Wednesday, August 9, 2017 We left for Ely with a side mission to pick up a MN3 canoe for the trip. This year we were two canoes and five paddlers. To save paddle time we rented a cabin for one night at La Tourell's on Moose Lake. The next morning we would take a 6:30am tow to Indian Portage.
Thursday, August 10, 2017 The tow saved us more that six miles of paddling and it allowed us to begin a long effort to reach Kekekabic via Birch, Carp, Melon, Seed, Knife, Bonnie, Spoon and Pickle. Though a couple of portages were busy, we generally moved at good clip. Only stopping for lunch at a campsite (#1450) that faces Thunder Point, we arrived at campsite #1406 in five hours after starting in Birch Lake. Luckily we were able to make camp before a short hard rain that came right down the lake from the east.
Friday, August 11, 2017 was a day dedicated to fishing for lake trout. We mostly worked the main body of the lake that was in front of our site. Using a depth finder, line counter reels and dipsy divers to get our Sutton spoons down to the right depth, we scored enough fish for a proper dinner for the five of us.
Saturday, August 12, 2017 Three of us decided to day trip a loop to Eddy Falls and a attempt some lake trout fishing in Sema Lake. The weather was perfect and the water in the falls was refreshing, and thankfully not as cold as the last time I had been there back in 2013. We took a lunch break at campsite #1429, on the South Arm of Knife Lake just west of the falls. Fishing on Sema only produced one laker, but I can imagine that more could be had, if we could have stayed there longer. Although we didn't stop at the one campsite (#1420) on Sema, it was close to an incredible sand beach that spanned most of the eastern shoreline.
Sunday, August 13, 2017 Only a couple of us were ready for a last day of adventure, so two of us headed to find the National Forest Service cabin on Kekekabic. The cabin was a pretty easy to find, and we hiked up to the Kekekabic trail hoping to find signs of the old fire tower. Unfortunately we didn't know where to look and the views were rather limited given the dense forest covering the hillside. For lunch we paddled over to campsite #1423 and was rewarded with some excellent views of the lake from the steep cliffs that are part of the campsite.
Monday, August 14, 2017 Once again we broke camp with coffee and oatmeal; however this time we managed to leave at 7:30am. Even though we had our pickup tow scheduled for 2pm, we made every effort to efficiently paddle and portage our way out a different route from Kekekabic through Pickle, Spoon, Dix, Skoota, Missionary, Trader, Vera, Ensign, Splash and finally Moose some time around noon. Thankfully we could get cell service, so we pulled off at campsite #1295 and called for an early pickup. Although it took about 30 minutes for the tow to get to us, we were quite happy to be on our way back home.
