3 NIGHTS IN THE NORTH! - The Search for Adventure - The Long Road Home

Good morning. Slept pretty good. It's 9 o'clock now, so I slept in. It was well needed. It's getting pretty warm here, so it's time to get up. I think we are going to be moving lakes tonight because of the lack of fish here, so up and at them. That's an alright view. Cache is in there. That's alright. Not so bad. Might have messed that up. Might have to put more oil down there. See white chocolate chips in there. I like this whole having a plate thing. Luxury. All right, we got our big old pancake and some local real Canadian maple syrup, right? None of this Aunt Jemima nuts. Although... It's still delicious. Yeah, I can't say I don't like that. There's our island. Back in the boat. I'm going to head down the lake. We did want to stay here for two nights and then we would bust our butts to get into here and that was the whole plan to have a relaxed day, which we haven't had, but it's just what are we going to do? fish all day long because it's supposed to be a fishing trip we're both in the same mind uh to get out of here so it's gonna take some work fish all the way out just to just to cover all our bases i got an x wrap on right now i've been fishing maybe i'll start trolling nice night last night real nice sunset it was worth getting here you know now we know like i said john had an idea to get back into these lakes for a while one way to one way to find out again like i was saying too maybe maybe that's the reason there's real no no real portages into here any signs of people at all not a fire scar on a rock not a campsite not not nothing um it's just because there's nothing back here this is the last lake and i don't know you can push on you can push on and make a loop out of it but this is just the start of that and it was a lot of work to get into here all right this is the steepest thing going this is the first start of the first portage today and i'm stuck It was worth it. I'm happy I did it. It was not so shabby with just the canoe Well, I've been here the whole time buddy. Just sitting coming up the second time. I had everything I just carried my second backpack. It was way too much my knees were wobbling. Yeah, same. Yep. Well folks We ain't moving too quick today But that's understandable trying to get up this incline with the hard gear the heavy part of our load into the bog we just such a heavy load mr. Frodo no there's just no solid I'm just calm, I'm just commentating, alright that's one trip down, gotta go back for the canoe, I'm I'm actually starving that that pancake has worn right off, I've gotta switch something else, hey look at this, that's strange, not from either of us, maybe it is, it's a deep drop, oh okay nice one down, John, all right, we're on our last leg of the last portage for today, just busting through these maples, it'll put us on our first lake again our second lake really uh first first backcountry lake where we started, which we never camped on yet so we shall give that a shot, give of that the old try and it puts us closer to our takeout spot sometime tomorrow John started apologizing for the fishing and all the work to get back in here for quote-unquote no reason, I said I don't regret a thing buddy well John, how good does that feel having those done, just a weight off our shoulders literally, yeah there you go, yeah it is a really good feeling, very rewarding, it was kind of daunting waking up knowing we had to do that, but we got it done and now look at this beautiful lake, go find ourselves a camp, we out here it's uh it's windier than it's been it's kind of nice it's not so hot it's keeping the bugs down still very sunny no real clouds to speak of john's over there on the other side of the lake we're just split up trying to just look for a good spot to camp seems like it's par for the course now before we split up he said so are we just keeping any fish we catch now meaning like we're gonna eat something we're gonna eat a fish if we catch it said i think we better we'll see we shall see even if we just catch a couple of those small little lakers the size he caught the first day the good little eaters i'm more than happy with that it's russian it's not german i'm tucked in this little protected bay here it's pretty calm and relatively relatively nice but then over here i'm telling you the wind is just whipping through the trees i don't know what john's doing maybe he's found a spot over there his boat stationary in the water okay so i'm paddling up against the waves wind to get to john over here he called out for me so sure he's got a good spot or something over here pretty windy there's some white caps out here i had to really point my nose up up wind whoo that was a paddle i haven't had to paddle like that oh yeah no doubt heavenly okay okay gotta catch my breath, it was a paddle and a half, crazy here we go, John's maybe a nice little takeout, let's go see what this camp, potential campsite is all about moss, looks good, it's not a Labrador tea some pretty dense moss, nice, anywhere else you'd be like, let's move on, i know this is here, this is uh it's open in here, like you kind of got a little caught stake out here again, not perfect but better than what we've had and it's nice moss, no i like it and i think there's something over here too somewhat of a trail, i imagine animal trail but at least it goes through or we will have access to firewood, yeah man, this is it eh, okay cool this is our best one, yeah hell yeah, um we'll have to find a spot for a fire eh, yeah it's one thing maybe at the end there there's a rock or something we can go sit on or yeah some rocks at the shoreline, figure it out, push buddy if nothing bush buddies cool too, yeah this is uh this is the best we've had and to be out of that wind and even in here it's not so windy, you can see it up there pushing the trees around so maybe it'll be best of everything keep the bugs down but not make us too cold yeah yeah standing dead wood here this would be a bad night for it small though you can even cut that yeah we'll cut that no this looks pretty safe we're good no there's nothing eh that is rare yeah yeah it is actually Black flies around. Oh, dragon, some dragon flies around too. Nice. Oh, and a butterfly. All right, home sweet home. Paradise. My feet are getting beat up pretty good on this trip. I wore these VASQUE boots that I don't normally wear, they're leather, and they're too heavy. They get wet, and then they get super heavy, and then they get mud in them, and then I'm just used to wearing things like this or whatever, so I brought camp shoes this time. I'm gonna change into them, because you gotta take care of your feet when you're out here. They're leather and they're Gore-Tex, too, I believe. Yeah, so they really soak up the water. It weighs, like, I don't know, man, much more than what I'm used to. So in the future, I do have some Salomon hiking boots that are very lightweight, like trail runners type things. So I wore those on the last trip with Doug to Killarney. I think that's what my footwear will be for this year. You guys have seen in the past, I've wore trail runners. I've wore, I started with big, heavy boots, but I've wore trail runners. And then those, I think I like those. They're a happy medium, but I didn't know I tried out a few different things for this trip that that I normally wouldn't do We've dubbed this trip camp failure little trees hanging over here clinging to life But it's evidently been that way for quite a while because check out this tree that it's leaning against So that's the only one of that. That's the only tree that's hanging over our camp at all Might as well take it down just play it safe I have abused this saw far too many times. Look at the dent in it. Yeah, please. I just just got up from about a probably a half hour 45 minute nap I set up my hammock to just get away from the bugs kind of thing get into the breeze and I was a little chilly so I threw my my thermo rest in there I remember from back in the day when I used to use like a Hennessey hammock that if you only blow the thermarest up like three quarters of the way, it works much better. So I did that, and I was super comfortable. Got my top quilt in there, everything. Had a pretty decent pitch on it today. So I think I'm going to just sleep in this. It's much easier than setting up my tent. And yeah, it was very comfortable. So there is quite the breeze coming through here. Quite a bit of wind. So I think I'll pitch my tarp right above it. Kind of leave it open on the one side. A-frame open on the one side with the option to pull it down here. Ridgeline across first. Who knows what kind of knot we'll tie. Old man's beard. Lichen. Lots of fire starters. There's birch in this forest too. Oh, speaking of which, there is a dead one right there. We'll go push it over in a bit. Just made it. Okay, cool. This is looking good. Pull it back. Oh, I've got to pull it this way some. See, that's the beauty of these toggles, right? You can see the end the hammock I want it to come so slide it that way and then once I peg it down everywhere it won't slide around easy but perfect covering both sides there it is not too shabby nice and airy protection from wind and rain but I'll still be able to look up and see I'll let you know in the morning if I feel the same way I'm getting pretty hungry I think it's time for some pepper beef and rice the bugs the bugs have found me after my hibernation you gotta say it looks looks pretty cool how do you say amok amok amok amok hi it's uh your leg what is it what is it perpendicular yeah perpendicular to the ridge line right so it needs this uh sleeping mat inside because otherwise there'd be nothing to support you right and you can set that up like a chair and all that fun stuff yeah you can put your down and then pull some straps here you got chair mode for reading pretty cool there's a beer holder nifty pretty nifty okie doke to get the bush buddy rocking i think good or not there are no rocks around here to put this bush buddy on top of up here so i got it in the top of my in the dish part of my uh billy can my zebra i'm sure that'll be more insufficient and if not got water here water there and take care of it that'll be fine oh and the sun is warm oh my goodness oh man roasting got some birch bark small twigs up in my water not even need the birch bark but sturdy this moss there's no real ground here good thing is i only have to boil water it's not like i have to rehydrate in here i'm just boiling water and i'm pouring it into my alpine air pouch so this will be quick and i'll be over with over this done doing this we're gonna have to find a different spot if we're gonna have a fire tonight at all we can't even we can't even do it in this like i'm gonna fall over we'd remove the oxygen oxygen absorber already that's toasty we gotta fill to easy fill line eight it said easy fill eight a little bit more soupy no we'll call it good we'll call it good we can always add a little bit more at the end all right you're supposed to stir this and let it sit and give it a little shake oh it expands when you shake it maybe don't shake it maybe don't shake it 10 to 12 minutes i have some boiled water here that's of any use to you be honest i was gonna have popcorn for dinner there you are, popcorn it up that's true, big breakfast slash lunch, yeah this is if the wind's dying down, some fish tonight would be ideal, just check the food got a couple more minutes to wait but that's pretty nice sight man, pretty good spot I'm glad the wind died down but the bugs, bugs are happy too, oh there's one of my oh there's one of my, oh one of my lens to one of my to my lens, all right, finished product I was gonna make up some popcorn no there's jiffy pop nonsense, no he's yelled at people, hate that, so just enough oil vegetable oil to coat the pan, get that good and hot first and then add your kernel corn, thin layer you said, yeah just a thin layer, if you stack the corn it's not gonna pop properly and even if, even one layer of kernels in this pot is gonna fill the pot once they had all popped so yeah, you can hear my oil starting to pop i could test it with some water but i'm sure it's good to go, put in my popcorn hit a flash point there, stuff started happening you can hear it, yep there she goes, she's rocking stand back, cooking with oil now it's a little scary it seems like something that's about to explode like violently shoots up in the sky eventually if you put too much in it'll like pop off the lid this lid is actually on very tightly it's all warped oh there you go as soon as the popping starts to slow about now you might get a few more kernels if you leave it on but you might also burn your entire batch so it's not worth it right yeah okay very cool i'm gonna have to pick this up let's have a look oh my that looks i have butter yeah yeah that looks amazing oh right oh yeah it is buttery yeah the oil coats it pretty well it's pretty good it's awesome for camping i'm telling you it looks so much better with the salt and vinegar powder but no doubt or whatever you know whatever your fancy is right ketchup sour cream and onion um mayo chop all right we going fishing wish us luck there's someone over there beaver beaver imagine if we get close enough we'll slap his tail in the water no fish no fish joe it's only one fish skunked once again i don't know what to think but i'm going back to the camp because i am a chilly chilly boy john collected some rocks along the shore so that was really cool now we can have a fire a little fire up there safely, I gotta get warm, I gotta throw like my puffy jacket on and uh I might steal a few popcorn kernels from you if that's all right nice pop yeah, we could double up on the oil yeah yeah, we'll sit around have a little fire, maybe some scotch, some popcorn and tomorrow I think we get up early enough we'll hop over the two beaver dams, me and John were saying to where he caught his Laker the first day and if we can squeeze one out there that would be just a just a cap on the trip for us so maybe we'll try it in the morning we'll see so we got to put the biggest rock biggest flattest rock we have down first to make to make sure we keep it up off the ground so start with that guy and build around it right here I think so yeah that's great just have to puzzle piece it in and surface area yeah I think so we can just put a tiny little bit of a wall good yeah surface area stone we could cut some off this might work yeah we could do that yep yep pretty weak pretty small but this one's cool we got what we got now yeah that's fine yeah it's gonna work good I tasted that one like chicken all right that looks all right eh yeah not too shabby i could burn stuff on that yeah it'll burn stuff it'll make some ash all this lichen old man's beard on the twigs it's gonna go up real good we're gonna keep this fire really small and uh smoky as possible we don't really need too much heat but we are gonna keep it for the bugs and cook up some popcorn and stuff we're gonna douse it with a bunch of water the whole area before we go to bed as well just to make sure try to be as safe as possible probably best practice i assume camping in here Kyle man just wood everywhere he came in parks and it's like it's a hike to find half the tender box in here yeah that's the reason we're being careful to one spark pretty slick cheese up on that piece we got popcorn I burnt it a little I burnt it a little guys but you know what I put some Montreal steak spice on there and some butter so we're just loving it It's super good. First person on earth. I don't know about that. I think that's a pretty common thing. Working? It's so good. It's honestly really good. I would eat a handful of Montreal Steaks, boys, by itself. What's wrong with your stomach, Joe? I might put a piece of salami on there, to be honest with you. Do you want that? Let's do that. Yeah. Yeah? Okay, half rancid. Look at that. We are not peasants out here, I will tell you. A little sriracha. All right, this is the closest to pizza we're gonna get. You got salami, sriracha. I don't know why I'm talking like that. A little smoke's over here. All right, fold it. Calzone. Oh, my God. Oh, man. Diving in. Bro. Fried cheese, too. This is to die for. John uses his food barrel. That's how he's able to have things still intact, like a frickin' box of cookies or garlic bread. There's certainly something to be said about that. Oh, it's all trip-dependent, man, all trip-dependent. You gotta figure out what you wanna do, what you're gonna do, and then meet those parameters. I like this though, I like this a lot. Like this is worth a lot right now. All right, we think it's time for bed now, so we gotta take care of this fur. Enjoy it. Aw, yeah. Oh, steam bath. You can't see anything. There you go. Hoping I stay comfortable, warm, and asleep in this piece tonight. Keep it not too full, but with the cold air, it did deflate a bit sleep asymmetrically all right folks wish me a good sleep here because i hope i get one we'll see you in the morning good night well what was i thinking the past two nights oh my goodness that was a glorious sleep i slept like a baby very comfortable and uh didn't have to even find a flat footprint my eyes about to swell shut though can you can you see that I think John pointed out a bite I had about there yesterday and I can see the bottom part of my eye just in my vision so that's good but there's been a little bit of pitter-patter rain throughout the night which was really nice on the tarp and also there's been some thunder this morning so doesn't look too bad right now the sky is nice and clear but the big lake that we have to paddle out on is big the big lake is big so John's got a fire rocking already I think it's past 9 o'clock. We're gonna get some breakfast on and we're gone. Thunder, loons, breeze, fire crackling ASMR overload It's I totally agree. All right, we're packing up camp right now like John was just saying we're gonna drop our stuff off Stuff off. We're gonna drop our stuff off on an island and go hop over the two beaver dams into the other part of this lake where we where John caught the baby laker the other day so if we can hop over into there pull a few fish out be happy boys and if not we will know that we exhausted every single possibility here and I'll feel all right about that too there is thunder quite often now so hopefully I can catch some in the camera for you guys but we'll leave the big camera out for now see how she goes well Jono we got to the end made it we have a pretty decent paddle along this this big lake oops a little tilted pretty decent paddle to go out here on this lake so we're fueling up at the end with some wraps some crackers and cheese and stuff just kind of wrapping up the trip here it was a really good time John was able to pull out oh I didn't tell you yeah as you can imagine my fishing was no great on that last lake but John was able to pull out a laker at the very last minute you were like ready to i was already at the dam like it was time to go and John's like fish on i'm just like crushed just crushed but happy for him but crushed right like three times yeah but hey less than two fish over the course of however many days just does it's just not really you know i mean it's not really worth uh calling that fishing lake or going back into there fishing or anything but we know that now so I'll probably I'll probably wrap it up here I'll probably wrap it up here huh huh thanks John for inviting me had a good time no thank you for enduring this with me it would have been awful alone and you never complain like John why would you pick this horrible route which it was it was horrible with not even the fishing to compensate us so thank you I'm sure we'll do it again. We'll see you guys on the next one. Bye bye. Check out John's channel, Backcountry Angling Ontario.