We survived the night…... what a night. I think the storms stopped about 2am or somewhere around there which means nobody got a lot of sleep. The morning was still cloudy with a light mist being blown around by the moderate wind that followed the storms. Everything was soaked……... but when surrounded by water and to fully acclimate to the BWCA one must become the water. Mission accomplished. We got a slower start and packed up and shoved off around 9am in the gray, wind and mist that was to be our companion for the remainder of the morning. First lake to conquer was Thomas. We headed east and north and paddled through the channel to the next lake, Fraser Lake.

Channel Portage

We followed the north shore of Fraser to stay out of the wind and noticed the clouds starting to breakup exposing glimpses of the sun. The sun picked up our spirits and made it to the next portage around 10:30am. The next couple of portages to Gerund Lake and Ahmakose Lake weren’t bad as they were short and the lakes were small so we made quick work and were on to the portage to Winisi Lake in no time. This is where we noticed the portages starting to get tougher. More elevation changes in combination with length and rocks. I couldn’t help but remember a previous trip with some portages I believe along the same parallel but a farther east that were also very challenging and really put you through your paces (heading north, Agamok Lake to Mueller Lake to Ogishkemunice Lake). I would be curious if anyone else has noticed this or am I overthinking things??

Rocky Portage

Back to the story, the first part of Wisini heading north was pretty protected from the wind but once we came out of that bay, we were head on into the wind and progress became a lot more challenging. One thing that took our mind off the wind is the spectacular campsite on top of the cliff! I am not sure how you get up there but it looked like a site with great views, although I am sure there is a lot of traffic through there. We called it Billy Goat Bluff. Once across Winisi we stopped for lunch on the portage to Strup Lake and stripped our rain gear off as the sun was out in force and we were loving it! Drying out is always a good feeling! We stopped for about 30 mins and Nate and Gerardo broke out the fishing gear caught some fish although nothing of size.

Lunch

First Fish (I think....)

Our goal was to get to South Arm of Knife and find a campsite around Thunder Point. Some of you are probably laughing at this. Who thinks they can find a campsite around Thunder Point the first week of August during the busiest time in the BWCA? Did I mention this was our first time on the Ely side? But first, across Strup Lake and onto the next challenging portage to Kekekabic Lake only to be greeted by a lake whipped into whitecaps by the wind. Bring it on!! This was the only time I was concerned for the newbies. Thankfully the wind was blowing from the north and we needed to go north. Nate and I experienced Lake Saganaga in all its fury and this wasn’t as bad as that so we knew what to expect and that we could make it. Keep the bow into the waves and just power through, use the islands as wind breaks and before you know it your across or at least far enough across where the wind doesn’t affect the waves as much. So that’s what we did. As we progressed you could notice the waves start to dwindle as you got closer to the protected shore. At the portage it was basically calm. By this point in the trip Zach and Emily had a pretty good rhythm and were the first group to set off so we let them pick the line. Although we did not follow their line, they gave us a good reference point to where the portage was since they got there first. While heading north we ducked behind the big island and took a rest before heading out to the big open part which worked out pretty well. After a good paddle we were on to the next challenging portage and Pickle Lake.

Kekekabic Lake

We were across the next three lakes Pickle, Spoon and Bonnie pretty quickly as this is burn area and not really a lot to see so we just motored. We were all starting to get tired as it was getting late in the day and we had been fighting the wind for hours now. We wanted to get a site on northern side of the island just around the corner or at least in the vicinity of Thunder Point. This was not to be. As soon as we set off on South Arm of Knife we started seeing people…. And not just a canoe or two…… all heading east; it seemed like we were the only ones heading west. Everyone we talked to said all the campsites were taken from that point heading east until we hit the Big Knife Portage (at least I assumed this was the portage everyone referenced since no names were used). Was this the first time we would be traveling at night in the BWCA? I cannot see this being a good thing since all the navigating we have done pretty much involves following shore landmarks that you can see from a distance. We did have a compass (always bring a compass) but it’s been a while and I am probably pretty rusty with this skill. Something to brush up on before the next trip….

About to Portage

More Portaging

So we stopped and formed a 3 canoe barge and studied the map to formulate a plan. I took the mindset I use while hunting….. where are people not willing/wanting to go, can we get there and how long will it take. I study these maps pretty intensely before we go and I remembered a little dead-end lake off the beaten path that supposedly had 2 campsites on it. Well…... it was worth a look. If either of those campsites were not available then we would be traveling in the dark. We made a beeline for the dead-end lake following the southern shore of Knife Lake. This probably added 5 to 6 unplanned miles to our day but we all kept a positive attitude and were hopeful that one of these sites would be available. We made it to the portage to Portage Lake around 6:30pm and at this point we were all tired and hungry. What we didn’t want to happen is have everyone traverse the portage only to find both campsites occupied and then have to turnaround backtrack and cover the same piece of ground for nothing. So Nate and I went over with just the canoe and paddles while everyone else stayed on the portage to make dinner and eat.

Last Portage for the day

Nate and I made quick work of the portage, you can really travel quickly if you don’t have any packs to go back for! We put in on the dead-end lake and started looking for either campsite with our fingers crossed that one would be open. The map said there were two campsites along the northern shore on that particular lake. I have no idea where the first campsite is because we padded almost the entire length of the north shore and didn’t see a trail or anything until the last little bit where the map marked the second campsite. Which was OPEN!!! We staked our claim and went back for the others. Nate and I grabbed our packs and left everyone else to catch up after giving them instructions on what to look for and where to go.

The campsite # 1244. The landing for this campsite is pretty challenging. Its fairly deep (over my knee) and narrow with mud and some downed timber to navigate. The fire grate is in an open area that has some larger rocks and had plenty of options to tie off a tarp for shelter if the need arose. The area is not very level but we managed to find enough areas to get the tents set up. This was another site where I was happy to have a hammock, no level ground needed. This campsite had not been used in a long while and we know this because the latrine was clean. I mean fresh clean; we were the first ones to leave our marks. :) The one challenge to this site was finding a good bear hang tree. We used the two-rope system again and got the food bags hung safely.

Campsite

This lake was out of the way even by BWCA standards and you felt the remoteness…... nobody traveling through the lake or staying on the lake. It was actually pretty cool. And to think that we were less than a half mile off the main lakes but we felt like we were the only people alive! This site really wasn’t that bad, at least not to a bunch of weary travelers excited to not have to go any farther that day. We got set up and settled in by the fire and dried out some shoes and some of us fished. It was here that the first eater sized fish was caught, cleaned and fried. There is nothing like fresh fish, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Drying out

Fishing

Fish!

As the evening wore on the conversation turned to what we wanted to do the rest of the trip since we covered so many miles that day. The original plan was to have a rest day and check out Thunder Point but we were well passed that and nobody had any desire to go back that way. So it was decided to do a couple of short travel days and exit the BWCA early on our final day so we could make it all the way home that same day. With the light fading and everyone exhausted we turned in for the night. It has been a long time since I slept that good.

Night cap

Lakes traveled: Thomas, Fraser, Gerund, Ahmakose, Wisini, Strup, Kekekabic, Pickle, Spoon, Bonnie, South Arm of Knife, Big Knife, Portage Distance traveled: 16.5 miles