BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 06 2024
Entry Point 62 - Clearwater Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1673 feet
Latitude: 48.0702
Longitude: -90.3752
Clearwater Lake - 62
EP61 - Daniels and Rose
Entry Date:
June 22, 2014
Entry Point:
Daniels Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
2
We drove up from a Minneapolis suburb at 5:30AM. We stopped by the Farmers Market which just opened up by the time we drove by. The breakfast burrito guy was already ready, and filled ourselves up on some hot and amazing breakfast burritos.
The drive was pretty uneventful until we got near Duluth where heavy fog had set. Visibility was less than 50 feet in my estimate.
After a quick lunch in Grand Marais, we put in at West Bearskin Lake on Clearwater Road. .
After we set camp, hung our first tarp (even with a fold to redirect water!), and generally felt proud of ourselves for making it this far without an incident, we celebrated with a steak.
We decided to base camp in the morning instead of setting up a new camp. As we will see, this was a good decision (although our decision making had nothing to do with what happened).
We packed just enough food and water for lunch and a day trip to Rose. The border route portage to Rose was quite long, but regularly changing scenery made everything better. The mosquitos and flies were not too bad.
Once we got to Rose Lake, the sheer rock cliffs and beautiful skies made the long portage very worth it. Off to the distance, we saw some clouds resembling either a fog or a voracious rain/wind storm. It creeped towards us while we were blissfully unaware of just how quickly it was moving. By the time we realized it, we were in middle of the lake straddling the imaginary US-Canadian border.
The waves became taller and we began to realize our grave mistake. Thankfully, our canoe was very stable, and we paddled diagonally along the waves to slice through them as best we could. Very quickly, we decided that turning around to head back to the US shore would eat our precious time to escape the core of the storm. Therefore, we paddled as quickly as we could towards the Canadian shore and landed at a small opening along the trees. There, we brought the canoe on land and sat under it while eating sticks of celery. It was the best celery we've ever had.
After a while, the storm passed, and we found a campsite to cook our lunch. Not surprisingly, another rain storm came through, and this time for much longer. Needless to say, it was very cold as we left our rain gear back at camp. We changed our lunch menu from a cold chicken salad to boiled cabbage and canned chicken with some sriracha. It was surprisingly good, and we were able to get very warm with our hot lunch. The rain stopped soon thereafter, and we were able to enjoy rest of the lake and head back to camp.
It rained pretty much the entire day, and we spent the day reading and generally enjoying the slow pace of the BWCAW in our tent and/or under our tarp setup. After yesterday's storm on Rose Lake, we didn't feel brave enough to risk another big storm! Later in the evening, we were able to walk around and enjoy the sunset.
Pack it out, leave no trace, and perfect weather! Delicious ice cream in Duluth, and a warm shower back at home...