Sunday, May 21, 2023
Entry Day!
“Slow down you crazy child,
Take the phone off the hook
And disappear for a while.
It’s alright, you can afford to lose a day or two.”
~Billy Joel, “Vienna”
Anxiously mulling over the last minute details of tomorrow’s trip in my hammock, I sleep fitfully. During the night, I decide that I will be switching to the shorter spare paddle for my paddle up Sawbill. While Gary and Grant’s stroke advice was helpful yesterday, I know that my carbon paddle is way too long, as much as I want to love it. I clean up camp in the dark, park the car, and make my way to the landing as the sun rises. After a prayer and texts to my wife and my mom, I push off into perfectly glassy waters on Sawbill, accompanied by a beaver swimming in the distance. This is the moment I have been planning for nearly a year! Peaceful, simple, and wonderful.
Within two strokes, I know that I will be using the spare paddle for the remainder of this trip. The shorter paddle makes more difference than I ever could have imagined! In just under an hour, I reach the portage to the Kelso River. When unloading, I realize the lanyard with my compass on it is missing. After unsuccessfully searching, I resign myself to using my backup compass for the rest of the trip…and then discover the lanyard came undone but the compass is somehow nestled inside my shirt. Another moment of God smiling down on me, the humble first time soloist. Buoyed by this good fortune, I enter the Kelso River on a high. This is a magnificent morning paddle. After last year’s trip of mostly larger lakes, the rivers provide an intimately gorgeous change of pace. I plan to stop for breakfast at a campsite on Kelso, but the site is occupied, so I quietly paddle on toward Lujenida.
The section of the Kelso River leading to Lujenida is even more beautiful, and the glass calm water reflects the surrounding spruce and tamarack bogs perfectly. There are several sections which require me to look carefully at the map and choose the correct path through the maze of bogs and narrow veins of water, but I discern the path correctly and quietly paddle on through the life giving labyrinth of water that is often only 2-3 canoe widths across. It is such small water that even when I reach the beaver dam pullover into Lujenida, I feel pangs of doubt that I’m not actually at Lujenida. But the map confirms my position, and I enjoy the paddle across the lake, accompanied by a pair of common mergansers. I marvel at the beauty and remoteness of this small lake, given how near the entry point I am. It takes a bit of time to find the portage landing on the north side of the lake, but again God smiles upon me when I see a bright blue/green portage pack lying there from a fellow traveler. As I unload and eat a snack, a solo traveler from Iowa completes the portage into Lujenida. We briefly chat. He is finishing a six day trip down the Frost River today, and this is his third trip ever in a gorgeous black Bell Magic canoe. He also says he saw a moose grazing in an open area about halfway up the portage!
I heft my pack and the canoe for my first true test of the trip, the 480 rod portage to Zenith Lake. Right away, I know that I am in for a major challenge to single portage this one, or any other portage on this trip. Early on, I take several breaks to peel off clothing layers and to adjust canoe pack straps that I never knew existed, and re-adjust the load. At some point I step in a small mud hole and then fall backward onto my tuchus in a black puddle of muck. My lower half is soaked, the pack is soaked, and the canoe comes crashing down on top of me! That was fun! The portage climbs steadily most of the way to Zenith and there are fiddleheads growing everywhere along the path, something I have heard of but never seen before. I pause for a drink break about every 10-15 minutes, but after about 360 tortuous rods, I abandon my single portage attempt. As a distance runner with consistent workout habits, I am used to feeling discomfort, but the fatigue I feel in my hip muscles is unlike any I’ve experienced before. I lay the canoe beside the trail and carry the pack the rest of the way, counting the number of climbs between here and Zenith. Just four hills to go! I say hello to three separate groups portaging south to Lujenida. It will be 48 hours before I see another sign of humans from this point. After dropping my pack, it’s quick walk back to the canoe and an easy carry to Zenith. Overall, this portage is a lovely walk through the woods. Especially if you take the time to double portage!
This took two hours, five minutes! Wow! I am immensely thankful that this portage is behind me and snap a celebratory photo. I eagerly paddle to the lone campsite on Zenith to finally enjoy a breakfast of overnight steel cut oats with fruit. The campsite is as advertised, a bit small but with a nice elevated view of the water, and a lovely fire grate area. I rate it 3 stars. The landing was a bit tricky, and I can’t remember just how, but I ended up flooding my boots and sloshing some water in the canoe, too. While enjoying my oatmeal, it sounds like someone drives a Sherman tank through the thick woods behind the campsite. While no moose appears, I’m certain that’s what I heard. After breakfast, I decide to keep traveling today with the goal of reaching Wine Lake. When I walk down to empty the water out of the boat, I discover I have caught my first fish of the trip in the canoe! After a quick photo, I release this monster to the depths for someone else to catch someday.
When discussing this route with others, including Matt at Sawbill, they mentioned taking the northerly route to the Louse River through Hug, Duck, Mesaba, Dent, and Chaser. The campsites on Dent and Mesaba were well-reviewed, and this route has slightly easier portages, too. However, I really want to go check out Wine Lake…and to see how tough the portages into the Louse from Wine really are. After the long portage into Zenith, my confidence is high and I decide to go for it. Wine here I come! The next leg of the journey is the Frederick River into Frederick Lake. This section of river blows my mind. The Frederick River narrowly winds through a bog that is chock-full of pitcher plants, lending this section of the river a prehistoric feeling. At several points, I carefully stand up in the canoe to see the correct path ahead, but it is mostly easy to follow, albeit very narrow. I never knew such gorgeous paddling existed anywhere on this planet!
“It’s been two long years now
Since the top of the world came crashing down
And I’m getting it back on the road now
But I’m taking the long way around.”
~The Chicks, “The Long Way Around”
A beaver dam separates the river from Frederick Lake, where I am blessed by my first bald eagle sighting. Three bald eagles, in fact! This truly puts me on a high, because I always associate bald eagles with my stillborn daughter, Lucia, who was born 2 1/2 years ago.
Lucia, our light, awaits our family in heaven. Losing her was a direct wake up call to our family that life passes us all by in an instant. Her birth, and the resulting fallout of grief and healing for our family, has forever altered our lives…and our eternity. Too much of my life revolved around working just a little harder, sacrificing just a bit more of the present moment to save up for the future. Yes, hard work, self-sacrifice, and responsibility are important, but not at the cost of ignoring the joy available in the present moment. While I do all I can to pursue quality time with my wife and kids at home, I also feel a deep need to shut off the frantic pace of work and home commitments for a short time each year, to “step back from the canvas” of creative chaos and ever-evolving family relations, in hopes of making sense of it all. The Boundary Waters is the place I go to accomplish this. It is my place of respite, challenge, and silence. It is a place of plentiful light and pitch black darkness, both of which remind me of Lucia. After her death, we saw an unusual number of bald eagles that winter, so they always remind me of her. Seeing these three eagles made me feel like Lucia was saying “I’m here with you Dad. You took the right path in going for Wine Lake!”
The portage into Wine is a steep but simple up and down affair. I can see right away that Wine is every bit as beautiful as they say it is, and I especially love the multitude of giant white pines and crystal clear water of this secluded lake. I toss an X-Rap over the side for some trolling on my way to camp, but all I catch is a snag which I am able to free myself from with a bit of work. This is my first sense that fishing out of a solo canoe is a difficult affair! At 1:45 P.M., I make landfall at the island campsite. Stepping out of the boat with plenty of daylight left at such a gorgeous site fills me with a new energy. Before I get too far, I sit on the sunning rock at the landing and enjoy my lunch of sweet potato/carrot stew with tomatoes and chicken, while listening to WTIP out of Grand Marais in hopes of catching a weather report. No such luck on the weather, but the folk music adds cheer to an already sunny afternoon. After lunch, I paddle across the lake for firewood and run into a mother lode of perfectly dried cedar and jack pine.
I return to camp and set up my hammock in a grove of gigantic white pines, then process the firewood. I love scavenging for and splitting firewood, so there will be plenty left for the next person to camp here.

Tonight’s supper is unstuffed peppers with ground beef, one of my favorites, but I can’t resist taking a couple casts off the landing with a slip bobber and leech. Soon I realize that I won’t be able to enjoy a campfire, cook supper, and fish all at the same time. I reel in and choose to forgo fishing to relax by a warm fire with my feast. This is one of the best decisions I make all day. A wise surfer once told me that “The best surfer on the water is the one that is having the most fun.” Taking time to relax, have a fire, and to double portage is just more fun to me. Is that “the best way” to do it? I know it is for me!

Paddle distance: 6.8 miles|Travel time: 8 hours, 15 minutes
Portages: 4+1 beaver dam|Portage distance: 532 rods, 1.8 miles|Wine campsite: 5 stars
~Sawbill Lake, Kelso River, Kelso Lake, Lujenida Lake, Zenith Lake, Frederick River, Frederick Lake, Wine Lake