Day 1 Up early to enjoy a pancake breakfast courtesy of Voyageurs before getting a ride to Gunflint Lake for our Magnetic Lake entry point. We scored a picture perfect day to start our trip, as Gunflint Lake was a giant mirror reflecting the morning Sun. Our route plan is to travel up (down?) the Granite River to Saganaga and then either take the border route to Ottertail and down through Hanson and Ester to do a loop through Ogish or to take a shorter route through Red Rock and Alpine. The goal for today is to reach a campsite near the Devil’s Elbow area.

We quickly unload our rented Royalex Canoes and our gear and are on our way. I am excited to see the Granite river, as I have never traveled it before. Shortly before we enter the BWCA proper an Eagle perched on the Canadian side of Magnetic Lake greats us. We take this a good sign for the week in front of us.

The portages along this route we discovered are quite challenging. Some were difficult to locate and many had large drops to negotiate. We also experience our first setback, as a strap on the H2Zero pack I had borrowed from a friend broke. We were able to re-arrange some things but we would have an extra drybag of food that would need to be carried separately on portages, at least until we ate our way through some of the food. We were able to do 1.5 trip portages.

Around 11:00 we arrived at Clove Lake for a quick lunch and our first ‘decision point’ where we could decide to continue to our goal or make a decision to stop for the day. This is something I aim to instill in the scouts is that plans can be changed depending on conditions, how everyone is feeling, etcetera. I am emphasizing that unlike so many other activities that the scouts do, lots of things can be changed and we can improvise as we go. After enjoying some packaged flavored chicken or tortillas, we decide to proceed per our original plan.

Throughout the route, we were able to avoid several portages by running the min-rapids, but our luck ran out just before Gneiss Lake. We were scouting it out (no pun intended) and I did not like the look of the tree that had fallen across half the width of the stream. However, I found we had already been caught up in the flow and we were already committed. In trying to avoid the tree, we turned just a bit too much and over we went. Thankfully it was a warm day and all the gear was safely in drybags, but a bit of blow to the ego. We quickly gathered up our bags and ourselves, pulled the canoe up enough to dump it out, and continued on our way.

Our hope was to get the island campsite on Gneiss, but that one was taken. As was the next one. At this point it was around 2:30 but more importantly the clouds were building, and we think we hear what sounds like distant thunder. Thankfully as we round the next corner we find campsite 1949 open. After a quick look we deem it suitable for our first night. We unload the Canoes as we watch some ‘weather’ to the north of us, seemingly to pass us by. Eric and Gavin set up their tent while Rayn and I find spots for our hammocks. As a precaution we take out the 16’ tarp and cover the gear before we enjoy the great jump off rock at this site. It was a plenty warm day and the cool water is just the thing we needed! We are glad we thought to cover the gear, as we had a couple of showers pass through. We enjoy brats for dinner (our last ‘real’ food for the week) around a small fire before calling it a night.