Friday, August 10, 2012 Hungry Jack Lake, Bearskin Lake, Duncan Lake, Rose Lake
We woke up about 6:30am or so, had breakfast, got all the gear ready and set off on our adventure. The morning was a little brisk in temperature but the lake was beautifully calm as we crossed Hungry Jack Lake to the portage to Bearskin. The paddle to the portage was short and sweet. The portage itself obviously gets used quite a bit which made for an easy uneventful carry. I made it through my first portage! woohoo!
We paddled out away from the portage, around the point and headed west to the portage to Duncan, where we will officially cross into the BWCA. Being the first trip I am a bit nervous about being able to find the portages and campsites using a map alone so I packed my GPS loaded with the campsites and portages just in case. We made quick work of Bearskin and locate the portage easily without electronic assistance. This portage was nice with a few moderate elevation changes but I was walking slowly and my shoulders were definitely feeling the weight as I was portaging the canoe, something was getting pinched up there in my shoulders but I made it without setting the canoe down. I trudged back to the start of the portage and ended up coming across one of the other members of our party already carrying my pack up the trail, Yay! I took over my pack and we made it onto Duncan. Hello BWCA!!! We were all feeling good so we agreed to stick to our plan: go north and get to Rose Lake.
We passed a group heading south that indicated they had just left a particular site on Rose. Finding an empty site was one of my biggest concerns so this set my mind at ease for a bit as we had not seen anyone else heading in the same direction as us. It may still be open by the time we get there. The wind was blowing pretty good as we continued north but calmed as we entered the narrow northern stretch of Duncan. I was really hoping to come across a moose or something like that as we moved through the northern tip of the lake but we got shut out, no wildlife yet. We found the stairway portage, unloaded the canoes, and I took the pack first to get familiar with the portage before bringing the canoe.
Wow talk about rocks and roots! This portage was certainly doable, shorter then the prior portage, but a lot more elevation to deal with. I skipped stopping at the falls since we would stop back later in the trip to explore around this area. Portaging the canoe was actually more comfortable on my shoulders this time, now it was the legs getting the abuse. I did set it down for a bit as I waited for a different group leaving Rose to make its way up the steps. Oh and if you were on Duncan or Rose and thought you heard loud booming thunder sometime before noon under perfectly clear skies, it was probably just me accidentally banging the rear of my canoe on boulders as I stepped down the portage.
Ahhh Rose Lake, what a beautiful site to see, wait, what's that? wind, waves, crap. The wind was really blowing steadily SW with decent waves, nothing we couldn't handle but it would be a workout heading to the East. I began to wish we had all practiced canoeing on windy days prior to the trip. We set out against the wind, paddled hard, took a little water over the bow, looked for the campsite in one of the bays we came to but it wasn't there. I thought we should be there by then but paddling against that wind definitely slowed us down more than I thought. We continued East (with some reassurance from my GPS that we didn't pass it) and finally found the site the other group had vacated. It was a large well traveled site with a great canoe landing, good height off the water, no bugs, and a great NE view. We got the lay of the land, set up camp, had sandwiches, gathered wood, filtered water, hung the food pack way up in a tree and completed other camp chores. As evening came upon us we ate dinner and sat around the campfire looking up at the stars watching for satellites and meteors. It was a great first day.