Filed under. "Other things I like to do" LOL. BWCA Trip 2010

This is one of our many yearly activities that my son and I do along with my best man from our wedding. Up in Northern Mn, the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) is something everyone should add to their "Bucket List". No matter what your physical condition or outdoor experience is, there are areas here that will appeal to all. From the beginner to the die hard. Get back in here far enough, and you are literally "CUT OFF" from the outside world. One can go for days on end without ever seeing or hearing anyone. Every year, people get lost in the BWCA and there are several that have never been found. 

Son and I left our house at 5am in Preston Minnesota, which is roughly 50 miles S of Rochester or 120 miles S of Minneapolis. Headed to Waconia to pick up my buddy. Arrived at his house at 8am, loaded his gear and off we went by 9am. Great weather driving up, nice and sunny. Arrived at the outfitter on Farm Lake entry point 31 around 2pm. Checked into the bunkhouse and had some coffee and headed into Ely to get something to eat. Stopped at a steakhouse, can’t remember the name. Nothing fancy, but once we sat down and looked at the menu, we were floored at the prices. Paper napkins were not expected for a place charging 30+ dollars for many meals. We settled on a Philly like steak sandwich, which we all agreed, was the best we ever had. If that sandwich is any indication of the other higher price meals, I would say they are well worth it.

Done with that, headed back to the bunkhouse to relax before the sun came up start our trip. The boy and I decided to do a bit of fishing off the dock. Withing minutes, we caught a very nice small mouth, a medium size Pike and a Sunfish that had to be in the record books, no kidding, it was HUGE. Threw them all back, went and told my buddy who said, yeah whatever”. He did not believe us.

Spent some time in the main office shooting pool and drinking coffee before retiring for the evening.
Woke at 6am and headed into town to grab a quick bite to eat. Back at the landing, we loaded up and headed out. Paddled North from the entry point till we hit the entrance of the Kawishiwi River. Headed East to the first campsite, which was open so we took it. Did not feel like going further as there was a 210 rod portage. Did some fishing were we hammered the small mouths.


Spent 2 days there before breaking down camp and continued East. 210 rod portage. My biggest so far but it was not difficult. Had a borrowed Alumacraft, the one made with .035 aluminum so it was light. I’d say it was every bit the weight of the Souris River I used the previous year. Tried to do the entire portage but set it down about 2 yards before the end. Went back and got the remainder of my gear and took that to the end, came back and got the canoe. We stopped at the second camp site, right on the trail that leads up to lake Conchu. Again, more great fishing. Did a quick trip up to Conchu where we were hoping to land some Trout but no luck. Did catch bass after bass. Beautiful scenery.
2 days here, we broke camp and headed East to where the Kawishiwi meets up with the South Kawishiwi. About this time, it stated to rain, and rain, and rain. At the first portage, it rained so hard, we stopped on the portage where we set up a Hennessy Tarp and took shelter for about an hour. It let up a bit so we continued. Still raining and wet, we looked for a campsite. My buddy who was in a kayak, was faster than we were so he took off from the portage to see if one of the two site to the West of that portage were open. He came back in about 20 minutes and said lets go, so off we went.


Still raining, we set up camp an quickly as we could. His hammock and our Timberline went up quickly and our gear stowed inside my tent. Used his large tarp to create a lean to style shelter near the fire grate where we quickly got a fire going. My buddy was getting into bad shape as he was the wettest and on the verge of hypothermia. Started shivering pretty bad. Got the fire going, got some of our wet clothes off and dried. The heat really radiated off the tarp well, so well in fact it was almost too hot. We were about 6 feet from the fire and it was HOT. Rained for the next 2 days here. Ok fishing, caught some Pike, but not a campsite we wanted to stay at so on day 3, the weather broke and we were off again.

Broke camp and headed ESE. Here you have the option of either taking a right, NW or keep going SW. According to the map ,Voyaguer Map#7 going up and around would take us on a 121 rod portage. If we continued SW, it looked like we would tie into the portage at the half way mark. WRONG.....It was a dead end. We came to find out the portage was so close, it was only about 50 feet from the water so it just looked like it tied it. No problem, we just turn around and go up and around and do the 121 rod portage. Pretty easy one. Made the portage and continued East into Gabbro Lake and hit the camp site North side in the middle, the one that is on the penninsula. A great view and some great fishing were by buddy caught the largest small mouth ever.

The day we left, 2 U.S. Forest service people stopped to check our permits. Both women and extremely good looking. One had a name that was very strange. I think there were models moonlighting as park rangers LOL. Looking back, I wish I would have had some violations so they could cuff me and take me away. Did I just say that out loud? Back on track.....
Showed the women the mess that was there where they apologized and offered to take some of the trash with them. Told them they were not responsible and no apology was need and that we had most of it bagged up already and packed it out ourselves.


Spent 2 days here and broke camp and headed SE into Bald eagle lake where we did some fishing in the weed beds along the SW shoreline. Nailed some nice Pike. Spent a couple hours taking our time paddling this area before leaving the lake and entering the Isabella River. A 178 rod portage was ahead, not looking forward to it, but it had to be done. Took the first campsite after the portage. A beautiful area, but again, trash. A large can of half eaten beans say on the fire grate along with chew can lids in the fire and pistachio shells everywhere. Packed that stuff out with us as well. This was the only time we had any issues with mosquitoes and the first time on the trip where I used bug spray. I think due to the location as it was marshy. Them blood suckers only lasted a bit before they left and were not really an issue after that. Fishing was good for perch but the bass fishing was non stop. If your at this camp, head back towards Bald Eagle lake about 100 yards. You will see a few large rocks in the water on the right hand side. Throw within a 10 yard range of the rocks and the shore and you will catch them. One after the other, non stop.

Spent 2 days here and broke camp. Headed upstream, yes upstream, I know, I know. Why are you paddling upstream? Well like we told a group of guys from Chicago we met on one of the portages, they asked us, “Why are you paddling upriver?” We told them, paddling with the current is for pussies, but it takes a real idiot to paddle upriver. They all laughed. Turns out, we were just going to do a loop trip, but hated the fact that we would have to see the same scenery twice, so at the last minute, my buddy and I decided to do a one way trip and the girl from the outfitter was going to do the same trip, only she was going to enter where we wanted to come out, entry point 34 and offered to drop our car off if she could use to transport her canoe. No problem. Worked out well for both of us.

Anyhow, we left this camp and hit the other small portages before hitting the first camp site on rice lake. A fantastic camp and not a trace of garbage. Awesome. Not much use and I think that is because this camp is so close to entry point 34, that most people pass right thru to get deeper into the BWCA. Worked for us. Lots of river Otter kept up entertained. Swimming around like a pod of Dolphins. Some of the best fishing was here. Several Pike, some really nice Jumbo Perch and of course, Bass. I’m getting pretty tired of eating Bass by now LOL. Spent the remainder of our trip here before breaking camp and hitting our exit, where the trusty van was waiting for us. Only been to the BWCA 2 times so I can’t say this is the best trip ever, but it is far better than last years. I have a good feel for the BWCA now, and have learned what I need to bring, vs what I would like to bring.

Our plans for this year are to hit the Gunflint area for 2 weeks starting June 20 thru July 2nd.
No canoes this year, each of us will have their own kayak. Also, our provisions list will be drastically cut again. Enough food for half the trip. We will have to rely on mother nature to provide the rest or go hungry.

Home cured belly bacon.

A couple weeks back, I called out local country butcher to see what he can do as far as some pork bellies. Said it would take about 4 days but no problem.
Picked up 2 sides, skinned just shy of 20# at 2.79 per pound. Not a bad deal I thought.

What I started with. The other side is in the freeze until I made this batch and decided on what flavor we liked the best.


Divided this side up into 3 pieces for 3 different flavor tests. The above piece that is trimmed off went into the freezer and may try to make some salted pork. Or maybe I'll just fry it up and make a sammie


The night before, I made up a basic dry cure from the book Charcuterie which I got from my secret Santa, Scott, aka "FISHAWN"
Dry cure consisted of 225 Grams Kosher salt, 6.5 oz Dextrose and 37.5 Grams pink salt. This will be the base cure for these bellies plus I can use it for other meat items in the future.

Here are the spice stations. The first one on the left is just the basic cure itself. The middle one, cure plus 1/8 C Maple Syrup. On the right is recipe for Pancetta from the Charcuterie book which is made up of black pepper, bay leaves, fresh ground nutmeg, (Used molasses in place of brown sugar), garlic, juniper berries and thyme.
All 3 bellies were weighed and then did the calculations for how much dry cure was needed for each one.


Grabbed the wife's casserole dish and sprinkled some of the cure/mix for the first belly. This one is just a plain no frills cure. Only flavor will come from the cure itself and the Hickory smoke. Flipped it and hit the sides as well until all the cure was used. Any that fell off during the handling was scrapped up and put in the bags with the bellies. For brevity, I will only include the first belly getting the dry cure put on



All three bellies done, into the fridge where they will sit for a approx one week.


Smoke time. 8 days have passed since I prepped everything, time to get these bellies in some smoke. Here they are sitting on my new racks my momma got me for Christmas. They work like a champ.


A quick test fry of all 3 prior to smoke. I was going to just use Tender Quick on these, but I really like the idea of having some control over the salt. I'm glad I did. These were NOT in any way too salty. In fact, these bellies might have benefited from the addition of a tsp or 2 of salt in the dry cure mix.
I did not do a rinse on these as they didn't need it.


Side view.


Let these sit out for approx. 30 minutes for the surface to dry.

Cold smoked these the best I could for approx 7 hours with a heavy dose of Hickory and a little Cherry.


Out of the smoker and into the freezer to firm up. All 3 flavors in this pic.
From top to bottom we have, basic bacon, Maple bacon and Savory Bacon.
I took the savory style and set the slicer to make some thick cuts and made some Lardons. Will try these in a salad or something.


Ran out of freezer paper so I used red saran warp. All sealed up and into the freezer.

I test fried a few pieces of each. The basic was very good. Not overly salty and a good strong notes of Hickory. The Maple bacon, same thing. I am surprised that the little amount of syrup I used gave it such a big Maple flavor. Next time I will reduce it to 1 Tbl. The savory one? Hard to describe it. Allot going on when you bit into it. I think this one would be well suited for a gourmet style BLT?

One thing about making your own and I have read this numerous times, is the utter lack of shrinkage. Some of these pieces were every bit of 12"+ and then they were done, they were like 11". I don't know what they put in commercial bacon to make it shrink but this stuff does not. That is why on a few sliced batches, I cut them in half so they would fit in the pan better.

The basic cure one will be a mainstay for sure. Just your basic Hickory bacon that will go great with anything. Same with the Honey bacon. The savory one I will still make, but the others will see allot more use.
I have that other belly in the freezer and will have to come up some ideas for that one.

Well that is it. Thanks for looking.

Fermented Summer Sausage.

Time for more Summer Sausage. This one is a bit different from the traditional way to make it. It is fermented. The tang that one gets with most snack sticks or summer sausages is produced by using things such as Fermento or encapsulated Citric Acid. Both of these just give the tang flavor, whereas using a starter culture like I did here, produces the Tang from the fermentation process. Another benifit of doing this is the sausage can remain sitting out instead of stored in the refrigerator. A benefit if you would like to take something like this on a camping or hiking trip.

The ingredients along with Salt, Cure and Dextrose. BAMM



All mixed up. BAMM


Let is sit overnight, took it out, added the starter culture and into the stuffer. BAMM


Stuffed. BAMM


Smoked and let cool overnight. BAMM


BAMM


On this batch again, I had some wrinkling/shrinkage spots, not sure what is causing that. Cooling too quickly???
Taste was however very good with a pronounced "TANG" Reduced my granulated Garlic by half and replaced that with 1/4 Cup minced Garlic. I love Garlic
Smoked at 140 for 4 hours then raised to 160 until the internal temp hit 141. Removed and let hang on very cool porch till the next day.

Smoked leg of lamb, smoked over Lilac.

Today, I decided to smoke a leg of lamb that my buddy gave me. Never had lamb before and gotta say, its pretty darn good.

Anyhow, started with a small leg, around 4 pounds or so. The guy who processed this at the meat packing plant, I think he might have had the DT's. It was a little hacked up LOL.

Fillet the lamb leg the best I could after removal of the bone.


Rubbed it down with a mixture of grape seed oil and minced garlic, followed by a good sprinkling of black pepper and Thyme. Then laid in some fresh Basil along with some Feta cheese. There's actually more there than you can see. I made small slits here and there and inserted the cheese and Basil where I could.


Rolled it up tight with butcher's twine. It didn't look very good so I grabbed some netting and held it together with that. Gotta get me a horn stuffer. Hard to do that by hand.


Into the smoker. Smoked at 242 degrees using some chunks of Lilac wood until a internal temp of 162. Removed, triple foiled and wrapped in a towel and into a cooler where it sat for approx 3 hours till dinner.
Here it is after the rest period just prior to slicing.


Cut away view.


Took the resting juices and made a nice gravy with em and ladled it over the meat. Also made a Black rice risotto with Blackberry Mead in place of the dry white wine and mushrooms. Risotto was perfect up until the addition of the shrooms. I think they sucked up a bit of the liquid. A little bit of broccoli to boot. Washed it all down with a nice glass of Blackberry Mead.
Yeah my plated pics need work, but you get the idea


Thanks for lookin.

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