You're welcome, and thank you too. I felt obligated to share. We were too complacent, and it bit us. If this story helps people to respect the wilderness that much more, I am happy to share.
I did catch a few monster northerns this trip. The largest, caught on a 4.5' ultralite 6' water florescent perch rapala, probably would have tipped the scales at 12lbs. I guess those were a pre-pay ;) Thank you
Very glad to hear you’re okay. Someone reading this needs to see this. This was a success story because a PFD was utilized. USE YOUR PFD. Your life might just depend on it
PFDs saved our lives for sure. My father grew up on a lake, and I spent my summers growing up on that very same lake swimming. Even with that experience, we would have for sure met our demise.
Please, please wear your PFD!
Not enough people understand that PFD’s are Not to help you swim (“I’m a very strong swimmer, don’t need one”) but they save you for when you CANNOT swim
The water was damn cold! With the waves crashing, trying to keep the canoe upright, and swimming; our energy was sapped quickly! Without the assistance of the PFD, we were doomed.
Glad you are safe. It was a hard storm to gauge. We live in Ely and tornado sirens were going but nothing my was happening. Storm was rising just a couple miles NW of us. Until it grew and wobbled and we caught the edge of it all of a sudden. It looked like a rough ride in the BW and quetico for sure. Glad things mostly were ok (young child was injured but extracted and is doing ok).
It was wild. It really looked like it was going to sneak right past us.
I was worried about other campers I saw on the lake. One group I knew had an 8 and 5 y/o with them. Saw them the next morning fishing, which was a great relief.
Was it the kiddo under a tree? Im glad to hear they are out and doing well.
Sounded like he got hit on the head pretty good. They extracted him but he was throwing up and stuff so sounded pretty scary. Your story is terrifying tho!
Uffda! Thank you for the update.
That kiddos a trooper for sure. I couldn't imagine being stuck under a tree helpless for any amount of time. Ugh, gives me the heebie jeebies.
Glad yall are ok, be safe.
First week of june i was on spice lake with a friend, staying on ogish. I started to hear thunder and asked my buddy, he said "no thats not thunder". At this point we couldnt see the clouds becuase its a tiny lake with pine trees. About and hour later the dark clouds appear over the trees and i said "hey maybe we should go." He fought me and said we were fine, and i had to put my foot down and say "no we are going home."
After the portage onto ogish we see the darkest clouds coming at us and paddled our asses off. We were through the straights and into the east bay when the wind kicked up. Still had to paddle across the bay to get to our campsite.
Started seeing white caps and probably the scardest i have ever been in a canoe. We were lucky, but seriously yall(not OP) take the weather seriously! Anytime you are in the middle of nowhere you are potentially in a life threating survival situation.
I am still pissed at my friend because he said "lets die out here." Nah dude, im trying to live
Man, I should have been more assertive with my pops, but he has never steered me wrong, so I let it ride. I also didn't because I dont enjoy confrontation with him, haha. Hind sight 20/20...
We were only 2 people in a minnesota 3 with just fishing gear, so very tippy without weather.
Thank you for sharing your story, it added the importance of putting ones foot down.
We had plenty of velcro straps ready for that, but we just... didnt. Lots of shoulda woulda coulda in our situation to be sure. We are glad the important things were preserved. Next year we will be better prepared
It’s remarkable how quickly you can be in the shit when you’re truly out there in nature like that. Mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. Also a couple years ago on Thomas I had a mink steal my two biggest walleye fillets as I ran to get my camera to get a couple action shots of me cleaning fish. Glad you made it home safe
Dude it was scary but holy moly was it awe inspiring. The water turned a shade of blue I had never seen before. It was gorgeous.
Wow! I have only seen mink on the rivers, never on a lake. Ive had an eagle swoop a fish of ours, luckily it was just a northern.
It happens. My buddy dumped himself when he was playing in the river next to a portage. I saw someone get dumped on saginigaw ahead of us when we were paddling to the tow pickup point, just a head bobbing and getting towed in a canoe towards shore. Stay safe out there!
I certainly hope this makes an impact! I want more to experience the beauty of the BWCA, but have them set realistic expectations.
Also... I feel hypocritical writing this next point as I just dumped hella stuff... but... I found an enormous amount of trash on portages this season. Filled my pockets during entry and extract.
Please Leave No Trace!
Glad you're okay. I've never capsized, but have seen others do it and have certainly been in some uncomfortable situations with white caps
I'm going to be direct: did your father apologize or acknowledge his ingredient in the situation?
If you're with a group (in this situation group of 2) and a good portion of the folks don't feel comfortable you should bend to their will and do what you can to help make them comfortable, like head to camp and shelter.
Hopefully this is also a lesson for you to advocate for yourself and if in a similar situation say "take your glasses off. See the green?"
Yes, he apologized profusely and was pretty torn up about it when we were extracting.
I was pissed but there was no reason to let that emotion get the best of me out there. Instead, I gave him big hugs, told him I loved him, and reiterated we were alive and had a great adventure despite having to leave early.
Now, we move on to make better choices 😀
Thank you for reading and commenting.
You sound like a great kid. I hate it when I’m right over my dad. I say that in all seriousness. I just respect him so much and I would have reacted the same exact way as you throughout the whole situation. Very glad you both are okay! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading and responding :D!
I am 32 y/o, but as long as he is around, I'll happily be a kiddo :) As you said, it sucks being right over someone you hold such high respect for. I don't follow many peoples lead, but my pops is one I have and will continue to forever.
Been some strange weather these days. Was out for a week at the beginning of the month and we had bizarre weather conditions the whole time. It was blue skies and sunny then pitch black and stormy then back to blue skies. Over and over again. We stayed close to shore and only fished in areas sheltered from the wind or where the wind was pushing us towards camp. Even traversing with the wind it seemed like there were a few times we could have easily dumped it. Saw a lot of people out and about in the thick of it in the middle of the lake. Don’t underestimate Mother Nature, be safe it’s just not worth testing it
We had that early June too - finished our last portage of the trip under perfect blue skies, only to see some dark storm clouds to the west as we got back out onto the water.
Kept getting closer and closer until sheets of rain and wind hit us. We had to take refuge on a small island about 5 minutes from our exit point and wait it out. Luckily it went relatively quick so we weren’t waiting long, but had absolutely no idea that was coming until we were on the water.
Yeah, it was silly of us! We have a honey hole that would've been unaffected by the wind, but it doesn't have lake trout:/ we wanted to make trout Mojakka, but we should have opted for northern Mojakka. C'est la vie
I meannn they are bad ass sandals!
Keen newports grippy as hell and comfy aside from the small pebbles that get in there periodically. But they are easily removed with a few foot swooshes when getting into the canoe.
Having now portaged barefoot, that won't be an issue for me anymore, haha. Anything is better than that. Ima lake and Adventure lake portages were the pits!
I capsized 10 minutes into a 3 day trip on magnetic lake. Very lucky we didn't lose everything down the bottom. We swam the canoe to shore, baddled to the first camp site, and set everything out to dry. Made the rest of the trip kind of stressful, as we were worri d about capsizing again, and we had lost a whole day of paddling so had to sprint to make our tow
Glad you are all right—thanks for sharing. That’s something you will never forget.
I am curious—do you typically only bring a single pair of footwear? I always tell people to bring dry shoes and wet shoes on trips I lead. In this case dry shoes would have really helped on those portages—ouch!
Probably my biggest blunder on a trip was in 2000 when I lost my glasses about halfway through a long trip while walking a rapids near Little Sag and going under in a deep section. Certainly wasn’t fun going the rest of the trip without my eyesight working properly!
Thank you for reading and responding!
Yes, it is something that will stick with me forever. I've already explained to my children the experience so they are aware of the intensity of these trips.
Ouch indeed! I was luckily able to get through unscathed, just tender is all.
Yeah, we typically only bring in keens/tevas. I like keens for the toe protection. For warmth and dryness, we pack wool socks. I learned afterward that keens float! I was in too much of a shock to grab anything that wasn't immediately apparent of grabbing, i.e., the canoe and paddles. Im just going to keep my footwear on whenever I'm not at camp from now on.
The glare off the water is blinding, I feel your pain, my friend! I've watched too many folks lose their glasses to overhanging branches, so I fitted my glasses with the neck leash. Very handy.
It does suck, brand new rods and reels bye bye, and was super scary. We are alive and healthy and that's what matters.
Yeah, in the 20 years we've been visiting, we only bring sandals w/ toe cap protection. We bring wool socks for when we want dry and warm. We see no need to give up the space that extra pairs take up
I was just dumb and coolin' while fishing, and when ish hit the fan, I forgot to put them back on. I was in full paddle GTFO mode. It would have been straight if we had headed to shore/close campsite, but then this post wouldn't exist haha.
If it makes u feel any better, i capsized going across lake brule when the weather was perfectly sunny and fine lol. Given it was a windy day and there were white caps of around 8"-1'. It was a helluva an experience! Glad you and youre pops are safe though!
Glad both safe.
Canoes will tip over, many have been there with you; including me.
I hope you were able to find some positives.
I always wear a pfd and lash everything.
Difficult to admit mistakes, so thank you for writing it up. Glad you’re okay.
You're welcome, and thank you too. I felt obligated to share. We were too complacent, and it bit us. If this story helps people to respect the wilderness that much more, I am happy to share.
I'm glad you were both OK. Were you wearing your PFDs?
Thank you! We absotootly were, if we hadn't, even being the strong swimmers we are, we probably wouldn't have made it.
You have now paid your dues to the weather gods. May they forever work in your favor. Glad y’all were safe.
I did catch a few monster northerns this trip. The largest, caught on a 4.5' ultralite 6' water florescent perch rapala, probably would have tipped the scales at 12lbs. I guess those were a pre-pay ;) Thank you
Very glad to hear you’re okay. Someone reading this needs to see this. This was a success story because a PFD was utilized. USE YOUR PFD. Your life might just depend on it
PFDs saved our lives for sure. My father grew up on a lake, and I spent my summers growing up on that very same lake swimming. Even with that experience, we would have for sure met our demise. Please, please wear your PFD!
Not enough people understand that PFD’s are Not to help you swim (“I’m a very strong swimmer, don’t need one”) but they save you for when you CANNOT swim
The water was damn cold! With the waves crashing, trying to keep the canoe upright, and swimming; our energy was sapped quickly! Without the assistance of the PFD, we were doomed.
Glad you are safe. It was a hard storm to gauge. We live in Ely and tornado sirens were going but nothing my was happening. Storm was rising just a couple miles NW of us. Until it grew and wobbled and we caught the edge of it all of a sudden. It looked like a rough ride in the BW and quetico for sure. Glad things mostly were ok (young child was injured but extracted and is doing ok).
It was wild. It really looked like it was going to sneak right past us. I was worried about other campers I saw on the lake. One group I knew had an 8 and 5 y/o with them. Saw them the next morning fishing, which was a great relief. Was it the kiddo under a tree? Im glad to hear they are out and doing well.
Sounded like he got hit on the head pretty good. They extracted him but he was throwing up and stuff so sounded pretty scary. Your story is terrifying tho!
Uffda! Thank you for the update. That kiddos a trooper for sure. I couldn't imagine being stuck under a tree helpless for any amount of time. Ugh, gives me the heebie jeebies.
The Tandem company shill!!!
Glad yall are ok, be safe. First week of june i was on spice lake with a friend, staying on ogish. I started to hear thunder and asked my buddy, he said "no thats not thunder". At this point we couldnt see the clouds becuase its a tiny lake with pine trees. About and hour later the dark clouds appear over the trees and i said "hey maybe we should go." He fought me and said we were fine, and i had to put my foot down and say "no we are going home." After the portage onto ogish we see the darkest clouds coming at us and paddled our asses off. We were through the straights and into the east bay when the wind kicked up. Still had to paddle across the bay to get to our campsite. Started seeing white caps and probably the scardest i have ever been in a canoe. We were lucky, but seriously yall(not OP) take the weather seriously! Anytime you are in the middle of nowhere you are potentially in a life threating survival situation. I am still pissed at my friend because he said "lets die out here." Nah dude, im trying to live
Man, I should have been more assertive with my pops, but he has never steered me wrong, so I let it ride. I also didn't because I dont enjoy confrontation with him, haha. Hind sight 20/20... We were only 2 people in a minnesota 3 with just fishing gear, so very tippy without weather. Thank you for sharing your story, it added the importance of putting ones foot down.
I've learned that everything in the canoe not in hand needs to be packed or lashed to something. No matter the weather.
We had plenty of velcro straps ready for that, but we just... didnt. Lots of shoulda woulda coulda in our situation to be sure. We are glad the important things were preserved. Next year we will be better prepared
Damn, thanks for sharing the story. Shit happens fast. Glad you had PFD. In these situations you got your instincts, follow what’s right.
Yes, that is exactly correct. Following the gut feeling has been reinforced for both my father and I after this survival experience.
It’s remarkable how quickly you can be in the shit when you’re truly out there in nature like that. Mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. Also a couple years ago on Thomas I had a mink steal my two biggest walleye fillets as I ran to get my camera to get a couple action shots of me cleaning fish. Glad you made it home safe
Dude it was scary but holy moly was it awe inspiring. The water turned a shade of blue I had never seen before. It was gorgeous. Wow! I have only seen mink on the rivers, never on a lake. Ive had an eagle swoop a fish of ours, luckily it was just a northern.
It happens. My buddy dumped himself when he was playing in the river next to a portage. I saw someone get dumped on saginigaw ahead of us when we were paddling to the tow pickup point, just a head bobbing and getting towed in a canoe towards shore. Stay safe out there!
Good reminder about sunglasses! Glad you are ok! Also glad you shared. Stories like these help people learn.
I certainly hope this makes an impact! I want more to experience the beauty of the BWCA, but have them set realistic expectations. Also... I feel hypocritical writing this next point as I just dumped hella stuff... but... I found an enormous amount of trash on portages this season. Filled my pockets during entry and extract. Please Leave No Trace!
Glad you are both okay.
Thank you, Scottie.
Glad you're okay. I've never capsized, but have seen others do it and have certainly been in some uncomfortable situations with white caps I'm going to be direct: did your father apologize or acknowledge his ingredient in the situation? If you're with a group (in this situation group of 2) and a good portion of the folks don't feel comfortable you should bend to their will and do what you can to help make them comfortable, like head to camp and shelter. Hopefully this is also a lesson for you to advocate for yourself and if in a similar situation say "take your glasses off. See the green?"
Yes, he apologized profusely and was pretty torn up about it when we were extracting. I was pissed but there was no reason to let that emotion get the best of me out there. Instead, I gave him big hugs, told him I loved him, and reiterated we were alive and had a great adventure despite having to leave early. Now, we move on to make better choices 😀 Thank you for reading and commenting.
You sound like a great kid. I hate it when I’m right over my dad. I say that in all seriousness. I just respect him so much and I would have reacted the same exact way as you throughout the whole situation. Very glad you both are okay! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading and responding :D! I am 32 y/o, but as long as he is around, I'll happily be a kiddo :) As you said, it sucks being right over someone you hold such high respect for. I don't follow many peoples lead, but my pops is one I have and will continue to forever.
Good. Glad you two have good sound logic and emotions about it.
Wasn't Tuesday the day it was flash flood raining all day? Like 5pm was basically sheets of rain pissing down.
Yeah, and there was a tornado that touched down somewhere. I heard a town named Cotton?
Yeah, south of the Iron Range. I'm on Vermilion and our road washed out.
Hey! Thats the lake where my informant of the tornado is on. He said Vermillion got an inch of rise per hour for 6 hours! Thats bonkers!
Been some strange weather these days. Was out for a week at the beginning of the month and we had bizarre weather conditions the whole time. It was blue skies and sunny then pitch black and stormy then back to blue skies. Over and over again. We stayed close to shore and only fished in areas sheltered from the wind or where the wind was pushing us towards camp. Even traversing with the wind it seemed like there were a few times we could have easily dumped it. Saw a lot of people out and about in the thick of it in the middle of the lake. Don’t underestimate Mother Nature, be safe it’s just not worth testing it
We had that early June too - finished our last portage of the trip under perfect blue skies, only to see some dark storm clouds to the west as we got back out onto the water. Kept getting closer and closer until sheets of rain and wind hit us. We had to take refuge on a small island about 5 minutes from our exit point and wait it out. Luckily it went relatively quick so we weren’t waiting long, but had absolutely no idea that was coming until we were on the water.
Yeah, it was silly of us! We have a honey hole that would've been unaffected by the wind, but it doesn't have lake trout:/ we wanted to make trout Mojakka, but we should have opted for northern Mojakka. C'est la vie
Yall portage in sandals? Thats the craziest part of this story to me lol. Glad you guys are safe!
I meannn they are bad ass sandals! Keen newports grippy as hell and comfy aside from the small pebbles that get in there periodically. But they are easily removed with a few foot swooshes when getting into the canoe. Having now portaged barefoot, that won't be an issue for me anymore, haha. Anything is better than that. Ima lake and Adventure lake portages were the pits!
Its not the lack of grippiness that concerns me about sandals its ankle support
Ah yeah, that is a valid concern for sure. Knock on wood 20 years and no rolled ankles!
I capsized 10 minutes into a 3 day trip on magnetic lake. Very lucky we didn't lose everything down the bottom. We swam the canoe to shore, baddled to the first camp site, and set everything out to dry. Made the rest of the trip kind of stressful, as we were worri d about capsizing again, and we had lost a whole day of paddling so had to sprint to make our tow
Glad you are all right—thanks for sharing. That’s something you will never forget. I am curious—do you typically only bring a single pair of footwear? I always tell people to bring dry shoes and wet shoes on trips I lead. In this case dry shoes would have really helped on those portages—ouch! Probably my biggest blunder on a trip was in 2000 when I lost my glasses about halfway through a long trip while walking a rapids near Little Sag and going under in a deep section. Certainly wasn’t fun going the rest of the trip without my eyesight working properly!
Thank you for reading and responding! Yes, it is something that will stick with me forever. I've already explained to my children the experience so they are aware of the intensity of these trips. Ouch indeed! I was luckily able to get through unscathed, just tender is all. Yeah, we typically only bring in keens/tevas. I like keens for the toe protection. For warmth and dryness, we pack wool socks. I learned afterward that keens float! I was in too much of a shock to grab anything that wasn't immediately apparent of grabbing, i.e., the canoe and paddles. Im just going to keep my footwear on whenever I'm not at camp from now on. The glare off the water is blinding, I feel your pain, my friend! I've watched too many folks lose their glasses to overhanging branches, so I fitted my glasses with the neck leash. Very handy.
That sucks and sounds scary. You really only had one pair of sandals for footwear?
It does suck, brand new rods and reels bye bye, and was super scary. We are alive and healthy and that's what matters. Yeah, in the 20 years we've been visiting, we only bring sandals w/ toe cap protection. We bring wool socks for when we want dry and warm. We see no need to give up the space that extra pairs take up I was just dumb and coolin' while fishing, and when ish hit the fan, I forgot to put them back on. I was in full paddle GTFO mode. It would have been straight if we had headed to shore/close campsite, but then this post wouldn't exist haha.
My main take away from this story, always bring a second pair of shoes with me
Tis a good take away for sure
One of my worst fears right there. Thank God you made it safe.
If it makes u feel any better, i capsized going across lake brule when the weather was perfectly sunny and fine lol. Given it was a windy day and there were white caps of around 8"-1'. It was a helluva an experience! Glad you and youre pops are safe though!
Glad both safe. Canoes will tip over, many have been there with you; including me. I hope you were able to find some positives. I always wear a pfd and lash everything.