“Bad River Left a Mark”

That title is a direct quote by Libbie. The Bad River area definitely left a mark, but in a good way.

Continuing on with our journey after Fox Bay, we headed to the Bustard Islands where we had spent a night last year on our way through to Mackinaw. The Bustards are south of several river inlets, and a frequent stop for Loopers and other folks cruising northern Georgian bay.

We had a nice evening at the Bustards, and even joined other Loopers for Rock Tales, (instead of Dock Tales) on the same rock that we stopped at last year

The next day we decided to head up to Bad River. We’d been told that there were some fun things to do, and that the fishing was good.

It was about a two hour cruise over to the Bad River Anchorage. We set up our anchorage as usual.

We hopped in the dinghy, and did some scouting of the anchorage, marking where there were rocks and other hazards that are close to the surface as well as possible fishing locations.

We actually wound up hitting a rock for the first time with the dinghy. It definitely left a mark, but it didn’t dent the aluminum hull. I saw it before we hit, and put the engine in neutral, so we didn’t break a propeller.

It took us a minute to work our way off the rock, but once we were off, we continued back to the boat, and I settled in to do some chores on the boat while Libbie went fishing.

Libbie went fishing for a couple hours.

Bad River is a interesting place in that it was the main artery for the French Voyageurs back in the 1600s and 1700s when they paddled through from the Montreal area to the northern great lakes in search of pelts, minerals and other commodities that were valuable in Europe.

When you thought about it, it was like you could feel the ghost of Voyageurs that passed through that very spot a few hundred years ago.

While Libbie was fishing another couple came by in their dinghy and said hi. They were headed out to fish and went in a different direction than where Libbie was fishing.

Libbie came back, and was a little frustrated by the lack of fish in an area that was supposed to have lots of fish. After a while she left again in the dinghy to try again.

The couple that had stopped by earlier soon came back, and they held up a stringer with three northern pike and one largemouth bass on it, the largest pike was probably 3 feet long and probably about a foot in circumference around its belly. It was huge… a hog as we say in the fishing vernacular.

They invited us to a fish fry that they were going to have where they moored at “The Wall” that evening, part of the Bad River anchorage.

Libbie soon came back with a small bass. We cleaned the bass.

Bad River may be known for its fishing, but it’s also known for its many narrow passages or chutes up into the French River basin, including rapids passable by dinghy.

We decided to give the rapids a try, taking off towards the river mouth at the head of the anchorage.

The entrance was smooth, but a drop of about a foot and a half gave it a very fast current. A slow dinghy can’t make it. Luckily, our dinghy is can go more than 15 miles per hour, but I had to gun the engine to go through there. It gave quite the pucker factor.

We were successful and suddenly found ourselves in a magical place where there were wildflowers, lily pads, interesting rock, formations, signs for people to portage canoes as well as camp sites.

We went up one little chute after another.

One of the chutes we went up was probably about a half a mile. In it, we went up another set of rapids, which were barely wide enough for the dinghy to fit through but luckily deep enough that we could get through without hitting the propeller on a rock.

Libbie tried her luck fishing again, without success, but it was ok as the scenery was spectacular.

I recorded a video, going up and coming down the chutes and of the general area. I’ll post that on YouTube and share in this blog when I’m done editing it. The exploration was an amazing experience for us and really left an impression.

We went back to Selkie and settled in for a game of Gin.

After a little while there came a knock on the hull.

It was the same couple coming back to head out to fish again. They said it’s time to go to catch fish “RIGHT NOW”.

Libbie dropped the card game and took off again. She was probably gone an hour. They were all back with more fish.

Libbie had caught another nice bass.

I made a batch of brownies and we headed over to The Wall where the couple’s boat was.

As it turned out, there were two boats tied up to The Wall.

We climb up to the rocks where the family had set up a campfire and a fish fry kitchen.

They had about 8 pounds of fish, and about the same amount of potatoes cut up in french fries. They had a big bowl of coleslaw.

The husband of the couple proceeded to get to work cooking, as his wife has done all the fish cleaning.

As we sat around the fire we discovered we were joining a family for dinner. A bonus was they had all done The Loop.

The two boats were owned by three generations of the same family: grandparents, parents and two daughters.

The grandparents had done the Loop in 2002.

The wife was the daughter of the older folks. Her family had done the Loop in 2021 during the early part of COVID.

As it turns out, her family was the first boat to cross from Canada to the US when the United States open up their borders after the first Covid lockdown. They received permit number 001.

Like many loopers who have children, they decided that they would have their children attend online school while doing the Loop. Both the parents and their children could not say enough positive things about their experience.

Sitting there and talking to this family was a great experience.

it was a fabulous evening. The sun went down, the sunset was glorious, and the food was even better.

They made us feel like we were part of their family; they were so welcoming to us. We ate lots of fish and coleslaw and of course, french fries.

It was the best fish fry we’ve had while doing the Loop.

The next morning, Libbie got up and went fishing again at 0700, thinking that was a good time to catch fish.

She went out to the same place she was the night before. She startled herself when she accidentally hit another rock. Because she was being careful, she didn’t break the propeller, but it definitely left a mark on the dinghy.

Hence her quote, “Bad River left a mark.”

We hoisted the dinghy back up to Selkie’s boat deck and proceeded back to Killarney for a night.

Bad River left a couple of marks on our dinghy, but more importantly, Bad River made a wonderful impression for us, with great memories of exploration, fishing, food and friendship in a spectacular setting.

I hope we’re able to come back and experience it again.