He-Man Trip Reports

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2024 by Dave Becker

The He-Man that Kenny almost ended

Ron went up a couple days early to open the cabin and check things out. He found that the mouse traps were all empy/not triggered. He then found out why, there was an animal in the mink family living in the basement. The basement had a pretty bad ordor as a result. Ron had to leave before we could arrive, but was nice enough to let Adrian and Zach use his kevlar canoe.

Friday morning Eric Mattson communicated that he and his friend from Illinois could not come because Eric was sick. This left 5 of us (Dave Becker, Kenny Becker, Zach Roloff, Adrian Natal, and Jonah Kuba). Zach drove up to Green Bay and rode with Dave and Jonah. Adrian picked up Kenny and his Kayak in Wausau (Kenny was having car troubles). We ate at Subway in Minocqua. We voted on which route to take and decided on Turtle-Flambeau. With so few of us, we decided to not use Dave's duty roster of the seven dwarfs. As a result no arm wrestling or splitting.

Saturday was a beautiful day. Kenny needed a spray skirt for his canoe, so had to wait for stores to open. With only two cars, decided to leave a "cache" of our gear in Manitowish Waters at the Pea Patch so that that we would go down the Trout River empty. Left Dave's Subaru at the end point on the Turtle River upstream from Pike Lake.

The stores did not open until 10AM in Minocqua, so we did not get started canoeing until after 10:30AM. There was a strong wind from the South that generated some good waves. Not as bad as what Dave and Adrian had paddled on Green Bay, but still pretty difficult. Kenny kept up O.K., but it was pretty exhausting. As we entered the Trout River rapids, things got difficult for Kenny. He kept tipping and need to bail out his kayak. At one point he swamped crossways up stream with the current running into his kayak. Adrian had to rescue him. Just past the golf course, Kenny tipped in the middle of one of the small lakes. When he got to shore he said he quit. So he rode in my canoe and Adrian/Zach towed his kayak. Thank goodness we were running empty with only lunch, otherwise we would not been able to carry Kenny. It was getting really late, so we had lunch at the inlet point on Wild Rice Lake. When we got to the culvert at Alder Lake road, we beached Kenny's canoe, Adrian gave Kenny his car keys, and Kenny then walked to the cabin (5.5 miles if use Day Lake road shortcut, 6.5 by North Creek Road). Kenny got lost so it took him over 4 hours.

Luckily the wind was dying down a bit so the lake crossing were not too bad. Our two canoes were very evenly match in terms of speed. We have fun before Rest Lake on the Manitowish River just staying ahead of a fishing boat that wasdoing no wake. Portage was a single carry of the canoes. After a few bathroom breaks we loaded up the two canoes and went to the campsite. Fortunately the campsite was empty. If it was taken, Dave would of said we should go to the cabin because it was getting so late. We rushed to make supper and set up tents. The mosquitoes were not terrible but were coming out as we were eating supper after sunset. Dave gave his "good" 3 man tent for Adrian, Jonah, and Zach to use. It was a little cramped, but worked. Zach said next year he was going to bring a tent. Dave was alone in a small 2-man tent. According to Jonah's gps watch we paddled 22 miles.

Sunday morning the weather looked a little threatening, so we had a pretty quick breakfast. The dam was quite open, so very good water flow. Could get through the rapids after the 51 bridge without getting out and not touching any rocks. Stopped at wayside for bathroom break and snacks - mosquitos were quite bad. With the river high we had lots of fun trying different short cuts. Dave and Jonah made a bad decision and followed a long Ox Bow that dead ended, fortuantely Adrian and Zach waited for us so we wouldn't get separated. Had a snack break on the river since the bugs were bad. There were a couple times where a storm front would come through (very windy for a while) then some light rain. Looked like (and found out later that it was true) that it was raining hard South of us. The Bear River campsite was taken plus we wanted to avoid the bugs. We canoed almost to the big rock South of Murray's landing and had lunch in the middle of the river in a reed bed. We got to watch a flock of 7 swans while we had lunch. Another front moved in, blew us off the reed bed, so we paddled to Murry's landing with a huge tail wind and some pretty big waves.

The weather was looking really threatening. Did a bathroom break and got some water and headed West, hugging the South shore. Jonah was the map reader and we did much better than two years earlier when Dave was the reader. We went North of first large Island and by then the wind was dying down. It was a little concerning that of all the campsites we passed, only one was available. Since there was only 4 of us, we were going to take the family campsite on the island South of Merkle lake. As Dave and Jonah were waiting for Adrian and Zach to catch up, someone from the shore started talking to us. They wanted to know if we were looking for a campsite. We said yes. He said the Merkle site was taken, but that we should head South into the island chain and take one of those sites. We decided against that because 1) it was out of our way 2) these are popular sites, so a good chance taken. So we continued, confirmed that Merkle lake site was taken, canoed under the Big Island bridge and went South to find the first available campsite. The first one (R-1, rustic 1) was available so we took that. Was a nice site, though no picnic table. Had burritoes with pouched chicken, .... Was a nice meal. Finished up just before sunset. It was a beautiful sunset that Zach took a few pictures of. According to Jonah's watch we paddle 31 miles.

The next morning was beautiful. Got going a little later since Boyd or Allen wasn't there. We paddle without incident up to Lake of the Falls park. Did a fast portage and continued. With the high current, we could hug the shore up the Turtle river to Pike and did really well. We did the He-Man swim at the South end of Pike lake. Dave and Jonah paddle really fast to the take-out. Jonah as a rookie, only in 8th grade did great! His regular work-outs and family work ethic meant he was well prepared for the trip. Getting the two canoes to the cabin meant that Dave had to do a double drive between the cabin and Pike Lake - sure missed having Ron's support. Cleaned up the gear quickly and had dinner at Arbor Vitae Culivers.

2023 by Dave Becker

Ron once again hosted us Friday night. A number a interesting things happened:

Saturday was perfect sunny day.

Winners of Beaver Island:

  1. Zach/Chris
  2. Alan/Dave
  3. Sudheer/Eric (3 laps)
  4. Adrian/Austin (2 laps)
  5. Kenny/Boyd (did not race)

Winners of Tug of War:

  1. Adrian/Austin
  2. Alan/Dave
  3. Zach/Chris & Sudheer/Eric (eliminated first round)
  4. Kenny/Boyd (did not race)

Some other Saturday highights were: Supper by Sudheer and Eric was excellant. Curry by Sudheer and flat bread and hamburger by Eric. Mosquitoes at fish trap dam were pretty bad. Eric won the hatchet throw by being the only one to stick the hatchet.

Sunday was another beautiful sunny day. We took a little longer than normal to get to Sunday campsite. The temperature was quite warm and seemed to wear us down. Sun was getting low by the time we got to the downed pine tree on Trout River. The mosquitoes starting showing up on the river. Paddling up stream and swatting mosquitos did not work well. By the time we got to the river campsite the sun was setting. The mosquitoes were so bad, that we did not get to enjoy the nice supper that Chris/Adrian had planned (hamburgers, bake beans, corn on the cob). Just made what we could and ate fast.

One thing of interest was that on the whole canoe trip we only saw one other canoe campsite used.

Being the 40th anniversary, we had emboidered pull-over wind jackets as the He-Man souvenir. At picture time, Boyd announced that he was retiring from the He-Man

2020 by Dave Becker

This was the year of Covid-19. We decided to have the He-Man despite mass cancelations. Because of Covid-19 there were a number of differences:

Kenny as usual added some unique things to the trip. For the first time ever, someone tried to kayak on the He-Man. Conclusion is that he paddled fine, but solo canoe is much better for our trips. For the first day's circle route portages, we were lugging Kenny's heavy kayak for him. Kenny made some of us uncomfortable because he didn't seem to get the social distancing that we were trying to maintain. And we can't forget the mega sneeze in our Saturday night food (see 2021 registration questions for details). Through out the night Saturday at the Fish Trap campsite Kenny was hacking more and more. In the morning he was really sick. We towed his canoe to the boat landing and ferried him to his vehicle. We waiting a long time Sunday morning at Fish Trap dam to start paddling. After the trip he reported that he tested negative for Covid-19.

Partners:

Some Saturday highights were: It was a beautiful day with low wind, cloud cover, and comfortable temperatures. There was a significant incident at the end of Whitesand portage. After Dave arrived with this canoe, Boyd pretended that he was going to push the empty canoe out into the lake. To get him back, Dave threw a sizeable beaver stick at Boyd when he was paddling a ways out from the portage. Dave's aim was better than he expected in hit Boyd square on the head. (see 2021 regiration questions for more details). We had a lot of free time at the Fishtrap campsite since we were not doing competitions. George and Dave broke the don't switch partner's rule and paddle around Beaver Island. The water was very low - would of been a very difficult race. There was no path except for the outside edge, and there are a few bad rocks on that route. The Fish Trap dam was again rebuilt (third time in He-Man history). It could be that the dam was permently lowered. We had plenty of mosquitoes at both campsites and the cabin.

Meal Plan

Some Sunday highlights were: A beautiful sunny day. Although we got a late start to allow Kenny to exit, we paddled the longest for the circle route in a long time. It really helped that the teams were very balanced. The four canoes stayed together the whole day to Trout Lake. As usual, the Lake Race across Boulder was biased against Dave. Dave/Alan were asked to start way in the back. Eric and Zach were given a very large intial lead. Dave/Alan passed the two other canoes, but didn't get close to Eric/Zach until the campground just before the last bend. They had too much of a lead to pass. When we first got to Island Lake there were almost no boats. Dave made a comment about how Covid sure was impacting the use of the lake. Well he was really wrong. By the time we got a third of the way across the lake, it was crawling with boats and jet skis. It was crowded all the way to Wild Rice Lake. There was only one of the Trout Lake campsites available. Glad we got it, because it was getting quite late.

1999 by Todd Byrne

It was a dark and stormy night. There were but 10 of us, with but one rookie to initiate. However, this was going to new for many of us, as the route was very different from years past.  But I amgetting ahead of myself. 

The 1999 he-man canoe trip was attended by: Ron, Boyd, Dave,George, Al, Todd B., Kenny, Drew, Denny, and Todd D.  Scott showed up late Friday night to see us off, causing a little concern from Boyd, because we were not expecting him, and we were not sure if he was expecting to canoe.  But Scott just wanted to wish everyone a good trip for the He-man. 

Todd B., Todd D. and Ron participated in the annual Friday golf outing prior to everyone's arrival Friday night.  This outing was at the St. Germain golf course.  It was not a stellar performance, I believeTodd B. did not win, but that is not a critical aspect of this story. 

This was the first year I have attended, where we did not have a volleyball event, but then people seemed to be arriving later than normal.  Eight of us went to dinner Friday night at the Pea Patch, Al and Dave did not make it.   It was a very good fish fry.  There was a specific reason for this trek for dinner, we needed to have several vehicles at the final drop-off point to return us to the cabin at the end of the trip.  This was the first year for this route, it was a one way trip and would not end-up back at the cabin.   

The first event of arm wrestling was still performed onFriday night, but just barely.  The results were as follows: 

Ron beat George (easily) 
Dave beat Boyd (both arms) 
Al beat Todd B. (again) 
Drew slaughtered Kenny 
Dennis outlasted Todd D. 
The duties were then selected as follows: 
Ron: Lumberjack 
Boyd: Morning Chef (and he did an excellent job) 
Dave: Night Cook 
George: Hatchet Man 
Al: Housing Corps 
Todd B.: Scribe 
Kenny: Gen. Housing Corps 
Drew: Supper KP 
Dennis: Breakfast KP 
Todd D.: Pyro 
George made comments that the pyro job should not be intrusted to a rookie, this should be a more senior job for those experienced he-man.  There was also much discussion between Dave and Ron about the ability to find acceptable camp sites on the new route. 

Trip overview: 
We were going a different route because it was thought that Stevenson Creek  would be too low and even more muddy than the previous year.  It had been very dry in Northern Wisconsin this year and this was causing very low water levels. 

The route had us travel across Trout Lake, down the Trout River.  The lake race was on Rice Lake and was performed to the culvert.  The order of the finish for this event was as follows: 
Drew and Dave (The only aluminum canoe on the trip! -ed)
Ron and Todd D. 
George and Denny 
Boyd and Todd 
Al and Kenny 

A summary of Saturday events were as follows: 

Water intake for Saturday was as follows: 
George - over gallon 
Todd B - ¾ to 1 gallon 
Denny - ¾ gallon 
Ron - 1 gallon 
Todd D. - ½ gallon 
Kenny - ½ gallon 
Dave - 1¼ gallons 
Boyd - ½ gallon 
Drew - 1 gallon 
Al - ½ gallon 
 
Unlike previous year's, the canoe Tug-of-war contest was also held on Saturday with the results as follows: 
Kenny & Al beat Todd B. and Boyd 
George & Dennis lost to Ron & Todd D. 
Dave & Drew took command of Kenny & Al 
The Championship Round was between Ron & Todd D. and Dave & Drew.  It was an intense final round with Dave & Drew in the lead for what seemed hours, until an unfortunate miscue caused their canoe to capsize; at which point Ron & Todd D. drug their prey for the win. 

The Hatchet throw was performed on new (rookie) stump.  The contest this year was more challenging than in the past, a multitude of excuses when people could not make it past the first round.  There were only 3 contestants that made it to the second round: Ron, George and Todd B.  It was a difficult contest, coming down to the last of three throws in the 3rd round before Todd B. made one stick, winning his first ever hatchet throw. 
 

Sunday 
It was a long day, but we started with a good breakfast of scrambled egg omlet  goolash with potatoes. Boyd confided to me that caterpillars were added as his secret ingredient. 

There was great anticipation for lunch, it was very long in coming.  We had a difficult upstream paddle that seemed to always be into the wind. Many times were heard the famous saying of: "the stop is just around the next bend".   The brownies at lunch disappeared very quickly. 

Locating the campsite Sunday night was a difficult exercise that required our group to separate and scout out the islands of the Turtle Flambeau.  This task was made more difficult with strong winds starting to create white caps on the Flambeau.  The search parties scouted at least 3-4 different island camps, with a vote being taken for a very good site that had a large beach.   It was a small island that had two campsites; we took the southeastern site. 

Monday 
We were unsure of just how far we had to go to finish our trek.  The sky was ominous as we started in the morning, but it was more pleasant start on the Flambeau compared to the previous night.  Drew became a little annoying in the early morning paddle with his singing, but we all survived. 

The He-Man of the year was awarded at the break-lunchstop.  It was our last portage after the Flambeau.  There was civilization and even a real shitter if someone needed such an amenity.  Dave and Boyd went off for their own special meeting to arrive at a fair and just choice. Dennis was the choice for the year 2000, way to go Dennis! 

After the early break or lunch we started on the last river for the trip.   Not long after the break it started to rain on us.  We paddled through the rain on to the last lake as the rain let up to finish the trek.  We beached the canoes and baptized one another with our final swim as He-Men for another year. 

We finished the weekend's activities at Paul Bunyan's for the traditional \feed, reminiscing about our adventures and looking forward to the stories for the next year. 

1997 by Karl Feind

Summary Data
Dates:        May 24-26, 1997 

Weather:    Highs around 60, lows close to 40, light rain on 
                  Saturday, dry but windy on Sunday and Monday. 

Partners:     Dave Becker and Scott Ullenberg 
                  Boyd Roloff and Tim Greger 
                  George Mattson and Todd 
                  Al Siegl and Kenny 
                  Karl Feind and Ron Roloff 
                  Joshua Bengston and Drew Bengston 
                  Bob Clack and Mike Stenklyft 

Friday evening

Tim was last to arrive from Michigan at 11:00 PM.  It was a pleasant evening spent playing volleyball and watching bonfires.  The bonfires were burning the last rubble from the shed which had collapsed under the weight of snow during the winter. 

A neighbor stopped by to talk to us about the impending He-Man trip during one of the volleyball games. 

Saturday

We put in at the usual place, at the old Leo's (sp?) cabin.  It was under new ownership this year, with a very large new cottage recently built there.   The new owners kindly permitted us to put in at their beach.  The paddle across Trout Lake was smooth and easy.  There was a light mist which persisted much of the day.  But the temperature in the 50-60 range was comfortable for paddling.  We switched partners often during this day's paddle, and that afforded us the chance to talk one-to-one                 with several He-Men we hadn't seen in a while. 

We had a couple mishaps in Al's Kevlar canoe.  Josh and Al tipped once, and Kenny and Al tipped another time.  Witnesses said that the latter tip-over appeared to happen in slow motion as Kenny reached a bit too far for another canoe. 

Much wildlife was seen, including five bald eagles and one bald eagle nest.  Todd and Karl had a muskrat swim within two feet of their boat. 

Lunch was at the bridge over Stephenson Creek. During lunch three He-Man smokers (who will go unnamed at their request) were suddenly in a panic because none of  them could find matches.  George (a non-smoker) came to the rescue with a light for them. 

We set up camp at our favorite location, the second campsite past Fishtrap Dam.  That evening the Beaver Island Race was run.   In an attempt to make the race a little more even, we used a staggered start.  The first tier was the relatively slow aluminum canoes.  The second tier was fiberglass, and the third tier was the lightning fast Kevlar canoes.   In the end, the race was won by Bob and Mike in a fiberglass canoe.  Their victory was a heroic one because they swamped twice during the race but still went on to win.  They had to out-sprint Ron and Karl to the finish, winning by two boat lengths.  The aluminum canoe contingent scored this close second place by Ron and Karl as a moral victory for aluminum canoes in general. The two Kevlar canoes came in third and fourth in the race. The rest of the evening was spent razzing the owners of Kevlar canoes (Al and Boyd) because Kevlar lost to fiberglass and aluminum on this fateful evening. 

When asked to comment on the Beaver Island Race victory, Mike said, "Nothing paddles like a Sawyer."  He went on to speak highly of the Sawyer canoe customer support person to whom he had spoken on the phone in the past. 

After the race we enjoyed an excellent meal of mushroom-onion cheese burgers cooked by evening He-Man chef Dave. 

Sunday

Breakfast was french toast and sausages cooked by morning chef Ron. 

When we headed broke camp and headed out, we saw some of the canoes portaged around Fishtrap Dam and some of them pulled down the rocky rapids.   We coasted down to Boulder Lake, where we lined up for the lake race.  On this day,  Kevlar had its revenge as Al and Kenny paddled their Kevlar canoe to victory.  There was a staggered start,  with top-seeded paddlers starting after the others.  Al  and Kenny were the winners of the race for the second year in a row.  Coming in second place was George and Todd and third place went to Bob and Mike.   The three aluminum canoes placed fifth, sixth and seventh. 

We were amazed to see large schools of suckers on the Manitowish River.  This was a sign of a late spring as the sucker run is normally complete by Memorial Day weekend. 

Other wildlife seen that day included more bald eagles and great blue herons.  Tim and Boyd saw a deer. 

The day was windy, with temps around 60 and a stiff east wind.  Bob fashioned a nifty sail using a tarp and a paddle on one of the down-wind stretches. 

That evening there were two contests, canoe tug-of-war and hatchet throw.  Ron and Karl won the tug-of-war competition.   Afterwards Ron gave their canoe a celebratory tipping, much  to Karl's surprise.  This year it seemed that nobody really got worn out from the tug-of-war competition due to tugs which went on for very long. 

In the hatchet throw competition, former champion George again won with his deadly aim and spin control. 

That evening around the campfire we quizzed each other with trivia questions on many topics. 

One joke was told and retold and is declared by this writer  as best-clean-joke-of-the-trip: 

If a man says something, but there is no woman  there to hear him, is he still wrong?
Monday

An east wind kept blowing, and some of the front paddlers got pretty wet when crossing Wild Rice Lake directly into the wind. 

The water was unusually high, but this made the culvert under highway 51 easier than usual.  Several canoes chose  to have the front person paddle while the rear person used a push pole. 

Paddling up to Trout Lake was very tough against the faster-than-normal current.  But we got there and took the usual cold dip in the lake.  We paddled to the campsite on the point in Trout Lake where the  pecial recognition ceremony occurs.  This year, to honor Bob and George on their tenth He-Man trip, the festivities were to include dunking them into the ake.  They had other ideas;  they rushed to tackle Dave and Boyd.  Boyd got away but Dave was held by both of the honorees.  So Bob, George, and Dave all went for a dip in the lake. 

Then it was time to announce He-Man of the Year.  Karl was named, and he proceeded to jump into the lake to avoid being thrown in. Then we paddled the last stretch to the take-out point. 

Twelve of the fourteen He-Men stopped at Paul Bunyan's for dinner after we were all packed up. 


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