|
||||
 Boundary Waters Quetico Forum Trip Planning Forum Cliff jumping near Knife Lake Reply
|
| Previous Messages: | |
| Author | Message Text |
| okinaw55 |
10/03/2021 10:12PM Glad you found an alternative you had a good time. I'm consistently shocked of people cliff jumping in the bwca. I mean , lets face it, it offers a lot of what would seem supreme jumping points. So dangerous though. People that have history at a site will say, i know this is safe. Others will claim they "checked the depth". What they all are not taking into consideration is perhaps a pine died and fell into that perfect landing hole. Perhaps there is a dagger down there waiting to poke through you. You NEVER know what is below unless you huffed in some scuba gear and did a dive. I'd rather bungie jump, sky dive, jump off the Stratosphere in Vegas, and play one round of Russian roulette in the same day than risk that. |
| HankEPants |
09/09/2021 12:14PM With our departure day falling smack dab in the middle of the BWCA shutdown we had to pivot to an alternative vacation spot. In just 4 days we researched and booked a vacation in Puerto Rico, and managed to find some cliff jumping in the rainforest for our boys. This is my oldest (16) atop a roughly 20-25 foot cliff jumping into a pool that is about 35 feet deep. There was also a waterfall/rockslide, and a rope to swing out over the water and drop from. Good times! 
|
| HankEPants |
09/09/2021 12:09PM Thank you! That's some good info. I appreciate it. |
| RT |
07/13/2021 09:50AM Hello. I have been canoeing around Knife Lake for many years now. I am also one of those cliff jumping fools (50-foot drop? Sweet! Send it!). There are no spots on Knife lake that I would jump from. The sites on the north side of the Thunder Point island (not sure of the name) has some great swimming spots, though. The best place I can think of in this area that is relativly safe for jumping is on Kekekabic. There is a campsite on the north side of the lake east of Kek Lake narrows that is a fantastic place for lunch and to do some jumping. There are many "platforms" so you can jump anywhere from 5 to about 40-feet. |
| DirtyDadbod |
06/30/2021 09:14PM I know it is a bit of a hike, but if you're really interested and want to make a day trip (or change your loop), the narrows on Jordan lake offers a good spot. It's just down from the pictographs on the rocks, and its probably somewhere in the 15-25 foot range. I did it with friends last summer (we are early-mid 20s), and we checked the depth with some fishing line to determine it was deep enough. The rock overhangs into the channel sufficiently that you can just jump straight off the edge without risking hitting anything below. If you make it out there, the rock I am talking about will be obvious. Definitely agree that it is a risk of injury that you/others in your group need to be okay with taking, but we did it without any problems. I think there may be an image pinned to the map on this website of the spot, so you may want to check it out. Again, I know it is out of your way, but it can definitely be done on a day trip from Ensign. You'd get to paddle through Ashigan (which is beautiful) and see Cattyman falls as bonuses, too. |
| OtherBob |
06/30/2021 12:55PM Aside from the aforementioned risks, the requisite cliff jumping screaming and yelling disturbs the whole lake. Had full afternoons disturbed on Cherokee and on Jasper by screaming idiots. It did keep the bears at bay, though. |
| HankEPants |
06/30/2021 07:54AM Just been a while since checking in. Thanks everyone for the warnings. We obviously won't let our kids do anything stupid (30, 40, 50 foot jumps). I'm just looking for a short jump with a deep pool below. They'd be ecstatic about a 5-7 foot jump, nothing of daredevil heights, especially if it was near or next to a specific campsite. All your warnings are understood and appreciated. |
| jhb8426 |
06/05/2021 12:26AM Leave cliff jumping to the professionals. ;) |
| martian |
06/04/2021 06:42PM Ghost out.... hoping no Darwin Awards necessary. |
| bobbernumber3 |
06/04/2021 06:28PM What happened to OP? Musta hit a rock?? |
| tumblehome |
06/04/2021 01:26PM We did some cliff jumping on Lac LaCroix near Lady Boot Bay many years back. I would not do that today. I’m older and wiser. I tell people to always listen to an old person, they have a lot of wisdom. Anyway, I can have an absolute blast jumping off an 8’ high rock in camp on a hot summer day. No warm, no foul. No cliff jumping. Tom |
| Gaidin53 |
06/04/2021 12:13PM I don’t know of anything on Knife. I do know of a great spot on Ogishgemuncie and 1 on Kekakabic right around the edge at a campsite. Neither is stupid high. Like 15 feet maybe 20. That being said I did have my foot slip jumping from the spot on Kekakabic in 2019. Luckily I had enough momentum to clear distance and landed fine. Would have been horrible. Plant both feet and jump from both feet. Less likely to have a slip. I didn’t follow the rule of both feet and that is when it happened. I actually have it on video since someone was recording me. That being said we did jump from the same spot last year in 2020. Ryan |
| scotttimm |
06/04/2021 11:30AM A couple years back, my son and I caught up with my brother and his son by the Pictos near LBF. My nephew was starting to climb up the rocks, adamant that he was going to jump. The gist of my speech to him was, "Who are you trying to impress? Us? Yourself? Because we don't give a sh*t. Also, if you get hurt, it's going to ruin everyone's trip, that's pretty selfish. Finally, are you looking forward to having sex someday? Because 5 seconds of fun now could jeopardize lots of fun in the future." I think that last one convinced him. We do, occasionally, let our kids jump off modest sized rocks that we scout thoroughly (I usually feel better if I have found a spot like "the Rock" on Insula in my research of the route). But even so, with low water levels or other circumstances, what was safe before may not be safe now. They must wear shoes and life jackets. Last year, my son brought a friend and I told the whole group that under no circumstances were they to jump off the cliff at our campsite, it was not safe below, there was an exposed rock shelf out about 8 feet at the base before the deeper water. My daughter told me later that the friend did it anyway when we weren't looking. This made my son want to do it, but he was talked out of it by my daughter. Could have been a nightmare scenario, as we were there with three kids who were not ours. I'm not interested in bringing that friend along again. |
| butthead |
06/04/2021 10:31AM First thing I thought of is the thread "Do you have to pay for a rescue from BWCA?" Any resulting injury will probably be considered negligence in action caused. Lots of water filled quarries that open up for community use, and plenty of pools with high dives. Why tack a questionable but fun stunt to a wilderness setting and it's attendant SAR difficulties? butthead |
| JustinLinnell1 |
06/04/2021 09:35AM I almost drown on the cliff jump as a kid in the BWCA on Frazer, not something I would encourage. Jumped from so high up that I must have gone 20 feet under the surface and got flipped upside down in the water. Was really dark down there and couldn't tell which way was up in the confusion/darkness. Only happened to figure which way was up from the bubbles rising when I came to my senses & barely made it to the surface without sucking in some water. I saw guys jumping from way up high on Gillis last year, must have been 50-60 feet. They were having a ball, but made my butt pucker to say the least. |
| bobbernumber3 |
06/04/2021 07:12AMmjmkjun: "bobbernumber3: "HankEPants: ".... I'm a little more than leery of this as a colleague broke his neck in his youth jumping off a cliff and has had limited use of his limbs for 20+ years. We know the risks.... suggestions? Thanks in advance." Being a parent is different than being a cliff-jumping best buddy. |
| mjmkjun |
06/04/2021 03:29AMbobbernumber3: "HankEPants: ".... I'm a little more than leery of this as a colleague broke his neck in his youth jumping off a cliff and has had limited use of his limbs for 20+ years. We know the risks.... suggestions? Thanks in advance." +2 They are excited teens. I get that. Suggest curbing this enthusiasm that could go the way of colleague. |
| outsidethebox |
06/03/2021 08:06PM As a pediatric nurse, I have several suggestions-and none of them include cliff jumping. |
| cyclones30 |
06/03/2021 07:03PM Makwa is one HELL of a cliff. I could easily see jumping off a large rock once you've made sure the water is deep enough and have someone nearby in a canoe. I get the hesitation but...for water as clear as Knife it shouldn't be hard to tell if you've got 10' plus below the rock or whatever it might be. I don't recall any real "jumpable" spots but I also wasn't looking on our last trip there. |
| TomP |
06/03/2021 05:23PM Google BWCA Cliff Jumping Death - A sad story from Makwa Lake in 2013 will come up. Be safe out there. |
| KentuckyPaddler |
06/03/2021 12:07PM Not worth it in my opinion. Too easy to slip, and even a 10-15 foot fall on rocks will ruin a trip, if not worse. |
| bobbernumber3 |
06/03/2021 10:40AM Ummm, well... just the obvious suggestion. |
| HankEPants |
06/03/2021 10:17AM Hello everyone, The family is making our second trip to the BWCA in late August (last year's trip was amazing!). One thing our teen aged boys would like to do this time around is cliff jump. I'm a little more than leery of this as a colleague broke his neck in his youth jumping off a cliff and has had limited use of his limbs for 20+ years. We know the risks. So I'm looking for a big rock the kids can jump off of, maybe 10-15 feet high at most. That should be enough adventure for them. We're putting in on Moose Lake and setting up a base camp on Knife Lake for 3 days of day-trips. We might head south into Kekekabic one day, but the pictures of cliffs I've seen there are way, way to high for my tastes (like 40-50+ feet). We will end up in Ensign for one day before heading out on our last day. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. |
Search BWCA.com
Donate