Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Four first timers figuring it out
by QuietTime

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/01/2011
Entry & Exit Point: Missing Link Lake (EP 51)
Number of Days: 3
Group Size: 4
Day 2 of 3
Saturday, July 02, 2011 Saturday was a wonderful lazy day in the heat with a slight breeze. We explored the lake and fished everywhere without success. We aren’t the best fisherman, but I don’t think the hot weather was helping. Snipe is beautiful. It has a couple of small passageways with high granite on each side, and several little coves worth exploring. We saw several beavers and heard the loons all evening. I tried my hand at blueberry pancakes for breakfast and chicken teriyaki at dinner. Both were decent, but not worth the time they took in my opinion. The apple cobbler was delicious for dessert.

In my opinion, we could have simplified our menu and cooking utensils and made for a lot less supplies and much more time. When I go again, I will bring only one boiling pot, one fry pan, and dried dinner meals made with boiling water only. I’ll do protein bars, fresh fish, and salami for breakfast and lunch with marshmallows for dessert. Forget the percolator, drink mixes, small pans and all of the other filler stuff that you think you need. It made it heavy and unorganized. Simple and light is the way to go. It seemed like we spent the best fishing / relaxing times preparing food and cleaning up.

On Saturday we also saw the only other folks of the whole trip – a day tripping family that paddled by the site and a group of young guys passing through fishing. Its amazing how secluded it can get just a few lakes into the Boundary Waters. What an amazing place.

We decided over lunch that we did not want to wake up at 5am on Monday morning to make the 8am pickup on Ham Lake. Then we would be tired and fight the July 4th traffic all the way home. We instead planned to wake up late on Sunday, eat breakfast, and head back to round lake. We would call Seagull from Tuscarora Lodge and get out around 3pm. We had a great night talking and eating. We stayed around the fire for perfect marshmallows, watched the loons dive, and played cards till we called it quits after dark.