Mike, aka Solopaddler, I see you're back, you posted today

[Jigger]

Nice pic, cant wait for the story!

[GreenCanada]

I'm speechless after seeing that brookie. I can't wait to see how the trip went.

 

Cheers

[bucktail]

Your killing me here!!!!

[Whopper]

Looking forward to your full report Mike

 

Couldn't help but thinking what you were into while I was watching a few moose and caribou at one of your old stomping grounds

[HarryBB]

OK - We were right behind you .... and had a very different experience. No Polar Bears except by the pick-up point.

 

What we did have in ten days on the river was great fishing the first few days and slightly high water - then - experienced three days of solid - in more ways than one - cold rain, 50 mile an hour winds and finally a flooded little sticks landscape with record high waters for this time of year. With water already high we ended up scratching out alder real estate to camp and had to move to higher ground twice one evening with hypothermia a very real possibility.

 

It was so wet and windy and cold I didn't even shoot a minute of video.

 

Mike V. said it was the highest water he had ever seen after speing breakup.

 

Was that you leaving all that great firewood behind?

[HarryBB]

Looking forward to your full report Mike

 

Couldn't help but thinking what you were into while I was watching a few moose and caribou at one of your old stomping grounds

[HarryBB]

PS: I forgot to mention - my pickup brokedown north of TB on Friday and I'm still stuck in Duluth waiting to get into a repair facility.

 

 

[solopaddler]

OK - We were right behind you .... and had a very different experience. No Polar Bears except by the pick-up point.

 

What we did have in ten days on the river was great fishing the first few days and slightly high water - then - experienced three days of solid - in more ways than one - cold rain, 50 mile an hour winds and finally a flooded little sticks landscape with record high waters for this time of year. With water already high we ended up scratching out alder real estate to camp and had to move to higher ground twice one evening with hypothermia a very real possibility.

 

It was so wet and windy and cold I didn't even shoot a minute of video.

 

Mike V. said it was the highest water he had ever seen after speing breakup.

 

Was that you leaving all that great firewood behind?

 

 

You were about 41/2 days behind us Harry. Yeah we had super high water but by and large very nice weather. Only one day, Thursday the 29th it rained all day. We left nothing behind, so no I don't think the wood was from us.

 

Sorry to hear about your mishaps.

[HarryBB]

I wouldn't call them mishaps. Just another set of challenges that we met.

 

I would love to do the river again at normal levels. Even with the high water it was hard to keep the trout from jumping into my fly box after the mice I had stashed. One Zoo Cougar probably went 20 casts before I was able to get it all the way back without a pesky fish on the darn thing. I swear one cast produced a fish 6 inches in the air beofre the fly hit the water - aerial feeding behaviour.

 

There was a couple - Michelle and Monique - from Edmonton I think - on the river. They were going to be there for three weeks but had a sat phone and called for a week early pick up because the island they were camped on was shrinking and water was running up against their tent. They flew back to Hearst with us in a pretty crowded airplane.

[HarryBB]

check this page out.

 

http://www.wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/graph/graph_e.html?stn=04ED001

[Paulus]

Nice pic dude! I need more pic's of me. 328 shots on my camera and 90% of them are of you.LOL!

Yes, that's the caveat of being the photographer. In general, to operate the apparatus, you have to be behind it - not in front.

 

No bear pics? That's a bummer

 

I would have given a considerable sum to see your face with the bear coming up behind!

 

p.-

[Musky or Specks]

You were about 41/2 days behind us Harry. Yeah we had super high water but by and large very nice weather. Only one day, Thursday the 29th it rained all day. We left nothing behind, so no I don't think the wood was from us.

 

Sorry to hear about your mishaps.

Now Mike, I know YOU think you have a life outside of OFC BUT its been a week that you've been back and I and others here are jonesing hard for this report. Please turn your back on your wife,kids,job and any other TRIVIAL responsibilities society has led you to believe you have and let us, for a few minutes anyway, live our brook trout fantasies vicariously through you. I reiterate Priorities man, PRIORITIES!

Edited September 10, 2012 by Musky or Specks

[solopaddler]

Now Mike, I know YOU think you have a life outside of OFC BUT its been a week that you've been back and I and others here are jonesing hard for this report. Please turn your back on your wife,kids,job and any other TRIVIAL responsibilities society has led you to believe you have and let us, for a few minutes anyway, live our brook trout fantasies vicariously through you. I reiterate Priorities man, PRIORITIES!

 

I feel like I'm back in high school with a huge report overdue that I don't want to work on.

 

I'm headed back up north on Wed, so I'm going to try and whip it off either late tonight or tomorrow night.

[solopaddler]

Yes, that's the caveat of being the photographer. In general, to operate the apparatus, you have to be behind it - not in front.

 

No bear pics? That's a bummer

 

I would have given a considerable sum to see your face with the bear coming up behind!

 

p.-

 

 

I have 600 odd photos to sift through now, it's a mind numbing task. Bill sent me a ton, plenty of shots of me now.

 

We actually do have a couple of bear pic's. Not of the aggressive one though.

 

And it wasn't coming up behind me, it was a full frontal assault. I was pretty calm I thought. I had a much closer encounter with polar bears many years ago.

 

Billy was a bit excited though.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Mike Borger

[mirogak]

The only running was back to the canoe to grab the Remington 1187 Super Mag and fire 3 slugs over it's head to persuade it to go into the woods, instead of down the bank towards us.

 

In hind sight, I probably should have grabbed the camera instead of the gun after talking to the local natives about our encounter. Lots of polar bear spottings at that specific spot, I'm sure we weren't the first humans it's seen.

 

 

As far as fish, here's a teaser.

 

 

Man! what a pic! beautiful fish too! What camera did you use for this shot, Bill? And yes, I hope you caught some takes on tape. Can't wait.

[mirogak]

Now Mike, I know YOU think you have a life outside of OFC BUT its been a week that you've been back and I and others here are jonesing hard for this report. Please turn your back on your wife,kids,job and any other TRIVIAL responsibilities society has led you to believe you have and let us, for a few minutes anyway, live our brook trout fantasies vicariously through you. I reiterate Priorities man, PRIORITIES!

 

I am with Brad on this one ....

[SirCranksalot]

I am with Brad on this one ....

Not me. I am so sick and tired of seeing Mike hold up specks that I can't even dream of catching that I've been swallowing gravol like nobody's business! No more speck porn puhleeze!!

 

 

 

[Paulus]

I have 600 odd photos to sift through now, it's a mind numbing task. Bill sent me a ton, plenty of shots of me now.

 

We actually do have a couple of bear pic's. Not of the aggressive one though.

 

And it wasn't coming up behind me, it was a full frontal assault. I was pretty calm I thought. I had a much closer encounter with polar bears many years ago.

 

Billy was a bit excited though.

Funny But actually, I don't mind doing that work, myself. It's a neat way of re-living the experiences.

 

Also, I use Picasa, which makes it a lot easier to fly through your pics (once you get used to it) and half the time, when you hit "I feel lucky," you actually get lucky...uh... I mean you get something decent. Also you can crop your pics and never touch the original, because Picasa basically remembers the changes as "add ons" to your pics, so that the changes you make in Picasa are only visible in Picasa. If you look at them in Windows picture viewer, for example, the changes are not there. That's really cool when you want to keep pristine originals. This is why you always see "b" and "c" at the end of so many of my pics, because I "save as" from Picasa as a new file, to avoid fouling up the original one.

 

Anyway, please work overtime on this one, Borg. Resistance is futile. Git 'er done!

 

 

p.-

Edited September 11, 2012 by Paulus

[Christopheraaron]

I'm tired of waiting, there had better be an epic, epic report at the end of this! No pressure Mike.

[Musky or Specks]

Just got home from work. Was all excited to come on OFC. SIGH Mike, just SIGH!