9-Day Wild Fishing Canoe Trip (FULL + Q&A)

it doesn't get better [Music] bugs were just nuts on that portage [Music] that's spooky yeah oh no oh shoot [Music] first day of a longer trip is always kind of surreal you've been looking forward to it for so long the day finally arrives you got out of work and nothing happened you know you're able to leave there were no family emergencies and you're just here in the here and now there are a few escapes in life like this here we go starting at a nine day solo trip this is the farthest north i've ever camped and aaron is tied up this week she couldn't come with me and uh i miss her already i was so used to solo life and now uh now i really miss her when she's not here but with the time i'm gonna make a serious fishing trip out of this looking for some good walleye and pike this loop the marshall lake loop starts out with a straightforward 1.2 kilometer portage i'm halfway through with the second load real excited to start this thing well it's an absolute peach of a day to start this trip it's really a breeze hardly a cloud an eagle just flew over right overhead here right as i arrived beautiful lake loon calling grasses everywhere i think this is gonna be a real special trip bugs are making themselves known here [Music] [Applause] man there's an enormous bird up there i think it's a pelican believe it or not there are pelicans in the north they migrate here the big bird spooked unfortunately but it was massive first fish on what we got pike he's got a bit of uh girth to him not too long bad whoops number two pretty decent walleye that's hilarious huh he escaped through the hole oh didn't even realize there was a hole hmm what do we have here [Music] obviously i wouldn't handle the lure or fish like that if i wasn't using only one treble with pinched barbs actually it's not a trouble it's clipped down to a tandem it was otherwise a dangerous hold but i guess i know what i'm doing hope so yep i think it's a pelican looking at the screen here anyway hard to film this in the canoe yep that's awesome it's the first pelican i've ever seen in the north right on oh yeah it's getting hot uh wow they are just huge remind me of that bird from jurassic park and they're flying off from the chopper you show them uh yep little walleye another one through the hole both of my alleged walleye have squeezed out through the hole in the net i'm going to close that up very shortly another pike there we go it's been way too long on marshall lake it's a huge lake and i couldn't help but dilly dally all around it but now i'm in my first river first of three on this trip grip river aiming to spend the night on grip lake well i'm at the second port it's at an old trapper's cabin which has been totally wrecked would've been pretty cool at one point and i think i spotted some raspberries lovely i just got this silky f-180 folding saw which is awesome for trail maintenance like this because it slips in your pocket super lightweight and easy to handle i had the bako saw but lost it on the steel river loop so replace it with this and it's cutting like butter right now it's awesome just like nothing so when i'm soloing my first load my main pack with my paddle and backup paddle uh my tackle box her tackle backpack and my fishing net here second load is the canoe with the food barrel and attached to the canoe or the mounts for the camera for the fishing rod and then also my fishing rod itself which is attached using these bungee balls yep felt some nip it a couple of times and he hit it both sides got this little outlet here beautiful marsh we go next cast another pike just lost a walleye a small very small one but i've still yet to capture a walleye on film i think oh first cast second cast hey a walleye on film you see it chunky little walleye would be a nice eater but i gotta get going so you got two short ports coming up before grip lake and uh this one's real bad i don't know how they could have used this last year and cleared it so this is gonna be a fair amount of work it's not too long but it's just really overgrown it doesn't get better oh man this is dangerous that's exactly the problem with this little stuff sure you can you can just stamp your way through it oh geez but you can't see the pits and the and the snags and the ankle busters that are lying underneath so you end up with twisted ankle well it's getting on eight o'clock and the bugs are just loving it so i'm eager to get to camp after this port i'll be on grip lake we gotta get going but can't resist a couple of casts here at the outlet yep push on bugs biting light fading can't resist oh nice little walleye beautiful well i'm gonna have to be satisfied with that gotta keep moving i got some nasty like boogers on my clothing from that last port it's like nature sneezed on me if anyone knows a plant that does that that has this goopy snot i'd be interested to know what it is i missed a turn and hit a dead end wasted a bit of time took out the wrong spot on the last port wasted a bit of time mistakes you make when you rush and some little ducklings that i passed um are just screaming in terror that i'm coming back for them four things beautiful channel in here leading the grip lake wild rice anyone tons of it fish to send off the day what do we got oh no oh oh no that was a decent fish i could feel some weight but i don't know you never know but i got a quick look at it there that was pretty decent fish oh oh well oh okay it's after 9 30. um about five hours later than i thought i would get here due to uh underestimation of the time and just dilly dallying on marshall lake but we made it oh all right uh the hammock is up water is filtered and i'm gonna chug some i'm so thirsty i'm so thirsty i'm not even hungry yet but once i get hungry i'm gonna smash some bursa ooh ended up being a long day all right i got to get inside the hammock because the bugs are just nutty so whoa holy cow uh just gonna slug down some scotch and then get everything away and get the heck in there holy gotta get my wet socks and pants off oh this is madness okay i'm locking up oh they're a bunch in here of course holy oh oh man tons in here oh no okay that was a pretty long night uh mosquitoes were like a dog on a bone they were buzzing all night usually they settle down eventually but uh not last night and just uh wasn't sleeping too well i'm using aaron's hammock uh to try the hennessy but it's only made for people up to six feet um i'm a few inches taller than that so uh it was a little tight a little cramped i was always a bit bent uh so that's gonna be not the best for eight eight more nights seven more nights oh anyway just gonna hammer down some breakfast and get out of here i can't believe it's such a bug hole though like it's all sloping it should drain pretty well and it's pretty open i don't know why there's so many mosquitoes here all right let's get the heck out of here a bug hole i don't think i've mentioned this before but i do not use bug spray at all uh except for like a all-natural one but almost never um i just think it's toxic don't want it that's thunder shoot there were originally thunderstorms forecasted for today but that went out of the forecast but i never fully trust that once there's a thunderstorm icon in that long-term forecast um i always assume there's gonna be some chance so see how far i get oh as usual it was a walleye lost it at the boat small well i skipped over a port back there it starts in the nasty thicket of alder i'm just going to try and weigh this thing it looks a little rough but better than the port i think i could shoot this actually i'm going to give this a whirl all right this is going to be the most narrow run i've ever done it's barely the width of the canoe see how this goes there goes the paddle it's coming with oh my oh no no no my rod is in there oh no geez what a mess everything got tangled there rod is okay good old ugly stick that was ugly beats the port though i had this hanging off the front of the canoe with the lure hanging out there i completely forgot got carried away oh boy sorry buddy ugly stick elite that's wicked it was it was doubled over good job buddy oh that was so stupid rookie mistake didn't secure all my cargo but it was still a lot of fun and i skipped that stupid port it's going gingerly through here it's pretty bony [Applause] this is why i was repairing my canoe after the steel river trip it's because i treat it like this poor thing served me well the ducks always do this the mother tries to lead me downstream while the chicks run off if you all just run off i'll go away i'm trying to find the channel here in the grasses really clogs up in some sections on to summit lake now which is huge but very shallow it's mostly just a marsh tons of wild rice still since i got a dehydrator this winter i've been getting really into dehydrated fruit as snacks on trips pineapple is my favorite watermelon is good too it's a lot like a fruit roll up but all natural we've got lots of great dehydrated stuff for this trip today for lunch i'm doing burritos ground beef pinto beans this can be real hearty that's a lot of food i'm putting in bell peppers just a little bit onion mushroom and grape tomatoes just want to get that rehydrating right away before i even make the fire and then of course i've got tortillas cheese and taco mix i'm happy to get out of the sun here eating the shade especially being beside the fire i'm really starting to get too hot i don't bring gas cans it's just less bulk less weight and a lot better for the environment but man it's hot on a hot day well i'm at the end of summit lake on the second river of the trip now the pow-tick river planning on spending the night here probably 10 kilometers or so downstream [Applause] and uh and this this watercourse flows to the arctic ocean in the arctic watershed here gonna have to weigh this i think [Music] maybe not [Applause] tight i'm getting through sweet somehow there was a path through that just barely enough oh small one cut off all right good again i'm trying to see where i'm going there's no clear channel it's real shallow here grassy is heck everywhere you can't step out way because it's just i'd sink right in so much wet land here it's just amazing tons of waterfowl but plenty of songbirds dragonflies raptors just breeds life so thick it's easy to feel lost in it in a beautiful way [Applause] just skipped another short report by shooting that that's two today that have been skipped and then two left that i think are going to be required if i get to them we'll see [Applause] just had a fish go for it huh in the river which is fairly shallow i'm trolling this jointed uh swim bait hard swim bait it's kind of fun it's got a really great action with all those joints it really kicks in the water i'm at the next port and again hoping i can just scrape or shoot my way through these rapids see all right i scouted ahead i think this might be a little rough it's just low but here we go [Applause] [Applause] uh oh oh shoot shoot shoot oh no i missed my turn there sorry buddy my poor canoe just brutal i just fixed you i'm so sorry it's three ports three ports avoided one left and i think i have to do it because there's a waterfall similar to not bringing bug spray i only bring a little bit of sunscreen just for my face the reason even in hot weather i always have a long sleeve long pants and a big hat is to keep the sun off me without having to put sunscreen on hey it's more chemicals on your body b i hate going to sleep with it same with bug spray just all that caked on to you it's not nice so there's some thunder off in the distance and some huge thunderheads rolling in luckily i'm almost at where i'm going to set up camp might be in for a storm here the wind's picking up heavy drops are falling i'm still in the sun but it's got that feeling very nice port here waterfall ports are almost always good because everyone has to use them nobody runs the falls and there's a nice campsite here oh snazzy might camp in here having a nice spot here in the woods to set up the hammock a little away from the falls so it's not deafening i really don't like hanging in the in the hammock without being able to hear if there's a bear huffing around my my hammock and i've got the scotch handy yesterday i barely got to enjoy any uh it's just about seven o'clock now so work on that tonight it's too heavy i've accidentally latched onto a dead tree [Applause] that didn't go as planned [Music] [Music] [Music] uh my dry shoes right as i get into them so there's so many fish here it's ridiculous i've got the fire going up there there are big bangs of thunder in the distance i can barely hear them over the falls but the ambulance is just off the charts here that was an awesome evening just taking in the beauty of nature and now it started to rain so that's my cue to hit the hay this would have been a nice one to enjoy with yani so [Applause] [Applause] so here's camp tonight lots left on this trip so [Music] good morning jigging a curly tail looks pretty magical down there there's a side trip into falbert lake down there and i was really keen on doing it but my wrist or a lingering wrist injury i think it's carpal tunnel syndrome i've never had it really checked out which is stupid uh is acting up and i have to paddle into a headwind to get there and it's about 10 kilometers it costs me a day on the trip i think for my wrist sake i was thinking about it for like an hour last night before bed and this morning too uh i think i gotta cut it out of the list but oh it looks really nice it's a real bummer to leave it behind though those are the places that i end up looking at again on a map after the trip and they haunt me just wondering what could have been but in a province with over a quarter million lakes that's um that's a feeling that never goes away and it's a feeling i'm lucky to have here anywho i'm now on the third uh river of the trip the capicol tongue or the cap uh supposed to be nice great pike and walleye fishing in here so again no need to go too far astray but damn it looks nice i'd rather have lake and trees and rock than hide away in a southern box first fish in the cap i've been trolling for like an hour and a half spunk hooks out came out in the net often does with barbless little bike i think that's an osprey i can never remember all the calls i'm looking for somewhere to eat lunch and there's literally nowhere along the shore for the last like 10 kilometers this is so lush so just eating in the canoe [Applause] [Music] that was a nice one easy i think i'm going to have to weigh this one but see how it goes hmm no clean lines anywhere it's pretty bony ugly sorry fishing is nuts today like really bad [Applause] uh the only thing i can gather is it's the heat it must be buried in the weeds or in the deepest pockets i'm walking this portage it's about 650 meters and clearing it along the way it's just it's encroaching so quickly it's an interesting leaf and it's a bit wet so the bugs are here too spent almost an hour clearing that trail only to decide that i'm not going to use it i cleared the trail and then i started walking back along the river and it looks like i can probably do it the the notes on the map describe it as being a gnarly class 2 3 4 depending on water levels uh but they didn't seem like anywhere near class 4 to me so i think i can run or weight them all right with a healthy amount of fear here i go i hope this doesn't suck shallow but easy here to start and it looks like a bunch of stuff's gonna happen in a row here i'm gonna play it safe and scout oh boy [Applause] oh shoot some real nasty stuff ahead and the eddy out here let's give this a look first i probably should have used the port it looks like they're uh there's enough water to run them but with a very thin margin of error one wrong turn and i'm getting washed down here which wouldn't be a lot of fun and it goes and weighs longer so i'll be washed down a ways at least the gear will so i think i'm going to try and line it i'm really torn about it i really want to try it not necessarily alone in the middle of nowhere but there's half of me at least my instincts i guess which are saying no uh so it's a good idea to listen all right i think this stretch might be good for me and hop in here oh no you gotta be kidding me oh boy oh no oh shoot oh got to be kidding me that was awful awful wow that's why you keep a second paddle handy i actually had the tripod over it which is stupid luckily it slid through still ran really badly after this would it have gone better with if this hadn't happened maybe not hurts racing i think i'll weigh the rest oh that i probably shouldn't have used the port i probably could have run the last hundred meters but all confidence has gone in myself so i've been playing it safe [Applause] i feel like i owe it to my canoe to play it safe just brutal all right here looks real bony so it's time to wait again [Applause] uh i wasn't joking when i said that that just killed my confidence uh but i forced myself to run that last little bit just to get back back up on the horse and say you can do it so that was everything not to do for white water sometimes you learn by doing things right and sometimes you learn by doing way wrong oh i need a fish right now oh made it though i had one fish on but it bit my tail off didn't get the hook things are just crazy slow today i'm trying to jig here just to slow it down oh just felt a bite a little walleye so do you take this porthole sign to be your lawfully wedded method of transportation i do i do you may kiss the sign you bugs were just nuts on that portage black flies too mostly it's in mosquitoes so far with the odd black fly but both of them here there you go unhooked himself just cleared the last port of the day and i'm just looking for somewhere to camp but uh there are widowmakers everywhere here can't camp here not safely well if i clear this one out of the way okay now that can't fall this way and i don't think anything is leaning uh so i can set up in this area here bye old friends i gotta say that there's a lot more nostalgia there than i expected i feel kind of sad burning it had that paddle for six years chili and garlic bread tonight late dinner just hanging on to a bit of sunlight here finally safe from the bugs in here they got really bad at the end right as i was doing the dishes they were just pelting my face as i was walking i could barely barely breathe i've inhaled plenty on this trip eaten some and i wish aaron was here to commiserate with no matter how hard you try a bunch of them always get in oh i am itchy still beats bug spray oh just doing my standard wind down looking at my maps for the next day listening to a little music on my phone flaming lips and uh plotting out my root for tomorrow using my little measuring stick this lip chop equates to roughly two kilometers and i kind of plan it out that way but i'm gonna shut it down soon because between the heat the bugs and the misadventure in the rapids i'm pretty tuckered out today it's a little bit cooler today which is nice at least for now misty super calm smells beautiful paddling past this old forest fire looks like it's probably about 10 years old and gonna make it to a lake today and set up camp there and have a rest day which will be awesome for my wrist and just really nice in general to get off the river and have some you know wide real estate to look at i had a horrible sleep last night so i'll be glad to have the rest day as well chewing on something otters are hilarious first fish all day this walleye i'm in the sedgeman lake provincial nature reserve now as follows the cap river and it's much of the same i'm recording much because it's all very pretty uh but it's kind of the same throughout beautiful mares tales today in the sky another beautiful day really hit the jackpot with weather so far just thrilling action here on the cap what a rush what a beautiful campsite this is i'm just stopped here for lunch but this is the nicest campsite on the river even nicer than the one by the falls i think secluded it's a random piece of uh rock here which is quite unusual it's just so grassy and marshy everywhere beautiful i've been really looking forward to trying this one it's hawaiian shrimp and rice got pineapple bell peppers dehydrated shrimp rice and then i'll add coconut it's good it's a nice change out here there's a bear against my heart racing he's not far right there not sure if it's curious or why it's looking at me it ran off scared earlier into a different set of bushes now it seems to be looking at me all stealthy how oh i'm a human you should run doesn't seem too fussed about me just gorging okay all right i'm gonna leave him alone now funny enough he was right at the sign marking the edge of the nature preserve no matter how many encounters you get like that they're all still pretty special still standing up in there he's running off now that's funny so that's the cap river behind me where i came from the route continues that way on the cap but i'm ducking off to a little side lake here spend the night maybe two depending if my rest day works out decent walleye back to a deeper larger body of water things you're looking up already this is more like it it's a nice meaty walleye thanks buddy both of those walleyes came on this flicker shad here's home for the next two nights at a sweet beach it's the second beach i stopped on the first was junked someone left a barbecue there just glass bottles all the nasty stuff that i absolutely can't stand those are the worst kind of people selfish thoughtless care nothing for nature anyway uh cleared out a little space in here for the next two nights it's pretty sweet got a thousand bug bites in doing this real nice big jack pine here nice shaded spot with a view and the walleye fishing is quite promising so far so another nice little walleye there he goes that's okay this lake is a dream whatever i gave up from vaubert lake by not going there the rest day i'm going to get here is just worth every penny of time i'll lie again just shake them here or not uh yeah this is an unbelievable lake there he goes got a bit of a rainbow going on there some random sprinkles produced that cool thing i learned about rainbows a couple years ago is you can never see them looking at the sun you have to look away from the sun to see a rainbow it sounded kind of deep first pike here one more to round out the day one more walleye thanks buddy bugs got really bad uh just as the light left and i was hoping a smoky fire would get rid of them and put those damp beaver log on there uh but they're they're real bad so gonna get in the hammock get safe oh there's this weirdest sound coming from a couple places around here like behind me and in front of me sounds kind of alien [Music] it's small whatever it is it's making a bit of noise as well just moving that's weird i have no idea what it is it sounds kind of like a note on the flute i'm pretty certain it's not an owl so um there's some kind of small alien here is my conclusion oh it's walleye day it's also laundry day i've got my dry bag that i keep my clothes in with some water inside of it got my dirty clothes often i don't need to do this but with the heat it's worth it on this this is trip rinse cycle i dumped out those rinse clothes now i've just got soap and water in here it's getting it nice and sudsy camp suds add the clothes back in shake it all around get that fresh lemony scent all over it and i'll just let this soak for five or ten minutes to take on that scent while i have breakfast pass this to aaron and i said stay aaron pass this to aaron aaron's not here aaron's not here aaron's not here [Laughter] aaron i miss her already sure wish aaron was here i wish aaron was here and i wish aaron was here i wish aaron was here i wish aaron was here sure wish aaron was here [Music] here hon have a croissant [Music] look at us walking down the beach arm in arm like a couple of teenagers high hopes today i don't care if aaron gets it or i get it either way i'll be real happy doing a drift here past one of the most prime spots on the lake i think it's a nice big point heading out into the main lake with some weeds on it i'm fishing this freedom hydra jig head with a paddle tail and i want to go completely weedless because of the weeds here so all i do is push up the plastic a little the soft plastic and just take the tip of the hook into it if a fish bites it it becomes exposed again but while you're fishing you're going totally weedless and it just slides right through them real nice weeds here yep oh just missed one oh do you see that jump oh like bass fishing oh you ripped my uh my paddle tail off dang it's a pretty nice walleye oh man this paddle tail is pretty long so they really have to gulp it to get a hook but i kind of like that for pike so they don't uh bite you off there we go oh there we go stood up to get a better hook set not big enough for the dinner table now that i want a fish for lunch i can't get any big enough yesterday they were they were all over the place so fish is gonna have to be for dinner but i had another recipe i was eager to try which is chickpea curry i love chickpeas see how this goes it's pretty darn good decent pike on might be too big to eat too big for one person anyway yeah i can't justify taking that fish for one meal pretty good pike all right make sure she's recuperated here yep there she goes thanks darling got that one in the shallows here probably three feet of water in these grasses on this paddle tail which she savaged ripped the tail right off with a vicious strike close to the boat and then she came back for more reloaded with a bit smaller one check out this crazy rock it's got two like eye shaped rings in it that's super bizarre it's like a mask it's a rock though it's heavy wow that's spooky finally one for the pan cut to shore and dispatch the fish immediately tend to clean it up i prefer to do this just on the shore randomly somewhere so that none of the remains are on my campsite it's better for bears [Applause] hmm oh crazy good ah great day that walleye was so good even aaron liked it and she doesn't even like fish right honey aaron's not having any scotch tonight so i'm gonna have her share okay i'm gonna zip up and do a little reading i forgot how nice this is this is this is why it's so important to have long trips so important to have a rest day on a long trip you get to do stuff like this that you never get to do in regular life and it's just so relaxing i haven't i haven't done this even myself all season because i've either been with aaron and we've been on trips that were too demanding for for reading or i've just been on my own i've had lots to do on short trips so this is pretty nice i think i may have gotten the seniors edition this font is like size 16 and the little boy is evidently troubled by his parents divorce that's where i'm at he's flying in a bush plane and they're going to crash for sure i can't get a look at this fish not only if daylight anymore that's right here oh another decent walleye pretty good i had a fish slam it here look like a pretty thick tail buried in lily pads here holy got some good power still can't see it the water is so dark now what do we have oh certainly a pretty decent one strong i try to embrace winter i do i like it but evenings like this make it so hard this is too nice oh boy come here won't come in just super feisty there we go just girthy like the other one today not that long but just thick strong oh my goodness oh yeah it's a pretty nice pike and the proportions on it are really weird like it's not super long pretty long but uh it's just super thick more than anything just gonna get it back real quick here get her upright she fought really hard that's a good i don't know at least 10 pound pike don't rush them off when they're when they're with you after a long fight just breathe in just breathing fine i can see that but probably just panting like a runner at the end of a marathon come on girl you're okay it's the warm water as well makes it harder for cold water species like pike to revive themselves there's a real temptation here for anglers to drag the fish back and forth or to shoot them off and hope that that propels them just wait be still be patient she was lightly hooked too lightly hooked and i had her out of the water for what 15 seconds yeah i can feel her strength coming back and see what she does here stay close yep there she goes swimming away into the weeds cut that fish on the freedom hydra jig head along with this paddle tail which is no more it's just too shredded after a certain point they just won't stay on the jig sad thing is i can't hardly enjoy a moment like this anymore without thinking how we're destroying it all of this environmental grief that's what they call it it's hard to believe we could be given such a gift and ruin it we including me i'm not pointing fingers and part of it i don't know if you saw that it's pretty good walleye got on the water pretty early today and it's just been an incredible morning cool windy northern and beautiful ruggedly beautiful back on the cap river today heading for stuart lake right now i'm in a widening known as berger lake i believe quite nice feels very remote i fried up some salami in havarti because the salami had been in there for six days it's supposed to be refrigerated and it was starting to smell pretty funky in fact every time i opened the food barrel it was kind of gross so i figured a little fry would help it out makes me realize how much grease is in salami and processed meat too there was so much oil in the pan really good though with some dried tomatoes mustard got one we'll leave it up for the otters so leaving the cap forever behind it continues on that way i just came from there and i'm heading down south now into a lake section got a few big lakes coming up in the next few days yeah just blasting through stewart lake decided i don't think i'll camp here unless i find something nice but got something for my trouble along the way nice walleye the wind is up this is exactly why i wouldn't prefer small lakes this one's not even one of the big ones pretty good walleye like yep yep well i was planning on going past stewart lake but uh the headwinds and the fishing convinced me to stay i'm going to make a huge dinner here and then see what the lake has in store for me this evening with the fish well i was looking forward to a feast of garlic bread with my chili but there's a little problem i had 10 slices left for nothing i was going to eat them all just to avoid this but i am too late looks like the last one that might not have any mold but it's still pretty gross no it does awesome oh well i'll just eat some more fish this trip went out fishing after dinner and looked across the lake and saw this huge sweeping cloud of rain coming toward me bolted back got back just in time rain's light now but it could come on it's a good feeling feels safe dry comfortable as can be the bugs aren't bad tonight it's a complete miracle this part is pretty funny uh the kid is on the tree line well north of here and uh the bugs are eating him alive and in the book they write never in all the reading in the movies he had watched on television about the outdoors never once had they mentioned the mosquitoes or the flies all they ever showed on the naturalist shows was beautiful scenery or animals jumping around having a good time nobody ever mentioned mosquitoes and [Applause] flies nothing special today is by far the shortest day of the trip in terms of distance i probably only have to cover about five kilometers and the only reason i'm stopping there is to fish stone lake which is a relatively remote large lake probably has some big whoppers [Applause] there's a nice moose up ahead ducking his head into the weeds munching away let's see if i can get closer i think if i try and paddle past him i don't think he'll mind he must have realized i was here by now it doesn't seem to care hey i'm just here you know it's a bit more interested now still eating but looking straight at me for a while now okay if you saunters off that would be perfect yep good moose oh there goes the wind that was just magical what a beautiful bowl trotted off like he weighed nothing i was just thinking this headwind is killing my right wrist i can barely paddle on my right side now it's drizzly this morning it's pretty cool overcast that just made none of it matter the blueberries have been dismal on this trip this is the best bunch that i've seen there should be thousands of bunches like these just ran off a little mink i think i can see the rain coming across the lake it's about to get wet [Music] battling this wind but can't help patrol nice walleye finally out of the wind found my camp for the night two barrels pretty empty got three burritos on the way cheesy thankfully the tortillas are not molded they seem to last a lot longer i'm pretty much drooling here as i wrap these up [Applause] weirdest bird call what the heck just a crow never heard crow make that first noise weirded me out for a second [Applause] doing a fish fry again tonight nice loon with uh with some shrimp from the noodles i'm excited hmm shockingly good every time yum uh cheers stone lake it's been one of the most enjoyable trips of my life the scenery hasn't been mind blowing it's just super pretty and peaceful but the experiences it almost feels like the trip is over because i don't know what else i could ask for it's calming down now so it's time for a pedal oh sean just enjoying the sunset as usual on this trip i haven't slept very well in aaron's too small hammock but the upside today is watching the first crack of light come into the sky with the loons calling [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] uh so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there's a gorgeous little log cabin on that point there so sweet every moment of this morning has been magical from the otters the sun the birds the calm the lack of bugs my soul is just full to overflowing right now so happy so i've got two portages left on this trip this one is 1.6 kilometers the last one is 2.2 it's quite a contrast versus the piece of this morning 2.2 is tomorrow so just one today it's not too bad and it seems before i speak too soon pretty clear some decent blueberries in here still not that many but also some fakers like these and more commonly these i find these grow with blueberries quite often i don't know what they are but that means i don't eat them disturb the hive oh man oh only got a couple stings oh but that scares the crap out of me when that happens rob it's just so sudden and shocking i just wait swiping away hacking evidently hit something thankfully they didn't swarm me makes the mosquito bites seem like kisses from a ferry i have to go back now with the canoe hopefully they don't pay me any mind or they just attack the canoe that would be fine almost there whoa oh it's mucky i'm stuck no no it's got my shoe there are lake so aura is a mega lake it's just massive that's a lot of lake back there almost through it i'm two-thirds of the way through the aptly named arameta channel it's this huge channel in between our and meadow lakes which is alone the size of most lakes if not more it's impossible to really grasp how big these lakes are until you're actually paddling on them on a map i never really appreciate it it's been a long day paddling but i'm almost into meadow lake last lake of the trip a full day of getting baked in the sun plus the lack of sleep is catching up with me pretty eager to make camp here and call it a day eight days in and the food cravings are really starting to creep up on me just got a wicked one for mcdonald's and most of the trip i've been dying for like a blizzard or a milkshake can't seem to find camp anywhere here i'm debating setting up in the bush here i can drift down to some islands out in the middle of the lake but they're like two kilometers away and they'll have to make up that ground tomorrow marijuana camp is down that way another few kilometers but i have to fight through a wicked headwind to get to it this wind is really sucky right now i was thinking of trying to tackle it but not having second thoughts have to eat dinner here it's just a tinder box in there wouldn't be safe done dinner it's after six the wind doesn't seem to be letting up so i'm just gonna improvise in here it's got a cute little archway it's got that going for it [Music] [Music] this was a good book take away from the book is that the more time one spends in nature the more one embraces that lifestyle and not only embraces it but starts to resent and reject their regular life i certainly relate to that when i'm out here i can't i don't i don't even want cell phone signal at i haven't even tried to pick up a signal i know i won't get one um maybe nice for a weather forecast but otherwise i do not want any kind of connection if there was a mcdonald's here despite whatever cravings i have i would not want it i just want to be where i am in the with the limitations that i have the simplicity of it is just [Music] something you don't get in day-to-day life [Music] the final day of a long trip is always so bittersweet you wake up so many times that can you have more days to explore but eventually those days run out you don't want to go home but you have to but i got a box of chocolate chip cookies waiting for me in the car and a beautiful woman at home so it's time to wrap this beauty up get this last long portage done send her home carbo loading here with some fettuccine alfredo before this port after this i have literally nothing left in my food bag except spices tea and coffee this is a real tough take out here just quicksand trying to push my weight into the canoe so i don't sink down i already took my two heaviest bags out got them to shore so so there's this yellow little portage sign there that's where i took out and this orange flag turned out there was another uh turn in the creek which would have been a lot easier oh well [Music] [Music] past the two hour mark now and it starts to get pretty tedious two hours and 20 minutes a buggy port dodges later and it's done that means to close off i just want to say thanks to rob haslam for putting me onto this route for making the maps for it and putting them out there for being a steward of this route and others in the north and for uh lending me materials to repair my canoe after the steel river trip thanks rob no chance you made it this far in the video if you ever started it but anyway thanks [Music] [Applause] [Music] so i finished that trip a year and a half ago it is one of my favorites it was one of the most enjoyable trips i've ever done i originally posted it as a three-part series and got a number of questions which i summarized here on my phone and i'm going to go through them here rapid fire i've got 25 questions here that i thought were the most recurring themes or more interesting questions that might be applicable to everyone and i'll get right into them this is rapid fire so i just don't understand why you're not eating some of the great fish for that very reason i will not subscribe to your channel the reason i don't eat all the fish is because hey it would be way too much food for one person b i'm filming my these wilderness trips as a soloist and trying to fish and like it is a lot to do this alone is one thing to also add fishing and to try and film it all is very demanding so that's why i do a lot of the food prep at home and that's why i can't eat fish all the time sometimes i just don't have time sometimes i just don't feel like it as well that paddle was repairable with cord why did you burn the paddle that was all in caps which i learned might be because some people if you have like not great vision uh they find lowercase letters hard to read so that was good to know someone pointed that out to me so if you see someone writing in caps it's not that they are yelling it's just it's easier for them uh so the paddle i don't think it was repairable not that easily anyway yeah i could have brought it home put wood glue in it i don't want to risk it breaking again on a wilderness trip it's obviously going to be compromised to some extent it's not going to be as strong as if it was brand new and i would have had to carry it the rest of the way that was the end of the white water as well so that was my white water paddle i wasn't concerned about my other paddle braking and not having a backup if that paddle did break then i would repair that one so yeah i wasn't i wasn't concerned about it what hammock are you using and are you happy with it that was the hennessey jungle expedition or explorer uh the smaller of the two whatever it was which is actually my partner's hammock aaron and uh she is a fair bit shorter than me i'm 6'3 and her hammock was made for people up to six feet i thought maybe i could squeeze by at the time i was looking for a new hammock tried it it is not big enough if you're six three so i didn't sleep that great as i alluded to in the video but otherwise the hammock was fine but we've since got the amok drama hammocks and and that's our go-to what's the plan if a bear does show up sniffing around your hammock if that happened i would make loud noises and i would hopefully have some kind of implement that i could use to bop it on the nose that the face eyes nose are very sensitive so that's where you would want to strike if you had to and then as a last resort i typically do have the bear spray in my in my hammock capped of course and somewhere i put it somewhere where i'm not going to accidentally set it off because that would just get me and i say it's a last resort because usually i'm going to have the bug mesh on the hammock in the summer and if i was to spray that inside if the bear was like literally tearing through it then it would it would incapacitate me as well and if if i got it worse than the bear then it's evening worse scenarios so that's why i say it's a it's a work last case scenario i have never had an issue in hundreds of days of wilderness travel with bears though for the record okay i'm trying to keep this rapid fire do you carry a pen flare with bear bangers no but they're effective i could but i just carry a bear spray what kind of rod and reel are you using on this trip it was an ugly stick elite seven foot one piece and the reel was a fluger supreme 35 i think i love both of those why the single hooks legal reasons in canada or preference it's not legal reasons there are a couple of provinces in ontario manitoba or yeah manitoba and maybe bc where barbless hooks are required and uh but i think you can still use trebles meaning like three hooks on the on the one hook but i clip them down to tandems and i pinch the barbs because i'm releasing so many fish it it's so much less damaging on the fish believe me i know i've had a barbed hook inside my skin and had to rip it out is very unpleasant and i never i already didn't i was already conscious of the issue at that point but since then though i would never want to do that to a fish so that's why i do that what about a head net um i had a headnet on this trip like a bug net to put around just my head i wear it as a last resort i really like freedom feeling free and even though the bugs are all over um they're going to be swarming you either way and i find the swarming is probably the most unpleasant part more so than the the actual bites so in the heat like this was a pretty hot trip for my standards i'm i live in northern ontario and i cannot take heat 30 degrees celsius or like 90 degrees fahrenheit anything like that kills me so having a polyester headlight a net head net on is uh it really overheats me so i only wear it if i absolutely have to we've since got bug jackets which i like and i will wear those but again they they overheat you what kind of camera did you use uh it's panasonic fz300 it's got tons of zoom an articulating screen whoops just spilled tea on my phone and it's not terribly terribly expensive so if something happened to it in the backcountry then i wouldn't be you know devastated is this more your main camera or do you mostly use your gopro combination if it's really raining hard this this camera is weather sealed but it's not waterproof so i can take a little bit of rain and splashing but if it is pouring if i'm running rapids and i'll use gopros if i'm on the trail hand holding it then i'm going to use the gopro because it has excellent stabilization built in versus this camera which doesn't it would be a lot jerkier so if i'm moving if i can use a tripod i'll use this camera the fz300 and if i'm on the move or water is a factor then i'll use the gopros and i carry two gopros now as well as a gopro max 360 camera this camera the drone i sometimes bring an underwater camera so there's a lot that goes into the filming how many gopro batteries did you go through specifically for gopro nine but i carry over 20 batteries in total so for real there are a quarter million lakes in that region in ontario yeah there are about a quarter million lakes 250 000 lakes in this province so you can see why i love it amazing paddling place what kind of canoe do you have it is the canoe that i took on this trip i have a few now but this one was a prospector 15 foot in expedition kevlar which is like it's kevlar but a bit heavier layup so it's tougher more rugged i put it through the ringer it's from a company smaller company called beach marine in hamilton ontario it's very affordable compared to a lot of composite canoes so yeah what kind of rod holder do you have clamped to your canoe the brand is scotty and has is really served me well i've smashed it into trees on portages because i usually leave it clipped onto the gunnels of the canoe sometimes i'll accidentally smash it into a tree and it's plastic but it's held up because it's made in canada it's high quality plastic i really recommend that and i have a video about that if you're looking do you take any preventative shots medications before trips to locations like this no really an interesting question that i've never really thought about because we just don't have those kinds of parasites here you can get giardia from drinking untreated water but that's really all you i don't think there's a shot for preventing that if there is i want it badly if i could just drink water from the lake that would be amazing you certainly can and you probably won't get jodia but if you do it's going to suck really hard i've heard that it's awful but in terms of like malaria and things like that we're super lucky in canada we don't we don't have carriers of that and we have very few poisonous insects reptiles i think the only ones are massasauga rattler and maybe a couple of spiders but extremely rare and really not something that we worry about here in ontario or hardly at all in canada as well what would you do if the boat gets damaged holes cracks etc i have had this happen before and we super glued some birch bark to the bottom that was on the steel river uh but uh if if i didn't have that you can use spruce resin like there's a sap kind of that comes out of spruce trees you can use that as as impromptu glue so that's probably what i would do if i had nothing else but i usually carry duct tape as well duct tape fixes everything you know it'll get you by for a while if it was a severe crack or i wrapped the canoe i'd this isn't in the plastic canoe so it's not going to bend back uh so i think i would be walking out at that point and knowing your your walk out strategy and your exit points through any trip is is always something that goes into your planning so i would be walking out if it came to that anyone know what size that dry bag would be my dry bag is a mech slog deluxe i think it's called slog hd now if they're still making it they might have discontinued it but it's 115 liters i love it i would i'm always going to go with a dry bag backpack as a paddler now if it's raining or if you're running rapids you're never worried about it getting soaked and penetrating through your clothes as long as you wrap it up properly and 115 liters i think is is necessary you can get smaller ones for sure but we easily fill that up for especially shoulder season trips where it's colder and we have to pack heavier in the summer we can probably pack later but i like having the extra space have you seen lynx in the wild yeah i've seen the first one i saw was the best of all it was on the shore it had the sun in its eyes so it couldn't see me that well in the canoe but for me it was just perfectly lit with golden hour lighting i got a bit of footage of that i've seen another one near here well a few hours away from here and it ran into the woods before i could get any footage and i saw one recently this fall but only it's but it had just turned around as i caught a wind of it or caught caught my eye and it it was running around but it was it was a lynx's butt that i saw so if that counts then i've seen three do you dehydrate your own meals yes i never buy almost never buy the packaged ones because they're so expensive and they have so much sodium in them but mostly it's the price i'm just a frugal frugal guy i've always been worried about leaving my vehicle for this long just at the end of a logging road was there a decent parking area for this trip do you have any recommendations for finding out about parking in these remote trip locations there's unfortunately no simple answer to that up in the north there's so much crown land there's so many back rows there is always somewhere to park at least in the summer in the winter it can be the hardest when things are just buried in snow and the road might not even be plowed and if it is then all the snow is on the bank and it leaves you know where to park but in this case there was a parking lot with lots of ample parking there are always forums you can go to like uh one i'd recommend in particular for this trip was greenstone and area uh canoe routes on facebook run by rob hoslam who i mentioned in the video so much good information on there you could definitely get answers to questions like that for this area my ccr is a great resource if you're looking for information about paddling resources in canada but there's no simple answer to that it varies wherever you are did you ever figure out the aliens um so they're talking about that weird sound i was hearing on my rest day and that was after i saw that crazy rock with the two rings in it that looked like eyes and then the nose and the chin were kind of shaped out too so it was crazy rock and then to hear that noise at night some people provided feedback on that and we think it might be some kind of owl but i listened to the calls for that owl and they don't sound exactly the same so i have no idea whatever it was i'm i doubt it was aliens i'm pretty sure it was something in nature there's there's so much diversity in nature that we it can always surprise you so i'll just say it was that did you go through an outfitter no i never have i have all the gear and generally the knowledge for this area to go out and do it myself but there are outfitters across ontario if you're ever looking there's bound to be one nearby what kind of scotch the scotch i was drinking was a blended scotch so not single malt and it was uh islam isla mist looks like eisley is lay but it's i think isla and it is my favorite it is half the price of a single malt favorite for the money my favorite overall is lagavulin but i was recently sent a scotch by our friend byrne in texas and it was a ardbeg another isla from the same area as another one i was talking about and it is it is like vulen's equal it was phenomenal we're still drinking that we're savoring it we just got it so we'll be sipping that one as slowly as possible to to enjoy it question 24 almost at the end are you wearing standard shoes when canoeing i get they would be better for rugged portages but getting wet and staying wet all the time wouldn't be comfortable would it no it's not it's not comfortable they are standard boots they're keen target twos mid mid height and i get them wet they're just regular boots and i get them wet because i've learned in canoe tripping if you're going on rough routes where landings aren't always dry and if you're in rapids you need to wade i just get them wet i've i used to try and keep my feet dry and it was extremely inhibiting for travel in this in this wild area there is so much water and that means there's a lot of wet spots if it's not just lakes and rivers there's marshes and just mucky areas muddy portages my advice is just to commit to getting it getting them wet where to next last question it's always changing i could decide one thing and then before that time arrives i've i've decided to go somewhere else always just going where the wind blows me and a lot of exciting plans coming up though hope you enjoyed the video and this little uh rapid fire q a and uh i'll have a bunch of videos linked here that are similar to this one if you enjoyed it look through see you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Lost Lakes

Views: 209,212

Keywords: backcountry, angling, ontario, fishing, canoe, camping, lake, angler, canada, wilderness, BAO, bushcraft

Id: kQAs1ngF_MM

Length: 118min 5sec (7085 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021