Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Pine Lake to East Pike Lake (9 miles, 1 portage, 180 rods; low=48 high=68)

I wake up about 6:00 and don’t hear any rain falling. I’m expecting complete overcast and just hoping the rain holds off long enough for us to break camp. When I crawl out I’m surprised to see a very nice sunrise. A deep pink color in the clouds and a faded orange between the clouds and the horizon. We take several shots as we also try to have breakfast and break camp. We still manage to get loaded up and on the water by 8:45.

As we paddle the length of Pine Lake we are impressed by the size of the lake and were thankful for only a light breeze this morning. None of us expected to see a lake of this size in this small section of the BWCA. As we continue east, the sky is becoming cloudy but still just a broken layer of clouds. We paddle the length of Pine, McFarland, and Little John with no break. We were able to paddle through all 3 of the short portages that are marked on the map. When we entered John Lake and saw the first campsite open we headed for it. We all just needed to get out and stretch our legs a bit. It was about an 8 mile paddle with no stops.

After the short break, we continued to the west end of John Lake and found the portage to East Pike. This portage is listed as 180rds but seemed quite a bit longer than that. It also had some good elevation change so it was a bit tougher than any of the portages on day 1. Along this portage we met a group of 2 fathers each with a son. The boys appeared to be in the 12 – 14 year old range. Both boys were very polite and were already familiar with proper portage etiquette (the biggest load has the right-of-way). As the second boy approached me, his load looked bigger than mine (relative to our sizes anyhow). I stepped off to the side of the trail to let him by; he gave me a smile and a cheerful “thank you” as he continued past. We briefly spoke with each of them and found out they had spent the night on East Pike and were headed to Pine Lake for tonight. They were doing the same route we were but in the opposite direction. Hope they had a great trip and remained as happy and cheerful throughout the rest of the week.

The plan was to head west and take the site on the south shore. Luck was with us this morning; so far the rain had held off and was not threatening for the immediate future. The site was open and looked to be very nice. As Chris and I landed, an eagle flew right over us to welcome us to the site. It was about 12:45 and we were all ready for lunch. John is the meteorologist for our crew and he had studied the clouds as he paddled west to the campsite. He figured we had plenty of time for lunch but would want to get camp setup shortly after. He said 4:00 at the latest the rain would start.

Here’s the disgusting part of the trip. We unloaded the canoes and brought the packs up to the fire grate area for lunch. All around this area was shredded pieces of paper towel. Then, in the fire pit, we found a partially burnt box of pancake mix, partially burnt bottle of syrup, the all too common chunks of tin foil and other assorted bits of trash. We assumed that the paper towel had pancake batter on it when it was put into the fire. After it didn’t burn and the fire went out, the mice and chipmunks helped spread it around the area. Sooner or later I’m afraid there’s going to have to be some type of system put in place to track who is at each campsite each night. It’s only about the 4th or 5th “trashed” campsite we’ve come across during our trips but there shouldn’t be any.

After lunch we setup the tents, tarp and lean-2 to put our packs under so we’d be prepared when the rain started. We then cleaned up the mess and added it to our trash bag.

It’s a real shame that people would treat any area as a dump, especially one with a view like this.
We then unloaded all our personal gear and by 2:45 we were able to sit and relax. We also had one of the resident loons come by to check things out.

About 3:30 a light rain began. We were able to travel the entire morning and get camp setup before any rain fell, that’s the best we could have hoped for. It rained off and on the rest of the day. We had supper and cleaned up by about 6:30. We had to enjoy our brandy under the tarp tonight and then an early bedtime. Aside from the trash at this site, it had been another very good day in the boundary waters.