28th Annual
It is with much trepidation that I (Dave Becker) record the 28th He-Man events. Todd has done such an excellent job over the years. But he was unable to attend the trip. So I volunteered to record the events as best I could.
Participants were Ron Roloff, George Mattson, Doug Irwin, Kenny Becker, John Bashe, Brady McGuire, Dan Irwin, Alan Siegl, Dave Becker, Ian Ainsworth, and Jesse Greenawald.
On Thursday Ron and George arrived at the cabins. Friday morning Doug, Kenny, John, Brady, and Dan arrived. Friday evening Al, Dave, Ian, and Jesse arrived. When the last group arrived, we thought that we had evidence that Kenny had arrived because of all the Lienies. We were surprised to find out that Kenny stayed dry during the trip and that it was Doug that brought all the Lienies. He made some excuse about having to buy an extra case so he could get a free father's day mug.
Since we were doing the Turtle-Flambeau route, we needed to drop off vehicles at Rugger's Landing - a bar on HWY 51, North of Mercer, where the Turtle River runs into Pike Like. Have dinner there. The service was extremely slow, but the food was good. Somehow Kenny, Dan, and Brady got confused - drove to Minocqua in Doug's car and got back to the cabin very late - after wood splitting and first round of volleyball.
Wood splitting results for assigning duties:
Assigned duties:
Ron confused us by using Harry Potter character names with no explanation on the sign-up sheet
Volleyball
Kenny plays guitar in the cabin - Ode to Joy. Little strange: 7 sleep in the small cabin and 5 sleep in the big cabin.
Ron had to wake the young guys up. In the tradition of his younger brother Boyd, he did it by banging pans.
Breakfast was classic Huevos Rancheros (Ranch Eggs - scrambled eggs in tortillas). George's special beans were extra good. Comment of the morning: "Kenny use to bring the most beer, now Doug does. Doug's new name is Kenny Jr."
Dave drove Kenny's truck and Al's vehicle to cabin at half way point. John followed to give ride back. Al and Dave feared for their lives riding in John's vehicle back - broken wind shield, no defrost, ...
Was a light rain at start out. Waited for Ron so long at Trout Lake that most everyone started. Dave in solo and Ron's partner John waited and waited. Ended out that Ron was missing his water shoes, had left his keys in his water bag back at the lake. So Ron had to break into the cabin via the bathroom. Ended out that the group that left early went way to the right - not towards the Narrows, so the trailing group caught up at the narrows.
Solo canoe duty: Dave North Trout, Brady South Trout, Doug Trout River to first campsite, John Trout River to H, Dave did solo rest of way to Manitowish Waters. Kenny picked on Doug when doing solo, spinning his canoe around.
Lake Race Results (across Wild Rice Lake)
The wind starting picking up and had to fight some major cross waves on Alder before lunch. Also bad cross waves on Lake Manitowish.
Dan & Brady brought sandwiches for lunch. During lunch, Ron secretly handed out wedding veil material to everyone but Doug at lunch. After paddling across Lake Manitowish, Ron discovers that Doug has a watch on. Doug claims he forgot. As protest we all put on our wedding veils. We had fun telling all the boats that we passed that Doug just got married. We got questions on where his wife was. We answsered he rather canoe with 10 other guys than go on a honeymoon. Got some funny answers from the boats passing. We did not confiscate Doug's watch until Clack Island at the entrance of Rest Lake.
Portage around Rice Lake Dam went amazingly fast. Dave and Ron had a debate on whether we should carry everything from the vehicle to the campsites right away or only what we need for up to Sunday breakfast. We ended out do a combo.
While setting up camp, a vehicle drove right up to Al and Jesses tent. Some Geo-Cachers were looking for a campsite. We explained that our campsite was only for watercraft.
Tug of War Results
(Ron passed since he has won the tug of war 10 times)
Round #1 (Dan/Brady bye)
Round #2 - Dan and Brady beat Doug and John
Round #3 - Dan and Brady beat George and Dave
Round #4 - Dan talks smart, so Ron takes on Dan solo. No contest - Ron beats Dan
Hatchet Throw Results
Round #1 Dave 1 stick, Ron 2 sticks, Al 1 stick, Kenny 1 stick, and Ian 1 stick
Round #2 Dave 2 stick, Ron 3 stick, Kenny 2 stick, Ian 2 stick
Round #3 Ron wins, no one can get 3 sticks
Wife Advice
We spent some time around the fire giving Doug some marriage advice
Had a rain move through which made everyone go to their tents. It was a short rain shower. Became clear and cool. Dave was the only one to sleep outside a tent. Kenny and Ian were planning to sleep outside, but ended out going into tents.
Notes for future He-Man trips:
Ended out making poached eggs, which turned out well. Jesse's mom's muffins were excellent.
Canoes / Partners
Water was average, higher than previous year when Dave took some students down this stretch of Manitowish. First stop was 51 wayside. Second stop was high bank campsite after Manitowish. Dan/Brady portage a switch back, so was last to the high bank campsite. They experience pine cone rain. Some how Doug and John's canoe started floating down the river. Dan was by the canoes when it happened. He said he did not do it, but John said he saw him do it.
During the next stretch, Doug/John and Dan/Brady had difficulty pointing their canoes down stream. The seasoned He-Man were just trying to help them.
Had lunch at the Bear River campsite.
Group site G-1 on Turtle Flambeau flowage was our second nights campsite. It looked incredibly different with the tornado damage. George/Ron made awesome burritos for supper. Found out that Alan's girl friend had giving him German Baby Butt Cream. Alan said it kept his hands clean and soft.
George, Dave, Brady, Dan, and Jesse went to the blow down area to check out the other campsites on the island. Extreme devastation. Really hard travel, but rest made it to the first canoe camp site. Totally unrecognizable. What use to be a mature red pine stand was all laying down in different directions. Obviously would of died if stayed in tent. Had read how people at the site survived by hiding under the picnic table. There were red pines greater than 1 foot thick laying on the picnic table. The fire grate and a tent tarp had red pine logs laying on them from the blow down. Nothing more than a few square feet of the site had large logs on the ground. Found the trail to the second campsite, but the blow down was so bad, we decided it was too difficult to reach. Dave got the record for the number of ticks from the hike - 6.
Doug, John, and Kenny stayed up late by the fire. Doug and John made a beer can pyramid. Doug and John went for a late night canoe, putting Dan/Brady's canoe across the cove.
Woke to some early morning thunderstorms. Got George/Ron/Al/Dave going right away. Lucked out that the storms by passed us. Dan and Kenny decided to wake up Doug/Ian/John with banging pots and Kenny's maniacal laughter.
Interesting out morning cook was not eating the breakfast of pancakes brought. Instead he ate his granola. End result was at first campsite Ron did most of the breakfast cook and second campsite Alan did most of the cooking.
Dave loaded his canoe first (solo) and retrieved Dan and Brady's canoe. Dave then started out before everyone was packed up. One by one the teams caught up and passed Dave - Ron/George, Al/Kenny, Ian/Jesse, Doug/John, and finally Dan/Brady. The storm clouds to the West looked extremely threatening. Ron even say what he believed to be the formation of a funnel cloud.
Just past the Big Island bridge, the crew stopped for a break. Dave did not stop and kept paddling. He felt extra energy during that stretch and did not let up until the portage at the falls. He was the first to get there.
After portaging the canoes, we had George's excellent salsa with chips left over from the night before. We almost finished it all.
Ron and Dave consulted on who should be the He-Man of the year. Many He-Man don't know this, but we use a very sophisticated algorithm to figure out the He-Man of the year. Ian came out the top with the highest score, but we do not want to share our secret algorithm - so we had to make a reason up for why Ian won. So we created an elimination explanation:
Actually, we had to give Ian the He-Man paddle. It was an act of mercy. Last year he brought the tug of war trophy home. Faith (his wife) wouldn't think he was a real man if he didn't bring something home.
We launched Ian into the water. It was not very deep at the dam, with some sharp rocks on the bottom. We then threw Ron in because we forgot to throw him in last year for his 25th. Ron's finger caught Kenny's suspender, getting cut. Ron did not want to swim at the end because he was worried about his finger getting infected.
Just as we left the dam / falls, it started to rain lightly. As we crossed the Lake of the Falls, it continued to get darker and rain harder. Ian told Jessie he thought the main storm would miss us. But Jessie got a migraine which told him a low pressure was coming in.
The Turtle River was probably the highest we had ever seen it as we entered it after Lake of the Falls. It started to be a down pour, one of the heaviest / longest down pours in He-Man history. Alan/Kenny and Ian/Jesse pushed it and got to the pull out across Pike Lake first. When Dave caught up to Doug and John, Doug kept yelling "Chicken" and "Barbeque Sauce". He was motivating himself by thinking of what it was going to be like when we ate at Paul's Bunyan. We caught up to Ron/George who where waiting at the river outlet on Pike Lake for the storm to pass. They wanted the lightning to get further away. Dave, Doug/John, and Dan/Brady said forget it. So they paddled across the lake, staying towards the West (left) shore.
The rain finally started to let up as were crossing Pike Lake. It was pretty much stopped as we got to the landing. But the wind was picking up. Ron/Dave decided the swim was to be skipped this year because everyone was getting too cold.
Ron/Al/Kenny/Brady/Dan hopped in Ron's car with Ron's canoe so that Al/Kenny could pick up their vehicles at half way point and Dan/Brady could do dishes at the cabin. Plan was for Al to come back to the landing with his vehicle. We loaded George's vehicle with most of the gear and George's/Alan's canoes. Doug and John rode with George.
Dave, Ian, and Jesse stayed back, and waited, and waited for Alan to show up. We were wet and it was windy, so we were very cold. We were walking laps between the landing and 51 to keep warm. Issue was that Alan could not remember where the landing was. He first went past Mercer, but thought he went too far, so he went back to Mercer for directions. They sent him on the road to the Lake of the Falls. When he realized that was wrong, he went back further on 51 and found us. We put Dave's canoe on top of Alan's vehicle and then tied both aluminum canoes to his trailer. At some point one of the canoes jump the side to the trailer and was rubbing on the tire. The crew at the cabin was wondering what took so long. Everything was cleaned up and put away.
George was anxious to head out because of going all the way to central Illinois by himself, so he left right away.
Dave once again did not order the correct number of large T-shirts. Doug ended out taking a Extra Large instead of a large.
The remaining 10 went to Paul Bunyan's. Jesse was an animal. Jesse's table got 6 plates of ribs because Jesses ate so many. As usual we kept the server busy.
Ron and Doug went back to the cabin to spend the night. The rest headed home. It was hard to believe how cold we were at Pike Lake. By the time we got to Wausau it was 80 degrees.