Sawbill to Lake One, Across the Center of the BWCA
by TominMpls
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
07/02/2018
Entry Point:
Sawbill Lake (EP 38)
Exit Point:
Lake One (EP 30)
Number of Days:
7
Group Size:
2
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (13 messages)
Part 8 of 9
Saturday, July 7 - Day Six
We now had two days of paddling and only about ten or eleven miles left to go, but since part of that distance was Lake Three, and since Friday's early-morning paddle had gone so well we decided we'd like to get an early start. Our goal was modest - just get across Lakes Four and Three - so we figured we'd do the same thing as the day before, and eat breakfast on arrival. We got up before six, ate some granola bars, and were pushing off by 6:30.
The first portage was quick and easy, a flat little 17 rod job. The second portage, listed as 25 rods, was not; my best guess is that in the fast post-burn regrowth the original portage was obscure enough that people started taking a false portage that began looking enough more convincing that several people took it until, from the south side, the false portage looks more like the portage than the original portage. This other portage is the one we took, and by my estimate it was probably about 60 rods, which isn't so bad except that it was terribly overgrown, and had several down trees along its path. It was too tight to turn around in, so once you're committed with a canoe, you're committed. It was also too tight to maneuver the canoe, and at several spots I had to bring the canoe down, pull it through, then pick it back up. We got everything through the portage without issue, but it was slower and far more difficult than it should have been. From the north side of the portage of course, the original portage trail was abundantly obvious; coming from the north nobody would catch the wrong trail, but from the south it's a different story.
Even with the struggle on the second portage, we were through all three portages (the third one is also easy, though a little tricky to find) by 7:30 and heading out toward Lake Four, where we saw a family of ducks out for a swim.
As we went out onto Lake Four the wind was significant but not too bad so we decided to take the shortest route to the islands separating Lake Four from Lake Three, which took us right across the center. Lake Four is pretty small and relatively protected, so this wasn't too difficult. We went around the north edge of the islands to enter Lake Three, which put us directly against the wind as we entered the lake in a very shallow, rocky spot, but fortunately we didn't have any issues. Lake Three itself was quite windy, even at 8:00 AM, and although there were several available sites near where we'd planned to stop, we decided they would all be far too windy later in the day; the one protected site on the Lake Three side of the channel into Lake Two was already taken so we decided to just cross onto Lake Two - with a spoken agreement that we didn't want to have to backtrack, but that we *weren't* going to leave the Boundary Waters today, especially since we still had a Trailtopia dessert in the bear vault!
It wasn't quite 9 AM and we were both pretty hungry, looking forward to a big breakfast. We had our eyes on the site jutting north from the peninsula on the southern shore just northwest of the entry from Lake Three (site 1525) and I got a first inkling of what was going to be a significant problem: we were only one lake in from the easiest, most popular paddle-only entry in the BWCA, and we were so early in the morning that nobody had broken camp yet, so even if the sites were *going* to be available, they weren't available yet. We ended up doing basically a complete circle of the lake, checking all the sites and taking about 45 minutes before ending up at the far western edge, at the most southwestern site (site 1523) in the lake. We arrived at 9:30 AM, having paddled 7.5 miles. We were both annoyed by the delay because we'd had visions of cinnamon fry bread dancing in our heads since Lake Four, but it ended up being a good thing for several reasons: first, the site wasn't nearly as heavily used as most sites in this area, so it wasn't worn out; second, being on a jutting peninsula, it had water on three sides and lots of options for sun, shade, wind, windbreak, rock, dirt, trees, etc. Third, despite being on a heavily traveled lake, it was fairly secluded. Finally, and importantly the next day, the site was close to the portages to Lake One. But I'll get to that later. For now, we were hungry, and after quickly scoping the site we decided to ignore the primary fire grate area since it was getting pounded by wind, and instead we set up our camp in a north-facing clearing that was really the site's only good tent pad. We went all out on our last camp breakfast - eggs, bacon, spam, cinnamon fry bread, coffee.
After breakfast we quickly came to recognize one of this sheltered tent spot's serious flaws - it completely blocked the wind, and since the storm on Wednesday, this was our first seriously humid day as the humidity was rising for another storm, so we were HOT! We did play some cards since it was so well sheltered from the wind:
but by lunch time it was too hot so we went out on the south-facing rock face near the kitchen area, ate our salami and gouda, and lay on the rock and read for several hours: I was reading Gary Paulson's Winterdance, and M was reading Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Dinner was Trailtopia Chili Mac, followed with the traditional last-night dessert of Trailtopia Apple Crisp, an absolute favorite of ours. After dinner we saw a family of loons out on the north side of the site, with the parents appearing to be teaching the juniors how to fish, dive, and do all the basic loon activities. We sat and watched them for probably a half hour, and eventually they swam off.
A quick check of the weather forecast on the InReach showed rain all morning and a very high chance that we'd wake up in a rain storm, so we decided to keep our early mornings rolling. Additionally, with just two small portages to go and a good chance we'd be doing them in the rain, M decided that she really wanted to single-portage them instead of the 1.5-portage we'd been doing. So she and I packed everything except our tent and our sleeping gear, being careful to put all the remaining weight in the Guide pack that M would carry, and filling the Pioneer pack with light items that I could carry along with the canoe. It was very humid, and out on the point the wind was whipping up, but the sky was clear, so we went to sleep with all the tent's guylines secured but the tarp fully open, so I could zip it up quickly when/if the rain started and we'd be ready for whatever came.
~Hudson Lake, Four, Lake, Three, Lake, Two, Lake
We now had two days of paddling and only about ten or eleven miles left to go, but since part of that distance was Lake Three, and since Friday's early-morning paddle had gone so well we decided we'd like to get an early start. Our goal was modest - just get across Lakes Four and Three - so we figured we'd do the same thing as the day before, and eat breakfast on arrival. We got up before six, ate some granola bars, and were pushing off by 6:30.
The first portage was quick and easy, a flat little 17 rod job. The second portage, listed as 25 rods, was not; my best guess is that in the fast post-burn regrowth the original portage was obscure enough that people started taking a false portage that began looking enough more convincing that several people took it until, from the south side, the false portage looks more like the portage than the original portage. This other portage is the one we took, and by my estimate it was probably about 60 rods, which isn't so bad except that it was terribly overgrown, and had several down trees along its path. It was too tight to turn around in, so once you're committed with a canoe, you're committed. It was also too tight to maneuver the canoe, and at several spots I had to bring the canoe down, pull it through, then pick it back up. We got everything through the portage without issue, but it was slower and far more difficult than it should have been. From the north side of the portage of course, the original portage trail was abundantly obvious; coming from the north nobody would catch the wrong trail, but from the south it's a different story.
Even with the struggle on the second portage, we were through all three portages (the third one is also easy, though a little tricky to find) by 7:30 and heading out toward Lake Four, where we saw a family of ducks out for a swim.
As we went out onto Lake Four the wind was significant but not too bad so we decided to take the shortest route to the islands separating Lake Four from Lake Three, which took us right across the center. Lake Four is pretty small and relatively protected, so this wasn't too difficult. We went around the north edge of the islands to enter Lake Three, which put us directly against the wind as we entered the lake in a very shallow, rocky spot, but fortunately we didn't have any issues. Lake Three itself was quite windy, even at 8:00 AM, and although there were several available sites near where we'd planned to stop, we decided they would all be far too windy later in the day; the one protected site on the Lake Three side of the channel into Lake Two was already taken so we decided to just cross onto Lake Two - with a spoken agreement that we didn't want to have to backtrack, but that we *weren't* going to leave the Boundary Waters today, especially since we still had a Trailtopia dessert in the bear vault!
After breakfast we quickly came to recognize one of this sheltered tent spot's serious flaws - it completely blocked the wind, and since the storm on Wednesday, this was our first seriously humid day as the humidity was rising for another storm, so we were HOT! We did play some cards since it was so well sheltered from the wind:
but by lunch time it was too hot so we went out on the south-facing rock face near the kitchen area, ate our salami and gouda, and lay on the rock and read for several hours: I was reading Gary Paulson's Winterdance, and M was reading Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Dinner was Trailtopia Chili Mac, followed with the traditional last-night dessert of Trailtopia Apple Crisp, an absolute favorite of ours. After dinner we saw a family of loons out on the north side of the site, with the parents appearing to be teaching the juniors how to fish, dive, and do all the basic loon activities. We sat and watched them for probably a half hour, and eventually they swam off.
A quick check of the weather forecast on the InReach showed rain all morning and a very high chance that we'd wake up in a rain storm, so we decided to keep our early mornings rolling. Additionally, with just two small portages to go and a good chance we'd be doing them in the rain, M decided that she really wanted to single-portage them instead of the 1.5-portage we'd been doing. So she and I packed everything except our tent and our sleeping gear, being careful to put all the remaining weight in the Guide pack that M would carry, and filling the Pioneer pack with light items that I could carry along with the canoe. It was very humid, and out on the point the wind was whipping up, but the sky was clear, so we went to sleep with all the tent's guylines secured but the tarp fully open, so I could zip it up quickly when/if the rain started and we'd be ready for whatever came.
~Hudson Lake, Four, Lake, Three, Lake, Two, Lake
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