After checking in and getting our gear in the bunkhouse it was time to head out for a quick drive around Trails End Campground, Seagull Lake EP and back down to Gunflint Lodge for dinner. I love their Maple Bean Burger! We sat out on the patio overlooking Gunflint Lake and I pointed out to Andrew where the narrows into Magnetic Lake was. That's where we would be heading out in the morning. After dinner we headed back to VO. We sat out on the picnic table visiting with another group that was headed toward Red Rock Lake in the morning. The area west of American Point is still closed, so it seems that's the direction most paddlers were heading. For a special treat, Andrew brought some smoked Lake Trout that he had made the day before after catching the fish on Lake Superior the week before. Our neighbors at the bunkhouse had never had smoked trout and were excited to try it! Once the skeeters began to visit it was off to bed. Photo is of Gunflint Lake [paragraph break]

We are hoping to make camp in Larch or Clove Lake today, so it we can take our everloving sweet time to get there. And, knowing there aren't a lot of folks in the wilderness yet makes us look forward to a relaxing paddle. We'll be paddling my 8-year old Northstar 17. Andrew chose the BB Java bent paddle from my stable and I chose my trusty BB Sunburst for this trip. New on this trip is a new set of yoke pads I ordered from Spirit of The Wilderness during the closure. These were to replace my CV pads that I have never been happy with and wanting to support the outfitters during the closure seemed like a perfect time to put on a new set of pads. (It was a great choice! I love the new, thicker pads).

I outfitted Andrew with a Kelty Farout 2 tent, Nemo Tensor Pad, Thermarest Cot and I brought my Haven Hammock Tent. Other gear on this trip included my Eureka Bugout (I got it used this summer on geartrade--another great addition!). 2 Big Agnes chairs, an MSR Windburner stove, 2 4-piece fishing poles, and lures and the bear barrels helped to fill out our 2 portage packs. One luxury item I bring is a small xm satellite receiver that I have customized to run off a phone charger brick. The entire setup is about a pound and is about the same size to pack as a transistor radio While some people like to listen to WTIP or WELY on the radio or read a book, I love to catch the Milwaukee Brewers game in the evening. That's all I use it for--so don't judge!

After breakfast we were shuttled to the Cross River Bridge on the far southwest side of Gunflint Lake. As we paddled toward the narrows into Magnetic Lake we certainly felt the wind behind us and once we hit Magnetic Lake there was only ruddering needed as the wind pushed us at a nice comfortable lake. We were particularly impressed at the house on the island on the north end of Magnetic Lake. Wowzers!!!

We paddled towards the first of TWO portages into Little Rock Falls. The McKenzie map shows only a single 20 rod portage, but that is not correct, there are 2. We did have some discussion about running the rapids on the first portage, but discretion is the better part of valor. One rant here... as we were approaching the landing at the first portage, a pontoon boat waving an American flag came up right behind us. We landed at the portage, and the pontoon boat landed right along side of us. Off the boat came two ladies who walked right through our stuff as we were unloading and took off ahead of us for a hike, then the motorboat took off. I told Andrew that crowding such a small landing was rude and that ethical travelers would always do there best to let a group ahead of them at least get down the portage a bit.

At the second portage we found our two "portage pushers" relaxing at the falls. We were able to portage around them, stop and enjoy the falls for a moment then push on. It was really a lovely paddle. As we went down the river we next hit the "split rock" portage. This one is really hard to find, but you'll know it by a border marker on a large flat rock. This one has some character. You portage up the rock, and then at the top you have a very steep downhill that requires bringing your canoe through a split in the rock. It takes some creativity to get through it, but once you are through the crack we were greeted by our first of many bumper crop blueberry patches!

We continued our journey down the Pine and made it to the 100 rod portage into Clove Lake. The wind was really starting to howl as we finished the double portage. As we were getting ready to head into Clove Lake, we met a family in 2 aluminum canoes. Dad and Mom, Grandpa and a little 3 or 4 year old girl. They mentioned they had entered at Larch Creek and were daytripping back to Gunflint Lodge. All I could think of was this nice family having to paddle the width of Gunflint Lake with a 20mph headwind. Andrew and I both expressed our concern for them to each other as we started across Clove Lake. We had planned on camping at the site at the north end of Clove, but we could see it was full so we opted to go to see if the island site on Larch Lake was open. We had a bit of a cross wind, but Clove is small enough that it was a doable paddle without significant effort.

Once we had portaged to Larch Lake, we were greeted with a significant wind with some pretty heavy duty whitecaps and rollers. We sat at the portage for a good 10 minutes trying to decide if we wanted to tackle the wind and waves or should we head back and grab an unused campsite on Clove lake. After remembering I have seen bigger on Brule and Knife, we decided to venture out. Honestly, it was not as bad as it looked. The 20mph headwind was a chore, but the waves were manageable. We could tell we had the lake to ourselves, so we plunked ourselves down on the island site. I had seen reports of this being a 5 star. It did look pretty heavily used without a lot of tree cover so it was a high 3 star for me. We had wanted to go fishing, but with the wind we decided to just sit around camp the rest of the afternoon, do some reading, catch the baseball game, and relax. We did try some shore fishing, but the wind was bad enough as it circled the island that it really wasn't useful. We were able to sit out on the rocks, sip a burbon and watch some swans. Early in the evening another solo tripper stopped at the site across the lake from us. All and all a wonderful day in the BWCA, and I could tell Andrew was already falling in love with this special place

This is that crazy split rock portage.

After packing up we headed back towards Clove Lake and once across the portage we turned north towards our next target of either Gneiss Lake or the Devil's Elbow. We had heard some good fishing reports from another board member here so we were anxious to try our luck for some walleygators or smallies. It was a nice easy paddle up the Pine and Granite rivers. Some beautiful rapids and easy portages along the way. At each portage we were able to stop and munch on blueberries and raspberries. We made it to Gneiss lake around lunch time and as we entered the lake we came across a canoe with a couple people getting ready to fish the current at the entrance to the lake. A short paddle further and we found they had dropped their gear on the island site at the south end of Gneiss and made paddle to fish! I totally understand that logic!!

We continued to paddle north when Andrew, though his binoculars spotted a black bear on the Canadian shore on the north end of the lake. We glassed it for a couple minutes, then continued our paddle past a group of kids who were camped on the west side of the lake. From the smell coming from their campsite either there was a skunk nearby or..... well the Doritos may explain the smell.

It was early and we were feeling good so up to the Devil's Elbow we went. It all looked good and all the campsites were empty, but we had marked a 5 star site on the north side of a bay on Marabouf (actually the last campsite on the lake before Sag falls). We checked out every site on the DE and an Marabouf. All were empty! We were the only people on the lake. So we found the 5-star we were looking for on the north side of a point. It was a smaller site in the middle of a group of Cedar trees looking out on a rocky hill to one side and an island and Canada on the other. We were so excited and decided to make camp. Did I mention we were the only ones on the lake?

After setting up camp, we decided to head out and fish the shore for a bit. We hopped back in the canoe and fished the west side of the lake all the way down to the south end. The smallies were in the shadows and we did very well. We kept a smallie to make fish chowder with for supper. After cleaning the fish we headed back to camp, cooked some chowder using Camp Chow's chowder base, and settled in with some Cider, Fireball, and the Brewers game. (The Mizz was pitching). The bugs were only a minor nuisance in the bug net and the sunset was remarkable. After the game Andrew headed to the tent and I went back to my Haven Hammock hung between two cedar trees for a restful sleep after another wonderful day. Photo below is a view from the campsite on Marabouf Lake

We had planned on packing up camp and trying to find a spot on Saganaga for our last night. That big lake spooks me, but I had never camped there and there are a bunch of island sites right near Sag Falls where we were going to be catching our tow on Sunday. But one of the cool things about wilderness camping is that your plans are beholden to no one. Andrew decided that because this was such a beautiful campsite AND we still were the only people on a the 1000 acre Maraboeuf lake, that we should instead spend the day exploring the lake and doing some fishing. That turned out to be a great decision!

We woke up and first things first picked a couple cups of blueberries from around the camp. Then in a breakfast only found in the BWCA made fresh blueberry pancakes with Ghee, real Wisconsin maple syrup and an order of precooked Hormel Bacon! It was a meal fit for a king especially after being rounded off with some piping hot coffee! After chores we grabbed our poles, some snacks and headed off for a day on our own personal lake!

What a great day, we started out right away catching smallies. We paddled the western shore, then headed to the east along the south shore and checked out every single campsite on Maraboeuf. All were empty and not another soul was on the lake. Meanwhile, we continued to catch small mouth everyplace we put in a line. We explored the bays, the swamps and the entire shoreline, eventually making it back to the Devil's Elbow where we were sure from reading the fishing forum on this board that we were about to slay some Walleye. Well in the spirit of not looking a gift horse in the mouth, the walleyes never materialized but the smallmouth continued to almost jump in the boat all the way through the elbow. (you can see me with one of them as we stopped to shore fish at one of the more "currenty areas" in the photo below.

Finally, the wind had started to blow pretty good so we decided to head back to camp. It was later in the afternoon so we decided to cut off some paddling time and take the 35 rod portage across the Canadian portion of Maraboeuf to near our campsite. That may have been a bad choice because that portage contains some of the biggest boulders to climb across as any portage I've seen before! But we made it and had a nice paddle back to camp. We also were able to see (from the canoe) a couple of campsites on islands on the Canadian side. Wish we would have had an RABC to check them out as they were empty too. We fished on the way back to camp. By the end of the day we had quit counting at 100 small mouth bass! No walleye and only a single slimey pike. Along the way we stopped around lunchtime and had a snack and while on the shore proceeded to pick a liter bottle full of blueberries for a snack later that night!

After we made it back to camp, it was time to spool up the radio to catch the Brewers-Twins game and have some supper. For dinner I had Camp Chow Turkey/Cranberries and Dressing and Andrew had Camp Chow Beef Stroghanoff. Camp Chow really is my meal of choice in the wilderness. It is so much better tasting than the mass produced brands like Mountain House and the variety is spectacular. It was almost like a Thanksgiving dinner.

After dinner, while listening to the game, it was time for Andrew to show his skills at dessert. We had a package of Camp Chow Berry Cheesecake (just add water), but Andrew wanted to spice it up. So, he took a bunch of the blueberries we had picked earlier, mashed them up, then added some of our remaining maple syrup and a 50ml single of fine bourbon. He then heated the mixture in a pan and added the sauce to our awaiting cheesecake. Oh My Goodness!!! The best dessert I have ever had in the wild! That along with a cup of coffee with a shot of bourbon and another Brewers win was the icing on a perfect day! We spent the evening playing cribbage and listening to a loon before heading to sleep (this time I was hung between 2 live trees).