BWCA Where no human has ever stood... Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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Mad_Angler
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04/18/2018 01:21PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I am fascinated by this idea. Think of a spot of land where no human has ever stood. I imagine that are many such locations in the BW.

Consider a generic plot of land in the middle of the woods. It is not a likely portage path. It is too far from a lake. It isn't an obvious camp site. It isn't an obvious path between more common locations.

Do you really think there are such places in the BW?

I imagine that native Americans might have tread most of the ground but there had to be spaces that they just didn't need to go. I also imagine that loggers might have covered most of the ground. But even they probably avoided some lower areas without good trees...
 
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04/18/2018 02:23PM  
Remote cliffs and the wettest swamps that are well away from survey lines, as well as in areas left uncut by the old pine loggers and later pulp logging operations.
 
bposteve
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04/18/2018 02:30PM  
I've thought about this myself. I think that these areas are probably more common than one would initially think. As you mentioned, a place that was never logged, but beyond that think of it like looking at the forest a week or two after a snowfall. Animals love trails, they'd much rather follow a trail than blaze one unless there is some very compelling reason. My guess is that in the unlogged areas if you get 100 yards away from water and avoid obvious easily walked game trails you'll be on or very near a place where nobody has ever stood before. Increase your odds by standing on a very pointy rock, or in water, or hip deep in muck surrounded by cattails.
 
inspector13
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04/18/2018 02:57PM  

I like my land to be experienced. That way it is more likely to be able to handle my playful experimentation.

 
wetcanoedog
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04/18/2018 05:16PM  
I don't think you would have much luck.i have a BW book with fire history maps and it
looks like the DNR and the CCC went over every inch of ground along with all the islands.
plus the DNR nature guys run compass lines and walk them keeping track of whatever
they find along the way.
 
missmolly
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04/18/2018 05:22PM  
I think there are many such places because critters, four and two-legged, stick to paths.
 
04/18/2018 06:42PM  
I stepped off a path through the yellow wood
And disappeared into the unknown
 
04/18/2018 06:46PM  
This thought breathes life into me. Love it.
 
RetiredDave
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04/18/2018 06:50PM  
I've had the same thought, many times, in the BW, Quetico, in Alaska, and during the three years we lived in Bolivia. When you get far enough off the path, surely, surely, there are spots, however small, where no human has ever stepped.

Even if it's fiction, I love the feeling each time.

Dave
 
mastertangler
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04/18/2018 06:55PM  
Hmmmm........I literally just finished the story of the U.S.S. Jeanette and its polar voyage. Not to downplay the possibility of setting foot where no one else has before in canoe country but it sort of pales in comparison to high Arctic exploration where perhaps no human had been within several hundred miles of some of the earlier forays. Very sad tale which brought tears to my eyes.

Now I am interested in reading about John Muir's travels aboard the vessel the Corwin which was sent to look for the Jeanette.
 
schweady
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04/18/2018 07:26PM  
On our first trips, this was a comment often made by my bow man when we were out scrambling behind our site for firewood or finding a spot for a break during fishing. We've come to realize how long the odds actually are. Now, when we're stretched out on a rock during a fishing break, and he starts his comment, he gets as far as, "Wouldn't it be something if this spot..." and we both burst out laughing.
 
04/19/2018 12:26AM  
I was a land surveyor. I spent a lot of time in brush / swamp that no sane person would ever go. My son spent two summers mapping rock outcrops in the bwca. Between geologists, surveyors, timber cruisers and native Americans most of the bwca has probably been seen. Stood upon, whatever?
I was in the Northwest Territories on a river that was seldom visited by canoeists or natives. Nearest settlement was an Eskimo village 200 miles away. We were hiking on an esker along side a gorgeous waterfall. I was thinking that it was unlikely anyone had ever been to this spot before. That’s when I found I pile of empty beer cans. Geologists most likely.
 
04/19/2018 03:18AM  
I think your question answers itself in that your not the first to think this. And that many who have thought of it have acted on it. I do not think there are many (but some) locations you speak of in the BWCA. I think - , not many spots. There have been Beav's that busted nuts across the BWCA/Q for thousands of years that we will never know about. It's been touched more then you think- but don't tell my wife. :O)



 
04/19/2018 07:05AM  
This same thought is what drives me to climb mountains (especially remote mountains). Climbing a lonely peak well off the beaten path walking through alpine tundra it's often hard not to wonder if anyone has been there before- after all what practical reason would one have to be there aside from appreciating the intrinsic value of the place itself.
 
04/19/2018 07:56AM  
Define where no man has ever stood. If limited to the 15 inch square box of property of standing space, then literally of thousands of standing spaces where no man has set foot are likely in the b-dub as in every state in the country.
 
04/19/2018 12:47PM  
This winter I bushwhacked into a difficult to get to lake with no existing trail and no summer portages. I set camp in a remote corner, and one warm afternoon sat down in a sunny spot behind my tent and was thinking about how isolated I was. Then I looked over and saw this...

...an 8 or so inch spike driven into the tree about 2 feet off the ground. No idea, but guessing its been there 30, 40, 50 years? No idea why anyone would drive it there as it was not flat behind.

My guess, after all the natives, surveying, and logging, is there are places in the BWCA where no one has ever stood, but you are only a few feet away from a path someone else has travelled.
 
Stumpy
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04/19/2018 03:20PM  


Maybe
Maybe not !
 
thistlekicker
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04/19/2018 06:30PM  
Jaywalker: "This winter I bushwhacked into a difficult to get to lake with no existing trail and no summer portages. I set camp in a remote corner, and one warm afternoon sat down in a sunny spot behind my tent and was thinking about how isolated I was. Then I looked over and saw this...

...an 8 or so inch spike driven into the tree about 2 feet off the ground. No idea, but guessing its been there 30, 40, 50 years? No idea why anyone would drive it there as it was not flat behind.


My guess, after all the natives, surveying, and logging, is there are places in the BWCA where no one has ever stood, but you are only a few feet away from a path someone else has travelled. "


Was that spike near the water's edge? That used to be (might still be?) a common method for benchmarking lake levels.
 
andym
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04/19/2018 07:50PM  
inspector13: "
I like my land to be experienced. That way it is more likely to be able to handle my playful experimentation.


"


Literally laughed out loud. Two large glasses of Barolo could be a factor too.
 
inspector13
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04/20/2018 07:38AM  

Hope you didn’t spill. This subject just seemed so Freudian to me.

 
04/20/2018 08:30AM  
thistlekicker: "


Was that spike near the water's edge? That used to be (might still be?) a common method for benchmarking lake levels."

Yes, the white in the upper left was the lake. The tree was a Jack pine 2-3 feet out of water and the spike 1-2 feet up from ground. Water level marker, eh? That's far more reasonable than anything I could think of!
 
04/20/2018 10:11AM  
boonie: "I stepped off a path through the yellow wood
And disappeared into the unknown "


love it
 
04/20/2018 11:46AM  
Well, Heraclitus says if you step in the river... yep, you are the first.
 
analyzer
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04/21/2018 05:50PM  
Jaywalker: "
thistlekicker: "



Was that spike near the water's edge? That used to be (might still be?) a common method for benchmarking lake levels."

Yes, the white in the upper left was the lake. The tree was a Jack pine 2-3 feet out of water and the spike 1-2 feet up from ground. Water level marker, eh? That's far more reasonable than anything I could think of! "


Perhaps it was just for a trot line. In the early 70's, my parents took me to see my mom's dad, who lived in Bull Shoals Arkansas. I used to run around in the boat with him, and check his trot lines. I doubt they are still legal, certainly not in Minnesota, but it was fun.
 
wetcanoedog
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04/21/2018 09:32PM  
I found a few of these on La Croix,same sort of big nail just off the ground by the water.
I have read that during the winter when surveys were being made lanterns were hung
up as markers.working during the winter nights they could move across the ice better than by boat in the summer.a lantern would be visible for miles to do the triangulations.
 
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