Campfires on a Northern Shore: Or Northland Echo’S

By Dennis Esler

This is a book about trips that my family and I have taken over the years into the wilderness areas of Northern Minnesota, Ontario, and Manitoba, Canada. These trips were taken between 1958 and 2010. It is still possible to make similar trips into these areas if you have the proper licenses and permits. These trips were a way of life for my family and they all were very easy on the budget. Although the years have dimmed my memory a little I have tried to keep the stories as factual as possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781503528284

Dennis Esler

This is a book of poetry that spans the years. Some of these poems were written forty years ago, and some were written now for this book. They are meant to be fun to read but some of them have been written with tongue in cheek. They all have some segments that was from a real time or place but I may be the only one that can find the connection. A good example of this will be found in the works that I have titled THE FACES OF THE LADY. This is about a large wilderness lake that is along the Minnesota- Ontario border. I have fished and camped on this lake many times and any canoeist that paddles the lake will soon find that this Lady has many moods that can change in an instant. I had a lot of fun writing this book, and I hope you find enjoyment in reading it.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Dennis Esler.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2014922552

ISBN:          Hardcover          978-1-5035-2826-0

                   Softcover            978-1-5035-2827-7

                   eBook                 978-1-5035-2828-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 12/22/2014

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter 1 High School Beginnings

Chapter 2 A Little Background

Chapter 3 Canadian Episodes

Chapter 4 Minnesota Happenings

Chapter 5 Other Happenings

Chapter 6 Northland Echo’s

Afterword

FOREWORD

These are the stories of fishing, hunting, traveling or just plain exploring the great wilderness in Northern Minnesota and a lot of Canada. A lot of Americans don’t know that the northern forests and lakes of this area were explored over one hundred years before parts of the United States were even open for settlement. The French, Scottish, and the English were responsible for this exploration because they were looking for natures bounty, naturally grown wild fur. The dominate animals they were seeking were the beaver, and the muskrat. Once they found the beaver, they knew they would find the muskrats, and the mink. They were happy to find they also found the otter, and the weasel. The real bonus animals were the wolf, the fox, and the fisher, and the marten. The lesser animals they were searching for, were the other long haired prey, such as the bobcat, and the lynx, along with the wolverine. They did catch other animals of course but it was usually by accident.

These men (there were only a few women in the early years) would normally travel in small groups, but occasionally it would be a solitary individual. The normal mode of travel was the canoe, during the open water season, (although in the spring and early fall in central Canada, they used ox carts a lot as well) and the dog sled, and snowshoes, in winter.

The reason most of the men traveled in small groups, was because of the fact that one man could only carry a limited number of pounds on his back. This of course limited how many different items a man could have at his disposal. With this co-operative effort, each man could have a particular item along, while his workmates could each carry their own chosen item. By sharing these items, there would be more items for each one to eliminate, so they could carry the necessary items, such as food, traps, or ammunition. Safety was another reason for staying with a group, as more ears, and eyes, could spot trouble before it struck, or handle it, if it did arrive. If a man caught his hand in a trap, or broke a leg, he was very happy to have a buddy, or two, looking for him, if he was late getting back to the evenings rendezvous sight. The Indians in the far north were not nearly as fierce as the Indians were farther south, and for the most part welcomed most of the trappers and Voyageurs. They often times married the Indian women, and lived in their villages during the worst time of the winter.

The voyageurs were bothered even less than the trappers, as they were only in each tribe’s area for a day or two, before they had moved on. The voyageurs job was to transport goods from Montreal, and Toronto, to the far northwestern parts of Canada along the well established portage trails, thru the great lakes to Grand Portage, Minnesota, this portage is nine miles long, then northwest thru the Voyageurs trail of lakes that were close enough together, to portage from one lake to the next. (This is a good time to explain that portage, is a French word, that means to carry, and it should be pronounced in such a manner as to rhyme with massage, not rhyming with shortage.) This chain of lakes stretch along the Minnesota-Ontario boundary, until they reached Lake of The Woods. This is now Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. Then thru a chain of lakes and rivers to Lake Winnipeg, then north across the lake, to where the village of Grand Rapids, Manitoba now stands. From there it was a series of rivers and lakes, all the way west to Fort Athabasca, on the lake of the same name. This is in extreme northwestern Saskatchewan, and spills over into Alberta. This was paddling upstream all the way, from Grand Rapids to Athabaska, as all water coming off of the Northern Canadian Rockies, is flowing east towards Hudson Bay. While traveling the Voyagers Trail they paddled both upstream and down as they had to cross the Laurentian Divide. On the North side of the divide the waters all run West to Lake of The Woods, then North to Lake Winnipeg then out thru the Churchill River system to Hudson Bay. while on the south side of the Divide, they all run East out to Lake Superior. There were designated stops along the way, where they would sometimes stop, and trade with the Indians, thus the Indians along the way could purchase the things they needed without engaging in war fare.

In almost all cases the voyageurs were small men with only a few exceptions. Smaller men took up less room in the canoes, thus leaving more room for the products that they were transporting. These men were small in stature, but they were giants when it came time to carry. The packs that the men portaged, weighed an average of ninety pounds each, and each man normally carried two at a time, although there are verified records of certain men carrying three, or four packs. The canoes that they used were normally thirty feet in length, and two or three men were required to carry the canoe on each portage. The paddles they used were four inches wide, and five feet long. The men paddled in unison at one hundred and twenty strokes in two minutes, or sixty strokes per minute. The last ten minutes of every hour the men would rest so they could smoke their pipes, or go to the bathroom. The food they ate was almost exclusively corn meal, or dried corn, and jerked meat. Most of the men would sleep under the nearest Spruce tree, to have some type of shelter from the rain. The man who steered, from the rear of the canoe, and called cadence during the day, would normally sleep under the canoe, as he was the boss of the crew.

Normally the day would end at sundown, and they would begin paddling again at sunrise. The only time they deviated from this schedule was when they were on Lake Winnipeg. That lake is so large, that the wind was a definite factor, thus they ran across during the hours of darkness, when the wind was not so bothersome.

There were eighteen paddlers in each canoe, plus the steersman, who not only steered the canoe, but also normally sang, or beat a drum, to keep the men in time with each other. An efficient crew of paddlers would make two trips, from Montreal to Grand Portage, and return, each season. From that point on it was a different crew of men that would continue over the portage trail. Once the lakes began to freeze they were forced to quit for the year, and since none of them wanted to be forced to winter in the far north, the second trip of the year was either completed in record time, or was forgotten until the following spring.

Most of these anecdotes took place as I’ve tried to describe them here but a seventy six year old brain does tend to get a little faulty at times. I apologize for any inconsistency that you may notice.

CHAPTER ONE

HIGH SCHOOL BEGINNINGS

While the fur trappers, and the voyageurs, were the first white men to have campfires on the Northern Shores, the Indians of the region were there long before, and they began the procedures that we follow yet today. Campfires are usually quite small, as they are used for cooking, and are seldom used for heat. Dry, dead, wood that is still standing, is the common fuel used, as wood that is down on the ground absorbs too much moisture, and causes a smoky fire, with little heat. Today there are commercial fuels on the market that will be seen in a drive to campground but they are impractical back in the bush. Remember everything has to be carried in, and out, including containers. That is why no one wants to bring anything that cannot be left in the wilderness. There are very strict laws in both Minnesota, and Canada, against any tin cans, plastic containers, or glass of that type, being taken into the wilderness. Being caught with any of the banned materials can, and will, lead to large fines, and possible jail time. Also you may be required to clean up a designated area, that you or someone else, may have defaced. If you are incapable of doing the cleanup, you will be required to pay for others to do it for you. If it is ever your desire to enter these northern areas, leave your cans and bottles at home. There is a standard saying in this area that all campers and fishermen are encouraged to follow. It is, that you should never leave anything in the wilderness, except your footprints. This is good advice.

My brother and I began camping at an early age, and made most every mistake that so many people make, before they finally learn. At the age of ten, and fifteen, David and I went camping in a large woodland, near Anoka, Minnesota. While this is not a ‘Far Northern Shore" it points up the beginning of a lifetime of camping. David was a boy scout at the time, and he was anxious to show me, and our parents, how adept he was at surviving in the wilderness. We carried a heavy canvas tent, along with all of our gear, about a quarter of a mile back into a heavy stand of oak trees, where we proceeded to set up camp. The ground was far from level, but we found a spot to David’s liking, and pitched the tent. There was a mat of oak leaves about six inches thick from the previous fal, that we thought would make a comfortable place to lay our beds. We never noticed that it was a low spot, where the leaves had collected. Next, we gathered all the blown down branches that we could find, so we could have a fire to keep us warm. This was in April. Once he had everything ready, David told me that he would show me that he could light the fire using just two matches. We had brought some news paper to start the fire with. David lit the paper afire, but before the damp wood could begin to burn, the leaves on the ground did. Rapidly the fire spread, and we began to try to kill the fire. By the time we got the fire out, it had burned an area about ten or twelve foot in diameter. That was the end of our campfire, because we realized that to restart it, meant a forest fire would be next. When it became dark, we crawled into the tent, and went to sleep. Soon we were awoken by the sound of thunder, and rain pouring on our tent. We lay there talking when I noticed that my blankets were getting quite wet. Soon there was water running thru our tent. The low spot where we had pitched the tent, was a natural drainage for the runoff water. While we were discussing what to do, the tent suddenly collapsed, and we were covered with some very wet canvas. It was too dark to go back to the house, so we just covered our heads and went back to sleep. In the morning when we returned to the house, our father just laughed, and asked us, if we thought camping was fun.

While our camping had a bad beginning, we did learn from our mistakes, and both David and I went on to have many trips, both together and separately, that were very enjoyable. We still made mistakes of course, as no one is perfect, but each time we made a mistake, we learned from it.

The first lesson that we learned was to never trust a weather forecast. Every time we relied on the weather being as it was predicted, we ended up being sorry we listened. Northeast Minnesota has very changeable weather because of Lake Superior. Even though we lived west of the lake by fifty miles, it still could influence a change of weather within just a few hours. If a low pressure area passes to our south, it will make a wind direction change once it gets into central Wisconsin. It normally will take a turn to the north east so it can pass between the east end of Lake Superior, and the north end of Lake Michigan. That causes an east wind across Lake Superior, that blows right into Northeastern Minnesota. This will always cause a temperature drop during the summer, because this lake seldom has a surface temperature over forty-five degrees. When that cold damp air hits the warm moist air over land, it brings fog,