We rose early, packed up camp, and moved out on the glassy, mist-covered water. We relished our last bits of quiet stillness as we paddled out of Lake One and into the channel of the Kawishiwi River. We saw the first signs of early morning life as we passed Kawishiwi Outfitters.

We thought we were concluding the trip’s excitement, but in one of the last narrow sections of river before the pull out a huge beaver appeared. It swam just ahead of our canoe. Remember at the beginning of the week I learned that my dog Riley wanted to greet everyone and everything she saw? Well, this enticement – a beaver about her size, swimming perpetually just out of her reach – was too much. She jumped out of the canoe and into the water, doggy paddling in a bee line for the beaver who immediately smacked its tail and dove. Now my dog was out of her element, buoyed by a doggy PFD, with a tree-chewing monstrosity somewhere below her. For one ridiculous moment I wondered what a beaver’s incisors would do to a dog’s leg or whether its powerful tail could knock her unconscious. Then she was within reach and I lifted her back into the canoe where she dripped and trembled with the frustration of being denied her prey.

We drove home to Minneapolis without incident. Since this trip, I’ve returned to the BWCA with my wife, the same two friends, and our dogs each year. We celebrated their engagement a year later, and last year we made the trip back to MN during the pandemic (having moved to CA). Now I’m finally finishing this trip report as I prepare to drive north next month to make this pilgrimage back.

I want to end by acknowledging that this place I hold so holy is not mine. The BWCA is stolen land; it was and is cared for and lived with by the Ojibwe peoples, including some presently living within the Grand Portage Reservation.

~Lake One