Fishing was an early interest of my oldest son Barry. When he was only three I carried him out to the end of the rock jetty at Newport beach. He sat on my shoulders with all my spear fishing gear. I jumped from boulder to boulder running to the end of the jetty where a light tower stood to aid entering ships at sea. I helped Barry bait small hooks on a little fishing pole and made sure he would be safe from the waves. Then I jumped into the ocean and speared fish for our family in Garden Grove. Barry didn't catch many fish, but he learned how to fish. As he grew older he learned to catch fish in streams and lakes using flies and lures. He went fishing at Lake Shasta in a stream we owned at the north end of the lake.
In August of 1986 Barry was studying to be a transplant surgeon in Wisconsin. His younger brother Danny was in college on his way to becoming a physical therapist. Dan and I flew to Minneapolis, Barry drove there in his small car, and we rented a larger car. As we drove east I lost a pair of my sun glasses at an eating place on our way to Ely. In north-east Minnesota is the small fishing town called Ely. It is surrounded by many lakes some reaching into Canada. Many fresh water fisherman are familiar with Ely where you can buy fishing equipment, rent a tent and long canoe, and get permission to fish in the lakes. We ate at the Pizza Hut that evening and shared a motel room.
On Monday the 25th we rented equipment including a folding saw to cut firewood. We had breakfast at A & W, secured the canoe to the top of our car and took a short drive toward the nearest lake. After parking the car, two of us carried the canoe on our heads and the third brought the rest of our camping gear. We trudged along a narrow path about a mile before we got to Little Gabro. We launched in shallow water at 2 PM, rowed a half mile to a narrow place that opened into Gabro Lake. As the boys rowed, I used a lure and caught a 15 inch yellow trout. It had big sharp teeth. At 5 PM at the East point of a small island, Barry caught a small pike. We had forgotten to bring butter or salt, but we roasted the fish and cooked some dried noodle soup using lake water. Danny had agreed to set up and clean up our camps. Barry agreed to supervise and do the cooking. Danny blew up the air mattresses and fixed up the tent. After we ate and finished complaining about the lack of salt, we slept through a rain and woke up to freeze in 40 degrees of the August weather.
I had expected hot weather and brought only a light jacket. Barry loaned me his heavy jacket as he felt sorry for his old man who was ailing with heart disease. I will always remember how brave and unselfish my two sons were on that trip.
We were up and fishing at 7 AM Tuesday. We were cold so we built a small campfire. We were still feeling cold so we went back to bed until 9 AM. Barry, knows everything because he studied physics and had received a degree in chemistry and had become a medical doctor. He explained that the tea colored water was tinted with iron, but it was clean for drinking water. We mixed cereal with tinted lake water and ate our breakfast.
We broke camp and canoed south two hours to a sandy vacated beach. There was evidence that someone had camped there recently. We found a sand castle and moose tracks. We had learned how big moose grow and we hoped they would leave us alone. While building a fire with wet wood we discovered we had left our folding saw at our first camp. We set up our tent and hung our food from a high tree branch to save it from bears. As we canoed north, Barry caught a pike. We fished in a wild stream that didn't have any biting fish. We paddled on and I enjoyed rowing off and on with the boys. I tried to be as strong as Danny and Barry and managed to work without heart pain. Later we rowed back to our camp and ate fish and instant stew. Barry had teased Danny for bringing candy, but now Barry was glad to share some of the sweet treat. After eating, the boys caught and threw back small fish. We slept fair that night except Barry. He had a leak in his mattress.
Wednesday we ate breakfast, and Barry caught a pike big enough to eat. We gathered our camping gear and rowed south toward a river, and I caught another pike. The pike are long toothy fish that fight like trout. It was 1 p.m. when we camped at the mouth of the river. Barry started a fire then cleaned the fish.
Danny blew up the mattresses while I relaxed reading Lady Sings The Blues by the jazz singer Billie Holliday. Danny found time to read I Sing My Body Electric. It rained, so Barry returned from fishing, and we all rested in the tent until three in the afternoon.
We canoed to the mouth of Isabella Lake, landed and walked up a river to a lake pond. No fish, so we walked back and rowed back to the tent. We cooked instant stew, rested around the fire and had conversations. We went to bed at ten PM. It was cold all night. I tried to get warm wearing Barry's jacket inside my sleeping bag. During the night Barry woke up and heard a bear just outside our tent. I'm glad Berry let us sleep because I don't feel safe with wild bears.
We got up early Thursday, built a fire and couldn't feel warm. We went back to bed and later got up to see a great bird land in a tree above us. It was black with a few white feathers so we figured it was a young Bald Eagle. We packed and paddled from Lake Bald Eagle, through rapids to Gabro Lake. We looked around and found our lost saw at our first camp sight. Then we paddled to Little Gabro Lake where we started the fishing trip in the first place. We had not seen or talked to anyone for four days. We didn't see dear, elk, moose or bears, but we did see wild grouse twice. That last day on the water we paddled eight miles against the wind in white capped water. It was a good workout for all of us.
We carried our gear on the muddy path to our car, drove to Ely and checked in at Moser's Motel. We were thrilled to drink malts at A&W. We took back the camping gear to where we had rented it. That night we took clean showers and ate tasty Reuben sandwiches. We saw a movie called Legal Eagles, played pool at the Cranberries Tavern and slept warm that night in the motel.
On Friday the 29th of August we had hot cakes and Barry drove south on highway one. We stopped at a place called Finland, and the boys fished with no luck. Later we drove near a beautiful doe on the dirt road and later we stopped to allow three deer to cross the road in front of us. Dan drove the car while we passed the Baptism River. Suddenly we were able to see Lake Superior. Sixty miles before Duluth we turned west on #61, recrossed Baptism River, and stopped at Beaver Bay River. Looking down the steep grade we enjoyed seeing water falls.
I felt too worn out to join the boys as they hiked down to fish. Barry caught four small rainbow trout and released them. He got wet retrieving his lure but was able to see a wild otter.
We drove on past Two Harbors and drove 20 miles to Duluth. Barry told us a story about his medical internship. "It was hot and 100 interns were stuck sweating in the hot auditorium. No one complained to the medical school professor. I became a hero in the eyes of my classmates. I got out of my seat, searched and found the thermostat, and I turned it down to make it cool and comfortable for everyone."
Duluth is the largest port inland and serves 30 nations. We saw a three mast sailboat The Victory Chimes . Duluth has been the gateway to Mid-America. The 300 year old port had shipped grain and iron on six major railways. We saw a history movie at the Duluth Harbor Museum. We took a fake magazine cover picture in our fishing clothes, then settled down for a beer at Grandma's Saloon. We looked east over Lake Superior and could see Wisconsin in the distance.
On our drive south to Minneapolis we stopped at a restaurant and retrieved my lost glasses. At Minniapolis-Saint Paul we ate at Mr. Steak and bowled two lines before Barry bid us goodbye. He drove off in his little car expecting to sleep in it that night. Dan and I watched Barry drive away. We slept at Motel 8 until Saturday morning.
We visited the city zoo then looked over the state capitol building at St. Paul. It was beautiful. At 1:30 we drove to old town Minneapolis, sat at a Taco Bell and looked outside through the window. We studied the drunkards and other street people who were begging from each other or making drug deals. It was interesting and we felt at risk being there spying on people.
We drove to the airport and were put on standby. We returned the rental car and played pool at a pool hall. The rent a car girl drove us to the international airport at five, and we flew home. We waited until the my wife Barbara picked us up at ten fifteen in San Diego.
It was an adventure that we Browne boys will remember and we save the pictures we took of ourselves.