Let me start by saying that the way things ended up was not a result of “lack of planning”. We spent more time than we should have pouring over maps, old and new satellite images, and message boards. To say this trip was poorly planned would not be fair…to say it was ill conceived however, might be closer to the truth.

We were pumped for this trip. The best evidence of this was when Heavy Canoe (HC) and I called each other close to our departure date and we both should have been at work. “Guess where I am right now? I’m at Gander Mountain”. “SO AM I”, came the response.

It was to be our last great adventure trip for several years. Starting next year, both of us committed to bringing our young kids on trips = the trips would have to be easier. So we purposefully picked a tough trip. We wanted to test our limits…and we did.

DAY ZERO

HC & I decided to meet up at my brother-in-law’s property outside of Black River Falls Friday night. It was a convenient location where we could put up a tent then get an early start on Saturday for our trek up to the Gunflint Trail. On his way there HC was so caught up in his thoughts of the trip that he missed a turn and ended up arriving several hours later than planned in Black River. His late arrival couldn’t subdue our enthusiasm. We still talked for hours drinking cheap cold beer even though it was getting late.

DAY ONE -- SATURDAY -- THE TRIP NORTH

Despite being up late we were still up early, eager to get started. It wasn’t until we were at Perkins having breakfast that we realized just how early…seems our 40+ year old eyes had mistaken 5:30AM as 6:30. Heck, we now had even more time to make it to our outfitters (Tuscarora) on Round Lake.

It was actually quite enjoyable taking our time heading north. HC’s air conditioning was out but it was a nice enough day that it really didn’t matter. We could have taken my truck but my “Check Engine” light was on and we decided it was better to have an engine that worked than an air conditioner.

We made good use of the extra time. We stopped at all those places you’ve wanted to stop at but had to pass by because you needed to get to the Bdub. HC had been chatting with someone on the message boards who had a canoe shop in Two Harbors so we stopped there. We stopped at Betty’s Pies but it was too busy for us so we left. We ate the cookie I had won that morning at Perkins playing the drop-a- quarter-in-the-water-for-charity game.

We stopped at Split Rock, in spite of the crowds and went to explore the falls. It was good we stopped at there on the way up because on the way back it, along with every other state park, was closed due to the Minnesota shutdown.

We lost a little bit of time when we hit the washed out construction zone between Split Rock Falls and Silver Bay. We pushed through on the highway instead of the detour (a recommendation from our stops in Two Harbors). It was slow and muddy but it really wasn’t all that bad.

We made it to Grand Marais around 3:00. We had an early dinner at Sven & Ollie’s and picked up bait at that place just up the street from there. They guaranteed that the leeches would catch fish or die trying. In our case, it turned out that the majority of the leeches would never get to swim in a Bdub lake even though we hauled them for miles.

When we pulled into Tuscarora Lodge & Outfitters it was around 5:00. We had plenty of time to check in, watch the video, and get our permits & licenses. The outfitter tried to talk us into an aluminum canoe because of where we were headed but it was for that very reason that we insisted on a lightweight Kevlar.

We started to fill our packs. I had brought a bathroom scale along to help us with our decisions. It told us we were too heavy but we didn’t want to hear that so we ignored this early indication of what was headed our way.

We were packed before sundown. We headed to the docks to enter some GPS points and watch the sun set on a beautiful day. This was sure to be a GREAT trip.

DAY TWO -- SUNDAY -- WELCOME TO THE BWCAW or PLANNING MEETS REALITY

We were up at dawn = 5:00 and on the lake by 6:00. We chose to forgo the usual French Toast breakfast (served at 7:00) in order to get the early start on what was planned to be a VERY long day. As we paddled across our first lake we saw our first bald eagle.

Here was the plan: Round - West Round - Edith - Brandt - Gotter - Flying - Green - Bat - Gillis - French - Peter - Gabimichigami - Agamok = 11 ½ miles of portaging and paddling - a brief stop at Mueller Falls - then 2 ½ miles of the Kekekabic trail in order to get to Travois Lake in the northeast corner of the Mugwump PMA. By starting at 6:00 AM we had hoped to make Travois by 6:00 or 7:00 PM. By our calculations, that included 3 hours for the Kek trail leg.

Most of the trails were muddy based on all the rain the previous week. Whoever carried the canoe seemed to be the favorite food for mosquitoes. You would set the canoe down on the other end of the portage and a cloud of mosquitoes would rise up from the hull.

For portaging we arranged our packs so that we had options: 1) One portion was the canoe + paddles & fishing poles = 50 pounds 2) One portion was “The Big Easy” = a Granite Gear Superior One = 50+ pounds but was easy to carry given the waist belt and all the adjustments 3) The food pack = a cardboard box inside of a perfectly fitting pack = 30 pounds give or take 4) An army duffle with misc gear approximately 30 pounds

PORTAGE OPTION #1 Double Portage -One person takes the canoe the other takes Big Easy. We then both go back for the lighter packs and carry them forward. -Net distance traveled by each of us = 3 X the portage length

PORTAGE OPTION #2 Single Portage -One person takes the canoe + one of the lighter bags and the other takes Big Easy + the other lighter bag -Net distance traveled by each of us = 1 X the portage length -In our younger days this would have been the option of choice. On this trip…for the first time ever…we did NOT single portage with the canoe even once

PORTAGE OPTION #3 The 1 ½ Portage = so named because it is between the single and the double (BWCA.com) (throughout the report I hope to highlight the ideas we learned on this site that we used successfully) -One person grabs both of the light bags (one back pack and one front pack) and carries them ½ way where he then drops them and goes back for Big Easy. The other person carries the canoe all the way to the end then comes back for the combo pack (this combo pack, at 60 pounds or so, later became known as the Big Bastard). The person who went back for Big Easy then carries it all the way to the end. -Net distance traveled by each of us = 2 X the portage length -We used the 1 ½ a lot on this trip

We were in the Ham Lake and Cavity Lake burns nearly the whole way in. It really is a shame. Some of those lakes would have been very desirable had they not been wiped clean of trees. I particularly liked the layout of Brandt with all the twists and turns to explore. We saw a loon with 2 chicks there. It would have made a great short trek with the kids if there had been a forest for shade and scenery. It was clear that these areas are still decades away from bearing any resemblance to being “forested”.

The portage from Brandt into Gotter had been lengthened to accommodate lower water levels and the mud that occupied what had been lake in previous years.

Only saw 2 other groups on the whole trek in. We passed a solo traveler on the staircase from Gotter into Flying. The other group was a ranger and his summer helper on the portage from Flying into Green. That slowed us down a bit. Even though the Ranger complimented us on the speed at which we had covered distance so far, we had to stop and wait while the Ranger checked our permits and signed off on them.

The Ranger also advised us that the forecast for the day had changed and now included evening showers and high winds. With Gabi to come, the possibility of high winds was not good news.

We had lunch on the portage from French into Peter. We wanted a scenic place but that was a little challenging in the middle of the burn. We opted for the high point of the trail on a big rocky surface with a breeze to keep the bugs at bay. It is a pretty view in its own right. All of the rock formations that would have otherwise been hidden by foliage were clearly visible. We each had 2 water bottles with approximately a liter of water in them each. By the time we hit Peter we were out of water. (BWCA.com) Based on what we had read on this site we felt safe refilling our bottles on Peter without filtering them provided we filled them in deep water. Peter is a big deep lake and showed no beaver sign so we comfortable filling them there. We had to admit…the water tasted really good = better then the stuff that came through the filter.

We got to Gabi and our wind fears came true. While the whitecaps hadn’t quite formed yet it was clear they were coming soon. NOTE: on our last trip into the Bdub we challenged big waves on Saganaga and ended up swamping 2 canoes so we are more than a little sensitive to big waves. Crossing Gabi in a straight line to our portage would not be an option because that would have the canoe going parallel to the big waves. We had to head more to the southwest = more into the wind, then cut back to northeast = down wind. It was a tense time for us. Forward progress slowed as we battled into the wind and added a whole lot of extra distance to the paddle. The exit from Gabi into Agamok was a little hard to find but a good topo GPS helped us to get the right stretch of shore.

The Agamok side of the portage was a completely different story. On that small, narrow lake you barely knew the wind was blowing. That is why it is a little surprising that we got through Gabi without a scratch but then managed to run square into a Volkswagen sized boulder submerged in still water on Agamok. You would have thought we were Rookies hitting a rock like that. Yeah, the skid pad got a work out on that one.

We saw our first of many beaver on Agamok. On this trip we would see lots of moose sign but never see a moose. We would see bear sign but never see a bear. Beaver on the other hand seemed like they were everywhere.

Our plan had been to pull out at the last campsite on Agamok before the portage to Mueller. We figured that surely there would be a trail from the campsite to the Kek trail because that would provide access to Mueller Falls. We found the campsite and went to unload. Our second rookie mistake in the span of 20 minutes = we both looked for footing to unload the packs and neither of us held onto the canoe. That really wasn’t a good idea given that there is a current there drawing all things into the falls. I looked back to see the canoe about 5 feet from shore. That really isn’t that far but it was more than enough to be past the rock ledge we were standing on. In I went. It really didn’t take much to haul it in from 5 feet but I was now wet all the way up to my arm pits.

Having secured the canoe…we investigate the site. There was a trail back to the privy but it did not connect to the Kek trail. We thought about bushwhacking but decided that it would be easier to pick up the trail where it crossed the Agamok to Mueller portage. We wanted to see the falls anyway so we would be passing through that intersection regardless. We found the portage easy enough and hauled all the gear to the intersection.

The trail to the falls went through a campsite that Kek trail hikers must use. There isn’t a place to put a canoe into water but it is relatively close to the sounds and scenery of the falls. The falls was worth the side trip. The bridge gives a nice vantage point and the water fall is through a chute in the rocks forcing the water to flow through in a roar.

Below the falls was a sight that made us wince. Someone had created a “shelter” at the side of the creek. Pine poles had been stripped of branches and bark and used for rafters. Then they had taken great pieces of bark from a large live birch tree and attempted to drape them over the rafters. Finally, they made a fire ring out of rocks right there at the bottom of the falls. The scene was a perfect poster for the OPPOSITE of Leave No Trace.

After spending time with the Ranger, covering twice the water on Gabi, and our little side trip to the falls…it was now 5:30 = close to the time we had hoped to pull into Travois. We went back to the intersection to discuss our options. Did we push on for Travois? We figured we could make it there in 2 to 3 hours. That would mean arriving at 8:00 or so = still light out but not by much. We reversed our trend of making rookie mistakes by making one of the best decisions of the trip. We left the canoe on the Kek Trail then brought the rest of the gear to the hikers campsite on the way to the falls.

It was a nice enough site despite the lack of a lake view. It had a nice flat tent pad and a decent fire pit. HC got busy with dinner while I went to fill the water jug. Without a canoe I was forced to wade into the water at the bottom of the falls and fill up there. Needless to say, that water had to be filtered before use. Dinner that night was red beans & rice with TVP (textured vegetable protein).

While I did the dishes HC did the fishes. He managed to catch a sucker on worms and a small Pike on a spoon. He was fishing in the pool just below the falls.

As dusk began to fall so did the rain. After rising at dawn and the long day of paddling turning in early was the easy choice.

Getting ready to tuck into my sleeping bag I found not one but 2 DEER ticks up near the underwear line. I had been wearing zip-off performance pants all day that had been sprayed with premethrin (BWCA.com)1 week earlier. The one thing premethrin was supposed to protect me from was deer ticks and it had failed. I later found that my canvas cargo pants sprayed with premethrin did a good job of keeping the ticks at bay. The dramatic difference in performance will need to be investigated further.

DAY THREE -- MONDAY -- THE KEK TRAIL AND ONLY THE KEK TRAIL

We awoke to rain. Sleeping in a little, in the hopes that the rain would subside, didn’t work = all it did was get us a later start.

Had oatmeal and coffee with Bailey’s as creamer for breakfast. We were packed and ready to hit the trail at roughly 10:00.

Made one of my biggest mistakes of the trip right here…that’s saying something for this trip. As we were standing there in our gear we discussed the virtues of wearing performance pants vs. rain pants. We both had knee high waterproof boots (BWCA.com) because we knew we would be bushwhacking. Being ever so optimistic about dry weather we went with the performance pants. They may get wet but they would dry out quicker and they would breath better than rain pants. They would also likely hold up better to the tugs of briars and limbs than our rain gear would. Horrible decision. Even when the rain would stop for short periods of time the vegetation which crowded the Kek trail was soaked. Before the end of the day we would be hiking with water ankle deep in our boots. Waterproof boots don’t do you a squat bit of good if they are holding the water in rather than the water out. Think of all the extra weight in every step. In my case, the tops of my boots rubbed against the ultra light fabric of my soaked through pants and they started to chaff. I still have the sores now as I type this. I got so wet that my underwear got soaked and by the end of the day I was painfully chaffed in areas I will never tell my mother about.

And I got off easy…HC’s boots were the pullover type so he needed to wear other shoes inside them. The only other shoes he brought were his water shoes. They simply weren’t made for that kind of hiking. By the end of our trip he had so much duct tape on his feet it looked like he was wearing sandals. It was really a painful ordeal for him.

But all that would be realized at the end of the day and this story still has us at the beginning of the trail, optimistic about our challenge to bushwhack into the Mugwump PMA.

We had hoped to 1 ½ portage most of the Kek trail…doing it in medium sized pieces. But the rough terrain soon made that difficult. We had decided that for the toughest stretches we would double portage. Other than that first stretch…we started double portaging everything.

Ferns covering the trail soaked us as we waded through them. Branches that were out of the way for a hiker, required that a canoe be pushed through. Windfalls required that the canoe be walked through by both of us.

Generally, we are patient people. We have both run marathons and are used to enduring discomfort in the name of progress. The problem was…we weren’t making progress. The GPS showed that after 2 hours of hard work in the rain we had only managed to get the canoe about a mile up the trail. By this point we had hoped to have made it the entire 2 ½ miles. A bit frustrated by the pace we decided to change tactics. It was pretty clear that we were going to have to double portage nearly all of this. So, in an effort to feel better about our progress, we grabbed the 2 light packs (the food pack and the duffle) and decided we would push all the way through to Travois then come back for Big Easy and the canoe. The biggest mistake of the entire trip happened right here…it worked out OK but it could have been bad. By not taking Big Easy we left our water bottles behind. We also left the tent but it was the water that was really stupid.

Off we go with light packs and our pace picks up. The Kek trail takes you to some really neat parts of the BWCAW that you might not see otherwise. At one point you are high above the rest of the area and you can see for miles (when it isn’t raining). There are parts of the trail where it is really difficult to follow. Several times we had to rely on sawed logs and cairns to reassure us that we were headed the right direction. There are also parts of the trail where I found myself saying out loud, “Are you kidding?”. This usually happened when it climbed down a little cliff wall or plunged into a swamp.

The Kek trail is filled with moose sign in the form of droppings. One of the ways we passed the time was by yelling out “Poop Pile” every time we passed a bunch of moose plumbs. We also called out “Boot Spot” every time the trail got so mucky that you were glad you were wearing your boots.

Per the GPS we finally reached the saddle in the topo maps where we thought we could drop into Travois. We had seen the lake previously but it was from the top of a bluff. We couldn’t find a single spot that looked like an easy spot to start the bushwhack into the lake. We knew others had been to the lake so we decided to push forward towards the marsh at the base of Bushwah Lake. That was the lowest point into Travois. If we hadn’t found a trail in be then, that is where we would push through. We finally found the marsh and, much to our delight we also found a trail heading into Travois!

As hard as following the Kek trail had been this was several times harder. It was a path only in the sense that other people had been this way before. It was not a cleared path. You still had to climb over windfalls. The brush was so thick in places you had no choice but to cover your eyes and just push through.

Several times we lost the trail. All you had to do was go a couple of steps the wrong direction and you would lose all signs of a path. At one point, about ½ way to the lake, we were no longer on the trail and the way to the lake included climbing down a rock. We had come this far and we weren’t going to stop now, so down we went. At the bottom of the rock we found the trail again. Apparently, smarter folks than us had found a way that did not involve having to not hang from trees as you slid down the face of a rock with a pack on.

AT LAST…we had made it to Travois Lake! It was now about 2:30 in the afternoon. For those of you keeping track…we had been on the trail for 4 ½ hours. Our canoe was a mile and a half back up the trail. More importantly, so was our water and our tent. Had we been smarter we could have set up camp right then and there and gone back for the rest of the gear the next day. But we weren’t smart so our day of marching still wasn’t over.

I had thought of drinking right from the lake but our entrance to the shore was met by a very unhappy beaver. Several times he/she slapped the water making it clear we weren’t welcome there. Given the threat of Giardia, drinking from the shore here without filtering the water was not an option.

We dropped our packs and decided to explore a bit before resuming our hike. It was clear that the lake was lower than it had been historically. It actually made it easier to walk around the lake because in most places there was a rocky shore to follow. You still had to negotiate the occasional windfall but in this part of the lake others had done the same before us and left clear indications of the easiest way to get through.

Due to the low water, the island in Travois was, in fact, now a peninsula. The connection was a bit boggy but not a problem for guys wearing boots. The island was really pretty nice. The only thing that spooked us a bit was that we found 1 beaver skull and 2 moose skeletons on the island. Wolves were the most obvious explanation. At the far end of the island there was a nice tent pad of tiny blueberry bushes and a spot with a rock bench that would be great for sitting around a small fire. It was an elevated site with nice rock formations all around. This would be our campsite. That decision made, we headed back for the bushwhack trail.

As we walked back we both admitted that we had realized some time ago that the canoe would not be making the trip to Travois. It was crushing to admit that, so neither of us had said it out loud. Knowing what we had hiked to get here it was clear that the canoe had no business on the Kekekabic Trail and stood almost no chance of being pushed through that bushwhack trail. I think it could have been done but it would have required yet another day of hiking. The canoe was still 1 ½ miles up the Kek trail (not including the distance along the bushwhack trail) and the terrain would slow the pace to a crawl. We had reached the point where the effort was not worth the reward. It was now 3:30. So we wouldn’t be hauling the canoe but we did have to go back for Big Easy, our water, and our fishing poles. Now that we had a better idea of what we were up against we were able to make better choices. We took the duffle bag and emptied the contents onto the lake shore. That would allow us to take some of the weight out of Big Easy for the trip back.

Following the trail out of Travois seemed much easier than following it in. The rain continued, to the point of pouring at times. Our boots had to be emptied several times. Without the burden of packs we made reasonable time given the terrain. We arrived back at the canoe around 4:30. We had hoped for a quick “turn” = set the canoe safely off to the side, drink some water, eat a PowerBar and get back on the trail. But we were beat. My feet now needed some duct tape and Jerry’s needed even more. We didn’t head back until 5:00 or so. At this point, the runner’s mindset took over. One foot in front of the other will eventually get you to the end of this race. We also downed some Advil which really seemed to help. We stopped a couple more times to empty the water from our boots.

The push through that bushwhack trail seemed even harder than the last 2 times. The lines on the fishing poles kept getting snagged. Big Easy was a nice pack on an open trail but here in the brush the branches constantly resisted against it. We made to the island campsite on Travois just before 7:00PM. Normally this is when you would hop to it…get camp set up before dark. But we had nothing left in us. We had been on the trail for 9 hours with very few breaks. Even the thought of going back to the shore to retrieve the food pack and the contents of the duffle bag seemed like too much work but we got it done.

Dinner that night was GORP, beef jerky, and Advil. Bed time started immediately thereafter.

DAY FOUR -- TUESDAY -- A DAY TO RELAX??? WHY WOULD WE DO THAT…

HC woke up at dawn to try his hand at fishing. I slept in until 7:30 or so. Breakfast was bacon & eggs = a nice treat after the gorp and jerky the night before.

I did a little fishing then we both got back together to discuss our options. Here are the things we took into account: -Travois is only known for having trout and trout in late June are in 40’ of water or so -We would never get our lures into 40’ of water without the canoe -The next lake over = Marble was known for walleye which would also be hard to catch from shore -If we continued on with the trip we had planned we would need to bushwhack to Van Lake and we still wouldn’t have a canoe. It also meant we would have to bushwhack through all of this again to get back to the canoe. -We weren’t likely to catch many fish (maybe not catch any) if we forged ahead with our plans -As tough as the bushwhack had been into Travois from the Kek trail, the bushwhack to Van would be worse because we wouldn’t have a trail to follow. It would also be 6-7 times longer than that bushwhack

So…the decision was made to bail on the PMA trip. We would make the rest of the trip a “standard” Bdub outing. HC’s friend at the canoe shop had talked up Kekekabic Lake and once we got out of here we would only be a couple of lakes away from there. We concluded that we would spend one more night on Travois then head to Mueller Lake, with the canoe, the following day.

That decision made, we also decided that if we were only going to have one more day on Travois that we owed it to ourselves to at least try to make it to Marble Lake. We were hoping to take it easy that day but it simply wasn’t in the cards. HC’s feet were really hurting but that didn’t stop him.

To confirm our plans we went to check the maps. NO MAPS! We checked everywhere but our maps (and permit) were gone. We had no idea if we had left them with the canoe (unlikely) or if they had fallen out of the packs on the way in. We weighed our options and decided that we would stick to our original plan of getting to Marble. My GPS had topo maps we could follow. Looking for our real maps could wait a day.

To prep for our trip to Marble we packed a lunch, our fishing gear, our rain gear, and the first aid kit. We then started down the length of Travois. We wanted to be on the northeast shore because it looked like higher ground heading into Marble. That said, on the northeast shore, right across the lake from the island were some cliffs that ran into the water with no shore to follow so we headed down the southwest shore instead. Then, when we got to that pinch point that Travois has, we waded across to the other shore.

The only wildlife we saw that day was snakes and we saw a lot of them. They were garter snake sized and none of them had a rattle. HC wondered out loud if Travois was French for snake.

The rocky shore was admittedly easier than a lake that didn’t have one but it was still tough on tired feet jumping from rock to rock. Then there was the occasional windfall that had to be negotiated. At one point, climbing down some rocks after a windfall, the footing gave way sending big rocks crashing into my leg. A big ‘ol bump showed up on my shin almost immediately but it didn’t hurt that bad and nothing looked broken so we forged on.

A little later we were walking around the end of a stream that ran through a bog. I got impatient and you could see moose had crossed the bog so I headed out across it in the hopes of saving some distance and time. It was part floating bog and part tussocks. (BWCA.com) I stayed on the tussocks wherever possible. I made it without incident and the stream was small enough to simply step across. HC followed.

We made it all the way to the ponds that separate Travois from Marble. (The canoe would have made this so much easier). We started to question the decision to follow this shore line. It now appeared that the other shore may have been a little easier to traverse and it also appeared to have the better entrance into Marble. The problem was that a creek ran out of these ponds into Marble and we would need to cross it. A small creek in the bog was one thing but this creek was easily 6 feet across and there is no telling how deep it was given the likelihood that it had a false bottom.

Our dilemma was solved when we spotted a beaver dam across the creek. We had no idea if a beaver dam would support us but we decided to try. You know…when you justify something by saying, “I’ll just be extra careful”…like somehow going along anything but “careful” is an option. The dam had water running over it and it really wasn’t that wide on top but it turned out to be a surprisingly solid foot bridge. We both made it across without incident.

It was clear we weren’t the first to stand on the other side of the dam. There was a trail from there leading in the direction of Marble. Our hopes were high. This was only a game trail but (BWCA.com) others had mentioned that game trails are often a real bonus in PMAs. In this case the game trail led us…straight into a huge marsh. The GPS topo map showed some higher ground if we back tracked to the beaver dam and followed the creek back just a short distance.

We found the higher ground but we also found our first real evidence of the Blowdown. The area was covered in windfall after windfall. We looked for game trails and started to follow a promising one. We had only gone in 50 feet or so before the trail ended in what looked like a bedding spot for moose. We tried to push forward. I climbed from windfall to windfall before finally touching solid ground again…only to be faced with the same scenario of more windfalls. Going this way was going to be very slow and it was entirely possible we would reach an impasse.

HC suggested that if we went back to the marsh and skirted the edge we would be able to get through, so we headed back that direction. This was a big marsh. We were climbing over obstacles and landing on squishy ground. The going got tougher and wetter until we reached a point where continuing on would involve getting into places where wading would be required. Wading into shoe grabbing muck just didn’t seem like a good idea.

Once again our plans were thwarted. Now if you told us that our lives were in danger and the survival of the American way depended on us making it to Marble Lake could we have done it? Probably. We could have plunged into that marsh jumping from tussock to tussock and wading through mucky streams. Or we could have taken on the Blowdown tree by tree and eventually made it through but…we would still have to come back and it was already mid afternoon. We got within a 1/3 of a mile of our goal (according to the GPS) but we just couldn’t find a sane way through so we headed back to camp.

For a change in scenery we decided to take the opposite shore back to camp. You will remember that from the other shore the one we were on looked easier. It wasn’t. This side of the ponds between the two lakes was all bushy marsh. Imagine high stepping through ankle deep water. Game trails crisscrossed the area but they invariably ended up in watery canals. This went on for a lot longer than we wanted before we finally stepped out onto solid ground and made our way to the southeast tip of Travois. We were hungry but it was really buggy there so we decided to push on hoping to find a rocky point to eat our lunch on.

After half an hour or so of more rock jumping and windfall crossing we found a point to relax on. We ate PB&J flatbread while HC decided to drown a leech. Needless to say…no fish. After resting for just a bit we decided to make the final push back to camp.

At one point the trail got tough. Boulders into the water blocked our way. We had three choices: 1) go for a swim 2) go up and around through heavy brush 3) crab crawl through a sloped gap in the rocks and if you slipped you would be wedged into a crevasse. HC took option 2 and I took option 1. HC had a real battle getting through but he made it. It turned out I only had to get about mid thigh deep into the water = I think I chose the better option for a change.

The final obstacle to this side of the lake was getting over that point that forms the land bridge between the 2 shores. Boulders and windfalls made the shoreline impassible so you had to go over the top. Just getting off the shore required a bit of climbing and then we faced our second run in with the Blowdown. Tree after tree blocked our route but we kept climbing over until we hammered our way through. (BWCA.com) I remembered where someone had suggested that this point might have been a viable campsite. That advice must surely have come from before the Blowdown. Maybe at one point it was a nice spot but today you couldn’t find a decent spot to hang a hammock let alone a tent. It reinforced our decision to not bushwhack all the way to Van. If it was all like this it would have taken 2 days to get there.

After that point we were back on our original shoreline trail and we made it back to camp in short order. All of the walking on rocks had really taken its toll on HC’s feet so he grabbed some Advil and took a nap. I grabbed my head net and caught up on journaling. I found that if I kept the journal to bullet points it was a lot easier to keep up. Just for grins I threw out a line with some crawlers but didn’t get so much as a nibble. The bugs were bad (mosquitoes and black flies) but at least the sun was out and everything was finally drying out.

That evening we had our first PMA campfire. HC used his hatchet (we had to justify bringing it along) to clear away the moss in front of our stone bench. That got us down to dirt. We quickly gathered lots of dried wood. Firewood is so much easier to find when you aren’t on an established campsite. We got the fire going easily and immediately realized the limitations of a fire that isn’t in a Forestry Service fire ring. The moss at the edge of our pit would dry due to the heat and then it would catch on fire. To compensate we upgraded our fire precautions. The fire was kept smaller -- it had to be manned continuously = you couldn’t turn your back on it for even a minute without confirming that the other guy was watching -- and we soaked the area around the pit with additional lake water.

With the extra precautions now in place we had a really relaxing evening in front of the campfire. The smoke kept the bugs at bay and the weather cooled off to the point where the warmth was nice. Dinner that night was TVP burritos and marshmallows. I can’t tell you why, but the marshmallows were exceptionally good that night. We had to force ourselves to stop eating them in order to have a few left for another night. We had hoped that this would be one of those “I can’t believe how many stars there are” nights but the clouds again rolled in. Another jug of lake water was brought up to douse the dying fire. We were sure to get it to the point of being able to stir the cold wet remains with our hands before we were reassured that the fire was out.

We took our ration of Advil and headed to bed. Yes, the Advil had to be rationed. We had brought a new bottle of 50 pills with us but it was clear that at the rate we old guys were downing them, running out was a real possibility.

DAY 5 -- WEDNESDAY -- THE LONG SLOG OUT

We woke up with the knowledge that this was going to be another long day of hiking. There were a few big differences between this and the trip in: First -- we knew what we were in for this time Second -- it wasn’t raining Third -- we had double portaged in. We would be single portaging out but it was just the packs = no canoe yet.

I had decided that much like a long race I would break this day up into a series of small goals and wrap my brain around those small victories rather than the amount of work still left in the day. My first goal: get packed up and have the gear ready to go at the entrance to the bushwhack trail. Packing went OK and I think we were ready to leave camp at 10:00. On normal trips I usually make a point of not knowing what time it was but with the long distances required today and recent experience with coming up short on goals we wanted to make sure we stayed on track.

In one of those half sleeping-half awake moments of inspiration the night before I realized that the best way to load our packs for the trek out was to lash the duffle to the food pack so that you wouldn’t need to carry a pack in front. Being able to see your feet would be valuable given the terrain we were headed for. We nicknamed this double pack Big Bastard. We took as much weight as possible out of Big Bastard and put it into Big Easy which was much easier to carry. We even poured out a large portion of the vodka that we had been hauling. Given how hard we had been working, getting dehydrated by drinking a bunch of cocktails just hadn’t worked into our evenings like it usually did. It was just one more place we could have saved weight had we known what we were in for.

With the duffle dangling off the back of the food pack we headed out. We didn’t even make it around the lake to our exit point before Big Bastard became a problem. We had to stop and regroup. HC took the Big Bastard concept and made it better by lashing the duffle to the top of the food back rather than the back of it. This made the load much more comfortable and easier to manage.

As we headed out I started to laugh. I explained my concept of little goals to HC and then pointed out that even the modest goal of having the gear at the head of the bushwhacking trail required us to completely stop and fix our gear. This was sure to be a long day. I had predicted that at some point we would laugh at challenge of our little adventure and we had finally reached that point.

We headed into the bushwhack trail and half way to the Kek Trail WE FOUND OUR MAPS. What a relief! Finding them on the trail, near a spot where the foliage was particularly thick, meant they had been ripped from the packs. This meant our mistake was not securing them properly and it wasn’t leaving them at the canoe. Somehow this made us feel better.

We arrived at the Kek trail in good spirits and decided to just keep on going until we got tired. We made good progress. We stopped to enjoy the view from the bluff that overlooks Travois. We pushed on and met another one of my little goals when we reached the canoe. We decided to leave the duffle bag at the canoe in an effort to lighten Big Bastard. The duffle could be carried later by the person not carrying the canoe.

We pushed on past and brought the packs all the way to the end of the Mueller Lake portage. Yet another small goal. All that was left was to retrieve the canoe.

We spent some time at the end of the portage recovering. We added to the duct tape on our feet. The day was getting warm so I opted for water shoes and shorts. I know that isn’t the best apparel for taking on part of the Kek trail but the canoe was only a mile in and my boots were really rubbing the sore spots on my calves. We actually dug out the water filter and refilled our drinking bottles.

We struggled a little getting the canoe out of our little hiding spot but carrying it out to Mueller actually went fairly easy. All things considered, it had been a long day but we didn’t feel as beaten up as we did on the trek in. I had predicted it would take us 8 hours to complete our task. We started at 10:00 and finished at 5:30 = 7 ½ hours.

The canoe had been out of the water for the better part of 3 days. It felt good to be loading the packs into it and paddling again. Given the hour we decided that we would take the first decent campsite we saw and we would make it our base camp for a couple of days.

We didn’t like the first site on Mueller but the one near the portage to Ogish was nice so we unloaded there. We again saw beavers so we would definitely be filtering all our water. The site even came with lots of wildflowers…I took some pictures of them in honor of my wife who is always snapping “another damn flower picture”.

I enjoy fishing but HC truly loves fishing and he hadn’t been able to do much of it the last few days. So before we even set up camp I agreed to go with him and make an attempt at catching dinner. We set a time limit of 6:30. That time limit came and still no fish so I suggested that we go just past the campsite and drift back. If we didn’t have fish by then we would have to quit and set up. Sure enough, on that last little stretch of shore HC managed to pull in a 24” pike. Not big by any standard but more than big enough to feed the two of us. We were having fish for dinner!

I worked on setting up the tent and tarp while HC cleaned the fish. His love for fishing includes a knack for filleting. He manages to get 5 nice boneless fillets off of every pike. I had never eaten pike until I fished with HC and now I have come to prefer it.

It was a bit breezy that night so we had to create a cooking spot behind some rocks. Wild rice was one of the side dishes. This was also our first attempt at cooking our dehydrated veggies that I had made. It took longer to cook them than I thought. (BWCA.com) I remembered how folks on the food board described soaking their dehydrated food in advance so the following day we started the veggies soaking at noon which made them much easier to cook. Everything tasted great. It was so nice to finally have fish for dinner.

I don’t recall having a campfire that night. I can’t remember if it started to rain or if we just decided to call it an early night. Our evening nightcap had become standard = instant coffee with Bailey’s for creamer and a ration of Advil.

DAY 6 -- THURSDAY -- BWCA THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE

We woke up excited to take on a day trip of paddling over to Annie, Jenny, the Kek ponds and maybe all the way to Kekekabic Lake itself. That plan, like many of ours this trip also had to be dismissed when we saw how strong the wind was blowing. Even on Mueller, which is a small protected lake, the waves were big. To take on Ogish and head for Annie would mean taking on big rollers. We instead opted to start the day fishing on Mueller which was reported to have a decent number of small pike.

Before we started fishing we wanted to cook breakfast but first I had to put up a wind break in the form of a tarp hung vertically between two trees and anchored at the bottom with rocks. Even with this set up there was still a breeze playing with the flame on the camp stove.

For fishing we started by just casting from shore with the hope that maybe the wind would die down later and allow us to still get in our day trip. HC lost a nice sized pike from just east of the campsite. I’m not sure if he was more upset about losing the pike (which got bigger every time he described it) or the lure which was a spoon that he had used for years.

I am happy to say that I came through it all unscathed, liberal diatribes not withstanding. The weather was almost as perfect as it can get and a surprise for the first week of June. It was a little warmer than ideal, but 70's and sunshine for seven days straight isn't much to bitch about. The biggest surprise was the lack of bugs. When SWK suggested an early June trip, I had images of constant harassment by winged assassins. But this fear turned out to be unfounded. Some of the portages were a little buggy but not much worse than any I have experienced on warm days in late September. Our choice of campsites was a critical factor in being spared the ravages of the bloodsuckers. All were open to a breeze that kept most of the little bastards at bay. There was apparently some insect activity, however, as we talked to some other parties who weren't so lucky with their sites. They complained mostly of flies. The most prevalent offenders we encountered were ticks. I estimate that we each (including the dog) pulled an average 5 - 10 ticks off of ourselves per day. Again, if this is as bad as it gets on the bug front, I'm in no position to complain.

As for the route, it proved interesting and somewhat challenging. We put in at Round Lake at about 8 am and made our way west through West Round, Edith and Brant. The three short portages here were as easy as you find in Boundary Waters. The next five carries that would take us to Gillis were something else entirely. None of these are what can be considered long, the longest being no more than 90-100 rods. But what they lacked in distance they made up for elevation change. Each one them climbed steeply and descended just as steeply on the other end. The landings at these portages were the other memorable challenge. I know of several 200 - 300 rod carries I would rather brave than this series. What made it worse were the short paddles between the toiling in the harnesses. Gotter, Flying and Green Lakes are short 10 minute paddles, not offering much opportunity to recharge. Reaching Gillis quickly put all the sweat and strain into perspective. A large, deep lake with crystal clear water, Gillis was a sight to behold. Although we only passed though the northern part of the lake enroute to our base camp on Little Saganaga, we knew we would have spend a night here on the way out.

The five portages from Gillis to Little Sag were much more forgiving and we made good time and had our base camp set up by the time darkness fell. We chose the northernmost site on the lake on a finger-like peninsula. In addition to a great view of the lake, it offered a constant breeze from the southeast, south, and southwest. This would be our home for the next five days as we lounged, fished, and explored the area. The highlight of camp was a spruce grouse which every morning starting at about 7 am would fly back and forth between a fallen pine and an old stump right outside the door of our tent. The noise was deafening and served as our alarm clock. Speaking of noise, the loons were everywhere on Little Sag. We had them on all sides of us and throughout every day and night they were constantly wailing. At one time, we could identify at least seven different locations around the lake from which they were calling. We often had one pair cruise right up off our camp and begin their songs.

Our day trips north to Ogishkemuncie were very rewarding. The series of cascades along nearly every portage we crossed made the carries a joy. We caught lake trout while leisurely cruising our way across Gabimichigami to Agamok. The route from Agamok through Mueller and Ogishkemuncie offered me my first good look at the extensive blowdown left by the 1999 storm. Since the storm, I had largely confined my trips to the area northwest of Ely, an area untouched by the tempest. Looking at the damage up close, I can only imagine what it would have been like to be caught in the middle of it. From what I could see, the forest is making quite a recovery. If it doesn't burn over, soon the only thing left visible will be the taller snags poking through the green pioneer growth. The most interesting part of the day trip, however, was the area where the Agamok-Mueller portage crosses the famed Kekekabic Trail. The flowage between the lakes cousres through a number of unnamed ponds and then through a series of thundering cascades. The trail bridge crosses directly above these providing a great vantage point.

After several days on Little Sag, we decided to make for Gillis where we would spend our last night. We took the southern route through Mora, Tarry, and Crooked Lakes. This short stretch proved to be what I consider to be the most picturesque section of the whole trip. Short, easy portages separated by leisurely paddles awaited us on this route. Unlike the northern section of our journey, this stretch was far more dominated by conifers, lending a cool darkness to the feeling as we traveled. Rushing rapids through enchanted cedar forests were found along the portages between Tarry and Crooked and Crooked and Gillis. We really took our time to enjoy this day, taking numerous breaks to sit in the deep green shade along side the rushing waters. At the south end of the Crooked-Gillis portage there sits the remains of a log cabin. I'm going to have to look into this to see what its origins might be. By the time we reached Gillis, a strong west wind had blown up and we made for a site high up on the eastern shore. After setting up camp and a quick swim to cool off, we observed what appeared to be the first storm clouds of the trip moving in from the west. If the storm was to pack any kind of punch, we would get the worst of it. We knew this site offered great views of the lake and sky. We also knew it was totally exposed to whatever it wished to hurl at us. We stowed our gear and guyed out the tent and then watched the coming of the storm. Over the next three hours we watched the dark clouds go to our south and to our north again and again. On both sides of us we could see and even smell the rain. By the time it was all over, we were a little windblown, but completely dry. Thus ended our last night of the trip.

The trip out was uneventful. This would be our warmest and muggiest day so far with the sky seemingly always threatening rain. A good way to end the trip. After such good conditions for week, less then great weather makes having to leave a little easier to take. The experience of my first June trip was an overwhemling success. We saw surprisingly few people until the last leg from Green to Round Lake and those parties were coming in. It wasn't hot; decent fishing; no bugs to speak of; I didn't have to use SWK as an anchor; Even Tasha, SWK's dog survived (although at times I wasn't sure she would make it).