Rubber rodent

On Friday, I drive to Cleveland for the start of what promises to be a memorable outdoors adventure. Saturday morning, two of us will depart for the French River region of Ontario, about 10 hours north of Cleveland. (Two more adventurers will join us Monday.) Our destination is a series of glacier-carved lakes that are surrounded by dense woodlands. There really isn't a park here, but this is lightly used public land and access is free. It's easy to find nice camp spots on beds of moss that cover massive, flat slabs of granite.

The main activity will be fishing, with some canoeing as well. Fishing is sort of an ancillary enjoyment for me; I'll enjoy swimming, birding, paddling, stargazing and relaxing just as much. And, from what locals say, the real fishing is about three hours north of here. Mostly we will be fishing for bass and pike. The preferred method is to throw weedless, topwater lures into beds of lily pads. The moss mouse, above, is one of the favored lures. It can be reeled across lily pads without getting snagged and is particularly appealing to largemouth bass. We also will fish off points, jetties, shoals and drop-offs in hopes of landing smallmouth bass, perch and maybe even a pickerel. We do occasionally eat our catch, but mostly throw the fish back.

I'd like to blog live from one of the small towns in the vicinity. It's been five years since I've been to this place so it'll be interesting to see if any public Internet connections have been established. More updates to come!