Hi John,

I just returned from two seperate 5 day canoe trips, one with my daughter and one with my son, that took us through lakes just west of the Quetico Park area,and just northwest of the BWCA.
The water levels were higher than normal, causing strong currents, something to think about and plan for if your route takes you upstream in some areas. I paddled for all I was worth for 45 minutes to paddle upstream through a channel from one open stretch of water to another. I've done the same paddle at an easy pace in 20 mins in other years.

The berries were very plentiful. Lots of blueberries and wild raspberries. My son Keenan, who's 6 and I picked enough to spice up our breakfasts every morning. While my daughter Kayla, who is 8, and goes through the bush like a wolf picked about a quart a day so we had lots for breakfast and for desert after supper.

We did see bear droppings during our travels, that indicated that the bears are feeding on berries, and hopefully they are too busy fattening up on berries to bother you.

Have a great trip. Keep a journal and write in it every night, while the events of the day are still fresh in your mind. Take lots of pictures, and when you get back put together a nice book with the entrys from the journal and the pictures. Then come January you can stretch out in front of the fire and re-live you trip of a life-time again and again. And start planning your next trip of a life-time.

Be safe,

Ken

: John,
: Please accept my apology. I should have figured you'd have other compasses
: aboard. Guess my synapses were drawing a part in the heat.

: It sounds like your getting very ready. Sounds like your ditch kit is shaping
: up nicely.

: A heads up: I understand they have had a fire ban on for much of the BWCA for
: most of the summer as a result of it being so dry. That means you'll have
: to have a stove and fuel if the ban is still on. Check with the forest
: service in Ely about weather the ban is still on. Its also going to likely
: affect your foraging.

: Its been my experience that a fire ban likely means the berry crop has been
: way down. That can mean the bears are more persistant and that one of your
: foraging sources, the one you use for simple sugars, may be harder to
: utilize. Its not a huge hit on the diet as other things (starches) can
: take up the slack. When the berry crop fails think of substituting salad
: greens and bark teas for the vitamins. There are a number of good salad
: greens and tea fixings up there. All that will be in your foraging book.
: So I won't bore you with redundancy.

: If your hankering for berries persists, look on the bogs. Those are the last
: areas to dry up and thus some berries can still make it. At the same time
: the animals know this too and will concentrate on the same resource. So
: its not a sure thing, and its good wild life viewing. However, look out
: though some of those bogs have quick sand in them. If you find a
: concentration of animals,..mast grazers.. in one spot it means they are
: hanging on a food source. Look around for what they are utilizing. You
: might be able to grab a meal off it too.

: Protien: When its dry look for the smaller sources of protien rather then the
: larger ones. Remember if the fishing dries up. Try for catfish and carp on
: the bottom and after that, netting minows at the stream lake interfaces
: and box trapping chipmunks and squirels. If the mast crop has also failed
: small animals are easier to trap.

: If its so dry that the insect hatches have dropped the fish will switch from
: being on the surface. To going deeper. Its not worth it to them to risk
: surface feeding for little benifit verses the risk of being taken by an
: Osprey. When they go deeper they are hanging off reed beds and off deep
: drop offs under cliffs.

: I have some friends who are presently paddling a few lakes off of your route.
: I'll contact them before you leave to get some advance information on the
: berry crop and bears etc and other things that might affect your
: wilderness campaign. I'll report there findings to ya of board in an
: e-mail.

: John have a trip of a life time!

: !RUSS