Growing up with nature
I remember peeking out the window of the camper, watching while Grandpa sipped on his coffee. He was silently admiring the beauty of nature and watching the chipmunks as they tried to steal his bag of sunflower seeds. Throughout the day Grandpa would tell me stories of his past while teaching me about the great outdoors. From carving my own roasting sticks, duck calls, wooden fishing rods, to bows, and arrows, we were always creating things together. Every trip with my Grandparents brought on new adventures with memories that I will always carry with me. Taking everything we learned from our childhood, last summer my boyfriend and I embarked on a camping trip of our own.
MAKE A CHECKLIST
Months prior we started to create a checklist of items we thought we might need. It had been years since the both of us had camped and being so excited about it, our list became extraordinarily long. With our “better to be prepared, if it fits it’s coming,” motto, we loaded the truck and boat up after work and headed to the launch. Our destination was about a forty minute boat ride away on a beautiful beach tucked away on a small island. Arriving at dusk, we set up the tent in the dark and went straight to bed, exhausted from the hours of packing, unpacking, repacking, and unpacking. A minimalist approach to camping would have been much more beneficial and was our first lesson learned.
MORNING HAS BROKEN
Birds singing, waves crashing on the sand, and coffee perking away on the stove was my welcomed wake-up call. Being surrounded by the sights, sounds, and smell of nature is so peaceful. After a quick breakfast we jumped in the boat, eager to explore our new fishing opportunities. Having never fished this area of the lake, we were pleasantly surprised at how many Walleye we caught. Jigging with four-inch artificial minnows on mid-lake humps in 18-27 feet kept us busy all morning. Throughout the day we would fish for a few hours at time then return to the beach to relax.
TRAVELLING LIGHT?
Kitchen equipment is pretty limited while camping but with good planning, prep, and creativity you can create some fantastic meals over a camp fire. A must-have to bring with you is a good medium-sized cast iron pan. Ours is small enough that we cooked with it on the stove every morning and on an open-fire each evening for dinner. The beef striploin steak we cooked on a rack over the open flame that evening was unbelievable. We ate fairly early, leaving us plenty of time for the evening walleye bite. As the sun set on our second evening we headed back and fished the weed edge just outside of our bay. We were surprised to find out they were full of hungry walleye. These ones were active and biting non-stop, it was the best ending to a perfect day. We could see our tent in the distance and everything looked the same as we left it. That was until we quit fishing and headed in for a better look.
Everything was knocked over and dragged across the beach. It looked like a tornado ripped through our site. Unfortunately, a hungry bear came and paid us a visit. Luckily the only thing it really damaged was one cooler. We only left for two hours, never thinking that a bear would actually move in on us. Our meat cooler was dragged halfway down the beach, littered with puncture holes, and worst of all…empty!
Our bacon, steaks, hot dogs and few other items were all gone. I doubt it ran far away, now that it knows we have food I expected it to be a long night, and I was right. There is nothing more unsettling than walking through the bush to clean up garbage in the dark with a hungry bear around, while you are on an island in what felt like the middle of nowhere.
AN UNWANTED VISITOR!
Now what to do? Trying to pack up everything and sleep on a different island would only bring the same challenges since bears are excellent swimmers. We placed the remaining food cooler and cooking supplies even further down the beach and covering it all with Diesel’s towels and blanket.
We hoped to wake up with what little food we had left. Diesel was out cold, he was so tired from swimming all day he didn’t even smell the bear or bark. Instead, he went right to bed. I took every flashlight and stood guard in the boat, scanning the beach every few minutes to look for shadows, while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Eventually I crawled into the tent and tried to sleep but as soon as I did, the bear returned. At one point I heard a big splash and could hear it swimming towards us in the bay. I honked the horn on the boat which seemed to startle it. An hour passed and I tried to go to sleep again, but I could hear him walking around in the woods behind us now. After sleeping on and off all night, I was beyond happy to see the sun rise.
MAKING IT THROUGH THE NIGHT
Our dog blanket trick worked and the bear did not manage to eat or damage anything else overnight. We emptied every cooler and tub we had left and separated all spices, cooking oil, foods, cooking utensils, etc. Anything that a bear might want was now loaded into our boat, including our garbage. We didn’t want this incident to ruin the rest of our trip so we carried on as usual. We headed out fishing, hoping the bear would realize there is nothing left and carry on. Returning for lunch and having everything just as we left it was a welcoming sight. To be on the safer side we decided not to cook anything, and settled for sandwiches. In the morning we tried fishing for smallmouth but only caught a few small ones.
HOT WALLEYE BITE
We returned our attention to walleye that afternoon. Walleye were still biting consistently and we also found a new area which seemed to hold groups of larger fish. Later in the day, the wind stopped and the water mimicked a mirror of glass. I remember telling Logan I felt like I had a good one holding onto my line. After a few seconds, I set the hook and as soon as my rod bent he immediately grabbed the net. It was easily our biggest fish of the trip and a perfect way to end the day. We headed back to our camp, completely forgetting about the past 24 hours and our unwanted visitor.
NOT SO FAST
Quickly, we were brought back to reality when we arrived to one of our tubs dumped out all over the beach again. The bear was back! We were positive we removed all things related to food but sure enough, right beside the entrance to our sleeping tent, there was a small bag of chewed up dog treats that we forgot about. Still trying not to let it bother us, we continued to cook our dinner and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Another sleepless night followed and by the next morning, I was ready to go home. The initial plan was to stay one more night, but with the frequent visits from the bear we were forced to cut our trip short.
WHAT NOT TO BRING ON THE NEXT TRIP
On the drive home I pulled out our checklist again and we were able to go over it and cross off anything that we didn’t need or use, and add items we wished we had for next time. After arriving home we washed and cleaned all items, and placed them back into storage tubs. I added a quick list of what was included in each container and sealed that paper inside. On our next trip we will hardly have to pack anything, it’s all put away and ready for action. I wouldn’t hesitate to return to the same campsite, although we had to leave a day early, it was our most memorable weekend , and the most fun we had together all year. We have two more camping trips planned next year; hopefully I will have some new stories to share for next year that don’t include a visit from a hungry bear!