Hello All:

On average, is there a time of day where wind speed is the greatest? We have had a few trips crossing large open lakes and a 1 hour paddle has turned into 3 hours. Is very early morning the best time to paddle with regards to winds?

Also, I have generally seen wind blow west to east. Is this a normal pattern in the BW?

Thank you kindly,
MB

The best time to travel is generally in the morning. However, it’s not always that way. I’ve woken up to some howling winds before. Generally, the wind picks up as the air warms throughout the day, then it generally dies down an hour or two before sunrise. Of course, you could have a completely calm day, all day. Whitewolf could definitely teach us a lot more then I can. I’m only speaking from experience. Also, generally speaking, the prevailing winds in the BWCA are generally west to east or NW to SE, but this isn’t always the case. I swear I’ve done countless out and back trips going into the wind both ways! Hopes this helps...

Tony

The general rule for avoiding as much wind as possible is to get an early start in the morning and be able to pull over to camp early afternoon. This doesn't always hold depending on the weather pattern. But I would say 1-5pm is most likely time for strong winds. Winds often die down in the evening, but you don't want to be traveling and trying to find a campsite at that time during the busy season.

General wind pattern is west to east, but with storm systems that can vary greatly. And last summer, during good weather, the wind was out of the south for 6 days on my solo. I find the biggest key for dealing with wind is to find the lee shore as much as possible, even if it means going out of your way. Also learning to wind ferry your canoe will save you a lot of headaches. I had strong winds out of the south on Brule. I just paddled on the lee side of each island and then wind ferried between the islands. I hardly worked at all.

Saganaga is a very big lake, with some huge sections of open water. I have crossed it at least 50 different times. Over the years, we have learned, the earlier the better. We just keep finding ways to get on the water earlier than the last time. At one point, we used to drive up from the twin cities starting at about 2 in the morning. We would get to Grand Marais, eat breakfast, pickup our permit, and head up the trail. But at some point, the ranger station didn't open until 8 am. It's an hour to the end of the gunflint, so at best, we are at Sag at 915 or 930. It usually takes us 30 or 40 minutes to get everything ready, so we're doing good to start paddling by 10:15 or 10:30. That means it's at least noon by the time we get to some of the most dangerous stretches of water, and we wont get to 1st bay until 2 ish. That math doesn't work for me. It leaves me very vulnerable to heavy wind.

So now, we pick up our permit at the duluth pack in Duluth, the night before entry, and bunk out of the Rockwood lodge. They are half way up the gunlint trail. We get up at 5 am, and are at the end of the trail by 5:30. This got us on the water 4 hours earlier. We are now on the water by 6:30 or 7. We have big aluminum canoes, with triangle backs, that allow for 5 horse motors. We can make it to American point in 45 minutes, ditch the motors, and paddle off the lake before 10 am. Most years, it's completely diminished our exposure to high winds, and treacherous water. When we pack out, first one that wakes up to the birds, gets everyone else up. It's the same thing on the way out. We're in the canoes before 7 am.

I know it seems like over kill, but I've been on that lake for some horrible white knuckle paddling, and I don't really care to do that again. 3 times in 50 trips, we couldn't get around american point, and had to turn back. Twice we camped on the islands, and once we just took at nap until 7pm, and the lake simmered down.

I cannot recommend strongly enough, to get out early. As others have said, the wind is likely to be less, and you will have more campsites to choose from. When the winds get bad, everyone heads for cover, and campsites fill up quickly, because no one wants to cross big water.

Besides the calm water, I truly believe that the park is at its best at dawn. There is nothing quite like paddling on glass through a misty fog as the sun rises. As close as you can get to heaven on earth...

Agreed, early morning is best. I plan around that when planning routes or when heading out in the morning. If I'm starting on big water, then I aim to put in at dawn. If I'm crossing big water in the middle of a trip then I plan on either camping before or after the big water so I can choose to cross it that day or the next morning depending on the wind. You always have to be prepared to be delayed by a day or so though since there are no guarantees.

unanimous , early is better but as gopher adventure stated you never know , been on trips where the wind as blown hard for 5 days straight :(

Yes, early in the day is better. Afternoon it usually picks up afternoon, maybe 11 or so. As all others have said, it depends on the day. We had one trip we tried to move before noon each day because it was white caps all afternoon each day. 1 trip it was so windy we were up with the sun, very early and it still wasn't great....but better than later in the day. Other trips have been calm most days.

We always assume we will have 2 days out of 6 that are hard to paddle and fish. Sometimes more, not usually less.

Agree with the above, only adding that sometimes early means "really early". After winds shut me down one day, I ended up getting up the next morning at 4am to beat the winds - did my first portage by headlamp in the dark. I got across two good sized lakes that day but winds were picking up and troubling by 9 am or so.

Fortunately winds that extend beyond the afternoon and are troubling to paddle in are often part of a bigger weather system that is often pretty predictable, at least up to a week or so. I like to use Windfinder specifically for winds. Its usually fairly accurate up to about 7 days. Could help plan travel days for a week trip.

When we paddled lake nipigon, a very large lake, we were up at three and on the water in a half hour. It was light enough that we could see the shoreline. We ate breakfast as we paddled. The lake was like glass. As we paddled we watched as a timber wolf observed us from a rocky point. It was easily the best paddling I had ever done. As the day wore on the wind and waves picked up. The wind was out of the west, the direction we were paddling. By the time we got to the mouth of the kopka river the waves were so large we would lose sight of the other canoes even though we were never more than thirty feet apart. Absolutely fabulous canoeing, it helped that we were in super dependable prospector canoes.

We were in Quetico during "the Great American Eclipse" of August 21, 2017 (and missed the total eclipse seen in our NC area). We found a nice spot on Agnes to view the partial eclipse and have lunch. High haze/clouds partially obscured our view, so we decided to head on down the lake. To our amazement, Agnes was glass--in more than a dozen passes through Agnes we've never seen it so smooth.

TZ

As many have stated- better chances of little wind / calm in the early morning and opposite of that in late afternoon -- say 3-6pm on a avg summer day. However if a synoptic storm system is in the area you can disregard this and wind strength/direction and timing is all based on low and high pressure or squall lines etc and even strong fronts , but most fronts are usually brought to the table by low or high pressure. But focus on most of the time lighter winds prevail in the early AM-- why?

Much of the tendency for it to be windier during daylight hours is driven by sunlight and solar heating. The sun unevenly heats the Earth's surface which, in turn, imparts uneven warmth to the air immediately above it. In some cases- winds from a couple thousand feet up (stronger due to less friction at those levels compared to surface winds) are "mixed" down to the surface. This is usually the case on the windiest of days and - as you probably guessed- most likely at peak heating of day-- and also what allows lower level pollutants such as smoke to be "mixed" or transported very large distances.

As far as wind direction avg's - that primarily is driven by the month and is best viewed by looking at wind roses. Wind roses avg the wind over a month in both direction and speed. The following is for Ely and has avg data since 1983. Ely's avg wind speed seems low compared to other sites (HIBBING - I-FALLS) most likely because this data comes from the airports and Ely's airport is rather small and surrounded by trees compared to larger more exposed airports. The calm % for Ely is obviously affected by trees. You could easily double those avg wind speeds that come from Ely if your on the exposed side of a large lake in the BWCAW/Q/

make sure you scroll down for month to month data- Ely wind roses

Another general rule of thumb is that you are likely headed on the right direction if you are paddling into the wind. Always check your map if you find yourself with a tailwind... you could be off course. Wind will increase about the time you leave camp and be decreasing soon after selecting a campsite. 70% of the time.

Whitewolf, those wind rose charts are absolutely fascinating! If I’m interpreting them correctly, I’m surprised to see May and June showing the largest percentage of and strongest winds from the SE - and more so than SW. I would have thought that to be more common in October.

I’m not sure if you are familiar with Edward Tufte, data presentation guru, but I think he would love these charts for their high data density and rapid information transfer. From a canoe tripping perspective, it would be fascinating to see the charts modified in a way that on the outward radiating axis replaced wind speed with wind duration of all winds above some threshold, say 8 mph which I think is about where it gets annoying to paddle. That would convey a lot of information about those pesky multi-day winds that can cause us to hunker down in camp. Maybe not interesting to everyone and a lot of work to do, but maybe you will have an intern someday with not enough to do.

analyzer--where do you "ditch the motors" by American Point? I've thought about how to avoid having to take a tow but also avoid paddling all of the way there to get a quicker start through the motorized zone.

Speaking of "mixing" I mentioned above- today for many is classic atmospheric mixing.

Ya.. where do you ditch your motor?

For 20 years I fought the wind as a dispatcher for ag spray rigs. Generally the wind is calm at day break and gradually pick up during the day. Then about the time I gave up and sent the operators home 6 to 7 pm the wind would die down.
With that experience I always try be across a big body of water by 10:00 am. Then be ready to fish by 6 pm.
I’m 100% right 50% of the time!

bottomtothetap: "analyzer--where do you "ditch the motors" by American Point? I've thought about how to avoid having to take a tow but also avoid paddling all of the way there to get a quicker start through the motorized zone. "

We have been crossing sag for years with big alumacraft aircraft carriers like these:







You can see the triangle back, where the motor mounts.

We use a 5 hp and a 3 hp motor on them. I don't think they are rated for 5, but it works fine. In the twin cities you can often find a 5 horse power motor for $300 or less at a garage sale. I like the ones with a separate gas can. If the tank is built in on top, it tends to be pretty small, and if you have to fill up, mid trip, you could be out in wavy water, and slopping fuel into the lake. So I far prefer those with a separate tank, and just place it in the bottom of the canoe.

I've learned to put a little weather stripping along the back, where the motor sits. Otherwise water tends to run up the motor and trickle in the back. I always keep a big plastic bailing cup (32 ounce MN twins cup from the ballpark works well) in the back with me, so if water is coming in, I can bail a little.

The big catch 22 is these canoes are so heavy, you don't really want to portage more than 30 rods. I have now installed swivel boat seats in mine. Really helps with the back. I know that sounds weird, but if you aren't portaging, it's a backsaver. But i had to re-enforce the aluminum to support the seats, and now these 95 lb canoes weigh more like 105. yikes.

3 gallons of fuel is more than enough to get you out and back. Its more than I need, but 3 times we haven't been able to get around american point because of the wind, and a couple of times, we just stayed in the islands, in the motorized zone the rest of the trip. It was nice to have some fuel to make a run down to red rock.

We've ditched the motors a couple times down by the portage into red rock, and then portaged into there, and sometimes into Alpine too. We just find a little spot away from traffic, and lay the motors down between a couple dead trees, and cover them up a little bit. We leave the plastic gas can too. We put bicycle locks on them, but that wouldn't really stop them, if they really wanted them. But it would be a pain to haul two motors out of the woods that are locked together. You leave your car for a week at the landing, and don't worry about people breaking into them, it's even less likely someone would mess with your motors.

I have figured out a way to tandem carry my aluminums, with both guys under a swivel seat. We used that method to go from Clearwater to Mountain. That's not a fun portage with a couple 105 lb canoes, but we made it work. Just left the motors on the clearwater side.

if a person doesn't mind portaging across Monument with those canoes, you just have one other short portage at swamp, and you could go all the way down to knife. It's nice to have a big stable canoe when you're in windy conditions. i've never capsized one. They are more like narrow row boats.

One thing to keep in mind. If you try to add a motor via side mount on your lighter weight canoe, any time you put a motor on a canoe it changes the licensing requirements. You have to have your license displayed on the side of the canoe in 3" numbers. Check the regs, that might only be if it's 16' or something like that.

We've had 50 round trips across sag, and we've never had an issue with the motors, as far as someone messing with them. I've had one that wouldn't start. But that's why it's nice to have 2. We often tow a canoe with motorized canoes. So when one motor didn't work, we had to pull two canoes with it. It worked fine. Just daisy chained them together. With a 3 horse, it takes about 45 minutes to get to American Point. I think the 5 horse, could probably make it in 35. My 5 horse is from the early 60's and starts in 2 or 3 pulls every year. It's amazing.

I like to keep the weight a little back when we're motoring, to get her to plane out. You don't want to be plowing water with the front end, in rough seas. We pack pretty heavy when we're base camping, but it works just fine. It's nice when the trip is over, to hook up that motor, and get half a lake free ride.

Normally going to Alpine, you would go across Seagul. But we couldn't get a permit the one memorial weekend for Seagul, so we just grabbed a Sag permit, and motored around to Red Rock, and got there from the north.

As far as where we ditch them on sag. It's the same point that the tows drop you off, just west of honeymoon island. We just walk it back in the woods a ways, so people don't see it when they walk back to take a pee. But even if they did, I don't think they'd mess with it.

You might want to bring a spare shear pin just in case. We are also careful to tie are motors into the canoe. Once when towing a 2nd canoe, we cranked up the motor before the 2nd canoe was moving. When the slack came out of the rope, it was a bit too much pressure on the lead canoe, and the motor spun right off the mount, and down she went. It was only 8 feet of water, so I retrieved it. But it was a little challenging. So i recommend a slow start when pulling another canoe, until the slack is gone, and she's moving. I also recommend using the proper tow technique. You're supposed to tow the 2nd canoe from underneath, not from the top front. You want the 2nd canoe to ride up, not get pulled down.