Archive for August, 2009

A while ago, back in July, a discussion occurred between my parents and uncle about a fly-in trip that my Paul (uncle), Bob (grandpa), Sonny (grandpa’s wife), and Barb (Sonny’s friend) would be taking in near future. My uncle mentioned to my parents that he would love it if I could experience such a trip, but my parents told them that with some obligations I had, it would probably not be possible. Once the story returned to me, I quickly informed my parents that if a series of events were to go my way, it would be possible for me to go. Two weeks before they were leaving, I was without a passport and scheduled to do jury duty, as an alternate the week prior.

The trip quickly fell into place for me, when I was not needed as a juror 10 days before leaving. It was now up to me to obtain a passport in less than 10 days, no problem…right? I quickly scheduled a meeting with the state department for a quick passport, only to find out that I did not have my original birth certificate. The meeting was scheduled for 3 days before the trip, and with 5 days before the meeting, I had to quickly obtain an official birth certificate. The good people in the State of Michigan were able to accommodate my needs. I order my certificate on a Thursday, at 1 pm, and had it delivered in my hands by Friday at 3:00 pm. That is what I call service.

I attended my state department meeting, and after a wait of five hours, I was told I could pick-up my passport on Wednesday, the day before we were leaving. My wife had no reservation about watching Nathan for the week, with the help of my mother and mother-in-law. It is an awesome feeling to have a wife that will support me on going to a fishing trip of a lifetime.

I called Paul up on Wednesday afternoon, and I informed him that I would be able to go on this wonderful adventure. I told him I would not be able to sleep that night just thinking of the excitement that lied ahead. Paul also said he would not be able to sleep, so if we were not going to sleep, we should just leave that night. I agreed, and at 10:30 pm, on Wednesday night, we embarked on a 16 hour journey to Foleyet, Ontario. My grandpa, Sonny, and Barb, also left in the evening from Columbus, Ohio, to make their trek. They had no intention of driving through the night, like us, but were hoping to make enough of a drive to make Thursday morning’s adventure even shorter.

I really enjoyed the overnight drive with my uncle. He has always been an outstanding person to me, from the time I was little. Whether it was baiting my hooks, putting up with my stories, or just giving me someone to hang out with, he has always been really good to me. The time spent on the road with him was memories that I will cherish for a while. I do not get to see Paul as much, as I know have a little boy, and he is very active with his job, taking trips, and working through his church.

Throughout the night, we very rarely stopped, except for the occasional coffee, and made it up to the Mackinaw Bridge area just after sunset. We decided it was time to slow our adventure down a little and begin to enjoy the beautiful forests and scenery that had emerged from the night. The first place we stopped was called Crooked Lake, in the Northern Lower Peninsula. While we would have loved to fish it, we did not have Michigan licenses, so we just took in the sunrise over this scenic place.

We continued to go North, at which point, I fell asleep in the car. I awoke just before we reached the border to enter into Canada. The border crossing was very easy with our proper documentation, and we felt like we had made it “over the hump” of this trip. With 250 miles to go, and a lot of daylight, we figured we could take our time, stop to fish, and arrive in Foleyet, in the late afternoon. We quickly picked up fishing licenses across the border, to make all of our fishing stops legal.

Over the next several hours, we would stop at all sorts of places, whether it was to fish, or simply take in scenery.

We stopped a local bait shop, and for the cost of purchasing worms, a kind local was able to share some good fishing spots along the Mississagi River. We did not catch any fish on the way up, but it wasn’t a full out effort, as we were anxious to arrive at our destination.

Some time, early that afternoon, we arrived at Air Ivanhoe resort, where we would spend the night awaiting our plane the next day. They greeted us, did standard check-in procedures, and then showed us to our rooms for the evening. The rooms were beautiful, and we felt first class as we unloaded what we needed for the night. We both lay down, I was able to nap for a few hours, and Paul was not.

Later that evening, Joel, the son of the resort owners, asked if we would like a boat to fish for that evening. Paul and I quickly agreed. Joel gave us some good spots around the lake, and we would finally get onto some pike. We did not take pictures, as most of the pike were pretty small to average; however, we were already able to get onto the scoreboard for the trip. We took some sunset pictures and headed back to our room to attempt some sleep before the big trip ahead. I was able to get a pretty good night’s rest.

The next morning, we were awoken and told that our plane would be leaving shortly. We would have time for a breakfast at the resort, and then it would be ready to load. My grandpa treated to a fantastic meal at the resort and we quickly loaded the plane. All our luggage and gear was weighed, and we departed for our destination, in two plane trips, of King Fisher Outpost, on Lake Kapukasing.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPfctTXopig]

Once arrived at the cabin, we were given some guidelines and shown how everything worked. We quickly unpacked our gear and prepared for a fantastic week of fishing.