Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Brule River Trip report
by scramble4a5

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/24/2016
Entry & Exit Point: Morgan Lake (EP 45)
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 2
Day 3 of 5
Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Woke up to some rain, but it passed quickly. Sometimes my bright ideas aren't so bright. Keeping with the thought of challenging myself physically I thought we could day trip over to Misquah lake and walk the portage to Little Trout which I had read was one of the hardest in the Boundary Waters. How hard could it be? I mean we did 320 rods to Morgan lake twice with gear so we could do this right?

Paddled out of Horseshoe through Vista to Misquah. Tossed on our day packs and set off for Little Trout. OMG what a brutal trail. 200 rods of pure hell. I don't know how anyone could portage this with a canoe. If they can my hat is off to them. Once across we ate some lunch and then did the return hike. If you ever think of trying this don't.

We headed back to camp pretty much exhausted. As we turned in to the river I saw something coming out of the brush on the bank about 100 yards ahead of us. It was a moose cow. She saw us but didn't take off. She stepped in to the river and right behind her were two calves! I couldn't take pictures fast enough. We kept our distance and watched them eat and swim in the river for about 15 minutes. She kept an eye on us but since we stayed a respectful distance away she was very calm. She headed up the river and came out on land right next to our camp site. I took some video but I am not sure if it will load here. No doubt the highlight of the trip.

Dinner, some bourbon, radio, and star watching then off to the sleeping bag for me.

Gear winner - IPhone 6. The pictures of the moose and video were easy to capture. Gear loser - Alpine Aire Thai chicken with noodles. Okay, but I won't buy it again.