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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum Trip Planning Forum 80 Miles in 24 hours: LIS North to Knife Lake |
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08/29/2021 03:05PM
Right before the first BW closure of the West side of the BWCA, I decided to take a quick weekend trip to see how many miles I could paddle in a 24 hour period. My longest day trip up to that point was a fairly respectable 40 miles, but I knew if the goal was mileage, I could do better. Luckily, I had a paddling partner who had experience with these kinds of trips.
Adam from Piragis agreed to come along. Yes, the same Adam who earlier this year made an attempt to break the Guiness World Record for fastest canoe descent of the entire length of the Mississippi River (2318 miles). He and his team of 3 others fell just short, having to bow out for safety reasons (dangerous weather) less than 50 miles from the end after 18 consecutive days of paddling (they were ahead of world record pace). For those of you not so quick at math, that is an average of 126 miles/day, which is bonkers, even with the current and the extra paddler(s).
With no route or plan, just a goal of covering as much ground as possible on our weekend, we set out from Little Indian Sioux North after work on a Tuesday and paddled nonstop until we reached Knife Lake just under 24 hours later. We traveled just over 80 miles and saw the BW from an entirely different perspective. We paddled the length of 3 of the 5 largest BWCA lakes, paddled through the sunset on LLC, navigated to bottle portage using only a map, headlamp and the full blood-moon, saw the earliest stages of the forest fires on the Canadian side of Crooked Lake, watched the sun come up over Friday Bay and crammed as much in to 24 hours as most people do on multiple week-long trips.
Of course, once we got to Knife Lake there were no campsites available...so we continued on to Portage Lake, crossing a new BW lake off each of our lists. Enjoy the fun!
80+ Miles in 24 hours
Adam from Piragis agreed to come along. Yes, the same Adam who earlier this year made an attempt to break the Guiness World Record for fastest canoe descent of the entire length of the Mississippi River (2318 miles). He and his team of 3 others fell just short, having to bow out for safety reasons (dangerous weather) less than 50 miles from the end after 18 consecutive days of paddling (they were ahead of world record pace). For those of you not so quick at math, that is an average of 126 miles/day, which is bonkers, even with the current and the extra paddler(s).
With no route or plan, just a goal of covering as much ground as possible on our weekend, we set out from Little Indian Sioux North after work on a Tuesday and paddled nonstop until we reached Knife Lake just under 24 hours later. We traveled just over 80 miles and saw the BW from an entirely different perspective. We paddled the length of 3 of the 5 largest BWCA lakes, paddled through the sunset on LLC, navigated to bottle portage using only a map, headlamp and the full blood-moon, saw the earliest stages of the forest fires on the Canadian side of Crooked Lake, watched the sun come up over Friday Bay and crammed as much in to 24 hours as most people do on multiple week-long trips.
Of course, once we got to Knife Lake there were no campsites available...so we continued on to Portage Lake, crossing a new BW lake off each of our lists. Enjoy the fun!
80+ Miles in 24 hours
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08/29/2021 04:55PM
That is crazy awesome. You gotta do that schtit when you are young cuz it only gets harder to do.
I can do 20 miles with full packs and portages but I'm spent when done.
Really, congratulations on your successful adventure.
Tom
I can do 20 miles with full packs and portages but I'm spent when done.
Really, congratulations on your successful adventure.
Tom
08/30/2021 10:28AM
Voyager: "Congrats., that's an awesome day! Bottle portage was hard for me to find in the dark last year. It may have been the lower water, the area just looked different to me. "
It couldn't have worked out more perfectly for us. It was really tough to navigate that big water around warrior hill at night so we just went for it and followed that blood moon all the way to the portage, occasionally checking the map along the way. The moon guided us right to the portage...it was a surreal experience
08/30/2021 10:39AM
Nice! Looks like weather cooperated. We did LIS N to Snow Bay on a fully loaded first half day. The wind was getting nasty on LLC though so that's where we stopped for the day around lunch.
Oh...and the mention of PP site at the end haha
Oh...and the mention of PP site at the end haha
08/31/2021 07:14AM
ericinely: "...I decided to take a quick weekend trip to see how many miles I could paddle in a 24 hour period..."
Certainly not my way of enjoying a canoe trip, but everyone has their own definition of "fun". Hope you had a good time.
09/05/2021 09:01PM
Awesome!
There was a feature article years back in BWJ about somebody attempting to see how far they could paddle in 24hrs. It was a soloist in a canak, and I forgot where or how far they went, but reading it was the first I had ever thought about distance paddling in the BWCA. It’s great to hear about these trips- you never know who or what you might inspire!
There was a feature article years back in BWJ about somebody attempting to see how far they could paddle in 24hrs. It was a soloist in a canak, and I forgot where or how far they went, but reading it was the first I had ever thought about distance paddling in the BWCA. It’s great to hear about these trips- you never know who or what you might inspire!
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread; places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul" -John Muir
09/07/2021 09:36AM
That's a push for sure...especially considering you paddled through the night. My longest day was 34 miles and it took us about 10 hours. I can't imagine holding that pace for about 12-14 hours and through the night.
Fun adventure - i'll have to watch the vid later when i have time.
Fun adventure - i'll have to watch the vid later when i have time.
"Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me, can't get fooled again" - W
09/07/2021 12:30PM
Great video, it reminds me of some of my trips in my 20s when pushing our strength and endurance were a core part of our trips. Now, I enjoy watching others face these challenges. Thanks for sharing the video, you've got a great channel.
"Miller owns that field, Locke that, and the Mannings the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape." - R.W.Emmerson.
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