The Bear's Den

October 25th, 2011

Published by: mooresb

The Bear's Den

By Robert W. Butche October 25th, 2011

Keith's Walleye It's been more than ten years since my last vacation, but not even website planning with Keith Bemis could make a 2500 mile odyssey to the north woods of Minnesota in August into a business trip.

Planning my route was complicated by my having named my GPS coordinates Camp Bemis when there is in fact a community by that name in the California Sierra.

Once I stopped naming my destination Camp Bemis, my GPS route planning software stopped routing me toward Yosemite when I was expecting to go deep into the north woods somewhere south of Bemidji, Minnesota.

Keith and Lois' grandson, Jaren and his prize Perch caught in July, 2001 Originally published August, 2001 Š 2001 Robert W. Butche All Rights Reserved

This trip was, not to put too fine a point on it, something of an old men's convention on the cool waters of Minnesota lake country. It was wonderful. Camp Bemis is beautiful, overlooking one of the famous Crow Wing Lakes ( the fifth of a dozen ), and Keith's huge Itasca motor home is far more luxurious than any fishing camp I previously visited. The patio in the picture below faces the lake and the hillside site where the Bemis' plan to build their north woods cabin home next year.

Keith's Cove on 6th Crow Wing Lake Keith and Bob have shared frequent fishing outings in the last 50 years -- a tradition that became firmly entrenched in our lives in the 1960's and 70's when we annually flew to the Canadian northlands along Georgian Bay to fish the cool, crisp waters on Manitoulin island south of Sudbury, Ontario. All in all, we must have fished with my many friends at the Dawson Resort on Lake Kagawong a half dozen or more times -- for Keith remembers making the trip in several of my aircraft including a Twin Comanche ( when only the two of us would make the trip ), and one or more of my Aero Commanders, when others joined in on the fun. We would fly into Gore Bay International airport, where we were often the only arriving flight of the day.

House painting here at Greenbrier House interfered with our fishing together at Camp Bemis last season, but on August 11th I left Columbus for the 1100 mile trip to the Minnesota lakes region near Park Rapids. My route was by way of Detroit ( to visit with family ), St. Ignace, Muskegon and a 2nd overnight at Ashland, Wisconsin on the southern shore of Lake Superior about 75 miles east of Duluth.

Robert Butche aboard the S.S. Lois on 5th Crow Wing Lake

1

October 25th, 2011

Published by: mooresb

Knowing of my disappointment that my Hawk families are not nesting in my back yard this year, Keith was proud to show me some of the other beautiful Eagles to be seen around the Crow Wing lakes -- sometimes one of them would visit one of the tall Aspen or Pine trees just outside of Keith's motor home. What a thrill. I greatly enjoyed seeing the Eagles majestically ruling the waters. But we also enjoyed the Cranes, Loons and Gulls that thrive in these waters.

In all, we captured about an hour of video footage around camp, on the lake, traversing the Crow Wing river between several of the lakes, and even the activities in downtown Nevis.

Some of this footage will be assembled into a video this fall -so we can enjoy our warm days in the north woods during the cold and snowy days of fall and winter.

The Bear's Den from lake level The next afternoon I arrived at Camp Bemis -- thanks to my sophisticated Garmin GPS system which tracked my passage along Minnesota's isolated route 200, passing through Walker, on the south side of Leech Lake, then through the small village of Nevis (knee-vis), and thereafter by way of county and unpaved roads leading into the wilderness.

My reward for arriving at Camp Bemis was a warm greeting from Keith, and his 12 year old Golden Retriever Max, and a fishing cap emblazoned with The Bear's Den -- a likely name for the Bemis' estate once the new home is built. Keith is an aficionado of wildlife of all kinds, but he is especially fond of the black and brown bears that are found in the woods surrounding Camp Bemis.

The ensuring week was spent fishing, talking, videography, visits with Keith's many friends around the lake and trips into Nevis to purchase bait and a pizza. It was in Nevis ( population 350 ) that we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at Rick's, a modest, but flourishing establishment inside an antique shop. But it was at the juncture of 5th and 6th Crow Wing lakes, in the slow and meandering Crow Wing river, that I saw my first wild Eagle. There were many more sightings -- some of which Keith managed to catch on video tape.

We must have caught over 100 fish, mostly by Keith who is a master fisherman and a great guide, but neither of us managed to hook one of the great Northern Pike or fighting Walleye I had traveled to the north country to land. We did have a lovely fish dinner at Bob and Leah Center's home on 5th Crow Wing Lake. The Center's are old friends of the Bemis' and the ones who encouraged Keith and Lois to purchase property on 6th Crow Wing Lake. The photo below is what it looks like when returning from the Center's home on 5th Crow Wing Lake to Keith's place which is in the cove behind the small boat in the center of this picture.

2