New Trip Report posted by TomT

Trip Name:Raven, Alice, and Insula

Entry Point: 28

Click Here to View Trip Report

Great report with pictures. I really enjoyed seeing some familiar areas and seeing a father son trip that both seemed to enjoy. Thanks

Nice trip report - it sounds like you had a real adventure getting through all that mud! We're headed to Ely a week from today - from the Northwest suburbs in Chicago. Can't wait!

Nice report. Excellent male bonding, some challenges, good food and some danger (Cliff jumping). What more could you ask for??

Thanks for posting.

I really enjoyed your pics of Raven, I have had my tent set up in that exact same spot 2-3x myself. Brings back some good memories. FYI the portage from Roe to Cap is really quite easy, but mismarked on some of the maps, you just needed to keep heading east. I think the portage is a lot shorter than some maps show and you have to head up the stream towards Cap quite aways further than the map indicates. That area really gets quite overgrown though so I can see how you got confused. I remember just having to power through those vegetation mats--a lot of work. When you finally get to the portage it is quite obvious. If you have to hit the wrong Lake though--Raven is a good one to hit :)

T

I enjoyed your report....glad I am not the only one that has face planted in the muck this year! It wasn't much fun.

Congrats on raising a fine son. You should be very proud of his willingness to serve our country. My son commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the Air Force in Dec. and his new bride also commissioned in May. Unfortunately they won't be at the same AF base til next spring. Please tell your son thank you for his commitment to our country.

We walked back to Raven a few years ago. Looked nice. I don't think the slab rock is the real campsite on the lake though. Someday I will be returning with a PMA permit in hand and find out where the real campsite is. I've also been to the sand beach sites on Alice a couple times. Nice sites.

Reading these trip reports remind me that no two trips are the same. Different lakes, different people, different weather, different circumstances. Still that 'quiet' of the Boundary Waters always makes a mark on me.

Loved your report. I am curious whether you or anyone found out more info about the cause of death for the man at Thomas Lake.

I thought for sure there would be mention of it on this board when I got out. I told the guy about this site though.

I'm not sure how it happened. When we passed through Thomas Lake the next day we saw a large fire at a site and lots of canoes out front. It was very far away from us so really don't know what was going on.

I have a feeling something will come out about it. My son (and me) were a little freaked out about it. Imagine being the 28 year old son and having to stay with your dead fathers body.

TomT,
Enjoyed your trip report very much. Not your ordinary trip by any means, but still a fine one. The pictures were great and added a lot to the report.
Boppa

Great report. Sorry I missed you guys at the rock. I feel bad about the guy who died and his son having to wait there. I'm not being funny.....But, what better place to go. Beats some cold hospital room.

Really nice trip report. Nothing like a father son trip.
Take care.
SunCatcher

Great report. I really enjoyed the pictures. I soloed to Williamson Island last June 16, so I just missed you I guess.

Nice report, a pleasure to read. We had a thread on "Dad stories" a little while back - maybe we should have one on "Kid stories." This one would be a keeper.

I, too, soloed at Williamson Island (last Sept. 13-14), and would stay there again for sure.

Nicely written - I applaud your sense of adventure.

Cheers -

Thanks for the report, and also for the pictures

Enjoyed the report, Thanks!

Hey, this is like an encore or something. Thanks for reading you guys and Beemer, that's nice praise coming from you. I DO have a sense of adventure that goes back to when I was a kid. I don't get too much adventure here in the burbs anymore.

Recently Alex expressed his desire to go to Quetico and "see if we can get lost". We probably won't get to go for awhile because he will be in the Army and I'm looking forward to see how he changes as a result of this. Hopefully we can make many more trips with ultimately going to Wabakimi.

>"see if we can get lost"
Alex has a great attitude!

You can get lost the The Q.

I can certainly show you how to do that....:-)

Enjoyed your report. I had never seen pics of the sand beach campsites on Alice...I've been thru north to south, but we didn't camp. Quite a range of food you had...bars to delicious. Congrats to you and your son.

The beaches surprised me too. There are at least 4-6 really nice beach sites there. We were at probably the largest one that's in the middle of the east shore.

There's 2 really nice ones to the north of there on a peninsula. These 2 are more protected from the wind but you don't get the view of the lake that we had. However, the westerlies can really blow at the site we were on. Lots of good shoreline to explore at these also.

Great report sounds like a nice trip

Tom, Great trip report. We traveled the same route. I can understand how hard the portages are to find after Sagus. You are correct that the portages get very little use in that area. We took the wrong portage out of Cap to Boulder and did quite a bit of bushwhacking. I agree that the beach sites at Alice are great.

Nice trip - bushwacking builds "character" and a definite appreciation of the sites you found at Alice.
I had a similar experience in an unamed bog/lake between Brule and Winchell. Sunk down to mid thigh in muck after the canoe got stuck in the middle. Took me nearly an hour to get back to shore, soiaked, slimy, stinking and a few leeches. Mosquito bait.

TomP, I remember talking before our trips and you were going in just ahead of me. As you enter the bog on Roe did you findthe portage off to the right? I'm thnking I may have missed it cause we were looking left. The maps weren't very specific as to where it is.

Did you camp on alice?