6000 KM Adventure Part #3 (LOTS OF PICS)

[Basskicker]

After debating what to do for the 3rd week of our honeymoon....we decided to do our first fly-in fishing trip out of Nestor Falls. Nothing was planned...it was hilarious when we walked into the office and told them that we wanted to do a fly-in trip...the lady asked....which week in 2009 would we like to go.....I said "TOMMORROW" then her eyes lit up. It was meant to be because they actually had an opening for a week leaving in the morning for 7 days. Perfect we said....what time does the plane leave!!!!!

 

It was absolutely amazing.....being the only 2 people on our own lake with 5 boats and 3 lakes to fish from. Absolute silence except for our good buddy Chipper (chipmunk) and few loons and Barbie the bear. Barbie caused me many sleepless nights...explain later.

 

The morning of...we were so excited...

 

 

Here's a short video of one of the take-off's in the float plane...

 

<object width="400" height="302"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"'>http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1594654?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Untitled</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user513794?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Jason Lovell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Vimeo</a>.

 

 

This is the cabin we stayed in....which was a little rustic....but we managed.

 

 

Our first morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the lake.....

 

 

All I can say is that the fishing was amazing.....mostly small walleye in the 12-18" range but I did manage to catch another P.B. walleye at 27 3/4" and another at 26" A giant for such a small lake being so far north. It was so wierd......I figured that the fish would be deep this time of the year...but ALL fish were found to be in the 5'-12' of water with mud/sand bottom and no rock in the narrow channels with slight current or shallow back bays....wierd....so I thought.

 

Here's a couple of the bigger fish from the week...

 

 

Here's my big fish for the week....

 

 

Does anyone know what kind of spider this is? It was massive....bigger then a toonie in both directions....and super fast. This was the biggest one that I saw...but they were everywhere.

 

 

And this is our good buddy Chipper.....who woke us up every morning.

 

 

Monday night is where things got scary.....it's around 9:30 P.M. all the windows are open and it's pitch black outside and we were in bed.....still awake with the lights on when we hear a huge BANG....and I asked Andrea....what was that? She says don't worry about it...it's the hot water tank....it makes noises.

 

At this point I'm thinking...hey if she's not worried..why should I. So a couple of minutes later we hear some other strange noises in the back bedroom area....at this point I'm like ok....enough is enough and get out of bed. I grabbed my flashlight and started to look through the windows.....see nothing....when I get to the back bedroom I turned on the light and noticed that the window screen had been pushed in about 10-12".......and I hear more noises...at this point I'm getting concerned.....thinking that a small animal was in the cabin with no way out except for the window screen that I had just fixed.

 

So I looked around under the bunks and throughout the whole cabin.....interior secure. So I hear more noises again and they sound close as I'm standing near a window that was closed...because it had no screen. The lights were all on at this point so I couldn't really see outside. I hear more noises....this time they sounded a little different but still very close....so instead of being very quite, I decided to bang on the wall right beside the window where I was standing.

 

When all hell broke loose inside my head....and chaos broke out. When I banged the wall....it banged back....and loud. At this point I lost all of my cool and calmness. I'm like honey....get the hell out of bed NOW and start closing the windows screaming like a girl. Once the windows were all closed....i turned off all the lights and grabbed my big Maglite flashlight......I was like a crackhead peeping outside the windows for about 15 minutes...eyes bulged out of my head according to Andrea. After not seeing anything...except this

 

 

The bear had been standing and looking through this window when I banged on the wall.

 

......I finally get dressed and get the courage to open the door with flashlight and M-80's (fireworks) in hand.....

 

First thing I saw was the barbecue (the initial bang)....or what looked like our barbecue..it was destroyed. Every single part of the barbecue was in pieces....the only thing still attached with the propane tank on it's side and the wheels still attached to the frame ...everything else was scattered.

That's when the real panic set in......realizing it could be only one animal large enough to destroy the barbecue. It was BARBIE the BEAR. Seriously....I nearly crap myself when that realization set it. ......so inside my head I'm thinking that this is not good. Here I am on my honeymoon in the middle of nowhere....nothing to defend myself except a small wooden broom or a steak knife....no one even coming to check up on us for 2 more days and no way to contact them.

 

The bear had come and gone......I set off M-80's for the next 30 minutes in 5 minute intervals. At this point there was nothing that I could really do..but wait...and wait.....because I couldn't sleep...so I waited....but nothing......Barbie the bear was gone for the night. So I settled in....fortified the only door with a chair and pots and pans because there was no actual lock on the door just the door knob. Eventually I fell alseep.......

 

The next morning....we laughed and joked....but in all seriousness I was very concerned....I am very bear cautious when I am in the woods. This was a brave bear and obviously not his first time at this camp......I was worried about the bear coming back. Eventually Wednesday morning came and the mid-week check came and we explained to the pilot what had happened, but he never said too much.

 

Thursday morning 9:00 A.M. I hear a plane close by and it lands.....I figured the owner was probably concerned about our safety and didn't want the honeymoon couple from Toronto attacked by bear and had decided to come take us back early. Oh boy....was I wrong.....

 

 

A Model 444S rifle with enough ammo to shoot 10 bears.....cool.

 

So this is how we slept every night....broom, bear spray, M-80's, and Model 444S RIFLE

 

The rest of the week...Barbie the bear was nowhere to be found....thank God. Even with a rifle I would have never shot the bear unless it came down to Barbie or me

 

The rest of the week was awesome....beautiful weather and lots of fish. Here's some more scenery pics.

 

 

Hope you enjoy...I know we did.

 

Jason

[ccmtcanada]

Jason....wow....now THAT'S a trip to remember!!! You screamed like a girl....LOL...that's too funny. So he brought you a rifle....now that gives me conifidence....haha.

 

Looked like an awesome time (minus the bear)....amazing the stars all lined up for you and you got away on a last minute fly in like that. Congrats on another PB!! You'll have to join us this year for walleye so you can beat it again....grant it, it's not nearly as picturesque, but if you close you eyes, you can almost imagine it...hehe.

[BillM]

Wow, talk about seclusion!!!! That bear must have scared the crap out of you, I know it would have me Those pickerel are extremely dark! Great looking fish..

 

BTW, I think your friend Chiper is a red squirrel

[fishnsled]

I can't believe that you didn't take the time to try and get a picture of the bear. Probably could have had some great close ups. Oh well, too busy screaming like a girl I guess. I would have done the same. LOL!

 

Congrats on yet another PB and thanks for the great report.

 

PS- I agree with Bill - Chipper is ared squirrel.

[Joey]

Wow, great report and fantastic scenery pics.

 

That bear story had me on the edge of my seat. Maybe it was Bigfoot!!!! I hear they knock back

 

Joey

[TennesseeGuy]

What a great experience. Way to go for jumping into such a trip.

 

Your post was a great read for me since I've done several fall fly-ins when I was the only person on a lake. Thanks for making my day better.

 

I'm impressed that Andrea did so well on your trip. You're a fortunate guy.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Story! Very well written. I was definitely entertained.lol I think that is a dock spider. They can get pretty big and they pack an ugly bite. Congrats on your PB pickerel. Sounds like one heck of a honeymoon. Thanks for sharing.

[solopaddler]

Great story Jason, sounds like you guys had one heck of a honeymoon trip!

 

I've encountered bears on at least 4 occasions at fly in outposts over the years, so it's not that uncommon.

They're generally more afraid of you though....no big deal.

I would've been po'd about the bbq though .

 

A couple years back north of Armstrong we had a big (300lb plus) bear in our camp almost every night lapping up the gray water from the kitchen sink.

When I mentioned it to the outfitter midweek he laughed and said "Oh so you met Fred? If he gives you any trouble just swat him on the butt with a 2X4."

 

(The chipmunk is for sure a red squirrel, and I have no idea what the spider is. I've got huge dock spiders on my dock up north and they're more gray/black, and the legs aren't as mottled. I don't think that's what it is...)

[corvette1]

awesome trip the eyes sure are dark congrats on the honnymoon

[Garyv]

The Marlin 444 would have stopped the bear especially at short range, although a heart, lung or head shot would be your best choice. Here is some info on the gun,

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.444_Marlin

 

I'm glad you didn't have to use it.

[Rich Clemens]

Fantastic report Basskicker and some really great shots. I'm sure this took a lot of time to put up .... Appreciate it and enjoyed all three parts. Hmmmm ..wonder if there will be a 4th ?

[limeyangler]

What a great report. I am still chuckling about the bulging eyes and screaming like a girl...think i would have been the same.

[Leecher]

Breath taking is all I can say.....man o man what a beautiful place

 

From my personal experience, bears will not get that close to humans and run out of your way in fear of you and if your lucky, you will may be get a glance at it and that's may be......but this one was a little too close for comfort and should be feared.....once the're not affraid of humans is when the problems starts.

 

A friend of mine worked for a ZEC in Quebec located north of Fort Coulonge about an hour and half drive up a dirt road and while he was as sleep, heard commotion coming from the back of the camp.....he got up and checked it out like you did and found out that a bear was trying to knock the back door down.....so he reached for his riffle and waited until he could get a shot at it....thank god he did.

 

It was trying to get in for his food that was stored in coolers inside the camp and there was no stopping him.

 

The owner of the resort made a good decision to bring you a riffle for your protection because that bear did not fear humans and god knows what they are capable of.

 

For those that are travelling through the bush to get to their destination and come upon a bear that seem to be just standing there.....beware.

 

Ok enough about the bear stuff..... It sure looked like you guys had a wonderful time up there and the fishing was excellent.

 

Congratulation on your PB a very nice eye!

 

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[Greencoachdog]

Excellent report and pics!!!

 

 

What were you going to do with the broom?... sweep the Bear off it's feet???

[Basskicker]

Thanks guys for the kind replies.....we certainly had a honeymoon to remember. I am just so thankful that were awake.....I can only imagine waking up to a bear licking my face.

 

This was our first fly-in ever....but certainly won't be our last. Andrea said that she would love to go every year...lucky me!!!!!

 

Hey Cliff.....hopefully we can hook-up real soon.

 

Jason

[solopaddler]

This was our first fly-in ever....but certainly won't be our last. Andrea said that she would love to go every year...lucky me!!!!!

 

Yep, take advantage of it now buddy.

Joanne and I did one, sometimes two fly in's every year from the time we started dating and the first couple years of marriage........then we had kids .

[ccmtcanada]

Yep, take advantage of it now buddy.

Joanne and I did one, sometimes two fly in's every year from the time we started dating and the first couple years of marriage........then we had kids .

 

Then you got a sweet cottage on an amazing lake with beautiful scenery, great back lakes nearby and an excellent fishery. Jeez....life just sucks for you doesn't it Mike??? LOL. Not to mention 2 great kids

Edited August 27, 2008 by ccmt

[highdrifter]

Ah thats totally wild! Awesome report and pics.

 

What an excellent idea for a young couple.. I'm sure the missus would dig something like that!

 

'Gitty up!!

 

cheers

HD

[solopaddler]

Then you got a sweet cottage on an amazing lake with beautiful scenery, great back lakes nearby and an excellent fishery. Jeez....life just sucks for you doesn't it Mike??? LOL. Not to mention 2 great kids

 

Yeah bud you're right of course, things are better than they've ever been.

 

Still, sometimes I look back fondly on the happy go lucky existence of our previous lives.

There's something to be said to being able to pack up and take off wherever and whenever you want.

 

Like I said take advantage of it now...

[ccmtcanada]

Yeah bud you're right of course, things are better than they've ever been.

 

Still, sometimes I look back fondly on the happy go lucky existence of our previous lives.

There's something to be said to being able to pack up and take off wherever and whenever you want.

 

Like I said take advantage of it now...

 

I knew what you meant Mike....I was just yankin your chain is all.

[scuro]

Awesome report...enjoyed reading it. Congrats on the marriage.

[johnnyb]

What an AWESOME honeymoon!! Congrats on the marriage and the great trip...still searching the archives for parts 1 and 2....

[Whopper]

Fantastic report!

 

This was probably the best honeymoon I have ever heard of

 

Congrats to you and your wife, I hope you enjoy many more.

[Smokey]

Great report and quite the adventure. I've been doing fly-ins for 20 yrs now and never had an experience like that one, luckily. I've seen my share of bears but never around the camp.

 

Thanks for all the great pics and what a great honeymoon trip.

 

Mike

[bigcreekdad]

The prints on the window are awesome, and pretty much says it all.

 

Great pics and story.....thanks much for sharing.