Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Trip Reports :: Trip Report - Awesome week on Horseshoe Lake
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airmorse |
Glad you had a great trip. I was actually thinking next year our group would explore that area as we have not been there yet. |
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user0317 |
Very cool that you saw an elk up there. |
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MNLindsey80 |
A little anxious about hearing wolves howling at night, but wow, what an animal adventure! |
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ducks |
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ducks |
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ducks |
quote bwcahuggy: "quote ducks: "Nice report and thanks for sharing. In early May I did a solo in that area entering at Morgan and exiting at Lizz. I had Horseshoe all to myself for 2 nights. I saw 2 wolves on Horseshoe not far from the portage to Gaskin. I camped on site 675 and there was a lot of scat that looked like your picture back behind my site." 675 is the site right behind 674. It's up on the rock ledge at the entrance to the southern arm that leads to Vista. Yes, the solo was amazing. I went the weekend before fishing opener and on a 4 day trip I saw 4 moose, 2 wolves, 1 bear, 1 dead moose floating in Horseshoe, and only 2 people. |
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Charliepete |
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bwcahuggy |
quote ducks: "Nice report and thanks for sharing. In early May I did a solo in that area entering at Morgan and exiting at Lizz. I had Horseshoe all to myself for 2 nights. I saw 2 wolves on Horseshoe not far from the portage to Gaskin. I camped on site 675 and there was a lot of scat that looked like your picture back behind my site." Is 675 the furthest most site on the west branch leading towards Gaskin? The cow and calf that were our closest encounter came right out of the canoe launching area of that sight. All of the wildlife sightings were on that west branch of the lake. The wolf howling came from the east side of our 674 site. Sounds like your solo trip was a blast! |
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bwcahuggy |
Yes; that was a very cool site! We tried to get it but it was already taken. A dead moose? Wow. Was it an adult or a calf? That area is definetly top notch for seeing wildlife. Thanks for sharing. |
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CityFisher74 |
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Spartan2 |
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nofish |
I wonder if what you saw was a cow moose with twin calves and the trees/brush and distance obscured just enough to not get a positive ID. Honestly I'd love for there to be elk roaming the BWCA but at this point I'm skeptical. |
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bwcahuggy |
Trip Name: Awesome week on Horseshoe Lake . Entry Point: 47 Click Here to View Trip Report |
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boonie |
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FOG51 |
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bwcahuggy |
It's not bear or wolf scat, too large for that. So we're thinking it may be elk because moose scat is more in pellet form. My wife works for our local conservation district, and takes groups of young kids out on nature walks, pointing out the different types of scat. My fishing partner the day we saw the elk is her boss, he is the head of the district. He has 40 years hunting experience and owns a large chunk of land in central Wisconsin. I've been hunting whitetail deer for 30 years and I know the difference between a deer and an elk. We both are quite sure the 3 animals we saw were a cow elk with twins. I'll report what I find out from the DNR. |
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bwcahuggy |
quote nofish: "I'm still a bit skeptical on the elk sighting. One single elk would be INCREDIBLY rare to near impossible in the BWCA. However you saw one with twins which means that there are not only the 3 elk you saw in the BWCA but at least 1 more with the 4th being the male that was available to breed with the cow. If there was a breeding population in the BWCA in a busy and popular area like Horseshoe lake you'd think more people would have gotten a glimpse or at the very least people would have been hearing a bugle from time to time. I know it sounds hard to believe but what we saw behind the trees was definitely an elk head; you could make out her face and ears. I grunted at her hoping she would walk off to where I could get a video of her but she wouldn't move. I talked with a person from the Minnesota DNR this morning and they said there are elk in NW Minnesota, and possibly some could have made it over to this area. They mentioned it could have been a woodland caribou. A caribou is much smaller than an elk. Hopefully someone else will see one in the near future. Here is a pic of a map showing where we saw them. |