What a great experience, rain, snow, misty days and even a little sun, I only made it 13 days so I'll have to plan a longer route next time:),and that was with 3 layover days.

On my 72 portages, I seen 5 canoes at 1 portage that was it, that was handy for traveling, some of thous portages are a real challenge, the one between Little Sag and Virgin, alot of going up, but pretty cool at the top, after that many portages I have a little kink in my neck from looking down so much.

I started with 11# of food and brought 4# back, I lost about 8 or 9 pounds, a lot of sweating on some of the portages, I do need to bring a few more snacks,I was down to M&M's at the end.

I seen 4 moose, a wolf, eagles, ducks, lots of loons, grouse and lots of different birds, 3 of the moose and wolf I seen in the 1st 2 days, 1st wolf in the BW.

I'm all ready looking at ways to cut more weight for the next big adventure.

Glad you are back safely after an amazing adventure. I hope you took time to reflect and learn more about yourself. You probably had plenty of time to think about life.

Epic adventure! Glad your back! Lots of wondering if you were staying warm enough and dry enough. Wow on the wildlife. I'm firm believer soloists see exponentially more wildlife.

Love the laker. That 2nd pic of the waterfall is cool. Where was that? Pictos at fishdance?

quote Exo: Love the laker. That 2nd pic of the waterfall is cool. Where was that? Pictos at fishdance?"

I caught 5 laker's and 1 northern in about 45 minutes coming out of Gabimichigami to Rattle, the 2nd waterfalls is between Mueller and Agamok on the Kekekabic trail running between the lakes on the left hand side when heading east, about 1/4 mile down the Kekekabic trail, and yep Fishdance pictoe's.

quote Exo: "Epic adventure! Glad your back! Lots of wondering if you were staying warm enough and dry enough. Wow on the wildlife. I'm firm believer soloists see exponentially more wildlife."

The only day I got cold was the 18th, between Cherokee, Town, Vespar, Grasket, Cam, Brule and finally South Temperance where I camped, when I started traveling it wasn't raining and fairly warm, when I got to the 1st portage it started raining again, then when I got to the 3rd portage it started snowing and the temps were dropping, I was going to stay on Brule but the campsite I wanted was taken, so the next option was 1st campsite on South Temperance, I got lucky and it was open, set the tent up at 4:30pm in the snow, grabbed dry cloths and sleeping stuff and in the tent I went for the night, glad I brought sandwich stuff for that night, tent supper.

By the way thous are some of the rockiest and most challenging portages of the hole trip, lots of watching your step and thinking,was kind of draining with the snow.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip, housty. It seems like it went well. What's next - the Border Lakes trip?

It's hard to believe you started out with less than a pound of food per day and returned with more than a third of it! Of course, you did burn up some fat stores ;).

One thing about getting out when you did. The bugs are out in full force tonight. Was fun to watch your progress. It wasn't until the end I figured out I could message you. Sounds like a great time.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us! Motivates me, big time.

Sounds like a good trip and lots of experience. We were all wondering about you as that massive weather front pounded the state.

Glad to see you had a good trip. I was one of several members that were concerned that you would come back nearly frozen, you had some tough weather to deal with. Thanks to Ben for letting us know how you were doing. Hope to see a more detailed trip report, with lots and lots of pictures, you have a great eye for pictures. Cool greeting on the canoe bottom, only I'd written "Could someone turn up thee heat?" FRED

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

quote nctry: "One thing about getting out when you did. The bugs are out in full force tonight. Was fun to watch your progress. It wasn't until the end I figured out I could message you. Sounds like a great time."

They only started coming out when it was calmer and warmer, didn't hardly see any the 1st week.

Did you get my text back to you? The tracking is pretty cool my dad and friends were following close, you need to get one for your long trips, fun to look at maps and see where you've been, then we can watch to.

quote boonie: "Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip, housty. It seems like it went well. What's next - the Border Lakes trip?


It's hard to believe you started out with less than a pound of food per day and returned with more than a third of it! Of course, you did burn up some fat stores ;)."

I want to do the border route, but I would like to skip around parts of it, to get away from some boat traffic, like start at ep14 and cut the crane part out.

I do need to bring a few more snacks, when you travel from 5:30am to 4:00pm most travel days, burns a lot of energy, M&M's just don't cut it,
most travel days I was in bed by 8:30 to 9:00, a little light yet.

quote Frenchy19: "Thanks for sharing your experience with us! Motivates me, big time. "

I'm already getting motivated for the next long solo.

quote FOG51: "Glad to see you had a good trip. I was one of several members that were concerned that you would come back nearly frozen, you had some tough weather to deal with. Thanks to Ben for letting us know how you were doing. Hope to see a more detailed trip report, with lots and lots of pictures, you have a great eye for pictures. Cool greeting on the canoe bottom, only I'd written "Could someone turn up thee heat?" FRED"

I never thought it got that cold till Mon. the 18th, paddling wet didn't help, thankfully I had a dry set of cloths, That's why I make sure I always have a dry set when traveling, drying cloths is all most a top priority when getting to a camp.

Really glad it was such a great trip, and absolutely love the canoe-snow writing photo.

Glad you made it Mark,
I tried to text you prior to the trip, no response so I figured that option was turned off. You and I were about a half mile apart last weekend as I too was close to the Brule Friday through Sunday. Nuts, I would have enjoyed your company. Too soon for the Mississippi?

great message on the canoe!!! and a bunch of nice photos...

Glad you had a good time Mark. We need to have another wing night in Rochester for sure this summer or meet for dinner some night.

Thanks for posting Housty. Your posts have really motivated me for my own solo starting on the 3rd. 1st one for me. I'm going 13 days too.

quote KevinL: "Glad you had a good time Mark. We need to have another wing night in Rochester for sure this summer or meet for dinner some night. "

That sounds like a good idea, maybe we can do it in Owatonna a little closer for you, Other wise we could pick a weekend and grill at my house and have a campfire.

quote wvevans: "Thanks for posting Housty. Your posts have really motivated me for my own solo starting on the 3rd. 1st one for me. I'm going 13 days too. "

Have a great trip, remember to get plenty of rest at nights, solo tripping will ware you out.

Nice to hear you had a great trip and thanks for the report. That was a pretty challenging route but some really beautiful areas you went through.