Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Insula Base Camp (My Wife's First Trip)
by HikingStick

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 05/14/2010
Entry & Exit Point: Lake One (EP 30)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 2
Part 2 of 2
ge of the trip.

The portage to Fishdance was only listed as 70 rods, but might have been longer due to the low water level on the downstream end. Going inbound, 90% of the portage was uphill, with a fairly steep decline at the Fishdance end. Though shorter than the Lake Four-to-Insula portage by more than 30 rods, it felt much longer. We only had our day gear and canoe. I cannot imagine portaging that one twice with all of our gear.

[Fishdance] Based on sun and shadow, I estimated that we arrived during the latter part of the morning. We paddled out into the lake, turning south to the area marked on our map as "Fishdance picture rocks". From prior experiences viewing primitive artwork, I was expecting some large (2') figures, like thunderbirds, or stick figures. At first, we thought the orange moss might be the pictographs, but it was soon clear that it was simply moss (we read that the pictographs only survived because of the iron content in the dye that was used, so we equated the orange with rust). After paddling the length of the rock face that supposedly hosted the pictographs, we were ready to give up and turn around. That's when Marie noticed a very clear image on the rock face--something about the size of a handprint. It looked like a football dissected by vertical lines (as a rough approximation: <‡‡‡‡> ). Once we saw that one--clearly a deliberate pattern--we knew what color to pick out from the rock face. We began back along the rock, spotting more pictographs as we went. In one spot, moss, lichen, and weather obscured what might have been a broad scene: a canoe, teepee, an animal, and other indiscernible shapes. We also saw some amazing, large spiders. It was a short visit, but well-worth the time and effort.

We circled back and portaged out. It still seemed long even when we had gravity in our favor. We found a couple of water bottles in the brush alongside the trail, and took them with us (I posted about them in the Lost and Found discussion thread). The fishermen were gone from the upper pool, so we made our way to the next portage. There were still many fishing below. I saw one pull in a nice northern pike (30" or so). I regretted not bringing my rod on our day trip. Our return trip was commenced at a leisurely pace. We paused to photograph martens at play, and other eagles. There was definitely some wind on the big water, but the sheltered Kawishiwi was still mostly calm. We encountered a group of men at one of the campsites we passed and asked about their fishing. They asked about our trip to the picture rocks. When we told them that we found them, one of the older fellows told us he had gone up there before but had never seen anything. We described what we saw as best we could (color, size, height on the wall), and commented on the water levels. They had been at the same site the year before, on the same weekend, and water levels were more than three feet higher than they were this year. Given how full Fishdance seemed, it seemed amazing that the lower lakes were so low.

We followed the path we came in back out into Insula. By the time we got to the big water, the winds had settled down a bit . There was just enough to blow you off course, but not enough to be a real headache. Cloud cover was now thick enough that we could not gauge time. I thought it might be 2:30 PM, since shadows had still suggested morning time when we last saw the sun. We decided to take a pass on "The Rock" and stuck to a more direct route to where our campsite should like. Once again, however, the low water levels complicated things. I was watching for a group of four islands aligned north-south at the east end of a larger landmass, but could not pick out the landforms precisely. I studied the map intently (I'm so glad to have a Stormshield case for it), and then began to steer to the east. Now, both Marie and I were wondering how late it really was. Four o'clock? Five? At worst, I figured, we'd hit the eastern shore of the lake, and I could follow it back to an identifiable point from which to head back to camp. As we rounded a point to the south, I was pretty confident we were headed the right direction, but I soon was unsure of myself again. The lower water levels not only made some larger islands merge into one, but it caused many more smaller islands to stand out in stretches of water, thereby confusing my navigation. We saw some guys fishing off an island and stopped to see if they knew where they were. They were not carrying a traditional map, and were simply drifting wherever the winds and currents took them. They did, however, have a GPS device, and once I figured out which way pointed north, I could tell that we were really close to our camp. Sure enough, after thanking them and pushing off, our campsite came into view after getting around a couple of small islands. It felt good to make it back.

Once back on shore, Marie located her watch and checked the time: it was only 3:30 PM! That gave me hope that we'd be able to make it out at a decent hour in the morning, provided we got up and out early, and it meant we had yet another afternoon and evening free to relax. Marie did some additional exploring while I fished and then kept my hammock company.

Supper was Tuna Helper again. I really don't like the stuff all that much, but it makes for an easy meal.

We spent some time during the evening prepping our gear and moving things between packs. The hammock came down. We also encountered a few mosquitoes. Gnats were starting to buzz about, too, and the warmest part of the day had its share of flies. If the weather stays warm, Memorial Day visitors are going to need bug armor and repellent by the gallon. Our plan was to rise by 5 AM and get an early start on our return trip, so we bedded down by about 9 PM.

Day Four (Homeward Bound)


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I was up at 11 minute to 4 AM, or, at least, that's what my wife's watch told me. I was surprised to see the pre-dawn light and to hear so many birds at that hour, but figured we might as well get an early start. It was not until later in the morning that I learned that the Mrs. never adjusted her watch for daylight savings time. Thus, it was actually quarter-to-five when I got up. Oh, well...

Of course, morning couldn't go off without a hitch. No sooner was I up than it started raining ever so lightly. By the time I had sleeping bags and pads stuffed and stowed, the rain fly was soaked. The rain stopped shortly thereafter, but it was cool and calm. There was no wind to dry anything quickly. I hung the rain fly on our clothes line because the sun was already shining in that space. Yet, when breakfast was done and the other gear was loaded, the fly was still wet.

We dallied a while to see if it would dry. When it became clear that waiting for a dry tent would mean leaving midday, we packed it in wet and committed to getting on the water as soon as possible. We were paddling by 8 AM. Since there was no wind, I put all three packs in vertically immediately behind the front thwart. We made our way around the southern end of the island, and carefully navigated toward our first portage of the day: Insula to Hudson.

Something felt good about knocking that big portage off early in the day. On the way in, it had been our final portage and we felt it. On our exit, it was the first and thus we knew that none of the rest of them would pose so great a challenge. We considered altering our exit route to shorten our paddling time, but we decided against those three extra portages. Again, we were blessed with minimal winds. As morning progressed we had some wind at our back. It switched for a while and opposed us mildly before eventually giving away to a preponderant calm. Marie often inquired about the distances we traveled, or how far it was to our next lake or portage. I believe it helped her concentrate on paddling. When we got to the break between Lake Four and Lake Three, I forgot that the northern passage between the island and the main shoreline was dry. Rather than paddle around, however, we quickly pulled our packs and carried them the eight or ten rods necessary to get back into the water.

We did remember, however, to try the southern chute when we approached our next portage. We might have been able to paddle through it, but I didn't want to risk cracking the canoe over the final drop, so we got out and let it through with a rope tied to the bow. It not only saved us a little time, but it was a lot of fun and broke up the monotony of the morning. Since the packs were now lighter, I'd taken to wearing one pack while carrying the canoe, meaning only one of us needed to go back for anything heavy. We snacked at the next portage and traveled on. When we got to our final portage for the trip, I again returned to doing it all in one pass--two packs and the canoe. It felt great, and was much easier since the load had been redistributed.

Thankfully, we didn't run up against any strong winds. We wound our way northward through Lake One, until I was at the point where I was searching for the inlet that would lead to the EP30 landing. I kept reading the landforms and the map, and knew we were close. I looked at my compass bearing, however, and something seemed amiss. I told Marie that I think we overshot the passage, and I turned us back westward for a few hundred yards. Sure enough, we had missed it. I'm glad we turned around when we did. Had I continued to where my eyes thought the opening might be, we likely would have needed to backtrack a mile or more.

During the final stretch, it was comfortably warm and overcast, and a gentle sprinkle of rain began falling. We found our way to the landing with no trouble, and soon were loaded and headed into Ely for pizza. I had hoped to be out of the water during the noon hour, but we ended up pulling out around 2:30 PM.

Overall, it was a good trip and a great success. My wife is already talking about what we might do on our next trip, and she'd like me to plan one with our four eldest kids as well.

We covered just over 15 miles on our way in (averaging about or under 1.8 mph). For my wife's first trip, that was probably a bit much, but she handled it well.

Our day trip to Fishdance was just over 16 miles for the round trip. We made really good time on that one. After taking out our time for lunch, we were over 2 mph.

During an early stretch of our return trip of 14 miles (we didn't have the wrong turns we had on the way out), we averaged more than three miles per hour, but we clearly slowed as the day progressed (we ended with a 2.15 mph pace).

All in all, we covered 45 miles and 1010 rods of portages (counting the doubles). I'd say that's a pretty good introduction to the BWCA. I'll try to post links to some photos soon. Insula, Lake, Hudson Lake, Three, Lake, Four, Lake, Fishdance Lake, Organ Lake