakes that we were going to be in, and it was like, well, we were planning on coming out and doing some surveys, but funding ran out.
[0:35:31 – 0:35:32] Erik: So the last survey was 1962.
[0:35:32 – 0:35:33] Erik: 1962.
[0:35:34 – 0:35:37] Adam: But just some information.
[0:35:37 – 0:35:44] Adam: And a good stock of covered wagons and wagon wheels and oatmeal.
[0:35:45 – 0:35:47] Adam: Back in them days.
[0:35:47 – 0:35:49] Adam: A lot of dust and wind.
[0:35:51 – 0:35:51] Adam: Oh, yes.
[0:35:52 – 0:35:54] Adam: And old trees.
[0:35:56 – 0:36:01] Erik: So, are there aliens around?
[0:36:01 – 0:36:04] Adam: All right, now we’re getting… Are we going to hit pause and reset on this?
[0:36:05 – 0:36:06] Adam: We’re getting into aliens?
[0:36:07 – 0:36:08] Adam: Pause and reset?
[0:36:08 – 0:36:08] Adam: Whatever.
[0:36:08 – 0:36:10] Erik: I’m asking the audience.
[0:36:10 – 0:36:10] Erik: Okay.
[0:36:10 – 0:36:13] Erik: Send us emails at go… No, that’s my personal email.
[0:36:14 – 0:36:14] Erik: Sorry.
[0:36:15 – 0:36:16] Adam: You almost gave it away.
[0:36:16 – 0:36:18] Erik: Tummelholm at gmail.com.
[0:36:19 – 0:36:20] Erik: Go Quetico at Yahoo.
[0:36:20 – 0:36:21] Erik: Yes, Yahoo.
[0:36:22 – 0:36:23] Adam: If you want to call him up.
[0:36:23 – 0:36:25] Erik: I get enough crap on that email already.
[0:36:25 – 0:36:26] Erik: I don’t care.
[0:36:30 – 0:36:32] Erik: How much is an email these days?
[0:36:32 – 0:36:34] Erik: I can start 10 tomorrow if I wanted.
[0:36:35 – 0:36:36] Erik: Yeah, you could.
[0:36:36 – 0:36:36] Erik: I could.
[0:36:37 – 0:36:38] Erik: No, I don’t know.
[0:36:38 – 0:36:41] Erik: We don’t need to talk about aliens, but we were talking about them.
[0:36:41 – 0:36:46] Erik: And just so you all know, me and Adam are both pretty pro-alien.
[0:36:46 – 0:36:48] Adam: We are, and let’s be realistic.
[0:36:49 – 0:36:49] Adam: I mean…
[0:36:50 – 0:36:51] Adam: Just look at the clouds.
[0:36:51 – 0:36:53] Adam: Look at the trees around you.
[0:36:53 – 0:36:55] Adam: You think that we’re the only ones around here?
[0:36:55 – 0:36:56] Erik: Well, no.
[0:36:56 – 0:36:59] Erik: You’re on more of the simulation argument here.
[0:36:59 – 0:37:03] Adam: Well, I also believe in simulation, but I also believe that this is real.
[0:37:04 – 0:37:05] Adam: And that they are here.
[0:37:06 – 0:37:07] Adam: They’ve always been here.
[0:37:07 – 0:37:07] Adam: Okay.
[0:37:07 – 0:37:11] Erik: I’m kind of on the… You’re just taking… You just believe in everything.
[0:37:11 – 0:37:12] Adam: Yeah, I do.
[0:37:12 – 0:37:12] Adam: Yeah.
[0:37:12 – 0:37:13] Adam: Yeah.
[0:37:14 – 0:37:15] Adam: For sure, yeah.
[0:37:15 – 0:37:16] Adam: I believe in it all.
[0:37:17 – 0:37:17] Adam: All right.
[0:37:17 – 0:37:26] Erik: Well, all right, you don’t necessarily believe in it all, but just so we can kind of clear the air, let’s just say that you could believe in any possible scenario.
[0:37:27 – 0:37:28] Adam: Let’s just say I’m open-minded.
[0:37:28 – 0:37:29] Adam: There you go.
[0:37:29 – 0:37:29] Adam: Yeah.
[0:37:29 – 0:37:30] Adam: Nice.
[0:37:30 – 0:37:32] Adam: I would like to think I’m open-minded.
[0:37:33 – 0:37:34] Erik: I would like to think you are as well.
[0:37:35 – 0:37:38] Erik: Well, yeah, I think that’s a good place to end it here.
[0:37:39 – 0:37:39] Erik: We’re…
[0:37:40 – 0:37:43] Erik: Kind of considering some extra layers here.
[0:37:44 – 0:37:46] Erik: My wine cup is empty.
[0:37:46 – 0:37:48] Adam: There’s a freeze warning on.
[0:37:48 – 0:37:50] Adam: Yeah, we talked about that.
[0:37:51 – 0:37:54] Adam: It’s time to probably get our dinner prep on.
[0:37:55 – 0:37:59] Erik: We got to get our vulnerable plants covered, our plumbing.
[0:38:00 – 0:38:03] Erik: We got to blow out some lines and get some insulation on some stuff.
[0:38:05 – 0:38:06] Adam: Yeah, it sounds good.
[0:38:06 – 0:38:11] Adam: So we’re going to hit that, and we appreciate you joining us on this trip.
[0:38:12 – 0:38:20] Adam: We are on the best site on Little Sag, and we are really looking forward to what’s going to happen.
[0:38:20 – 0:38:21] Adam: We’re going west from here even.
[0:38:22 – 0:38:26] Adam: I think tomorrow morning we’re going to be crossing over into Lake County.
[0:38:27 – 0:38:27] Adam: We are, yeah.
[0:38:27 – 0:38:29] Adam: We’re just on the edge.
[0:38:29 – 0:38:34] Adam: And it’s a really fortunate position that we are in.
[0:38:34 – 0:38:40] Adam: We were talking earlier about how lucky we are to live in this spot and be able to be out here all the time.
[0:38:40 – 0:38:43] Adam: So we’re not really out here all the time, though.
[0:38:43 – 0:38:44] Adam: And so we are now.
[0:38:45 – 0:38:46] Adam: So we’re trying to make the most of it.
[0:38:46 – 0:38:47] Weather Radio: Yes, we are.
[0:38:48 – 0:38:49] Adam: And so, yeah, I don’t know.
[0:38:50 – 0:38:51] Erik: It’s time for us to start cooking some dinner.
[0:38:52 – 0:38:55] Erik: Yeah, we have an imminent potential.
[0:38:56 – 0:39:01] Erik: Well, obviously the sunset is going to happen, but there is the potential for it to be a nice one.
[0:39:01 – 0:39:06] Erik: We’ve got some clouds happening, and we’re perfectly positioned to the west.
[0:39:07 – 0:39:15] Erik: And say what you will, but we might even crank up the radio tonight and try to catch the Stanley Cup finals.
[0:39:15 – 0:39:16] Adam: Yeah, go blues.
[0:39:16 – 0:39:18] Adam: I feel real sick saying that.
[0:39:19 – 0:39:20] Adam: It’s better than the Bruins.
[0:39:21 – 0:39:24] Adam: Well, and also go lizard people.
[0:39:25 – 0:39:26] Adam: Maybe we’ll get some lizard people in here.
[0:39:26 – 0:39:29] Erik: Maybe some lizard people or some greys will stop by.
[0:39:29 – 0:39:30] Erik: I don’t want to see the greys.
[0:39:30 – 0:39:33] Erik: No, not the human greys, the ones from space.
[0:39:33 – 0:39:35] Erik: No, I’m talking about the greys from space.
[0:39:35 – 0:39:36] Erik: I don’t like those.
[0:39:36 – 0:39:37] Erik: They’re very creepy.
[0:39:37 – 0:39:39] Erik: The Nordics are fun, though, too.
[0:39:39 – 0:39:44] Adam: Yeah, I’d be okay with Nordics or lizard people, but I don’t want to see greys.
[0:39:45 – 0:39:47] Adam: I guess if they’re gentle, it’s okay.
[0:39:47 – 0:39:48] Erik: Oh, they’re gentle.
[0:39:48 – 0:39:52] Erik: They’re the ones that made the deal with Dwight D. Eisenhower to harvest humans whenever they needed to.
[0:39:52 – 0:39:52] Adam: Oh, okay.
[0:39:52 – 0:39:54] Adam: Well, if that’s the case, then fine.
[0:39:54 – 0:39:56] Erik: As long as we’re not those humans.
[0:39:57 – 0:39:59] Adam: Yeah, as long as they don’t mess with our canoe routes.
[0:39:59 – 0:39:59] Erik: No.
[0:40:00 – 0:40:01] Adam: They’re not trying to mine, are they?
[0:40:02 – 0:40:02] Adam: No.
[0:40:03 – 0:40:09] Adam: If the aliens start to try and get at our copper and mineral resources, then I’m going to have a real issue.
[0:40:09 – 0:40:11] Adam: Otherwise, they can do whatever they want.
[0:40:11 – 0:40:13] Erik: I don’t think they have any interest in our precious metals.
[0:40:13 – 0:40:18] Erik: I think they just have interest in the fact that we can feel emotions, and they need to harvest that.
[0:40:18 – 0:40:24] Adam: It is interesting to think about an animal species you’re not familiar with who also can feel.
[0:40:24 – 0:40:24] Erik: Yes.
[0:40:26 – 0:40:30] Erik: I think they’re emotionless, and they’re very interested in our emotions and our drives.
[0:40:32 – 0:40:33] Erik: And our hot meat.
[0:40:34 – 0:40:37] Adam: Well, we do have a bag full of frozen meat.
[0:40:37 – 0:40:38] Adam: Yes.
[0:40:38 – 0:40:41] Adam: And so, sorry, aliens.
[0:40:42 – 0:40:43] Adam: That’s ours.
[0:40:43 – 0:40:45] Adam: Get away from our meats.
[0:40:46 – 0:40:47] Adam: Thanks for helping me out on that one.
[0:40:47 – 0:40:48] Weather Radio: We’re at the end.
[0:40:48 – 0:40:49] Weather Radio: That’s the end of this track.
[0:40:50 – 0:40:52] Adam: And we’ll check back with you after dinner.
[0:40:52 – 0:40:54] Adam: We obviously have to have some dinner.
[0:40:55 – 0:40:55] Adam: Obviously.
[0:41:48 – 0:42:16] Erik: good morning little sag we’re back we survived the night the frost slash freeze warning mostly unaffected by it and we’re gonna do a little campsite review here for you guys yeah as we like to do we like to spend a whole night in the site and have a few meals and then do the campsite review you don’t want to give it some time to really um
[0:42:16 – 0:42:19] Weather Radio: leave its impression on you before you pass out the grades.
[0:42:20 – 0:42:22] Weather Radio: It wouldn’t be fair to do it the first day you’re here.
[0:42:22 – 0:42:24] Weather Radio: So we always like to do them in the morning.
[0:42:25 – 0:42:27] Weather Radio: Yeah, I did okay.
[0:42:27 – 0:42:29] Weather Radio: My feet were very cold in the sleeping bag last night.
[0:42:30 – 0:42:34] Weather Radio: My bag is just not rated for that kind of temperatures, especially being in a hammock.
[0:42:34 – 0:42:40] Weather Radio: So I think tonight I’ll be boiling some water and putting a hot Nalgene bottle down by the feet, so that should help.
[0:42:41 – 0:42:45] Weather Radio: And I was on the side that got the early morning sun, so that was nice.
[0:42:46 – 0:42:54] Erik: Yeah, the robot man told us that it’s going to be another cold night tonight, which I know, I think if you get that water bottle in there, you should be fine.
[0:42:54 – 0:42:59] Erik: It is kind of, you know, maybe a little on the cold side, but I also think it’s greatly…
[0:43:00 – 0:43:04] Erik: helping us in keeping the black flies from coming out in true form.
[0:43:04 – 0:43:08] Erik: Because they’re around, but I think they get knocked down at night with those freezing temperatures.
[0:43:08 – 0:43:10] Erik: They maybe come out a little bit in the afternoon.
[0:43:11 – 0:43:14] Erik: So that should be helpful in that regard.
[0:43:15 – 0:43:18] Weather Radio: So that said, we can’t hold the temperatures against this campsite.
[0:43:19 – 0:43:20] Weather Radio: No.
[0:43:20 – 0:43:22] Weather Radio: And it’s a beautiful campsite.
[0:43:22 – 0:43:25] Weather Radio: But I guess we can start with the hammock sets.
[0:43:25 – 0:43:26] Weather Radio: We easily found two.
[0:43:26 – 0:43:28] Weather Radio: I was kind of set up back here.
[0:43:28 – 0:43:29] Erik: Yeah, let’s take a walk.
[0:43:31 – 0:43:36] Erik: See, we were nicely packed up here and ready to go, so you didn’t see the absolute strewedness.
[0:43:38 – 0:43:40] Erik: This is, I think, where you were set up, right?
[0:43:40 – 0:43:43] Weather Radio: Yeah, I was right off that cedar to the spruce over here.
[0:43:43 – 0:43:44] Weather Radio: Very nice.
[0:43:44 – 0:43:45] Weather Radio: Multi-species deal.
[0:43:45 – 0:43:47] Weather Radio: I had a little path down to the water there.
[0:43:48 – 0:43:48] Weather Radio: Oh, yeah.
[0:43:48 – 0:43:51] Weather Radio: I did get up this morning and took a few casts down there.
[0:43:51 – 0:43:51] Erik: Nothing.
[0:43:52 – 0:43:52] Weather Radio: Nothing.
[0:43:52 – 0:43:56] Weather Radio: No trout for breakfast, but a nice spot to hang.
[0:43:56 – 0:43:59] Weather Radio: We had stayed up late enough where I could actually kind of look at the stars from
[0:44:00 – 0:44:01] Weather Radio: overhead here last night.
[0:44:02 – 0:44:03] Erik: We did get some star action.
[0:44:03 – 0:44:04] Weather Radio: Yeah, it was a really pretty night.
[0:44:05 – 0:44:07] Weather Radio: So very happy with my hammock set over here.
[0:44:08 – 0:44:12] Adam: We had a couple more options.
[0:44:12 – 0:44:12] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:44:12 – 0:44:18] Weather Radio: I mean, it wasn’t super hammocky, but I think if you had four people with hammocks, you’d figure it out.
[0:44:18 – 0:44:22] Erik: Oh yeah, there’s definitely some deep woods opportunities for hammocks as well.
[0:44:22 – 0:44:24] Weather Radio: Yeah, there’s kind of a cedar grove down by the cooper.
[0:44:26 – 0:44:27] Erik: This is where I was set up.
[0:44:27 – 0:44:31] Erik: Oh, I almost forgot my bungee dealie guy there on my little night hook.
[0:44:31 – 0:44:33] Weather Radio: That’s why we do a sweep at the end.
[0:44:33 – 0:44:35] Erik: Yeah, see?
[0:44:35 – 0:44:36] Erik: This is what we’re doing it for.
[0:44:36 – 0:44:38] Weather Radio: So you were here off the Jack Pine here?
[0:44:38 – 0:44:40] Erik: I was up in Jack Pine country over here.
[0:44:40 – 0:44:41] Erik: Beautiful.
[0:44:41 – 0:44:48] Erik: Next to what we were thinking would be kind of a fun ledge if you had a very stable and sturdy sleeping pad.
[0:44:49 – 0:44:53] Erik: There’s like this rock precipice over the lake here that’s like almost 100% flat.
[0:44:54 – 0:44:55] Erik: It’s a little rocky, but…
[0:44:55 – 0:44:57] Weather Radio: If you had a good sleeping pad, you could sleep right here.
[0:44:57 – 0:44:58] Erik: Yeah.
[0:44:59 – 0:44:59] UNKNOWN: No problem.
[0:45:00 – 0:45:06] Erik: But in terms of tent pads, it looked like there was for sure at least two solid ones with maybe like a covert one way in the back.
[0:45:06 – 0:45:13] Weather Radio: Definitely one down the hill there, a little sneaky tent pad down a way over there to the east.
[0:45:14 – 0:45:17] Erik: So I think, yeah.
[0:45:20 – 0:45:20] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:45:20 – 0:45:22] Weather Radio: This would be a fine spot.
[0:45:22 – 0:45:24] Weather Radio: Over here, I think, is your main spot.
[0:45:24 – 0:45:28] Weather Radio: Over yonder where we did our what’s in the bag video.
[0:45:28 – 0:45:33] Erik: Yeah, we’ve got a nice youthful birch tree here that is looking very healthy.
[0:45:33 – 0:45:34] Erik: Very good.
[0:45:34 – 0:45:36] Erik: Central focal point of the campsite.
[0:45:36 – 0:45:37] Weather Radio: Mm-hmm.
[0:45:37 – 0:45:40] Erik: So those are just the general numbers, I think.
[0:45:40 – 0:45:43] Erik: I don’t think we really ever grade that aspect of it.
[0:45:43 – 0:45:44] Weather Radio: No, they’re ample.
[0:45:44 – 0:45:48] Weather Radio: I think there’s definitely not going to be a downgrade on either hammocking or tenting.
[0:45:48 – 0:45:49] Weather Radio: Plenty of options.
[0:45:49 – 0:45:49] Erik: Yes.
[0:45:50 – 0:45:52] Weather Radio: And it’s pretty wide open in here, as you can see.
[0:45:53 – 0:45:55] Weather Radio: You could definitely play some yard games in here.
[0:45:55 – 0:45:59] Weather Radio: If you had your bocce ball set, it would be a pretty epic bocce ball arena.
[0:46:00 – 0:46:01] Weather Radio: But we didn’t bring one.
[0:46:01 – 0:46:02] Weather Radio: No.
[0:46:02 – 0:46:05] Weather Radio: We were just mainly relaxing and enjoying the view.
[0:46:05 – 0:46:06] Erik: Yes.
[0:46:06 – 0:46:09] Weather Radio: As you can see, the view really, I think, kicks this grade up.
[0:46:10 – 0:46:10] Erik: Yeah.
[0:46:10 – 0:46:24] Erik: I think we should, before we go down to the landing and finish up, we should, I think, say what, for me, makes this site is I’m going to go ahead and just grade it an A-plus fire grade.
[0:46:24 – 0:46:25] Weather Radio: Yeah, absolutely.
[0:46:26 – 0:46:27] Weather Radio: We saw it from the water.
[0:46:28 – 0:46:37] Weather Radio: And we were intrigued enough just by the look from the water at being very close to the edge of this little rock here with the obvious great view sitting perched up here.
[0:46:38 – 0:46:40] Weather Radio: And so we came in, and it drew us in.
[0:46:40 – 0:46:44] Weather Radio: It was what we first saw, and we got up here, and we were sold.
[0:46:44 – 0:46:46] Weather Radio: It’s an A-plus fire grate.
[0:46:46 – 0:46:54] Weather Radio: You’re looking north and west here across the big open space of a little sag and got some nice hills off in the distance.
[0:46:54 – 0:46:55] Weather Radio: Big views.
[0:46:55 – 0:46:55] Weather Radio: Mm-hmm.
[0:46:56 – 0:46:57] Erik: Big views.
[0:46:57 – 0:47:04] Erik: I think it’s, I don’t know, 20 feet up off the water on this rock precipice.
[0:47:04 – 0:47:07] Erik: You don’t see a lot like this where you’re sitting this high up off the water.
[0:47:07 – 0:47:08] Erik: It’s pretty nice.
[0:47:08 – 0:47:13] Erik: It’s really nice, but it’s also like, last night we were kind of walking past the fire grate, just like…
[0:47:13 – 0:47:39] Erik: five feet is like a straight drop down into the water so you definitely want to stay on the uh upper side of the fire grate but then the fire grate itself we were looking at last night is very nice because it’s right on like a just a solid rock so it’s very clean well kept we didn’t have to mess with the rocks at all they’re perfectly situated um you know i had
[0:47:40 – 0:48:02] Weather Radio: i really nothing was no alterations needed whatsoever and the the fire great and we spent the majority of our time in camp just sitting right here yeah no it was one of those things where a lot of times you come in and it’s like super choked with ashes and stuff and it was nice and clean i think the only thing that we really found was like a couple of old creamer cups right the old creamer cups gotta have your creamer out here yep
[0:48:02 – 0:48:08] Erik: But, and then even just generally, like, I don’t know, it wasn’t, it’s not one of those sites where there was like a bunch of stuff strewn.
[0:48:09 – 0:48:11] Erik: We did find Bobby’s stick here.
[0:48:11 – 0:48:18] Weather Radio: Good job, Bobby, on carving up this beautiful, we didn’t really need to use it a whole lot for poking or prodding the fire.
[0:48:18 – 0:48:19] Weather Radio: The controller stick.
[0:48:19 – 0:48:20] Erik: The controller.
[0:48:20 – 0:48:23] Weather Radio: It’s nicely, got a nice grip there on top.
[0:48:23 – 0:48:24] Erik: Very nice.
[0:48:24 – 0:48:30] Weather Radio: Yeah, I don’t know if this is a walking stick or just for controlling that fire, but either way, kid, you’ve done good.
[0:48:31 – 0:48:34] Weather Radio: We were able to find a lot of good cedar right in camp here, too.
[0:48:35 – 0:48:37] Weather Radio: As you can see, there’s a couple there.
[0:48:38 – 0:48:39] Weather Radio: This piece is maybe a little wet.
[0:48:39 – 0:48:49] Weather Radio: That was on the bottom, but we had enough cedar to cook both dinner and breakfast and have a fire crackling the whole evening here, and we were able to wood gnome.
[0:48:50 – 0:48:51] Weather Radio: Left a couple here for them.
[0:48:52 – 0:48:52] Weather Radio: Yep.
[0:48:53 – 0:49:03] Erik: So, yeah, I think we’re both consensus A plus on the fire grade area, which I don’t know that you can really say much else besides that.
[0:49:03 – 0:49:09] Weather Radio: I would just say the only thing I’ve noted that there’s no big pine trees.
[0:49:09 – 0:49:09] Erik: Ah, yes.
[0:49:10 – 0:49:12] Weather Radio: Nothing in the class of jumbo pines, which…
[0:49:13 – 0:49:18] Weather Radio: For me, you know, I really like to have one big pine tree at least in the campsite.
[0:49:18 – 0:49:21] Weather Radio: And so I don’t know, you look around and you don’t see a whole lot of big pine.
[0:49:21 – 0:49:24] Weather Radio: There’s some red over here on the island.
[0:49:25 – 0:49:33] Erik: Yeah, the only big pines that you can maybe see are the distant hills over by Gabby Michigami on the tops of where the blowdown slash.
[0:49:33 – 0:49:37] Weather Radio: Yeah, that was my only complaint about this site would be there’s a lack of white pine.
[0:49:37 – 0:49:40] Weather Radio: There’s some over there to the west.
[0:49:40 – 0:49:41] Weather Radio: We’ll get into those later today.
[0:49:41 – 0:49:42] Weather Radio: Hopefully.
[0:49:42 – 0:49:44] Weather Radio: I like this little cedar tree over here.
[0:49:45 – 0:49:48] Adam: It looks like a candelabra over here.
[0:49:48 – 0:49:49] Weather Radio: I took a picture of that one.
[0:49:50 – 0:49:54] Weather Radio: And, uh, yeah, there’s a really only no weird occurrences or critters.
[0:49:54 – 0:49:56] Weather Radio: You know, we didn’t catch any fish here.
[0:49:56 – 0:49:58] Weather Radio: There’s a lot of good spots to fish from shore though.
[0:49:59 – 0:50:00] Erik: There was one weird occurrence though, right?
[0:50:01 – 0:50:01] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[0:50:01 – 0:50:03] Weather Radio: We, are you talking about the music?
[0:50:03 – 0:50:03] Weather Radio: Yes.
[0:50:04 – 0:50:04] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[0:50:04 – 0:50:05] Weather Radio: So last night I’m like wandering around.
[0:50:06 – 0:50:07] Weather Radio: I’m like, do you hear that music?
[0:50:07 – 0:50:09] Weather Radio: And Eric’s like, I don’t hear anything.
[0:50:09 – 0:50:11] Weather Radio: Yeah, when you said that, I was like, uh-oh.
[0:50:11 – 0:50:14] Weather Radio: Is this like the early onset of like a potential stroke or something?
[0:50:14 – 0:50:15] Weather Radio: He’s hearing music.
[0:50:15 – 0:50:16] Weather Radio: White wine dementia.
[0:50:17 – 0:50:20] Weather Radio: And that was well into the bag of refreshing white wine.
[0:50:21 – 0:50:23] Weather Radio: And yeah, I’m like, I swear I heard music.
[0:50:23 – 0:50:25] Weather Radio: And then like five minutes later, I’m like, I don’t know.
[0:50:25 – 0:50:26] Weather Radio: I don’t hear nothing.
[0:50:26 – 0:50:28] Weather Radio: And then five minutes later, Eric goes, wait.
[0:50:30 – 0:50:30] Weather Radio: I hear it now.
[0:50:31 – 0:50:31] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:31 – 0:50:36] Erik: And then super tinny, like, distant, like, music, but you could barely put your… What’s going on?
[0:50:36 – 0:50:45] Erik: I’m like, I can’t, like, make out the song or what it is, but I am hearing, like, yeah, like there’s an iPhone, like, just laying over on, like, the island across the way.
[0:50:46 – 0:50:47] Weather Radio: But it wasn’t.
[0:50:47 – 0:50:49] Weather Radio: It was my phone in my pocket.
[0:50:50 – 0:50:51] Weather Radio: Somehow it was playing…
[0:50:52 – 0:50:52] Weather Radio: What is it?
[0:50:53 – 0:50:53] Weather Radio: The Ronettes.
[0:50:53 – 0:50:54] Weather Radio: The Ronettes.
[0:50:55 – 0:50:55] Weather Radio: Why?
[0:50:55 – 0:50:56] Weather Radio: Be my baby.
[0:50:56 – 0:51:00] Weather Radio: Be my, be my, be my little baby.
[0:51:00 – 0:51:01] Adam: It was so weird.
[0:51:01 – 0:51:02] Adam: And I pulled it out of my pocket.
[0:51:02 – 0:51:03] Adam: I’m like, it’s my phone.
[0:51:03 – 0:51:07] Weather Radio: It’s still playing on the lowest volume setting possible.
[0:51:07 – 0:51:12] Weather Radio: And so we figured what had happened was I was listening to Spotify on the way up.
[0:51:12 – 0:51:14] Weather Radio: And I’m using my older phone.
[0:51:14 – 0:51:17] Weather Radio: So the only playlist I have downloaded on this phone is from our wedding.
[0:51:18 – 0:51:19] Weather Radio: Still is on there.
[0:51:19 – 0:51:20] Weather Radio: And I don’t know.
[0:51:20 – 0:51:20] Weather Radio: I didn’t know the…
[0:51:21 – 0:51:23] Weather Radio: Be My Baby was on the wedding playlist.
[0:51:23 – 0:51:30] Weather Radio: I don’t think it actually got played at the wedding, but somehow that song got turned on and was playing on my phone in my pocket.
[0:51:30 – 0:51:33] Adam: But it was quiet enough where I couldn’t tell it was coming from my own pocket.
[0:51:34 – 0:51:36] Adam: It was one of those things like, the call is coming from inside the house.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:37] Adam: Yeah.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:37] Adam: Ah!
[0:51:38 – 0:52:00] Erik: i think the uh was a little weird it was right all right around the same time we were having the conversations about like simulations and aliens and it was like very just imagining this because we’re in that mindset right now or may have been but then yeah it was just like obviously the most reasonable explanation is usually the answer and of course it was it was just your phone bring electronic devices out even if they’re on airplane mode
[0:52:00 – 0:52:03] Weather Radio: They can still play the Ronettes on you if you’re not careful.
[0:52:03 – 0:52:05] Weather Radio: So that was odd.
[0:52:05 – 0:52:08] Weather Radio: We did have a seaplane fly over pretty low while I was napping.
[0:52:08 – 0:52:09] Weather Radio: I think that we mentioned this already.
[0:52:09 – 0:52:09] Weather Radio: We did, yeah.
[0:52:09 – 0:52:10] Weather Radio: Right over the top.
[0:52:10 – 0:52:13] Weather Radio: So that was who knows what the forest surface is up to.
[0:52:13 – 0:52:15] Weather Radio: We’ll get back to them, I’m sure, and hear what happened there.
[0:52:15 – 0:52:18] Weather Radio: And we did get a couple flocks of geese going north.
[0:52:18 – 0:52:19] Weather Radio: Oh, yeah.
[0:52:19 – 0:52:22] Weather Radio: We had one come in late last night and land back behind that island.
[0:52:22 – 0:52:24] Weather Radio: And then this morning while I was casting, there was like a triple group.
[0:52:25 – 0:52:44] Weather Radio: monster honkers going yeah um so they’re moving a lot of good bird noises all the trees are leafing out in here it’s pretty beautiful and the bugs were a lot less than we were yes we were worried about them i like had the bug net on my hammock and absolutely not necessary i don’t think i’ll put it on tonight and uh just gonna leave it open so
[0:52:44 – 0:52:51] Erik: I think we did mention that we may have been the only ones on the lake, but after we got the fire going, we did see some smoke from the north.
[0:52:51 – 0:52:56] Weather Radio: Smoke coming, and they got it roaring there over there, directly across from us there.
[0:52:56 – 0:53:00] Weather Radio: They were whooping it up, it sounded like, and they, I think, stayed up later than we did.
[0:53:00 – 0:53:05] Weather Radio: You said you were the last one up, and you said their fire was still going when you turned in.
[0:53:06 – 0:53:08] Weather Radio: The last thing we’ve got to get to, of course, is the landing.
[0:53:08 – 0:53:11] Weather Radio: I know we normally start with the landing, but we wanted to feature this
[0:53:12 – 0:53:14] Weather Radio: this beautiful fire grate, which is impeccable in every way.
[0:53:14 – 0:53:19] Erik: So, you know, if you’re watching, vicariously, this is what it’s all about here.
[0:53:21 – 0:53:25] Weather Radio: Seriously, I mean, there’s people over there, but we haven’t seen anybody on the water at all.
[0:53:25 – 0:53:29] Weather Radio: We really have had a little sag to ourselves for almost 24 hours at this point.
[0:53:30 – 0:53:33] Erik: So, yeah, let’s go down, finish up the landing, and make our way out of here.
[0:53:34 – 0:53:35] Weather Radio: Time to get moving.
[0:53:35 – 0:53:38] Weather Radio: We’re heading west and into the heart of the park.
[0:53:39 – 0:53:39] Erik: Yes.
[0:53:39 – 0:53:40] Erik: Yes.
[0:53:40 – 0:53:42] Weather Radio: But first we have to show you this landing.
[0:53:42 – 0:53:43] Erik: Which, I don’t know, it’s fine.
[0:53:44 – 0:53:45] Erik: It’s nothing special.
[0:53:46 – 0:53:48] Erik: It’s not as bad as I thought it was when we pulled up.
[0:53:48 – 0:53:51] Erik: It actually has some options for one canoe for sure.
[0:53:55 – 0:54:00] Erik: So we’ve got the remnants of our pollen storm from yesterday.
[0:54:02 – 0:54:03] Erik: So it’s like a single shot?
[0:54:03 – 0:54:07] Weather Radio: Yeah, it’s kind of a little mini marina.
[0:54:07 – 0:54:10] Weather Radio: Yeah, I mean, a nice loading rack right here.
[0:54:10 – 0:54:13] Weather Radio: You can pull in and load with minimal scrapage.
[0:54:14 – 0:54:18] Weather Radio: And then, yeah, a nice little set of downed cedar over here to…
[0:54:19 – 0:54:44] Weather Radio: to uh just pull the boat right up onto it um honestly it’s almost perfect it is for one boat it’s like a perfect dry dock yeah people have like i mean i think you could squeeze two in there on the trees it would just be a little tight but yeah yeah not bad and um there are some spots where i was throwing lures this morning down by my hammock set that you could easily land over there i think it was like a shallow enough ledge yeah that you could pull in there and then just you know
[0:54:45 – 0:55:08] Weather Radio: pull your canoe up and hide it somewhere up there but this is the primary marina i think so and i’m i’m really happy with it no complaints it was a lot well i’ve seen a lot worse yes so it’s not going to hurt the grade on this campsite either i think it’s a solid a for me it’s an a the campsite’s an a i’d say a plus you know if it had a huge white pine in them right on the point there that then i would be an a plus but
[0:55:09 – 0:55:14] Weather Radio: It’s an A, and there’s not that many straight A’s where it’s an obvious A. Oh, yeah.
[0:55:14 – 0:55:15] Erik: It’s not even questionable.
[0:55:15 – 0:55:17] Weather Radio: You’re not even picking to take anything away from an A.
[0:55:17 – 0:55:18] Weather Radio: Absolutely.
[0:55:18 – 0:55:21] Weather Radio: Plus, yeah, just had pretty good solitude out here.
[0:55:22 – 0:55:23] Weather Radio: Got some Ronettes.
[0:55:23 – 0:55:27] Weather Radio: Had really, oh, you know, just free firewood right in camp.
[0:55:28 – 0:55:28] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:55:28 – 0:55:29] Weather Radio: You know, dead Ronettes.
[0:55:30 – 0:55:32] Weather Radio: Free for the taking cedar.
[0:55:32 – 0:55:33] Erik: That’s added to the A for sure.
[0:55:33 – 0:55:38] Weather Radio: So, yeah, I mean, in every way, you literally, like, there was, like, a piece of birch bark sitting right by the cedar, too.
[0:55:38 – 0:55:39] Erik: Yeah.
[0:55:39 – 0:55:47] Erik: You can tell it’s kind of maybe hasn’t been used that much yet this spring because there was just, like, huge flaps of birch laying just 20 yards off into the woods, which…
[0:55:47 – 0:55:48] Weather Radio: It’s June 2nd now.
[0:55:48 – 0:55:50] Weather Radio: I mean, there was ice out here a month ago.
[0:55:51 – 0:55:51] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[0:55:51 – 0:55:55] Weather Radio: So it probably hasn’t had that much action so far this year.
[0:55:55 – 0:55:58] Weather Radio: So that’s another nice thing about getting out late May or early June.
[0:56:00 – 0:56:02] Weather Radio: You’re usually probably the farther you go, too.
[0:56:02 – 0:56:06] Weather Radio: I mean, like where we’re going today, I would be… We might run into some moose sheds.
[0:56:06 – 0:56:09] Weather Radio: Yeah, like we could find moose sheds on the portages today.
[0:56:09 – 0:56:10] Weather Radio: We’re going that deep into the heart, so…
[0:56:11 – 0:56:35] Weather Radio: anyways uh yeah i think we’re giving it an a i’m happy with the grade i love this campsite and it was where it was worth the early stop we were talking with breakfast uh we always kind of have a range like okay this is about where the earliest we’d be willing to stop and this is about the farthest we’d want to go and this was literally the first dot on the map where we were getting into that back region here in the southwest side where we’re like we could stop in this section and we pulled around the point and look at this it was just like
[0:56:35 – 0:56:37] Weather Radio: First one, can’t pass that up.
[0:56:37 – 0:56:39] Weather Radio: I mean, we may pass some beautiful sights going out of here today.
[0:56:40 – 0:56:40] Weather Radio: I don’t know what’s in front of us.
[0:56:41 – 0:56:44] Weather Radio: It’s all new to me, but I have no problems with having stopped here.
[0:56:44 – 0:56:49] Weather Radio: And we get a little paddle on a little sag this morning and then moving down to Elton.
[0:56:50 – 0:57:14] Weather Radio: and elton to hoe and then uh heading west we’re going right between two pmas yeah and then we got a real weird portage going into boulder so that may be our next check-in point for the day we’ll see how slogged out we are by then if there’s mud or a creek we’ll show we’ll we’ll post some uh pictures of what the different maps show for there yeah it’s funny like a t on one and then another makes it look like you know geo makes it look like you have to go down a creek and then pick up a
[0:57:15 – 0:57:34] Weather Radio: yeah like in the middle of the portage get into a creek and then pick up a portage off of that so who knows um i have a sneaking suspicion we’re gonna get kind of muddy today yeah i’m ready i’m ready to do that get this pollen off me yeah right all right folks this has been uh expert campsite review from little sag if you’re ever out here check out site 20 it’s a butte
[0:57:45 – 0:57:45] Weather Radio: Welcome back.
[0:57:46 – 0:57:50] Weather Radio: Welcome back to Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters podcast.
[0:57:50 – 0:57:53] Weather Radio: We’re midway through day two.
[0:57:53 – 0:57:55] Weather Radio: It’s Sunday here in the Lake County.
[0:57:55 – 0:57:57] Weather Radio: We’ve crossed into Lake County.
[0:57:58 – 0:58:03] Weather Radio: And we’re on, I believe this was the ninth portage of the day, into Boulder Lake.
[0:58:04 – 0:58:08] Weather Radio: So we’ll quickly recap the route from Little Sag.
[0:58:08 – 0:58:19] Erik: Yeah, so out of Little Sag, we had the two 20s, pretty back-to-back, straightforward, into Elton, which looked very dry.
[0:58:19 – 0:58:20] Erik: Yeah, it looked low.
[0:58:20 – 0:58:23] Weather Radio: It looked really low and very dry.
[0:58:23 – 0:58:31] Weather Radio: And we’ve noticed, too, the farther west we’re getting, the mud on the portages is pretty dry, and it’s got this weird grayish color to it.
[0:58:31 – 0:58:38] Erik: It’s almost like, yeah, like the pollen from the spring and then like that leftover like winter dust didn’t get like washed out as much.
[0:58:38 – 0:58:38] Erik: Yeah.
[0:58:39 – 0:58:39] Weather Radio: But.
[0:58:40 – 0:58:44] Weather Radio: And then we, so yeah, we went down Elton.
[0:58:44 – 0:58:45] Weather Radio: There was nobody camped on Elton.
[0:58:46 – 0:58:51] Weather Radio: We really didn’t see anybody else on Little Sag either getting off of that lake.
[0:58:52 – 0:58:55] Weather Radio: And then from Elton, we had to go down to Makwa.
[0:58:55 – 0:58:55] Weather Radio: Makwa?
[0:58:55 – 0:59:22] Weather Radio: 60 in the macqua sexy in the macqua and then uh the fisher says it’s 100 to hoe uh the nat geo is quite different it said about 70 i believe in the hoe so we had a i think it was closer to 70 there yeah seems like when there’s a difference in distance on a portage the nat geo has it more dialed in but anyways we got into hoe and we moved her down hoe and that’s where we started to actually see some bit of a west wind i mean there’s a
[0:59:25 – 0:59:25] Erik: Yeah.
[0:59:25 – 0:59:32] Erik: No, and that was like, I think the portages between Little Sang and Makwa clearly have been used.
[0:59:32 – 0:59:41] Erik: But that turn that we made to go north up to Ho, we were, I’m almost positive the first ones through there, the only tracks were moose.
[0:59:41 – 0:59:41] Erik: Yeah.
[0:59:41 – 0:59:44] Weather Radio: Yeah, a lot of moose tracks, a lot of moose poops.
[0:59:44 – 0:59:50] Weather Radio: At one point, we did see some really big wolf tracks on one of these partridges through this little chain that we went through.
[0:59:51 – 0:59:56] Weather Radio: Before we got off of Ho, there is, you can just basically paddle straight up, and it says it’s Maymay Lake.
[0:59:56 – 0:59:57] Weather Radio: I mean, it’s all one lake, really.
[0:59:57 – 1:00:00] Weather Radio: It’s like Maymay Bay off of Ho.
[1:00:00 – 1:00:06] Weather Radio: But that’s, I guess, technically, at that point, you’re into the Mugwump PMA.
[1:00:06 – 1:00:06] Erik: Yeah.
[1:00:07 – 1:00:08] Weather Radio: And then we kind of paddled up from there.
[1:00:08 – 1:00:11] Weather Radio: You can get to, where am I at here?
[1:00:11 – 1:00:12] Weather Radio: The Cuckoosh Lake.
[1:00:13 – 1:00:13] Weather Radio: Cuckoosh.
[1:00:14 – 1:00:22] Weather Radio: And the mythical Cuckoosh people with their tiny little bows and arrows, they did not slay us in our canoe.
[1:00:22 – 1:00:24] Weather Radio: They let us pass and we waved.
[1:00:24 – 1:00:27] Weather Radio: And there’s a big, like a very steep beaver dam from Maymay up to Cuckoosh.
[1:00:28 – 1:00:31] Weather Radio: And like a really cool flat, you could just see enough into the lake.
[1:00:31 – 1:00:35] Weather Radio: And there’s across from us, there was this big flat rock with some big pines and
[1:00:35 – 1:00:44] Weather Radio: So if anybody’s looking for a PMA, an easier PMA adventure, you could easily pull up into Cush Cush and camp in there if the Cush Cush people allow it.
[1:00:45 – 1:00:46] Weather Radio: You want to make sure you bring an offering.
[1:00:46 – 1:00:47] Erik: Definitely bring an offering.
[1:00:48 – 1:00:53] Weather Radio: We turned it back around and headed, it was a 40 into Fee.
[1:00:54 – 1:00:56] Weather Radio: And there was a nicer little campsite on Fee.
[1:00:56 – 1:01:00] Weather Radio: The one on Ho was pretty horrible.
[1:01:00 – 1:01:00] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:01:01 – 1:01:03] Weather Radio: I’ve been saving that one for hours, folks.
[1:01:03 – 1:01:04] Weather Radio: You didn’t even share that one with me.
[1:01:05 – 1:01:06] Weather Radio: Yes, thank you.
[1:01:06 – 1:01:08] Weather Radio: The one on fee was pretty charming.
[1:01:09 – 1:01:12] Weather Radio: And then from fee, it was about an 80.
[1:01:12 – 1:01:14] Weather Radio: That was the goofy one into V, though.
[1:01:14 – 1:01:16] Weather Radio: And then it shows it as 180.
[1:01:17 – 1:01:20] Weather Radio: And even the Nat Geo shows it as just one portage, but there is a little pond in the middle.
[1:01:21 – 1:01:22] Erik: Definitely two portages.
[1:01:22 – 1:01:24] Weather Radio: It’s two portages, and that thing’s flooded out.
[1:01:24 – 1:01:26] Weather Radio: We got some good video and pictures in there.
[1:01:26 – 1:01:26] Weather Radio: It’s kind of a maze.
[1:01:27 – 1:01:33] Erik: One of the weirdest things I’ve paddled through, it felt like something in a swamp where there’s all these flooded trees.
[1:01:33 – 1:01:35] Erik: You’ve got to choose your direction just right.
[1:01:36 – 1:01:37] Erik: Otherwise, you’d have to back up.
[1:01:39 – 1:01:42] Weather Radio: There was some mud walking in that one, and I do not like mud.
[1:01:42 – 1:01:44] Weather Radio: I was kind of shitting deep in mud at one point.
[1:01:44 – 1:01:49] Erik: I was a little worried because I was like, there’s still like three portages until we get to Boulder.
[1:01:49 – 1:01:50] Erik: This is what this one looks like?
[1:01:50 – 1:01:53] Weather Radio: Yeah, I figured that was about as bad as it got between Fee and Vee.
[1:01:53 – 1:01:54] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:01:54 – 1:02:02] Weather Radio: That one was nasty, but then there’s, again, here from V to Ledge, which we’ve determined is just short for legendary.
[1:02:02 – 1:02:02] Adam: Yes.
[1:02:03 – 1:02:07] Weather Radio: It’s a pretty lake, and that campsite on Ledge was really nice, too, so legendary.
[1:02:08 – 1:02:08] Adam: Yes.
[1:02:08 – 1:02:09] Weather Radio: Ledge was funny, too.
[1:02:09 – 1:02:16] Weather Radio: The whole south shore was, like, big spruces, and then the north shore was all big pines, so it was kind of like this meeting place of the tree species.
[1:02:16 – 1:02:16] Adam: Mm-hmm.
[1:02:17 – 1:02:19] Adam: They were just sitting facing each other across the lake.
[1:02:19 – 1:02:26] Weather Radio: But, yeah, the Fisher lists the V to ledge at 160, and I think the Nat Geo had it at 147.
[1:02:26 – 1:02:28] Weather Radio: Yeah, I don’t know.
[1:02:28 – 1:02:28] Weather Radio: They were both close.
[1:02:28 – 1:02:29] Weather Radio: Who knows?
[1:02:29 – 1:02:30] Weather Radio: That was about right.
[1:02:31 – 1:02:33] Weather Radio: And then we got to the weird one.
[1:02:33 – 1:02:38] Weather Radio: We were talking, like, how many portages have you been on where you actually have to take a left or a right turn at some point?
[1:02:38 – 1:02:43] Weather Radio: Yeah, direct V or direct T. Yeah, T intersection, and they’re not marked out here, folks.
[1:02:43 – 1:02:43] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:02:44 – 1:02:46] Weather Radio: But this is one from ledge.
[1:02:46 – 1:02:48] Weather Radio: You either can go straight west to cap.
[1:02:48 – 1:02:49] Weather Radio: That’s a 200, it says.
[1:02:50 – 1:02:54] Weather Radio: Or if you want to, there’s a left turn out there, and it was very easy to find.
[1:02:55 – 1:02:55] Adam: Yeah.
[1:02:55 – 1:02:57] Weather Radio: And it shows it being like halfway down the portage.
[1:02:57 – 1:03:00] Weather Radio: It was definitely on the first third of that portage.
[1:03:00 – 1:03:02] Weather Radio: We came up on the turn very quickly.
[1:03:02 – 1:03:03] Weather Radio: I was expecting it.
[1:03:03 – 1:03:04] Weather Radio: But a very obvious left turn.
[1:03:05 – 1:03:05] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:03:06 – 1:03:35] Weather Radio: kind of go downhill from there and then we ended up there’s a little creek and the fissure shows it going straight across the creek the nat geo literally just shows you have to like go up this creek somehow and then get it back over it was very mysteriously labeled and then uh the garmin we had on just to try and get a measurement of what this portage actually was like and that showed like you’d go to the creek and then hang like a left back to the east yeah and which is actually what happened we were like well we kind of the way that canoe got put in at the landing there
[1:03:35 – 1:03:37] Weather Radio: It was facing back to the west.
[1:03:37 – 1:03:38] Weather Radio: We’re like, well, we’ll just go over there and see.
[1:03:38 – 1:03:41] Weather Radio: And then if it’s not over there, we can turn around and head that way.
[1:03:42 – 1:03:42] Weather Radio: But there it was.
[1:03:42 – 1:03:47] Weather Radio: And then that last section from that creek crossing down was the longest section.
[1:03:47 – 1:03:50] Erik: It says 135, which seems pretty accurate.
[1:03:50 – 1:03:52] Erik: I had the GPS going to measure more or less.
[1:03:53 – 1:03:58] Erik: And obviously it included the short little tiny paddle across the creek there.
[1:03:59 – 1:04:02] Erik: But when we were all said and done, it came in at a mile from ledge down to boulder.
[1:04:02 – 1:04:03] Erik: Yeah.
[1:04:03 – 1:04:08] Weather Radio: And yeah, the last section coming down to Boulder here, like this is a very well-traveled portage.
[1:04:08 – 1:04:10] Weather Radio: The whole thing, honestly, from ledge all the way down, there was like.
[1:04:11 – 1:04:34] Weather Radio: there was cribs on ledge like it was so weird old cribs yeah we had not seen a crib on the portage landing since little sag and then all of a sudden we’re up in like kind of the middle of nowhere lake and there’s two on the east and west side of ledge but yeah the trail down from the creek down to boulder was really nice and then uh you started getting downhill and there’s some really big pines in there and some nice cedars and
[1:04:35 – 1:04:37] Weather Radio: The trail was just in overall really good shape.
[1:04:37 – 1:04:37] Weather Radio: It was.
[1:04:37 – 1:04:40] Erik: I was thinking, like, this is on the way over here.
[1:04:40 – 1:04:45] Erik: I was thinking this is going to be maybe some nastiness with just how remote the portages are.
[1:04:45 – 1:04:51] Erik: But I was saying as we were walking down here, this might be the nicest portage we’ve taken in maybe the whole trip.
[1:04:51 – 1:04:58] Weather Radio: We figured once we got to Boulder and then into Adams that the portages would start getting nicer as you got the traffic coming up from the Kawishui.
[1:04:58 – 1:04:58] Adam: Yeah.
[1:04:59 – 1:05:01] Weather Radio: I think that’s obviously how most people are going to get to Boulder.
[1:05:01 – 1:05:05] Weather Radio: They’re not coming in from Hove via Mackaw.
[1:05:05 – 1:05:09] Weather Radio: So, yeah, that was kind of the bushwhacking part of our adventure.
[1:05:09 – 1:05:15] Weather Radio: We did kind of sneak into the little bit of a PMA paddle, just a little look, see.
[1:05:15 – 1:05:18] Weather Radio: I don’t think that really counts as going into a PMA, but…
[1:05:19 – 1:05:22] Weather Radio: We got a look at least.
[1:05:22 – 1:05:24] Weather Radio: And before we started this portage, we’ve been kind of going.
[1:05:24 – 1:05:29] Weather Radio: I think I said this is the ninth portage of the day since the V1 was a double, I think.
[1:05:29 – 1:05:32] Weather Radio: We had planned on eight to Boulder, but I think it was nine in reality.
[1:05:33 – 1:05:35] Weather Radio: Ten if you include the little creek crossing, I guess.
[1:05:35 – 1:05:37] Weather Radio: So, yeah, ten loads and unloads.
[1:05:38 – 1:05:40] Weather Radio: I guess that’s the most accurate way to put it.
[1:05:40 – 1:05:44] Weather Radio: And then we were talking like, well, it’s, you know, probably one, two in the afternoon now.
[1:05:45 – 1:05:47] Weather Radio: We did kind of get a later start with a lazy breakfast.
[1:05:47 – 1:05:49] Weather Radio: So we’re like, well, we’ll get down to Boulder.
[1:05:49 – 1:05:50] Weather Radio: Hopefully there’s a good landing.
[1:05:50 – 1:05:53] Weather Radio: We can have a little snack and maybe actually get the wine out.
[1:05:53 – 1:05:55] Weather Radio: We have been traveling with the wine stowed away.
[1:05:56 – 1:05:59] Weather Radio: Just as yesterday we were traveling with the wine out and
[1:05:59 – 1:06:02] Weather Radio: I had to take like a nap when we got to Little Sag.
[1:06:02 – 1:06:06] Erik: The refreshing white is a little easier to work with.
[1:06:06 – 1:06:12] Erik: We just got like a Merlot, which you got to take it easy on that as you’re still moving over portages.
[1:06:12 – 1:06:22] Erik: And at this point, we do only have 20 and our two 20 rod portages in the Adams, which was our intentional plans, but…
[1:06:22 – 1:06:30] Erik: And if you’re wondering, for anybody watching this, why I haven’t turned to the right… Don’t look at the lake.
[1:06:30 – 1:06:33] Erik: We’ve got a little bit of a development slash…
[1:06:36 – 1:06:37] Weather Radio: Breaking news.
[1:06:37 – 1:06:37] Erik: Breaking news.
[1:06:37 – 1:06:41] Erik: So we come down to this portage, and I look out.
[1:06:41 – 1:06:42] Erik: I came out first, and I didn’t see it.
[1:06:42 – 1:06:44] Erik: And Eric comes down, and he goes, wow, look at that.
[1:06:45 – 1:06:49] Erik: And there is very obviously a wildfire to the direct south of us.
[1:06:49 – 1:06:51] Erik: And I don’t know if you’re going to be able to see it.
[1:06:51 – 1:06:52] Erik: I’m looking directly out onto the lake now.
[1:06:52 – 1:06:57] Weather Radio: You can see a plume, and we have basically a west wind right now.
[1:06:57 – 1:06:59] Weather Radio: And so you can see the plume is coming up.
[1:07:00 – 1:07:01] Weather Radio: Straight there.
[1:07:02 – 1:07:03] Weather Radio: And then the plume, you can see it.
[1:07:04 – 1:07:07] Weather Radio: There’s a very dense plume of smoke moving to the west with the wind.
[1:07:08 – 1:07:10] Weather Radio: So we’re currently in a fine position.
[1:07:10 – 1:07:14] Weather Radio: If you look at the map, flip it around.
[1:07:14 – 1:07:14] Weather Radio: We’re here.
[1:07:16 – 1:07:18] Weather Radio: And so we’re looking basically due south.
[1:07:18 – 1:07:24] Erik: And it looks like it’s… And we haven’t, we were talking, we haven’t had any thunder or lightning in like at least a week.
[1:07:25 – 1:07:28] Erik: So it almost has to be like a campfire that got out of control.
[1:07:28 – 1:07:32] Weather Radio: And it was, as we noted yesterday, pretty windy out of the northwest.
[1:07:33 – 1:07:35] Weather Radio: So we’re looking at one of these two campsites as…
[1:07:35 – 1:07:40] Weather Radio: looking about to be in the right position for where that plume is coming off of.
[1:07:41 – 1:07:49] Weather Radio: And my working theory is, and we kind of teased it at the top of this track, it’s been dry, drier than it has been over our home side of the park.
[1:07:50 – 1:07:55] Weather Radio: And, yeah, it seems like somebody let a fire maybe get out of control in that wind yesterday.
[1:07:56 – 1:07:57] Weather Radio: So I don’t know.
[1:07:57 – 1:08:00] Weather Radio: I mean, the wind forecast for today isn’t anything extreme.
[1:08:00 – 1:08:01] Weather Radio: It’s just supposed to stay west today.
[1:08:02 – 1:08:15] Erik: But then we’re looking at maybe it’s switching to the south, so we’re going to kind of have to head in that direction and see what we can see and see how to safely keep ourselves at a distance.
[1:08:16 – 1:08:25] Erik: And it’s like the last thing I expected to see out here this year just based on the amount of rain that we’ve been getting over by, you know, the Clearwater side and down by the lake.
[1:08:26 – 1:08:30] Erik: But I think these portages are indicative of it maybe being a little drier in the heart of the park here.
[1:08:30 – 1:08:30] Erik: Right.
[1:08:31 – 1:08:31] Weather Radio: Right on.
[1:08:31 – 1:08:33] Weather Radio: And so, yes, we’re going to go over.
[1:08:33 – 1:08:38] Weather Radio: I think just looking at the map, it sure looks like that is on the eastern side of Adams.
[1:08:39 – 1:08:41] Weather Radio: And we had said, too, it could be farther off.
[1:08:41 – 1:08:43] Weather Radio: It could be all the way down on the Cushaway River somewhere.
[1:08:43 – 1:08:44] Erik: Yeah, it’s hard to say right now.
[1:08:45 – 1:08:47] Weather Radio: But it looks reasonably close.
[1:08:47 – 1:08:48] Weather Radio: And this is the first we’ve seen it.
[1:08:48 – 1:08:50] Weather Radio: So it’s not a huge fire.
[1:08:51 – 1:08:54] Weather Radio: And we obviously would have heard about this had it started before we left.
[1:08:54 – 1:08:55] Erik: Right.
[1:08:55 – 1:08:56] Erik: And that’s the other thing.
[1:08:56 – 1:09:04] Erik: The only other thing that it could possibly be is sometimes you get the lightning and it smolders in a swamp for like a week, a la Pagami Creek.
[1:09:04 – 1:09:07] Erik: But usually they still like know there’s like some smoke kind of popping.
[1:09:07 – 1:09:12] Erik: So, I mean, by all accounts, it has to be a man-made accidental start here.
[1:09:13 – 1:09:16] Weather Radio: And now we’re kind of wondering about that low-flying plane yesterday.
[1:09:16 – 1:09:18] Weather Radio: What was the Forest Service doing there?
[1:09:18 – 1:09:24] Weather Radio: Well, it was literally, we just kind of drew a line on the map, and it was pretty much heading from Little Sag right in that direction.
[1:09:25 – 1:09:25] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:09:25 – 1:09:27] Weather Radio: So I’m guessing they’re aware of it.
[1:09:27 – 1:09:29] Weather Radio: We haven’t heard anything on the weather radio.
[1:09:29 – 1:09:29] Weather Radio: No.
[1:09:29 – 1:09:31] Weather Radio: I’m not sure they usually would mention this on the weather radio.
[1:09:31 – 1:09:34] Weather Radio: I think maybe they would if it got, like, extreme.
[1:09:34 – 1:09:40] Weather Radio: Yeah, if it becomes, but there’s really not a whole lot in the way of crazy wind for the forecast for the next couple days.
[1:09:40 – 1:09:40] Weather Radio: No.
[1:09:40 – 1:09:46] Weather Radio: So, you know, we have some experience in navigating around wildfires on our Aquetico trip, and
[1:09:46 – 1:09:52] Weather Radio: You know, we just know to be smart and make sure you’re staying upwind of it.
[1:09:52 – 1:09:53] Erik: Yeah.
[1:09:53 – 1:10:01] Weather Radio: So it looks to us like if we were kind of going for the island side on Adams, or I guess in this chance, you know, we’ll see, you know, if it could be on the island.
[1:10:02 – 1:10:07] Weather Radio: I think if we’re over on the west side of Adams with the current wind forecast, that we’re just fine.
[1:10:08 – 1:10:09] Weather Radio: And there’s two routes out of Adams to the south.
[1:10:10 – 1:10:17] Weather Radio: So we could go all the way over to Smite into Beaver, or we could just do a direct southern route into Beaver and kind of swoop down around it.
[1:10:18 – 1:10:47] Weather Radio: once the wind kind of switches to the south and we’ll be safely on the other backside of it so yeah it’s not it’s i mean it does seem drier over here but it’s also not like dangerously dry where it seems like it would make like an insane run and there’s rain in the forecast for monday night possible and then definitely a better chance of rain on tuesday during the day so no i mean it’s always a little hairy when you run around a corner and find yourself looking at a big plume of smoke but especially in
[1:10:47 – 1:10:57] Weather Radio: the middle of the park i think we are like we are heart of the park right now the heart is on fire uh can you hold this yeah so i gotta get in on this merlot myself yeah
[1:11:03 – 1:11:14] Erik: So, yeah, boy, I never thought I would have ever been in a situation where we were kind of live bringing to you something this dynamic in the field.
[1:11:14 – 1:11:16] Erik: You never know what’s going to happen out here.
[1:11:16 – 1:11:19] Weather Radio: You may be the only, like, on-the-ground observers of this fire at the point.
[1:11:19 – 1:11:24] Weather Radio: I mean, it may have been started yesterday in that wind, for all we know, and that’s probably the most likely scenario.
[1:11:25 – 1:11:32] Weather Radio: Until we find out more, it’s just speculation, obviously, and by the time you listen to this, we’ll, I’m sure, have more information on what the heck happened out here.
[1:11:32 – 1:11:32] Weather Radio: Yeah.
[1:11:32 – 1:11:38] Weather Radio: But just from an on-the-ground perspective, finding this live, this is the best guess we have.
[1:11:39 – 1:11:44] Weather Radio: And we’re going to be careful around it, but we are definitely still going to Adams to get a closer look.
[1:11:44 – 1:11:45] Erik: Oh, yes.
[1:11:45 – 1:11:52] Erik: I mean, it’s kind of one of those things where you see it and then it’s like, oh, I mean, it’s the level of like kind of on the edge.
[1:11:52 – 1:11:54] Erik: You were talking last night.
[1:11:54 – 1:12:02] Erik: It almost feels like you’re traveling to like a different country when you’re out here in the middle of the park and how you got to be a little bit more careful, aware of your surroundings.
[1:12:02 – 1:12:05] Erik: You snap an ankle out here and it’s…
[1:12:05 – 1:12:21] Erik: It’s a long way out, and this just heightens it to a whole other level, and I’m never really happy to see, especially if it’s man-made, the woods on fire, but there is a level of excitement involved now that’s even crazier than we already had going.
[1:12:21 – 1:12:31] Weather Radio: Yeah, and that was, you know, we’ve had a little lunch snack now, got a little wine out, so this day has taken an interesting turn, and I think this is where we’re going to leave.
[1:12:31 – 1:12:33] Weather Radio: This episode will be…
[1:12:33 – 1:12:37] Weather Radio: Are we doing the bag episode first or is this going to be the first episode out?
[1:12:37 – 1:12:38] Erik: Well, I don’t know.
[1:12:38 – 1:12:38] Weather Radio: I don’t know.
[1:12:38 – 1:12:42] Weather Radio: Anyways, this is going to, we’re going to leave this episode here because we’re about halfway through the trip.
[1:12:42 – 1:12:45] Weather Radio: We have at least an hour of material on the recorder.
[1:12:45 – 1:12:48] Weather Radio: And so I think we’re going to leave it here, folks.
[1:12:48 – 1:12:49] Weather Radio: A cliffhanger.
[1:12:49 – 1:12:51] Erik: The first tumble home history.
[1:12:52 – 1:12:52] Weather Radio: Wow.
[1:12:52 – 1:13:00] Weather Radio: So check back next week and we’re going to head into Adams and we’ll have all that for you and more.
[1:13:01 – 1:13:02] Weather Radio: on next week’s episode of Tumble Home.
[1:13:03 – 1:13:10] Erik: So I have been Eric, coming to you live from the north shore of Boulder, eyeing a current wildfire.
[1:13:11 – 1:13:12] Erik: You’ll have to tune in next week.
[1:13:12 – 1:13:13] Weather Radio: Are you still doing video?
[1:13:13 – 1:13:13] Erik: Yeah.
[1:13:14 – 1:13:15] Weather Radio: Yeah, it’s really like pluming now.
[1:13:16 – 1:13:17] Weather Radio: It’s very well defined right now.
[1:13:17 – 1:13:25] Erik: Yeah, I mean, I’m just thinking that the GoPro is super wide angle, so it might not be grabbing it, but I’ve got some zoom lens.
[1:13:25 – 1:13:27] Erik: I’ll get some zoom in shots.
[1:13:28 – 1:13:28] Weather Radio: For sure.
[1:13:28 – 1:13:30] Weather Radio: And yeah, we’ll definitely be getting closer to this.
[1:13:31 – 1:13:37] Weather Radio: I have been at them and also on the north shore of Boulder and just recently had some wine and cheese.
[1:13:37 – 1:13:40] Erik: Yeah, we did have a little bit of cheese, salami, and wine.
[1:13:40 – 1:13:41] Erik: Very delicious.
[1:13:41 – 1:13:45] Erik: I feel amped up and very excited for what the rest of this day is going to bring.
[1:13:45 – 1:13:48] Erik: We will catch you on the flip side.
[1:13:49 – 1:13:54] Weather Radio: Until next time, remember, every day is precious and life is a miracle.
[1:13:54 – 1:13:55] Weather Radio: Arrivederci, folks.
[1:13:55 – 1:13:55] Weather Radio: Thanks for listening.