BWCA Trip Report - SE Quetico Solo 2002 Boundary Waters Trip Reports
Chat Rooms (0 Chatting)  |  Search  |   Login/Join
* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.
Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
   Trip Reports
      Trip Report - SE Quetico Solo 2002     

Author

Text

10/02/2018 12:28PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
New Trip Report posted by sedges

Trip Name: SE Quetico Solo 2002.

Entry Point: Quetico

Click Here to View Trip Report
 
Reply    Reply with Quote    Print Top Bottom Previous Next
10/02/2018 12:35PM  
My God. Cut and paste did not preserve paragraphs. I will edit and make it more readable. Sorry, its my first excursion into trip reports.
user0317
distinguished member (380)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/03/2018 02:45PM  
Great report. Beautiful canoe!
Driftless
distinguished member (361)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/03/2018 06:20PM  
Awesome report! Thanks!
10/03/2018 07:11PM  
Thank you, Its been a long time coming. I've got two more from 2016 and 2018 in the works. I might even do some for trips much further in past.

The canoe I built for a friend back in the 1980s. She died in a car accident and the boat went to a close friend of hers. It was never used except when I borrowed it, which I did often, always returning it refinished. The boat has moved on to the unknown since 2002, but I still have the molds. I'll build another some day. Its my favorite solo. Mad River Independence comes close and is similar.
10/25/2018 01:22PM  
I really enjoy your writing stile, it is descriptive without being overly flowery. I look forward to reading the other reports as you post them.

Having seen your other photography I understand why your are frustrated with the pictures, but they still convey the lovely area you paddled.
olderjim
member (28)member
  
10/25/2018 04:39PM  
Does your Dad's paddle that you left say "He showed the way of the wilderness to many" ??
Northwoodsman
distinguished member(2059)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/26/2018 07:30AM  
Excellent report. You should have been a writer.
10/26/2018 12:56PM  
olderjim: "Does your Dad's paddle that you left say "He showed the way of the wilderness to many" ??"


It has been a long time since that day and I don't remember exactly, but that seems about right. I went back through my shop notebooks to see if I wrote it down prior to carving it into the blade. I think I just sketched it on the blade. Did you encounter the paddle? I figured it might end up in a beaver lodge, or probably just rot away on the ground under the tree. My next trip will likely start on Saganaga and I will have my RABC permit so I can do a day trip to see the pictographs and revisit the site.

I worried about offending wilderness values leaving something like that. I made sure it was all organic stuff that would disappear pretty quickly and left in an out-of-the-way place.
olderjim
member (28)member
  
10/26/2018 04:24PM  
James H Sullivan
1916 2000
Shared the way of the wilderness with many.

I have three photos. Two of the paddle with
the paddled tied upright to a tree with the scarf.
Third is close up of the paddle with the inscription.
I was camped very close to the small i
island near the Pictograph. Approx 2007
Will try to send the photos..
Jim Inman



10/26/2018 08:43PM  
Jim,

Wow! Sometimes it is just a real small world. I would love to see the photos. If you can post them in your photo journal I can see them there. To make the connection more complete here is a photo of James Sullivan on his last canoe trip in 1987. We did about a 12 day loop from Trails End. Knife, Basswood, up to Sarah, Mcintyre, Brent, Darky, Tanner, Sturgeon and up the Maligne River, back to Saganaga. The words are from my last entry in my journal for the trip.




The Last Portage

The last portage was just like any other, the last campsite, too. Everything went very smoothly, as always. Travel in the wilderness has a calming effect on us. The last portage was my fathers very last. At 71, he figured that this would be his last canoe trip. I suggested that we could pick an easier route next year, maybe one with fewer portages, less in and out of the canoe, more paddling. No, if he couldn't go to the places he really wanted to then he'd rather not go at all. " No hard feelings about it, you know, except maybe I wish I would have started coming here when I was younger." I was quiet then. He had introduced me to the canoe wilderness early in my life. I was sixteen on that first trip, he was already fifty-two. It was hard not to talk about all the ideas for future trips bouncing around in my brain, but I kept my ideas to myself.

We traveled well together. Even a harsh father-son argument settled down in short order. Our routine in camp was efficient and uncomplicated. It allowed us lots of time to enjoy the places we had come to see. On one of the last days of the trip we were paddling so well together that we covered 21 miles before we made camp at 1:00.

The last portage was around Silver Falls, a scene we enjoyed every time we passed that way. The last campsite was on Saganaga Lake. As usual, it made us work hard to get off of it the last day of the trip.

June 1987
olderjim
member (28)member
  
10/27/2018 08:27AM  
olderjim
member (28)member
  
10/27/2018 08:28AM  
olderjim
member (28)member
  
10/27/2018 08:29AM  
10/27/2018 10:19AM  
Jim,

Thank you so much for the photos. At the time taking photographs was not on my mind. Now I have some. The toque(hat) he is wearing in the photo above is the same one on the paddle. Pretty sure it is the same paddle, too. The voyageur sash is faded, but still intact after 5 years. A testimony to wool. I'm sure the local birds have bits of of toque and sash in their nests by now.

A great trip down memory lane. Thanks

Rdm guest paddler
Guest Paddler
  
10/27/2018 04:58PM  
Sedges thanks for sharing this trip report. September of 2002 my Father just turned 70 years of age while I turned 45. I had been canoeing tripping for about 10 years at that point and my Dad had never been on a canoe trip to the BWCA or Quetico. I convinced him to make a trip to Quetico that September. We travelled up the Falls chain to Mcewan lake and back.

On the return leg we spent a night in the back bay near the pictographs and discovered your memorial to your Father. My memory is that we were both a bit in awe and wonderment of the memorial and what the story behind the man and person who placed the memorial might be. If memory serves me I included a picture of your memorial in a trip report that I created for my Dad.

My Dad is still alive and well having just turned 86. I look forward to sending him a link to this story to close the loop on our trip that September of 2002.
10/28/2018 12:30AM  
Sedges,
Thanks for sharing your trip. I appreciate and learn from you being able to stay in the moment. It seems like modern life gets us to where we need to be doing something all the time, which makes it hard to enjoy what you are doing, if that makes any sense. I have really enjoyed all three reports you posted recently. It is really fun to read your report and trace your route on a map.
Dbldppr1250
distinguished member(1284)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/29/2018 08:18PM  
beautiful pictures!
TheGreatIndoors
distinguished member (142)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
02/13/2019 10:04PM  
Lovely trip report and a testament to the beauty of our experience with the wilderness. I took my father to the BWCA for the first time last May. He is 77 now and paddled through with calm enjoyment and stubborn patience. What a wonderful experience to share with family.
mapsguy1955
distinguished member(583)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
02/14/2019 12:48PM  
Simply wonderful... Thank you.
 
Reply    Reply with Quote    Print Top Bottom Previous Next