Four years ago I visited Lynx Lake with my son Josh. We had an incredibly long one day trip. While passing through we stopped at the 5* campsite on Lynx and that was enough to set me hoping on a return someday. That day arrived this year and much to my delight the campsite was open when we arrived. The balance of our party arrived on Saturday and we ended up with the two best campsites on the lake, both on the eastern shore.

Today we went back to Shell Lake to help guide the other group to Lynx. If you keep the white rock (pictured) and the point near it you'll have no trouble locating the way to get to the Little Shell portage. Though a short portage it has a nasty rock landing.

Later on Saturday we took a trip to Agawato Lake which is accessed by a short and pretty portage on the south side of Lynx. We nicknamed the lake Agaswampo. It appears that a fallen tree made a breach in the dam at the entrance to the lake. This had drained about 18" height of water out of the lake. This made the first 300 yards appear to be a large swamp. We walked around it and made our way to the main body of the lake. This lake and lone campsite on the eastern shore is probably accessed mostly by hikers on the Sioux Hustler Trail. A very high rock area sits above and to the north of the campsite affording some beautiful views and was totally loaded with ripe blueberries.

We had made good time getting to Yodeler and we paddled quickly across the lake to the rock point on the north side of the lake for a group photo before tackling the portage to Achundo. Yodeler supposedly has an excellent bass fishing reputation but we did not get deterred from our goal of reaching Rangeline asap. We had anticipated that the portage from Yodeler to Achundo would be a total bushwack and the most difficult part of the trip. Wrong! Though a tough portage someone had marked a trail with red tape. Thank you whoever you are! Again, it wasn't easy but it was easy to follow the markings. We did not take pictures of the trail, only the section as we arrived at Achundo. Nothing too special about Achundo other than knowing you were deep in the woods in a place seldom visited. We crossed the lake quickly heading to the north where the stream would exit into Rangeline.

We were now psyched. We were close to our goal and it was still early. but...we could not find a trail to Rangeline at this point and we could not navigate the small stream. So we got out and weaved our way to the lake. It had taken us just over 3 hours ...so we were way ahead of our goal and now ready to go straight north on the lake to the campsite. Rangeline did not disappoint. It is a beautiful lake and only the events of the night to come kept us from exploring the southern section of the lake. It did have high cliffs and we also had hoped to fish the depths behind the islands the next morning. "Man proposes, God disposes". Here are a couple photos as we made our way to the campsite. As mentioned it was already turning in to a very hot day. We later learned that it was 93 degrees and 73% humidity. This is why I leave GA in mid-July ...not what I expect up north. I've been up here since 1953 and I only remember a couple days to match this type heat. Anyway there is a way to clean up and cool off even on the hottest day ...get IN the water and not ON the water. However we did want to fish and it was relatively easy to catch pike. Nothing huge, the big boys were probably cooling off in the depths behind the islands. We were looking for food however so these pike were on the menu for the night. Have I mentioned that it was HOT. Perhaps this was the last photo taken trying to cool off at the end of a great day of adventure. Now the question was how to keep cool in the tent when your body is roasting. We found out in a few short hours. As we headed off to bed we decided to keep the rain fly off the tent hoping that any breeze would come to cool us off. We got more than we asked for!

With all gear and canoe strapped in, I began my drive north at approximately 4am Thursday morning. I've been exceptionally pleased with my new racking system. Last summer I purchased the Thule canoe portage feet for my roof rack. Although the system is (in my opinion) overpriced for what you actually get in the box, I've found great peace of mind that I've observed no canoe shifting and minimal movement over the 240mi drive.

My college friend lives in Buhl, and I meet at his house at approximately 7:30am. He quickly loads his gear and we head back east to Ely.

Once we arrive in Ely, we stop into the New Arrowhead bait shop across from Voyageur North for leeches, then shot over to the Kawishwi Ranger Station before heading up the Echo.

It seems we hit the jackpot for a put-in day. The sun is brightly shining and winds are nonexistent. I made an emergency pit stop at the Angleworm latrine (lots of coffee), then soon enough we were at the Moose River entrance.

The Moose River entrance was crowded. There was a van in the staging area offloading 4-5 canoes, and another group's packs set next to the trailhead. This is a new experience for us as we typically gravitate to the more secluded areas of the BWCA, but this is what we anticipated and we were very happy to be finally hitting the trail. We quickly passed two groups on the trail as we were single-portaging, and found that we had the canoe landing to ourselves. Seriously, what a beautiful day!

Our travel down the river included two very small portages. Again, to our surprise, we did not encounter another group at either portage or along the river until I passed by fellow BWCA.com member Dicecupmaker. We quickly exchanged pleasantries and were along our merry way.

Both my partner and I could not stop commenting on the beautiful scenery along the river as well as the tree diversity. Honestly, this may have been one of my favorite paddles in the BWCA thus far.

As we made our way towards Nina Moose, we began discussing our gameplan. We'd never seen Nina Moose, so we decided that we would paddle around the perimeter scoping campsites and fishing along the way. We were expecting to find occupied campsites, but thought we'd give it a try. As we began fishing along the rocky shoreline of the east side of the lake, we quickly picked up a couple of nice walleyes. We threw those back and thought maybe we should camp here for a night...

As we scoured the eastern shoreline, we found that each of the first 4 sites encountered were open. We decided to grab a site on the southern edge of the eastern bay. For a busy lake we thought the site was pretty clean - not much in the way of human traces.

As per tradition, we quickly unloaded our gear and got a bobber in the water. As clouds began surrounding the lake, I picked up a very healthy smallmouth from the rocky shore. Things were looking good!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening setting camp and exploring out site. We found that canoe traffic was relatively light compared to what we expected, and we felt a great deal of solitude. I started jotting down notes and experiences in my new notepad that I picked up from Piragis. My goal is to record small details that I would otherwise forget between trips.

As evening approached we grilled up a steak and mashed potatoes (per tradition), then settled in and watched our bobbers from the rocks on the shoreline.

We picked up a few pike and panfish after dinner, then took in one of the most colorful BWCA sunsets that I've ever observed.

We soon retired back to the tent and quickly fell asleep.

We both woke at about the same time Friday morning (approximately 6am). A distant rumbling could be heard on this early morning, and we thought we better get our tarp hung before the rain begins. We quickly secure our gear and get the tarp set over the fire grate area as the coffee is percolating in the kettle. The storm clouds appear fairly unimpressive and we watch as they envelope the lake from west to east. The storm hit around 7:30am. First came rain; heavy rain. The wind followed soon thereafter. I can't say for certain, but I would estimate we saw wind gusts in excess of 60mph. We stayed under our tarp watching trees nearby. The lake was nearly impossible to see through the driving wind and rain. (I really wish I had my camera handy during the storm) We began asking whether or not to head further into the woods for protection, but the storm had begun to subside. It was about 9:00am, and there were just a few residual sprinkles hanging around. We took inventory of our gear, and I'm happy to report that we had no failures. As we took a look at the lake we noticed a kevlar canoe floating in the middle of the bay. We then noticed the campsite across from us was missing a canoe... I was glad to see that they did still have a second canoe, and once the lightening stopped, they went out to retrieve the canoe. I never worried about securing my canoe until a storm whipped up last year. I am very glad I had moved my canoe to high ground and tied off to a tree.

We brewed a new batch of coffee (my kettle had blown over during the storm), and began drying ourselves and our gear on the clothesline.

The sun began peeking through the clouds by lake morning, and we decided to spend the afternoon fishing from the canoe. We continued to troll the rocky shoreline and picked up numerous healthy walleyes. In fact, we picked up a walleye or two on each pass. We decided to keep a couple nice eater sized fish for dinner.

We finished our day by eating a late dinner out of the rocks in front of our site and watching as the stars grew more and more apparent.

As the mosquitoes pushed us into our tent, we settled in to the sound of distant thunder once again.