Wednesday, June 20, 2018

~Round Lake, West Round Lake, Edith Lake, Brant Lake, Gotter Lake, Flying Lake, Green Lake, Bat Lake, Gillis Lake

We woke up at a decent time, got everything in the car and headed to the grocery store for the brats we both had been under the impression the other was getting. While there we also picked up some single serving mustard and soy sauce packets. Yes, we made sure all packets and pieces of them made it back in the trash bag.

Turns out that this was the day that President Trump was coming to Duluth so traffic and police presence was worse than usual. We got to Duluth Pack at about 9:20, watched the video and answered the questions with another group that was there as well, then got back on the road and I think we were leaving Duluth around 10-10:15. This late departure was frustrating and road construction made it worse.

Eventually we made it to Grand Marias and had lunch at Dairy Queen before heading up the Gunflint. We got to the EP at about 2:00 and got on the water around 2:30. The frustration bled off pretty quickly after getting on the water.

It was nice being on the water, but we didn't enjoy it for long. We portaged from Round to West Round, the water level was high so we put in about 30 rods early and pushed though the swampy stream to the pond of West round and quickly hit the portage to Edith. The burn in the area was pretty noticeable. There was a lot of underbrush, burnt stumps and trunks sticking out, and no eagles or turkey vultures. Portaging through the dense underbrush was a pain, I would much rather have old growth where we could see further and didn't get everything hung up on the underbrush. This was the case for most of the portages on this day and the next, but there was a stark contrast between the burn area portages and the ones not in the burn area.

The portage to Edith had a lot of boardwalk, not fun but better than walking in the water or tripping on rocks, which we did do too. Edith was even smaller than West Round but Adam forgot his lit cigar on a stump and we had to turn back to get it, both because it would be litter and because it could have started another fire. The portage to Brant was another short one and more of an annoyance in the hot sun, no shade because of the burn, and 80+ degree weather. At least we were finally entering the Boundary Waters. 3 portages in we finally launched the canoe into BWCA waters.

Brant was nice, pretty cliffs and lots of boulders. One side of the lake was burned, the other not so the contrast was interesting. We made a wrong turn down the bay to the south west and didn't figure it out until we got to the end. The portage from Brant to Gotter sucked though. It was steep up and down and very rocky. I had to stop for a bit to rest while carrying the canoe (about 60lbs aluminum) before we did the downhill portion because we were double portaging and I didn't like the look of it the first time.

Gotter was a half marsh lake. We almost missed the turn and headed towards Crag but I learned to trust my gut after the wrong turn on Brant. The water was high so we bypassed the first landing and didn't have to go far.

Flying was another quick paddle but the lake went further and looked nice with cliffs and a lot of exposed rock. The Flying to Green portage was another rough one. Only about 80 rods, similar to the Brant to Gotter portage, but this one had a lot of vertical again and was our 6th portage of the day. It was getting into the evening by this point and we were worried about getting to our campsite. We were low on water too because we didn't want to fill our bottles in swampy water. Adam is tough though and not nearly as exhausted as I was. The first day is always rougher for me because I only do this once a year, but he makes this look easy.

Green was another nice lake. Finally we stopped to pump some water, and we needed it. On the far end of the lake there were a pair of loons that let us get really close, maybe 15 feet. They seemed as curious of us as we were of them. After they left we continued on through the marshy area to find the portage to Bat.

Green to Bat portage was not bad but we were tired and it was around 7:30-8PM so I remember it not being fun, but we also didn't take it in at all either. Bat lake itself looked like a nice lake and if we weren't the one 20 rod portage from our destination then we would have stayed there., but we were eager to push on and found the portage to Gillis.

The portage was downhill and harder on our tired bodies (or at least mine, I need to get in shape) than it should have been, but with that done we hurried to the campsite. Gillis is a big lake. It felt even bigger when you are tired, hungry and worried that the sun is going to set on you. We made it all the way across the lake to the 5 star site on the southeastern shore just to find out that it is taken. The disappointment. So we turned around and headed north towards the bay to the west of the portage where we entered. There were 2 4 star sites on either side of the bay that I remembered seeing so we went for the closest one. Being empty we took it and set up the tent, gravity filter, and bear rope before the sun completely set on us. I think it was around 9:00 when we got to the site.

We got a fire going with the wood left there, thank you to whoever had it all ready to go, and threw the T-bone on the grate after we got it good and hot to sanitize it. We split the (22oz) T-bone and had frozen green beans and instant potatoes as sides and boxed wine to go with it. The green beans had thawed on the way in but everything was cold. It was the best meal I have ever had and we grilled it in the dark.

After eating we hung the food bag and finished our cups of wine while looking at the moon and stars. 

~Gillis Lake, French Lake, Powell Lake, West Fern Lake, Virgin Lake, Little Saganaga Lake

We woke up late and sore. Not in too big a hurry to start portaging again because of the previous day, we enjoyed the morning and the view. The campsite seems to be surrounded by burn but is untouched itself. There is a natural ramp to the landing pad where a person with mobility issues could get up there, even though the site itself is a decent height above the water and still close. The biggest feature about this site is the kitchen area. There is a rock table built up where you can prep food and set pans. Also nice was swimming area in front of the site. I took the opportunity to walk out into the water to get my pant legs wet and rinsed my shirt off. It was getting warm by 9 and we decided to quit stalling. We had skipped the oatmeal breakfast and only had tea and coffee so we ate a brunch and packed up, on the water by 10:30.

The portage to French Lake was unremarkable. French lake itself was very pretty and here I was reminded again of just how rocky it is on the Gunflint side and how many cliffs there are. The portage to Powell was into the burn again and pretty steep uphill with lots of underbrush.

Powell was pretty. A smaller lake but big enough. We had lunch at the campsite on top the big rock. The view was amazing. After contemplating jumping off the ledge into the lake but not finding a good spot for it, we continued on. The portage to West Fern was wet and muddy. I wonder if we skipped some of it because it was very short, like 5-8 rods. I slipped and stepped into the stream running through the portage.

West Fern was bigger but similar to Powell. We paddled through quickly. The portage to Virgin was decent with the landing on a big flat rock. Virgin was nice. We saw an interesting point where it looked like we could see downhill from the water so we went to check it out. I think this was by the portage to Peter. Right before we got to the edge to take a look, a mama loon jumped out of some grass sticking out of the water which turned out to be a nest. The baby came out of the nest too but started to come straight toward us as we drifted by. The mama surfaced and called and the little one went to her. Adam said there was another egg in the nest but we didn't stick around to double check. The cool part was the papa loon was trying to pull us into the middle of the lake but surfacing near us and making a lot of noise. It kept doing this after we turned into the main portion of the lake and put some distance between us.

The portage from Virgin to Little Sag was a little longer than the others but not too bad. It was really hot though and the bugs were out again. The flies and mosquitoes were out the whole time but not worse than I would expect in June when we had gotten rain the week previously. Honestly I was most concerned with the bees since I am somewhat allergic and there were quite a few at this landing.

The portage itself was up a bit then a lot of down and a lot of underbrush. Some was taller to provide some shade but not enough. I was looking for the great views of little sag but those were very limited and even by going off trail the top of a boulder on a hill would only give partial views.

Once on Little Sag we went straight for the nice site on the point on the west side of the lake. Seeing that it was available, we took it and unloaded our gear. After getting set up we decided that the weather was quite clear and hot so probably not the best for fishing and we wanted to sit and enjoy ourselves so we broke out the brandy/wine and set up a bucket and chairs under the tarp, leaned a pack against the bucket to block the wind and played cribbage. A couple hours later we make dinner of brats with mustard and slices of bread for buns. It felt like we were eating like kings.

We swam, rinsed our clothes off, fished a little with no luck and played more cards into the evening. It was an enjoyable evening.

~Little Saganaga Lake

This was our rest day. We explored the peninsula, fished, and explored the lake. We didn't get beyond the northwest corner of the lake because we found the trout in front of our campsite where the maps said the depth went from 80ft to 40ft then back down to 80. We had several bites and some were northerns. We got enough in the boat for dinner and kept only 2 trout, 1 each.

I gutted and deboned one of the fish and removed the head and tail, stuffed it with lemon, onion, and parsley from my garden that I dehydrated myself. I rubbed it with oil then sprinkled with garlic salt inside and out. I put it straight on the grill. The other I hung from a metal stringer over the fire to slow cook in the smoke and sprinkled it with garlic salt too.

We served the first trout with rice and soy sauce (in the rice). The onion mixed with the rice make for excellent fried rice and was perfect with the oilier fish.

It was a good day.

 Jaryd and I were both up early and weren’t very hungry, so we broke camp and were on the water by 6:15. We paddled to our first portage of the day, which was the longest of the trip–240 rods. It actually wasn’t that bad, just long. I mentioned earlier that we thought about trying to float the river, but decided the portage was there for a reason. Definitely the right move. The portage parallels the river and you can see that even at high water it’s shallow and clogged with timber, and has a series of small, staircase-like rapids. Weather that morning was beautiful, but we would see later that it can change in a hurry. There were one or two more portages before Weird Lake–no problem. We wondered how that lake got its’ name...do weird things happen here? We arrived at Jack Lake and still hadn’t seen anyone...just a canoe on a site at the north end of the lake. Paddling down Jack Lake and just before we could make it into the portage into Kelly, a nasty thunderstorm hit. We were just a few hundreds yard from the portage we would find out later, but we had to get off the water fast and throw our rain gear on and wait it out. Thunder, lightening and, of all things, hail (pea to superball size) came down on us. Jaryd and I just laughed. We were experiencing all that the BWCA could offer. After getting bonked on the head by some big ones, we threw our lifejackets over our heads and waited about an hour till it stopped. We were once again on our way. I thought that in my hurry to get to shore before the storm hit I had missed the portage, but after closer inspection of the map I could see it was just around the corner. We portaged into Kelly and by the time we were halfway down the lake it was getting hot and muggy. Jaryd tried some fishing here, but it was more an exercise in frustration. Back on our first day, Jaryd had lost his pole in the lake on the first cast. Poor guy–he was miserable. He was so looking forward to catching some fish and using his new floating pliers to unhook them. He must have just sat there for about twenty minutes in silence. That left us with just my two spinning outfits, which Jaryd doesn’t do well with. He had trouble keeping the line from tangling. It was also pretty shallow and he kept hanging up lures. We paddled down Kelly to the portage into Burnt...”the big one”. Yes, I know I said before that the Temperance River was the big one, and it was the longest. This one was actually ten rods shorter, but very narrow and somewhat hilly. Since it had rained earlier, half the portage was a running stream. No fear! My man, Jaryd, kept on encouraging me that we could make it–and we did. We leapfrogged this portage as well. This technique works great on long portages. We were packed efficiently: two personal packs, one food pack, paddles, lifevests and fishing poles. My lifevest has a lot of pockets, so I eliminated the need for a tackle bag by putting all my fishing gear in it. We made it through to Burnt, then the 90 rod from Burnt to Smoke, so tomorrow we’ll have just one 100 yard portage to Sawbill and we’re back where we started. We took the first campsite closest to the portage on Smoke. This is a very spacious site, but somewhat abused. There were woodchips scattered everywhere, halfcut logs. We tried to clean up a little bit anyway. The bugs, in my opinion, haven’t been bad at all, but this site was definitely the buggiest of all. You could hear a constant hum of the hordes of mosquitos. It was like being in a production plant and hearing the constant buzz of machinery. But we were good...just wore a bug net and a BuzzOff hat that I got for Christmas. (Thanks, Jon!) We set up camp and since it had rained most of the wood was wet. Dad decided to show Son how to build a fire when all the wood’s wet. We found some nice pieces of cedar and pine to split up to get to the dry part of the wood. I split the cedar into kindling, shaved off some tinder the slick way Cliff Jacobson does. The fire started going and so Dad says, “See, Son, that’s how you do it.” However, the fire just couldn’t seem to keep on going. It would burn good and then just die out. The only way I could keep enough heat to cook was to feed it birch bark. We got most of dinner cooked, but I finally broke out the stove to finish up the job. We had eggs and sausage for dinner because Friday Jaryd had knocked our shells and cheese into the dirt while it was cooking and we had to use an extra meal. It’s funny now. After dinner Jaryd read his Gentle Ben book while I did dishes and put away the gear. After dusk we went down to the shore since the bugs had abated and watched the stars come out. I just sat there in silence stargazing and asking my Lord, “Why is this place so compelling to me?” There’s something about the wilderness that can’t be explained. When I look at these stars tonight, Psalm 19:1-2 come to mind: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” What a beautiful last night!

Planned~Tuscarora Lake, Missing Link Lake, Round Lake

*Revised~Crooked Lake, Owl Lake, Tuscarora Lake, Missing Link Lake, Round Lake

This morning was damp and overcast. The wind was not fun either. I had slept wrong and my shoulder was hurting so I didn't wake Adam up when I was awake. Instead I tried to work the pain out of my shoulder and took some advil. A while later we were up and moving around. We had breakfast and enjoyed the view plus the fact that it wasn't raining. I think we left the site around 10 or 11.

It wasn't far to the portage, not enough to get warmed up, so at least I was moving a bit slow for this one. Owl was another smaller lake but we were paddling into the wind and that was slightly concerning since Tuscarora was next and we would be going across the entire length of the lake.

The portage to Tuscarora was about 60 rods and rocky but I don't remember much else. Tuscarora is a beautiful lake. I just wish we could have enjoyed it instead of paddling straight through while struggling a little with the wind. It wasn't bad, but enough to take a little shelter behind the islands. We pushed on for the final stretch before the long portage and finally the wind let up in the more sheltered bay. It was here that Adam made the observation that the lake was not bad for the amount of wind and depth, and he thought the taller terrain, with the hills and cliffs, might be keeping a good portion of the wind off the water, especially closer to shore.

The portage to Missing Link was full of brush and mud. Halfway through we had to put the canoe in the water and load it up to cross the swamp. The food bag was pretty much empty by this point so we swapped who was carrying the canoe. Missing Link was smaller than anticipated. Nice cliff on the west side.

When looking for the portage to Round we ran into some issues... There was only 1 other portage on this lake and it was going to the east, not north. After staring at the map for a while then cursing, Adam passed it up to me and said he had some bad news. This was not Missing Link, this was Hubbub. That 360 (Adam's map said 420) rod to Missing Link we took was really the 280 to Hubbub. We made a wrong turn, again. We must have aimed for the wrong point when we came around the island and had our heads down in the wind (we were worried we would lose our hats ), not noticing that we entered the wrong bay. This was at about 2:30 and we were expecting to have an easy exit. After quite a bit of talking, we decided to continue along the route we were on with 3 mid sized portages rather than doing the 2 long portages in a row and backtracking. At least we would see a new area.

So we landed on the portage to Copper and began a grumpy portage. Copper was a long narrow lake that we were a bit too sullen to take in very well. At the end of the lake, after getting caught up on rocks where we both had to get out to let the canoe float over, we found the portage. 30 ft and 2 bends later there is a landing and we were thoroughly confused. We thought that maybe that was just a pull over not on the map so we went further looking for the portage. We came up to a beaver dam and realized this was not the right way. As we turned around a big brown beaver dives out of a bush and escapes into the water. This was about 5 feet from us and pretty cool.

We went back and found the portage down a small channel through the weeds. Looks like it was flooded because of the beaver dam and Adam's map is just old. This portage wasn't bad but after crossing the bridge it was a steep up hill. By the way, I mentioned earlier that there was a lot of underbrush in the burn areas, this was much worse. These portages between Tuscarora and Snipe were not used much at all and there were many times that we had to check to see if we were still on the trail. It was so thick that we could not see our feet. At least the down trees had been mostly cleared or it could have been impossible to do the portages without setting down the canoe. As it was, I did have a down tree on this portage that I had to go under and was practically on my knees with the canoe on my shoulders to get through.

After loading the canoe at another difficult landing on Snipe and trying to navigate through the islands without hitting submerged rocks, we did miss the channel once but only a 5 min detour, we made it to the portage to Missing Link, for what felt like the second time. This was a boulder hopping muddy portage that one point where there was a 5 ft boulder/wall we had to climb up. There was a convenient log there that made it possible but tricky. Along this portage we saw moose tracks. There appeared to be a cow and calf walking down almost the entire portage. Fresh tracks after yesterdays rain. Cool to see but we didn't see the moose at all.

We finally got to Missing Link for real and it was about 6:00. Our wrong turn was a 3-3 1/2 hour detour. Good thing I planned the last day to be so easy. If not then the ground we had to make up because of the rain and the detour would have made exiting that day a fantasy. Glad that I learned that lesson when our route just happened to work out like that for us.

The last portage was a little long, rocky, buggy, and muddy. I carried the canoe the last time and it was hurting to haul it. I was glad to set it down after as long as that day was.

It was before 7 when we got back to the truck, so we loaded up, changed and tied the canoe down. The plan for the day had been to drive to the end of the trail just down the road and maybe see the museum too, but we just settled for the Tuscarora gift shop. We got a beer each, a beer glass with the Tuscarora log, and I grabbed some stuffed animals for the kids. We drank the beers on the shore by the dock and enjoyed the evening sun.

On the way back we got Dairy Queen again and got back to Adam's place around 10:30-11.

That shower felt so good. So did the thought that I had taken the next day off (Adam hadn't or we probably would have stopped for another night).

Actual route ~Crooked Lake, Owl Lake, Tuscarora Lake, Hubbub Lake, Copper Lake, Snipe Lake, Missing Link Lake, Round Lake