...we just finished a 14 day paddle working our way through the
parts of the southwest corner of the Woodland. Sore knees, some interesting fauna, wonderful fishing, and the wonder of the burnt landscape slowed our distance, not our enjoyment of this land.

Last June, we paddled out onto Wrist and watched the fire grow along the north shore before heading to Mexican Hat...in September, we returned, noted the new growth, tried to calculate the logic of the fire's path, and passed north towards Adventure, its creek, and Hammerhead...what we missed was the burn on Amber and the quick burn through this narrow lake...today, the trail between Amber and Streak is lush with new growth silenced by the charred figures of spruce, jack, and popple.

Perhaps, the most stunning view of the recent fire is the trail that leads out of Aegean towards the Oiseau River and Paull. A favorite blueberry trail now was a line of green or green growing plants between the darken forest floor...the trails along the river dropping out of Paull is clear of a lot of undergrowth allowing one to actually see the falls, rapids, and drops...here, already ferns grow.
For now, most of the trails that we walked were very passable as the wind/time has not yet worked on taking down the trees.

By chance, we set camp on Wrist facing west last Sunday night in a land of small spruce and jacks. When the hard wind hit our tent was parallel with the wind, and while we rocked about...we moved little and watched the build up of clouds that split in different directions but never dropped hail or much rain...we felt very fortunate of our
chance site and very saddened when Claire told us of the BWCA events..

Fishing was great as always, we spotted six moose: 3 pairs cow/calve, two on Aegean and one on Mexican Hat. On Monday we got wind bound heading into Glenn...at the falls and enjoyed several hours of watching spray from the falls blowing up stream by the wind...

Thanks for the report. Glad to hear the portages are still open. I have read that the fire left numerous green patches. Did you notice many along your route?

yes, lots of areas that were not burnt or just touched with the forest floor burnt, but the trees just scraped by the fire...we got as far west as the "cross" in Welkin which burnt hard...yet, one could find a place to camp...Jig Saw was burnt only on the far west shore...lots of places the under growth was burnt, leaving some long and unusual views in this forest...

Thanks for the report. Fire is what makes WCPP what it is. Post up more pictures if you get time?

Wow. Is that Birch? Hope some of that energy has dissipated, he looks like one powerful pup!

...yes that's Birch...around 80 pounds...very quiet around camp...still has the habit of over greeting people...but settles more quickly...last fall he fell asleep in the canoe while we paddled across Jig Saw while on top of the Duluth Packs...he rolled into Jig Saw...walks behind us on the portage trail...but of course he is a Labrador so he does get a bit hyper at times...take care and hope all is well with you...

I think of him when my own lab mix pup gets a bit over enthusiastic. Hopefully she will top out at 45-50 lbs. 7 mo old, but she is a rescue we got just a month ago. No way she con go this summer. I know she will like camping though.

Just started filling the food barrels. Right now I have only the weekends to prepare, a new experience for me and possibly more challenging than the trip itself. Thankful my new employers (enthusiastically) allowed me to take a week in the middle of my training for a BW trip.