An Outdoorsman’s Journal

By: Mark Walters

Friends for Life!

Hello friends: My relationship with Pete and Elizabeth Hagedorn of Red Lake, Ontario, began in 1982 when my father, Robert Walters, brother Mike, and a family friend did our first fly-in fishing trip to Shultz Lake, which is a series of outposts and a main camp “Chimo Lodge and Outposts” that the Hagedorns created.

I became camp manager at Chimo in 1988 and throughout the 1990s I did work in the bush for Pete mostly with a chainsaw and a hammer and it is in part because of Pete that I started writing this column back in 1989 about my life in the Canadian bush.

I believe that it was about the late 1990s when the Hagedorns created Chimo Air, which was a pretty good-sized float plane airline. From 1989 to 2005 I worked in the Milwaukee Sport Show with Pete and after that period of my life he would stay at my house on his way home and Selina and Joey along with some other friends would always be here to hang out with him.

Four years ago, at the age of 79, this full-time bush pilot/camp owner came to my house from the show and told me he had sold the business. I knew it was coming but it was a tough blow. A month later I surprised him for his 80th birthday and ice fished from his home on Red Lake.

When COVID hit, you could no longer cross the border and so until this trip it had been two years since I had been in Red Lake. I will cover a bunch so here goes.

Friday, August 20 High 79, low 67

The Border! I had been up 24 hours when I reached the Canadian border at International Falls, and it was a very full 24 hours. I was nervous as H E Double Toothpicks; did I have my required COVID info complete? This would include the proper paperwork for a COVID test within 72 hours before arrival as well as the ArriveCAN paperwork that had been completed ahead of time.

This all worked out, but I had crawlers and you can no longer bring in live or dead bait into Canada. I had to carry this back across the bridge to the U.S. Customs people.

I drove another 50 miles, it was 7:30 a.m. My head nodded and I pulled over to sleep.

Saturday, Aug. 21

This morning Pete announced to me that instead of fishing he was going to give me a tour of the Red Lake area. We did two 3-hour tours and it was amazing. The gold mines, the bush, and what’s just crazy, the fires in the area or should I say preparation for fires. Red Lake is the headquarters for this year’s firefighting operation and everywhere -- I mean every house/building -- there is hundreds of miles of fire hose running that is attached to sprinkler systems that are on trees built out of 2x4s.

The outpost that I fish had been part of the fire, but the cabin was saved. Two of Chimo’s outposts were not so fortunate. Float planes and helicopters were everywhere during daylight hours.

My friends Doug Van Dussen, Duane Reidel and Rod Atkinson as well as many others have been a small but steady part of my bush life since the late 1980s. Duane Reidel is now the manager at Red Lake airport, was and still is a bush pilot. When I was camp manager Duane was one of the pilots flying guests to our camp. Rod Atkinson is a barrel of laughs and tied into this group through the business and now works at one of the gold mines. On Friday I went to the meat raffle at Red Lake’s Legion hall and Rod was the host and honored me at the beginning.

Doug Vandussen owned a business that sold supplies to the gold mines, owned a camp, has his pilot’s license and is a lot of fun. We are all in the same age bracket and laugh a lot when together.

Pete is 83, Elizabeth is 90. This trip was around seeing Pete and Elizabeth as well as getting Pete’s Lund 18 foot “Fisherman” into some action. This boat is rigged to the hilt with a Lowrance HD512, 80lb Minnkota Ulterra graph, a 9.9 hsp Honda kicker and a 130 hsp Honda outboard. In reality, this 20-year-old rig has maybe 20 hours on it with the kicker being used for the first time today and the graph being thoroughly studied by my German buddy. Doug Vandussen, Pete and I put some hours on Red Lake and fished hard. Pete was an excellent bush pilot and it was obvious that he loved running his rig hard and fast today. We caught fish from the get-go and it was a great day.

Pete was a camp operator and simply could not fish much. I try to get him on the ice, and it was cool to see today work out as well.

Guess what? I’m out of space! Love this job, it was cool visiting Pete and Elizabeth. Sunset

My pals Doug Vandussen and Pete Hagedorn soaking up the sun!

Mark Walters and Pete Hagedorn enjoying a day of fishing on Red Lake.

Pete Hagedorn and Doug Vandussen on Pete’s plane/boat dock!