June 2 (Mon) Don and David leave Boulder. Stop along the way at Plentywood and Brabant. A stop in PA to pick up the satellite dish and equipment is disappointing since the transceiver was inoperative and we had to make arrangements for Jim to pickup the replacement on his way through PA later that week.
June 4 (Wed) Arrive landing and David portages almost everything. It is quite hot and he drinks a vegetable juice for hydration. Shortly after underway for the island, David upchucks all the vegetable juice and remains feeling rather under the weather. Don empties out the boats pretty much alone as David gets to bed early, still feeling rather poorly.
June 7 (Sat) Don and David take boats to landing to pick up Jim Bunker, Rod Ury and Roger. Rod forgot one Honda gas can and hose. He drove back to Davin Lake Lodge and barrowed a tank and hose that eventually cost $550 (outrageously). Don installs a walnut transom in the 14’ Lund with Jim’s help. Everyone helps Don successfully install the satellite dish and computer based telephone service using Skype.
June 11 Rod finds our long missing Naden 13’ aluminum boat in the Caldwell River over the portage from Spalding Lake. Rod catches a 17lb northern while Jim get a 13 lb one.
July 3 (Thur) David and Don have an ideal day to cross the lake and stow the boats at 2 mile island. Start the straight through drive home. David drives from south of Melford to the border during the night, listening to his music. Arrive in NP about 5PM on July4. David “stings” Jim with a phone story about being broken down on North Dakota, then we walk into the house for the big surprise. Betty and Don drive to Boulder the next day.
Click on large photo to view first photo of 2008.1 which allows you to then click through all the photos or scroll through Thumbnails and click on small Thumbnail to go directly to the full sized version of that photo.
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David and Don in front of Don’s home. The Chain Tree blooms in late May and is the perennial photo op for many graduations through the years. This is the first year David went alone to Canada with Grandpa
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David and Don in the driveway. The Suburban is carrying the sports canoe on top.
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Rod Ury in the cabin kitchen.
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David never gets in a boat without his life preserver. I think this was a promise he made to his mother, in any event it established a very good life time habit.
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Rod fishing near Indian Island.
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Jim with a nice Northern in Northern Bay.
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David got a smaller one too.
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Roger has a Walleye for the table.
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David takes Jims picture.
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Rod fishing from the rear of the boat.
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Don is installing a new transom extension on his boat. The storage area under the saw pavilion needs a new cover for its storage area.
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David with the evenings meal.
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Don works on installing the transom extension that is required when using a 20” shaft outboard like his newer Honda 20 HP motors.
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Further down the trail to the water pump.
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Further up the trail to the cabin.
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Smoke from a distant fire.
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David is ready for fishing.
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Upstream on the Campbell River. A beautiful spot but we have never had good fishing here.
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Rod is on his way to the Honey Hole.
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The secondary rapids at the Honey Hole is flowing fairly well with the high water level.
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There is an eagle nest on what we call “Eagle Island”.
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David found a spruce tree with some kind of bird hole in it.
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Rod in Northern Bay, south side near a favorite rock used by the younger folks for jumping into the lake ( which is only about four feet deep)!
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Roger looks rather relaxed.
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A patch of Reindeer moss on the island.
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Moose rack on island beach front A-Frame.
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Jim reads back in the cabin. Note the empty storage cartons that need to be stowed.
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Beams in the cabin. They were designed to provide rigidity to the front of the cabin.
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Vertical half logs above the stone wall.
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New walnut transom extension.
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Transom extension from inside boat.
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Looks like we still need a new cover for the storage end of the saw pavilion.
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Jim working on the new boat transom extension.
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Tiger Swallowtails swarming on Bear Beach where we leave the fish guts. They appear almost every summer.
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Don is taking a very hard look at his laptop.
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Roger is going to retrieve his lure snagged in the shallow entrance of a small creek at the end of the lake.
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Big Northerns have been known to hangout in shallows like this but usually all you catch is a snag.
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A spreader tool makes it easier to extract a lure from the wiggly Northerns.
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Roger is working on a tan while he fishes.
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Rod with some Northerns that will be taken back to Nebraska.
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Seagulls rest on the Bathing Rock. The lake water level is quite high at this time.
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All the electronics for the new satellite internet dish connection need a dedicated table.
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Roger and Don use a “satellite finder” gadget to help position the dish to receive a maximum signal. It was really a matter of the blind leading the blind.
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Roger looks for that big Northern in the small pool above the small waterfalls where the Caldwell River flows into Spalding Lake about 10 miles from the cabin. This is also a favorite spot to go swimming, at least for Doug States.
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The old Naden boat from Clear Lake had been lost for several years. Rod found it near the little pond shown in the prior photo. It was obviously “barrowed” to go up the Caldwell River and just left there.
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Rod with a nice walleye at the Caldwell River channel. The blue boat is about to be towed back to the cabin.
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Homeward bound. This boat was used mostly to fish in the intrim lake below Wilson Rapids. It required portaging boat, motor and fishing gear down the portage trail alongside the secondary rapids.
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Roger catches some sun on the trip back to the island.
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More smoke from the distant fire. This fire did not bother us in any way except drifting smoke into the lake occasionally. It is a rare season to not see these smoke plums. They are always much further away than you think when looking at them. This plum is probably 20 to 25 miles away but as usual, we seldom know its distance for sure.
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A very rare visitor stopped by for a visit. He had the same boat and motor as Don. He was from Grand Junction, Colorado and was probably only the 3rd or 4th unplanned visitor to the island since 1992.
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Don, Roger and the three visitors.
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Rod, Jim and David prepare for Jim to row the newly found blue boat down the Wilson Rapids into the Intrim Lake. This seemed easier than portaging it down the 400 yard trail.
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Jim enters the rapids on the left side.
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The high water made this easier than it normally would be.
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Jim looks a bit excited here.
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Portage trail at the easy part.
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In some spots the trail is much deeper than the surrounding area.
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It doesn’t take much rain to make this a very wet trail. Portaging gear across this trail several times in 1991, going in and out of Greenbush Lake, convinced me to consider not building my cabin in Greenbush Lake. A decision never regretted.
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Another northern with spreaders in his mouth.
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Rod works on catching a larger northern in the Intrim Lake.
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Rod with very nice Northern. Jim cheers and feels the effort to get the blue boat into the Intrim Lake was totally justified.
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Rod releases his big Northern as almost all Northerns are.
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David got an even smaller one, not his usual performance.
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Wilson Rapids flows into the Intrim Lake. The backwater on the left is a favorite fishing spot.
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Jim’s fish are getting a bit larger.
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Jim with a nice Walleye below the secondary rapids into Intrim Lake.
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Jim with a nice Walleye below the secondary rapids into Intrim Lake.
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Roger now gets into the northern catching derby.
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Rod is really dialed in to the bigger ones. Could he be the best fisherman today?
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Jim is concentrating on Walleyes.
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David’s Northern seems to be on a diet, nice length but little girth; still a lot of fun to catch.
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Roger and friends are bundled up today.
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Rod and Jim on their way to the Intrim Lake.
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David with yet another Northern.
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Rod seems to have lost his big fish touch.
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Roger has a nice Northern.
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Rod with two Walleyes.. how do you do that?
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Roger knows how to get them two at a time.
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Poor David only gets them one at a time, but of course he’s pretty young to know all the secrets of a really good fisherman. Ha Ha
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Rod and another Northern.
