Snowshoeing on Hard Water
by TreeBear
The goal of day 2 was to enjoy a little more time on Angleworm and take the 700 rod portage out to the car. We spent the morning loading up on calories and water and packing up camp. If the difficulty of the 400 was any indication, we were in for quite the day. We started the 700 and quickly discovered that it received much better maintenance (likely from the volunteer trail clearing crew.) This gave us time to enjoy the hike. The 700 rod maintains a fairly steady uphill most of its distance going back to the lot. With deep snow and the dead-weight of sleds, this proved rather taxing. I couldn't imagine hauling a canoe back up here, but people do. There were wildlife tracks everywhere, including all sorts of wolf tracks that lined the entirety of the 700 rods. There was one wolf in particular though whose tracks kept popping up, and he was huge. The average wolf in Minnesota has tracks 3.5-4 inches in size, but this guy had tracks well over 5". I can't image the size of him. We also saw tracks from Deer, Moose, Martin, Fox, Mice, Squirrels, and Beaver along the way. The beaver pond midway was gorgeous in the snow. It was a good steady climb back to the car, with the grey jays making a showing to try to steal some lunch. The big boardwalk over Spring Creek was brutal with snowshoes as the sleds wanted to slide right off and the creek wasn't iced over. We spent nearly a half hour crossing what must be one of the most impressive boardwalks in the BWCA. It was an enjoyable hike out. I hope I can do the entire Angleworm trail someday in the warmer seasons. In any case, snowshoeing went better than expected. I can't believe I made it into the BWCA in June, July, August, October, November, and December this year! Wouldn't have it any other way.