Volunteers in attendance beside myself were Steve (SEA), Mike (SWL), Jeff (JD) and Daisy (dog), Rich (TG) and Mike (Mr Sensitive). It was held as a base camp trip in the Crab Lake area and included work in clearing the Burntside/Crab, Crab/Clark, Clark/Meat, Meat/Sprite, Sprite/Phantom, Phantom/Battle, Battle/Hassel, Hassel/Lunetta, Hassel/Saca and Saca/Crab portages. Roughly 1340 rods cleared with 28 miles paddled to and from portages and camp. It was late in the day when we were at the Sprite/Phantom and Phantom/Battle portages. We got hit hard by rain and had to head back to camp, not getting as much clearing done as I’d liked. We camped at the northeast site on the northwest bay of Crab Lake. The worst portage with trees across was the Hassel/Battle portage. We cut a total of about thirty larger trees off this portage including clearing one snag where six trees had fallen across a live birch with all being suspended about eight feet above the trail. Once it all fell, all seven trees would have been blocking the portage. We managed to remove all six dead trees while leaving the live birch standing. This portage , along with a number of the others were some of the worst seen in years and required lots and lots of brush nipping and tree clearing. Many hours of hard (safe) work is what helped make this trip a success!

Highlights of the trip included: Great company! All in attendance had great, LMAO, campfire stories and were in good humor the whole trip! Better than average (think of past portage clearing trips) weather! The scenery was better than I’d anticipated. I really thought that more of this area would be swampland. Didn’t see another canoe party the whole trip! No mishaps or accidents! Daisy kept the squirrels at bay without a single bark. (The only time that she barked was when she was in the tent and didn’t know who was walking outside. She didn’t even bark when she was forgotten at a campsite along the way).

Notes to those interested: The Hassel/Lunetta portage is nowhere near the 370r, as listed on Fisher maps. Mike (Mr Sensitive) had a different map that listed it at something like 280r which would be way more like it. The Lunetta campsite is nice with great camp furniture but unlevel tent pads. The creek from Lunetta to L. Crab is much more like a river, unlike the vague blue line shown on Fisher maps. The Burntside/Crab portage is looong, but otherwise not that bad. There is cell phone coverage on most of these lakes (AT&T).

Pic’s? I really didn’t take as many as other trips and am hoping that a couple of the others post some on the CCBB and BWCA boards.

Tools: The big crosscut saw (Simonds crescent ground, perforated lance tooth felling saw, tweaked for bwcaw portage clearing) was used a lot and worth its weight. The axe (Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe) was used a lot and is, imo, the best canoe axe ever. The Fiskars Pruning Stiks were used lots and lots. The (new this year) Irwin Marathon Pro-cut ‘fast cut’ saws worked very well and will definitely be used for a few years to come.

All in all it was a great trip! Thanks to all volunteers for their hard work and great company! Thanks to VNO for some of the lodging! Thanks to the USFS, Lac La Croix and Kawishiwi districts for setting us up and a tow across Burntside!

Next years trip will be May 10-14 (they finally moved fishing season ahead a week!). I’ll try to come up with another base camp route and will announce it when I decide where. 

Joe (PortageKeeper)

Once on Lower Pauness we headed towards the devil's cascade. I was excited to see it and tried to get the kid's enthusiasm up. Unfortunately, they were distracted by fact that at any moment it was going to rain. Sure enough, as soon as we landed the down pour began. We got rain gear out and began hiking around. I thought it was great but the kids huddled together and asked when we could set up camp and eat. As much as I pleaded with them that this was an amazing wonder of nature that they would surely be telling their friends about months if not years from now, the rain had done it's damage. Cold wet kids are too distracted.

The rain eventually let up and we stopped on one of the vacant campsites on Lower Pauness to have lunch. Once everyone dried out and ate, we felt better. Which was good because the next portage to Shell Lake was 216 rods. Now I've done plenty of long portages and the kids have progressively gotten better at handling them over the years but this still felt long. By the end there was a bit of complaining but we got through gracefully. I ended up triple portaging to get everything across. Our friends the Royal Rangers showed up to remind us that we weren't doing so bad.

Memories of the portage quickly faded as we searched for our next campsite. Wee noticed that most of the visible sites were taken. We paddled around the first bend to find an empty one. It wasn't perfect but after some debate we decided to take it and get on with some needed rest and recreation.

Everyone went swimming and felt refreshed by the lake. We got camp set up and made dinner. I tried a new recipe and made tacos. I had seasoned and dehydrated black beans at home. At camp I rehydrated them and then added them to tortillas which I melted cheese on to. It was a big hit and we all ate well.

After diner my brother and I went fishing. He caught a few small smallies. We both caught a nice sunset. Soon after the mosquitoes attacked and everyone was in the tent. It didn't take long before all were asleep.

Today was our layover day, which due to the weather, was well timed. I was the first to wake up. Being that the sky looked pretty gray if not dark, I set up the tarp which hadn't yet been done. As if on cue, the rain began to fall. It was no thundering storm, just that calm, steady, almost calming continuous sprinkle. I sat out under the tarp for a while making sure all the gear was staying dry. After a while I went in the tent to visit the waking sleepy heads.

It was here that we learned my brother's $25 greatland clearance tent wasn't so waterproof. Luckily we were able to move all the sleepingbags away from any drips and maintain tent bilging while the rain continued. If the storm had been any worse, we might have been in trouble, but we survived gracefully. The kids seemed unphased.

Once the precipitation stopped we were all free of the the soggy cocoon. We ate a few various freeze dried packs as well as tuna and crackers for lunch. The sun came out and things quickly warmed up. Before long the kids were in the lake swimming and I spent some leisure time in my new Monarch camp chair. I had looked at them a couple times, unsure, but mad the plunge and found the Monarch to be very comfortable.

In the afternoon I went fishing with my daughter and brother's girlfriend. My daughter was such a good sport, she was so patient and gave it a solid effort. I kept hoping she would get some sort of nibble if not a full strike for her efforts but alas it didn't happen. I didn't fair any better and the girlfriend only landed a couple very small smallies.

Back at camp everyone was hungry so we made a big pot of pasta and cache lake biscuits. I always dehydrate my own sauce with ground beef and it always goes down well. The biscuits were a nice addition to the meal.

After dinner the kids wanted to do some exploring so I paddled across the lake with them to investigate a large rocky area. Of course two minutes after we land they are bored and ready to do something else. We agree to check out the vacant camp site a bit further down but clouds roll in and the girls are nervous about rain. We paddle back to camp where everyone feels tired and retires for the rest of he rainless night.

This morning everyone seemed a bit more tired. I think the thought of redoing the 200 rod portage hung over us as we slowly packed up. The sun was out and the day was shaping up nicely. Spirits raised and the thought of a new camp with an afternoon of swimming and playing was enough to motivate.

The traveling went pretty well. The kids said they were only doing the portage once. We didn't press them on it and just buckled down and got it done. Once we were back on Upper Pauness lake, we found the campsite we were hoping for was open. It is the third site just North of the portage. It's a large open area with a nice rocky hill overlooking the lake. Plenty of room to run and play. Soon everyone was in the water and then lunch was made.

It was here that my new Katadyn Basecamp filter died. It had been slowing down over the past two days but now was no more than a drip and could not keep up with the demands of 6 thirsty people. I have a Katadyn hiker that I've been happy with for 10 years so it was a disappointment to have the Base camp fail so quickly. There is a long thread on this topic on the message boardand it was nice to find I wasn't alone in this problem. We boiled water for the rest of the trip and it wasn't too big an inconvenience other than the kids complaining about drinking warm water.

After lunch the girls played ponies and the adults rested. I strung up a hammock, put on my headphones and grabbed a magazine. Most of the time I just lay there starring up through the pine trees, taking in the scent, feeling the breeze blow and dusting off the occasional mosquito. I felt glad to be alive and grateful to be able to spend time in this place.

My brother and I took another shot at fishing. We paddled up wind and drifted down, casting into shore. Fairly quickly I landed a small but edible northern. I probably wouldn't have kept it but his eye got hooked pretty good and I didn't think he would survive. That being our only fish, it was a small but nice fish appetizer before a dinner of freeze dried beef stew. Pretty good. Since this was our last night we cleaned out the food pack and made the rest of the biscuits, popped some popcorn and roasted the rest of the marshmallows. While we feasted we watched a deer doing the same just across our small bay. I don't know if he saw us or not but he seemed pretty content to go about his business for some time. The evening was perfectly still and the lake became an undisturbed pane of glass. Everyone was taking in the beauty and feeling sad that tomorrow we would leave.

Usually I like to get up early on these trips and take in the sunrise. On this voyage, for whatever reason, I have been blissfully late in rising. Today was our last day and I forced my eyes open at dawn and pulled my uncooperative body out of the warm soft sleeping bag so I could convene with the sun. The initial show was nice but clouds soon moved in dulling the color and spectacle. I walked around trying to get some good photos and then did a little fishing. No luck. After a while I slipped back into my sleeping bag and was soon back asleep, glad for the time I took.

A couple hours later everyone was up and oatmeal was cooking on the stove. Sleeping bags were stuffed into their sacks, pads were deflated and the tent came down for the last time. By now we loaded the canoes by memory. Everything had it's place and we were are comfortable with how it sat.

The paddle back to the parking lot was long. In my boat the kids did not want to paddle and I was left to propel a 20 foot boat upstream against the wind on my own. Luckily my Northshore performed great and despite the constant effort required to keep positive momentum, we made it back gracefully. The kids were already talking about next year's trip before even stepping out on land.

Back in civilization I found that my brother had stashed a couple Pepsis in the car. Even though they were pretty warm, I have to admit it tasted good. It was a quiet ride home with the kids watching DVDs in the back. We stopped at a nice cafe in Orr for burgers and then made it home back to Minneapolis just after dusk.