There was much anticipation for this venture to the BWCA. Since I'm a teacher, I wanted to plan a trip during the MEA weekend to take advantage of my "extra" days off. Finding people to go considering the time of the year proved to be easier than I thought. When it was all said and done, we had a group of six sharing three canoes. With ages in parenthesis, the party included my dad (56), brother Ben (35), brother Jacob (21), nephew Chris (12), a family friend named Jeff (52), and myself (30).

I kind of felt a lot of pressure, because it was me who decided when and where we were going (I was honored to have this responsibility). We decided to enter through the Mudro Lake EP, a new area for all of us. After doing much reading in Pauly's book and the Breymer books, the Mudro-Horse Lake area sounded like a great place to visit. After looking on the CCBB boards and getting great advice, I knew this is where I wanted to go!

The week earlier, my dad and Jacob hit up the Dilworth, MN, Wal-Mart to buy food/misc. supplies for the trip. We thought it'd be fun to buy as many "Great Value" branded items as possible (I know...we're easily entertained). We were just curious if the store-brand stuff is as good as the name-brand stuff. We had a blast planning our meals, figuring out how much we needed, and getting it all packed up.

My dad packed all the food/clothes/tents/sleeping bags/etc all on his own the weekend before we left! (Thanks, Dad). He has collected a potpurri of packs over the years, but it's all been tried and true in the BWCA. We've never had issues with anything he's packed up!

We all live in Hawley, MN, which is 20 miles east of Fargo, ND. We packed everything up at 5 PM on Wednesday, the 20th, and left for Ely! Ben drove his Tahoe and Jeff took his Suburban. Jeff carried 2 canoes, while Ben had 1 strapped to the top. We went through the Taco John's drive-thru in Detroit Lakes for a quick supper. Everything went well until we got to the Tower area. Following Jeff, he took a right off of 169 onto some other road because of a detour, but we ended up in Babbitt! Both vehicles even had GPS...we were listening to music in the Tahoe and got sidetracked--never did find out why Jeff/Dad took their wrong turn. Ooops....we regrouped and managed to arrive in Ely through the east side of town shortly after 10:30 PM.

We rented a big room at the Adventure Inn (4 double beds). It was nice to get out of the rigs after a long drive. We all visited until about 12:30 before we finally called it a night, as the Weather Channel on the TV was left on through the night. I like how the Weather Channel in Ely still uses the really old graphics/radar for the Locals on the 8s !!! LOL!!!....we heard that snow was a possibility Thursday morning....would the ground be white in the morning??

Today was the most laid-back day of the trip. The day started horribly for me, as I woke up with a horrible headache. I'm not sure if it was because of the cold....something I ate....who knows! But it was really painful. I could've accepted the skull cramps more had I been poundin down drinks the night before, but that wasn't the case. I get headaches frequently, and my pain threshold is pretty high. Everyone was out and about by 7 AM, but I took some time getting out of bed. The morning was overcast, but rather mild as temps were in the upper 40s by 9 AM. Dad made French toast and sausage for breakfast. After eating a little bit and taking some ibuprofen, I crawled back into the tent. I put my head down, lying on my left side with two of those hand-warmer packets on my temple which hurt. Before I knew it, I fell asleep and woke up. It was almost NOON but I felt like a million bucks! Sweet!

Everyone in camp had been trying their luck fishing. Ben and Chris canoed to the north and middle portion of Horse Lake. Jeff took his canoe out with Jacob. My dad tried a few casts from shore, but everyone caught the same thing. NOTHING! While I was sleeping, the rest of the clan saw other canoeists, who were staying up on the far northeastern side of Horse. Four middle-aged men in two canoes, they were headed down the Horse River to the Lower Basswood Falls. As by brother Ben told me, they were about 30 feet from our shore on the point, when one of the canoeists had a huge northern up to his canoeas he was about to pull it in, his line broke and it got away!! There was a lot of hootin and hollerin....and a few four-letter words. Our group wished them good luck at the falls, and that gave everyone hope that maybe the fish will start biting.

Jacob and Chris later collected more firewood. Our saw for cutting downed timber broke, but Dad improvised and fixed it with an S hook from a bungee strap, and you really had to be cautious when sawing. For lunch, Dad threw some cut up summer sausage and threw it on the griddle. We had PB-J sandwiches, chips, granola bars, Twizzlers, trail mix, and Kool-Aid. The sun peaked out on and off for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. I spent some time to myself by going on a little hike to the north of camp. I really liked Horse Lake because of its accessibility to so many other areas. We didn't have time to go to Moosecamp or Fourtown today, but in the future, I'd like to come back here for like a week or so. Early afternoon, a solo canoeist paddled by our camp and picked out the campsite about a mile north of us on the east side of the lake.

By around 3PM, it became overcast again. After breaking/splitting the firewood for the night, and having our fill of fishing without catching fish, Dad decided to test out his coordination skills. On the south side of our camp, a little red pine jutted about 25 feet almost parallel to the water. We joked earlier in the day about walking out to the edge of the tree. Now, if it were August, it would be a no-brainer to try it. But in late October, no thanks. But my Dad can't back down from a challenge, so he began to shimmy his way along the tree! As he went along, he just about fell into the lake a couple of times. He made it past the halfway point to the top of the tree, and then had to maneuver to turn himself around to get back off the stupid tree and on to dry land. The whole thing took him about an hour....it was comical! After that, Dad tried to get Chris to take a little swim off our beach (which was nice and sandy, alas chilly water). After getting all of us to give Chris a little money to swim with Grandpa, both Dad and Chris swam for about 15 minutes! As they were swimming, the fishing group we saw earlier paddled past our campsite. I'm sure they where wondering what they heck was going on with people swimming! We asked them how the fishing went, and they replied by saying it was a waste of time....they didnt get anything. I didn't feel so bad about being skunked yesterday at LBF now.

At about 5 PM, Ben and I decided to paddle to the south off our site to refill our water jugs, while casting a few lines at the same time. We had a good talk, going down memory lane about all of our past canoe trips, and about how much fun this one had been so far. Being out in the middle of that lake, with a slight breeze from the north, with gray skies, and casting my line, I am still in just amazement how the Natives and Voyaguers survived up here! It's so fun to just get a little taste of what it was like to be in the middle of a (controlled) wilderness with nothing but water, trees, rocks, unknown wildlife, and the sky above surrounding you. After casting for 30 minutes with out luck, Ben and I decided to make our way back. Just then, Ben let out a loud, Ohhh Boy! I turned around and his rod was bent like a sickle.....did he have a fish? He started to reel it in as he was reeling, I was excited beyond reason....what did he have? It was a struggle as Ben later said. After a couple of minutes.I could see ita HUGE northern! Ben managed to get it close to the canoe. I got out the net....As I leaned over the side, trying not to capsize the empty canoe to net the northern, I had it in the net under the water.as I lifted the net up and as I was about to grab it, it flopped out of the net, broke Ben's line, and got away..NOOOO!!!!! We were SO ANGRY! I could taste that sucker right when I saw it....what a tease. We both realized, too, that it might have been the same northern that escaped the wrath of our fishing neighbors. If so, jeepers....I didn't know fish had 9 lives!!!

As nightfall was upon us, we struck shore and beached our canoe. Everyone on shore heard our frustrating encounter with the one that got away. After a few laughs, we dug into our final supper of the trip, which is sort of a fun tradition weve always done on our final night. We buy several flavors of Ramen noodles, boil the noodles in our large cooking pot, and when the noodles are finished, we mix all of the flavors together and chow down. With cool temperatures, the Ramen tasted delicious! In the summer, Ramen isn't always the greatest meal, but it's handy because it's very light, it's cheap, and it fills you up beyond belief. Dad also unveiled an awesome surprise. He stuck a frozen two-liter of Mountain Dew in our styrofoam cooler! NECTAR FROM THE BWCA GODS! It helped the Ramen go down a lot smoother! I've never had soda pop in the BWCA---Dad said he had a little extra room, so he figured why not.

We enjoyed our final evening on Horse Lake with more stories, jokes, and laughs about our trip. It was a great evening, as there was no wind, and temps I'm guessing were right around 40. With the skies still cloudy, the moon was not visible totally, but the glow of it was apparent by around 8 PM. We had a little transistor radio, and we listened to the Yankees-Rangers game in the ALCS...and the Rangers won! Take that Yankees! Again...no wolves....and no bears thankfully. We all hit the sack at about 9:30 PM.~Horse Lake

Falling asleep proved to be quite easy last night. I first awoke at about 5 AM, and my dad coincidentally was awake as well. While it was still dark out, nature called us and we both stepped out to take care of business. There was no frost out at first view, but I was positive it was around 30 F. She was chilly out, but the view was spectacular! The near full-moon dominated the western portion of the sky in its grandeur! Our campsite was the perfect location to witness this amazing lunar event! I went back to bed, and slept in for a couple of more hours. I was pleasantly surprised how well I slept considering the cool conditions. However, as my family and wife can attest, there could be nuclear war going on outside the tent, and I'd still be sleeping through it! :)

We all got up between 6:30-7:30 AM. Dad got the fire going again before any of us got up. One by one, like zombies coming back to life, we began to stumble out of our tents. However, the crisp morning air filling your lungs is an effective way to perk you up so to speak. My brother Jacob had a thermometer with, and at 7 AM it read 28 degrees--sweet!! Despite all of the paddling/portaging we did, and being I haven't done this in over 3 years, my body was primed for anything that came my way. The rest of the party was in high spirits, too. On the menu this morning was pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Again, it was Dad doing the cooking, and we managed to do the eating. We joked again about the wolves, the wrong turns on the way to Ely, and the near-death experiences in the white-caps trying to get to our site! As the rest ate, I took a brief walk to the eastern point of our site. I captured some great photos of the sun rising up over the pine trees and reflecting onto a huge white pine next to me. There was little wind (from the south).

Today was going to be our sight-seeing day. With temperatures forecasted to be around 60 F and sunny skies, we decided this would be the day to go out on an adventure. Our decision? Paddle up the Horse River and fish the Lower Basswood Falls. We quickly cleaned up camp, packed our lunch, took our fishing gear, loaded up the canoe, and shoved off. I was excited to be back in the water. Its nice to be grounded, but Ive always felt that the action of the BWCA is in the water! We left camp at around 9 AM, with the sun starting to creep higher up into the sky.

I was a little nervous about traveling on the Horse River. I'd read a lot about the river levels of the Horse, and most reports said that the river level was low.....well they were right! To get into the river from Horse Lake, we had to pull our canoes through a small channel of submerged rocks...the channel was about three feet widewide enough for one canoe! It was crazy! It was a mix of sun/shade for the first couple of miles of the river. We had to pull over another time in a neat area before the first portage. It was fun trying to maneuver through the rocks, yet a little scary, because getting wet meant an unpleasant day of being cold or worse! Many laughs were shared as we tiptoed the rocks, shimmy-ing the canoes through the light rapids.

There are three actual portages on the Horse River en route to the Falls, and all are easy! On the first portage, a 58-rodder, we saw two freshly-cut deciduous trees downed thanks to beavers! The shavings were everywhere around the tree, and we could hear scurrying in the woodsvery cool! The Horse River is like most rivers in the BWCA....shallow in spots, rocky in othersnot much of a current. We did notice, though, that as we paddled, the river became more shallow. After the 48-rod portage in the middle of the river, we enjoyed a nice, wide stretch of river up to the 73-rod portage. It was there, we saw our first sign of other human life! A man from Maine (I think) was wrapping up week solo trip, returning from the Crooked Lake area! We talked briefly as he was in a hurry to get to South Hegman by tomorrow. Seeing another person out here was fulfilling, because it meant that there are people who share the same desire as the rest of us in being out in this cathedral of nature, deep into October no less!

The end of the 73-rodder was a relief, but the least-enjoyable part of our day was about to begin. About a quarter-mile into the river after the portage, it became so shallow, we had to actually get out and walk our canoes! COLD!!!! WOW!!! The river was sandy in most spots, but mucky/muddy in others. You could easily tell that the rivers level was abnormally low.sand bars extended on both sides of the riverwith everything brown/yellowand seeing all of the sand, it almost looked sort of like being on an African river! I was waiting to see a zebra, wildebeest, or an elephant!! There were several birds, but no signs of moose anywhere. There was about a ½ mile stretch where it was paddle/push, but then, it was over with.

After our trudging, the river opened up and we could hear Lower Basswood Falls! The wind was starting to pick up a tad, and we quickly paddled across the opened stretch of water. We made landfall on the Canadian side on the 12-rod portage around the Falls. As soon as the canoe touched the shoreline, I hopped out of the canoe, pulled Jeff up, and sprinted up the hill to check things out. Even though I've read that the falls havent been as spectacular due to low water levels, I was not disappointed. What an incredible sight! I can't imagine people trying to actually canoe down these things! Why?? We all took in the moment, and we were happy we made the trek to see these falls. We had a nice quick lunch of PB-J sandwiches, summer sausage, granola bars, dried fruit, Pringles, and our specially brewed Kool-Aid! It hit the spot, as that paddling/portaging/sludging worked up an appetite for me. We arrived at around noon, and we discussed the fact that since sunset was at 6:07, we needed to leave no later than 3 PM to get to camp by sunset.

Following lunch, it was time to FISH! We were all optimistic because wed heard so much about the fishing here. However, we were greatly saddened as NOBODY caught a single thing! It didnt matter, though, because we enjoyed the time there! Ben, Chris, and Jeff took a canoe out beyond the base of the falls, while Jacob, Dad, and I cast our lines from shore...didn't even get a nibble all afternoon. Dad and Jacob took quick cat-naps, as the temps soared! It got up to 62 F that day....a real treat...so much in fact, Dad decided to take advantage of the heat wave by taking a dip in the southern end of Crooked Lake, just a few feet beyond the base of the falls. Not originally knowing for sure if he was serious, Dad stripped down to his boxers and scouted the scene to find the perfect diving rock/lake area to dive into. At first, he had second thoughts of this venture, as he debated whether or not this would be a wise decision on his part. After about 10 minutes of deep thinking, he took the bull by the horns and dove right in! Unbelievable! A WHOO could be heard for miles I'm sure, as my dad responded to the cooler-than-average human swimming water he just dove into! We all laughed as he splashed around like a child in a bathtub, but he made it out of the water, dried off, and said he didn't regret doing it! Thats my dad!

After all of the commotion, seeing the sights around the Falls, and the time spent fishing, we lost track of the time. We looked at the time. YIKES...3:15 PM. We quickly packed up our stuff. Right before we left, we took some photos with the falls in the background. I so want to stay in this area somedaymaybe with my family....maybe with my son someday....such an exciting part of the BWCA! I love the sound of rapids! As I took my last photo, I paused to think of all of the people who've passed through this point....the BWCA cancers...the DNR/Forest Rangers....the traders....the Indians....a pretty historic place left as it has been for centuries!.You don't get that anywhere else in Minnesota outside of the BWCA!

We frantically paddled away from the falls and returned to the mucky-portion of the Horse River. This was the first time on the whole trip that I started to not enjoy it! I was sore, tired, and I didnt want to paddle/drag the canoe through much. Since Jeff carried the canoe all of the time and kindly pulled the canoe most of the time on the way to the falls, I did the pulling in the muck on the way back to camp. YUCK....what a mess...but the worst part was just the cold water...it felt like a thousand pins pricking your feet all at once. Ben and Chris were having a hard time getting through the shallow part of the river.I had hoped this part of the day didnt ruin their whole experience....the BWCA really tests your patience and attitude sometimes.this was one of those times!

As we got past the first of our three portages, the wind would pick up and die down out of the south. The sun was still in our favor about halfway to camp. After the middle portage, it became tricky to see sometimes because the sun at times was behind trees, creating really difficult shadows upon the river, making submerged logs/rocks hard to see. We all got hung up a few times, but had no close calls or anything. Going in a southwesterly direction, we, at times, faced directly into the sun, which is not easy either when youre on the water. However, at about 5 PM, the wind suddenly died, and it again became warm! We even saw water beetles/gnats/mosquitoes that were thick as thieves for the last two miles of the Horse River. CRAZY! We did the final portage and the pullovers with relative ease. I snapped many photos during this stretch, because the sights were fantastic! I wanted to capture this moment and keep it forever.....is there anything better than being out on BWCA water to see the moments prior to a sunset?? Ill never forget that two mile stretch of paddling!

When we made it to Horse Lake after the final slim-channeled pullover, it was a few minutes before 6 PM! We made it before the official sunset. Jeff and I cast a few lines into the lake on our way back to camp, but had no success. When we all arrived at camp, we quickly got things set up for supper. We hauled up the table canoe to set things up therefired up the fire, and Dad opened up his fine-dining establishment once again. On the menu tonight were brats, au-gratin potatoes, and chocolate pudding. It was good filler food, and the potatoes really hit the spot.againI never eat those unless we are in the BWCA.weird!

As the sky quickly went from bright, to semi-light, to dark, we did our chores, cleaned things up, built a toasty fire, and again sipped hot cocoa, ate smores, and told more stories. We briefly complained of not catching any fish, but soon laughed at the fact that we spent the entire day paddling/pushing canoes/fishing without catching fish....and that we could be doing far WORSE things....we had a lot to be thankful for. The weather was sunny and warm all day. I think it made some people in the group sleep a little easier!!!

Tonight, I brought some hand warmer packets into my sleeping bag just in case I needed them. Dad and I talked briefly before I passed out. It was all that I hoped for in a day in the BWCA with my family, especially on our way back to camp. Seeing insects again was a sign that an Indian Summer was trying to become a reality. The actual full moon was in full force later in the evening. We awaited the chorus of wolves, but they must have had a concert at a lake not adjacent to ours. Oh well...beggars can't be choosers. ~Horse Lake, Basswood Lake, Horse Lake

Today was the most laid-back day of the trip. The day started horribly for me, as I woke up with a horrible headache. I'm not sure if it was because of the cold....something I ate....who knows! But it was really painful. I could've accepted the skull cramps more had I been poundin down drinks the night before, but that wasn't the case. I get headaches frequently, and my pain threshold is pretty high. Everyone was out and about by 7 AM, but I took some time getting out of bed. The morning was overcast, but rather mild as temps were in the upper 40s by 9 AM. Dad made French toast and sausage for breakfast. After eating a little bit and taking some ibuprofen, I crawled back into the tent. I put my head down, lying on my left side with two of those hand-warmer packets on my temple which hurt. Before I knew it, I fell asleep and woke up. It was almost NOON but I felt like a million bucks! Sweet!

Everyone in camp had been trying their luck fishing. Ben and Chris canoed to the north and middle portion of Horse Lake. Jeff took his canoe out with Jacob. My dad tried a few casts from shore, but everyone caught the same thing. NOTHING! While I was sleeping, the rest of the clan saw other canoeists, who were staying up on the far northeastern side of Horse. Four middle-aged men in two canoes, they were headed down the Horse River to the Lower Basswood Falls. As by brother Ben told me, they were about 30 feet from our shore on the point, when one of the canoeists had a huge northern up to his canoeas he was about to pull it in, his line broke and it got away!! There was a lot of hootin and hollerin....and a few four-letter words. Our group wished them good luck at the falls, and that gave everyone hope that maybe the fish will start biting.

Jacob and Chris later collected more firewood. Our saw for cutting downed timber broke, but Dad improvised and fixed it with an S hook from a bungee strap, and you really had to be cautious when sawing. For lunch, Dad threw some cut up summer sausage and threw it on the griddle. We had PB-J sandwiches, chips, granola bars, Twizzlers, trail mix, and Kool-Aid. The sun peaked out on and off for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. I spent some time to myself by going on a little hike to the north of camp. I really liked Horse Lake because of its accessibility to so many other areas. We didn't have time to go to Moosecamp or Fourtown today, but in the future, I'd like to come back here for like a week or so. Early afternoon, a solo canoeist paddled by our camp and picked out the campsite about a mile north of us on the east side of the lake.

By around 3PM, it became overcast again. After breaking/splitting the firewood for the night, and having our fill of fishing without catching fish, Dad decided to test out his coordination skills. On the south side of our camp, a little red pine jutted about 25 feet almost parallel to the water. We joked earlier in the day about walking out to the edge of the tree. Now, if it were August, it would be a no-brainer to try it. But in late October, no thanks. But my Dad can't back down from a challenge, so he began to shimmy his way along the tree! As he went along, he just about fell into the lake a couple of times. He made it past the halfway point to the top of the tree, and then had to maneuver to turn himself around to get back off the stupid tree and on to dry land. The whole thing took him about an hour....it was comical! After that, Dad tried to get Chris to take a little swim off our beach (which was nice and sandy, alas chilly water). After getting all of us to give Chris a little money to swim with Grandpa, both Dad and Chris swam for about 15 minutes! As they were swimming, the fishing group we saw earlier paddled past our campsite. I'm sure they where wondering what they heck was going on with people swimming! We asked them how the fishing went, and they replied by saying it was a waste of time....they didnt get anything. I didn't feel so bad about being skunked yesterday at LBF now.

At about 5 PM, Ben and I decided to paddle to the south off our site to refill our water jugs, while casting a few lines at the same time. We had a good talk, going down memory lane about all of our past canoe trips, and about how much fun this one had been so far. Being out in the middle of that lake, with a slight breeze from the north, with gray skies, and casting my line, I am still in just amazement how the Natives and Voyaguers survived up here! It's so fun to just get a little taste of what it was like to be in the middle of a (controlled) wilderness with nothing but water, trees, rocks, unknown wildlife, and the sky above surrounding you. After casting for 30 minutes with out luck, Ben and I decided to make our way back. Just then, Ben let out a loud, Ohhh Boy! I turned around and his rod was bent like a sickle.....did he have a fish? He started to reel it in as he was reeling, I was excited beyond reason....what did he have? It was a struggle as Ben later said. After a couple of minutes.I could see ita HUGE northern! Ben managed to get it close to the canoe. I got out the net....As I leaned over the side, trying not to capsize the empty canoe to net the northern, I had it in the net under the water.as I lifted the net up and as I was about to grab it, it flopped out of the net, broke Ben's line, and got away..NOOOO!!!!! We were SO ANGRY! I could taste that sucker right when I saw it....what a tease. We both realized, too, that it might have been the same northern that escaped the wrath of our fishing neighbors. If so, jeepers....I didn't know fish had 9 lives!!!

As nightfall was upon us, we struck shore and beached our canoe. Everyone on shore heard our frustrating encounter with the one that got away. After a few laughs, we dug into our final supper of the trip, which is sort of a fun tradition weve always done on our final night. We buy several flavors of Ramen noodles, boil the noodles in our large cooking pot, and when the noodles are finished, we mix all of the flavors together and chow down. With cool temperatures, the Ramen tasted delicious! In the summer, Ramen isn't always the greatest meal, but it's handy because it's very light, it's cheap, and it fills you up beyond belief. Dad also unveiled an awesome surprise. He stuck a frozen two-liter of Mountain Dew in our styrofoam cooler! NECTAR FROM THE BWCA GODS! It helped the Ramen go down a lot smoother! I've never had soda pop in the BWCA---Dad said he had a little extra room, so he figured why not.

We enjoyed our final evening on Horse Lake with more stories, jokes, and laughs about our trip. It was a great evening, as there was no wind, and temps I'm guessing were right around 40. With the skies still cloudy, the moon was not visible totally, but the glow of it was apparent by around 8 PM. We had a little transistor radio, and we listened to the Yankees-Rangers game in the ALCS...and the Rangers won! Take that Yankees! Again...no wolves....and no bears thankfully. We all hit the sack at about 9:30 PM.~Horse Lake

We woke up to cloudy skies again, temps were right around 40 F, and there was a slight breeze out of the east as we tumbled out of our tents shortly before sunrise. With a chance of rain today, we all were in agreement to try to eat breakfast/pack up as soon as we could. For breakfast, we had some leftover bacon, sausages, summer sausage, and had instant oatmeal to fuel us for the paddle back to our vehicles. After inhaling our food, we began to disassemble camp. I rolled up sleeping bags and got my clothes all stuffed away. I took down our tent and Dad helped me pack it away. Dad got all the cooking stuff and whatever food we had left in its rightful place. Ben, Chris, and Jacob got their tent and bags packed up. Jeff tried his hand at fishing one last time with no luck. I also took some time to clean up camp a bit as there were scraps of firewood littered everywhere. Whoever came here next didn't have to worry about getting wood for a few nights anyway!

It's always sort of a jigsaw puzzle before you shove off shore because you're trying to get all packs to fit correctly in the canoes, and so they aren't too heavy/light. It took about 15 minutes of moving stuff around before it all sort of fit together. I took one final walk around the camp...pondering to myself how much of a pleasure the past three days had been for me. Sometimes in life, you want more money, more things, more success at your job, etc. The only thing I wanted now was more time to spend here. Until that time becomes readily available again, I said so long to our Horse Lake site, and we shoved off of shore.

We paddled our way into a southwesterly direction to the first of our seven portages. As we paddled away from camp, a slight wind picked up from the east again, and the paddle to the first portage was simple. The cloudy skies made the entire day seem sort of eerielike something ominous was about to happen. Being here this time of year taught me real quick that you have to pay closer attention to what youre doing...with few people around you, I realized that help would be a ways away in an event of a capsize, broken limb, etc. Personally, I enjoy cloudy days than sunny days. I'm fair skinned so a break from the sun is always welcomed. I just hoped that the rain would stay away. Paddling across Horse Lake was somber....it is a beautiful lakeand we had it to ourselves. From what I've read, this lake is a busy place in the summer months, so it was nice to be here when human activity was rather limited.

We arrived at the somewhat hidden portage landing tucked back into the south west corner of Horse, on the right side of the bay. It was an 80-rodder. During high water times, the portage can be shortened about 20 rods.I made the mistake of going to the shortened landing, but after I arrived there, I looked to see a impenetrable dam to my right, so I trudged my packs back to the trail and continued to the actual landing. The portage itself was easy, and very scenic as the creek was rumbling off in the distance. On that particular portage, I thought/wondered to myself how people in the past survived up here? How did they prepare themselves for winter? What would it be like to camp up here in the winter? I will find that out sometime before I die!!

We hopped into the canoes for a short paddle as the Horse/Fourtown Lakes meet to create this sort of creek/swamp area. We noticed all of the stumps from the logging days, as the shallow water made it easier to see them. We arrived to a short but steep 10 rod portage. The creek was full of huge old logs, a mixture of fallen trees and timber. Tricky landing area on the eastside of the portage that was rocky/mucky. It was pretty much a straight shot up, and then down to the other side. A few hundred feet beyond this portage were a bunch of exposed rocks with very minor rapids. We had to exit the canoes, walking on rocks, guiding/lifting the canoes through the rocks for about 100 feet to the other side. I worked up a healthy sweat!

After paddling for a half mile, we had another 10 rod portage through a campsite that sat on the extreme mid-eastern side of Fourtown. It was probably the least sheltered/private campsite I've ever seen in the BWCA, but you had a nice view into Fourtown and back to the bay to the east where we just came from. Also, a creek with mild rapids runs right through the site. I could see kids playing/swimming here for hours on a warm/sunny day. We took a bathroom break, and scouted the campsite out. In the woods along the shore, I discovered the skeleton of a freshly eaten animal. There were no teeth left, but I'm guessing it was either a wolf or a fox...all that was left were the skull, part of its backbone, and its ribs scattered all over the ground--an interesting site to say the least.

Up to this point, the day had gone fairly well, but it was about to take a nosedive. We paddled to the northwest out of the little bay. Just beyond the site we portaged through was a gorgeous campsite with huge pines on the right....as we paddled past it, you could see the site up on the hill--all the room underneath the red pines and nice view of the lake with tenting spots! It made me want to stop then and there to camp there and call in sick to school a couple days!!! But, I knew that wasn't right, so we kept paddling. A light drizzle began to fall on us now as we continued. Fourtown was a healthy-sized lake, and we were coming into the big/middle portion of it. With the drizzle making distant visibility a challenge, long story-short, I ended up misreading our map/location. Instead of taking a sharp left to the south to head to Mudro, we ended up paddling to the far west side of the lake, between the two large/one small island. After paddling around for awhile in the bay, my dad and I looked at the map again, and realized we needed to go back. We believed we were near the portage into Boot Lake but we never found that either. The wind picked up a bit from the eastno white caps, but enough to make it a little dicey.

We faced the east and decided to hug the shoreline to our right (south). We made the turn and then headed south toward Mudro. When we made the turn southward, we saw a canoe with a young couple far across the lake heading north. It didn't appear that their canoe had much gear in it. We wondered if they were just making a day trip, or if something had happened. The canoe was in no hurry to get our attention, so we just paddled on. This little getting lost ordeal wasted about two hours of our day, and now with the drizzle turning to light rain, we decided not to investigate the three lower sites on Fourtown with the old truck. I was bummed, but the rest of the group was anxious to leave the poor weather behind, and it was my fault getting us lost, so we continued to the three portages into Mudro.

I'd read so much about these three portages, and all of the sudden I became a little nervous. The rain at least died down to more of a fine mist, but things were wet enough to make things less than ideal. We didn't get our rain gear out because we were in the middle of the lake and the rain sort of kept us cool from the paddling. Getting from the bigger waters of Fourtown to the little channel at the extreme southern part of the lake was a relief. There was virtually no wind in the boggy creek-like area. The first portage was a 10-rodder. The landing on the north side on the east side of the creek was atrocious! It was a jagged rock shelf that literally went straight up! It was as rugged as I had envisioned! Getting up it, however, was only half the battle. The portage trail was extremely rocky, rooty, and wet (from the precip). We double tripped it, and loaded up the canoes.

We paddled for less than five minutes to the 141 rodder, with the north landing on the west side of the creek. This portage was a beast, but it was breathtaking! It went up/down/left/right/and everywhere in between. The canoe carriers did not double trip it, but the rest of us double tripped, deciding to not kill ourselves. The trail goes dangerously close to some very high bluffs overlooking the creek filled with rocks/fallen trees! One wrong step would result in certain death!! Some of the bluffs had to be at least 200-300 feet high. It was the most scenic portage I think I can ever remember. There were some areas of flat rock that was inclined enough to make it real slickhad a close call, but didnt fall. It was a relief when we were done with this beast! I was sweating like crazy! I strongly considered jumping into the creek here for a quick swim, but I chickened out. I regret not doing it...it would've been fun! We took a lunch break at the end of the portage, looking back to the north where the creeks rapids began. We munched on PB/J sandwiches, jerky, trail mix, licorice, Pringles, and Kool-Aid.

Following a nice 45 minute break, we paddled for a ¼ mile to the 30-rodder that connects to the northern side of Mudro. From what I'd read, this portage was the easiest of the three. There was no real elevation change to speak of, but the last 10 rods on the southern part of the portage was very rocky and hard to walk because rocks were jutting out everywhere. A large dam (which sort of looked man madeas did many other dams we saw today) was at the southern end of the portage. The view to the south was excellent, as you could view Mudro Lake in the distance. We climbed back into our canoes, knowing that the last portage of the day would be to our vehicles. Jeff and I, who were in the front of the pack for most of the trip, brought up the rearI wanted to savor as much as a could before we left. We paddled past the lone campsite on Mudro. I still wondered to myself how much that site actually gets used! I will camp there someday just to say I did it!!

Eventually, we made our way to Picket Creek with skies still overcast, little to no wind, and an ever-persisting mist continuing to make its presence. Temperatures didn't really warm up throughout the dayhovering in the mid-40s. The creek, not covered in snowfall as it was three days before, was about as quiet as a tomb. After breaking through the beginnings of a quaint beaver dam, we quietly paddled our way up the creek to the shallow, sandy landing of the 30-rodder to the parking lot. As we hit shore, I wished the Chainsaw Sisters Saloon was still in business. It would've been cool to have a cold one (or in my case a warm one) before heading home.

It was very bittersweet for me...this portage meant the end of the wilderness part of our trip, the part that I so had looked forward to and enjoyed the entire time. It meant an end for another trip and I knew it would likely be until 2011 until my next canoeing venture. However, I was looking forward to getting home to see my wife and one-year-old son, and out of the mist/cold. We all agreed as we landed on shore that it was a successful trip....an adventure we were all proud to be apart of. We gathered the gear and made our way down the little trail to the Mudro parking lot. Our vehicles were still the only ones in the lot. Before we left, my family posed for a photo in the parking lot as Jeff kindly took it.

As we left the Mudro access, it began to rainand it rained all the way back to Hawley. It probably was a good idea that we didnt visit the truck site on Fourtown. On the way home, we stopped and ate at McDonalds in Hibbing, and listened to the Packers-Vikings game which was the Sunday Night Game. At that time, there was still hope for the Vikes in the 2010 season, but, we all knew how that turned out. I arrived at my house at around 10:30 PM that night, ready to sleep, but wondering what returning to my day job as 3rd grade teacher would be and all of the things I'd have to do tomorrow....I quickly forgot about it as I fell asleep with memories of our trip in my head. ~Horse Lake, Fourtown Lake, Mudro Lake