** Day 2 **
Sunrise came early the next morning, 4:45-5:00. We stirred out of the tent about 6:00 or so. It felt perfectly still – scattered puffs of clouds in the pure, blue sky – the warmth of the rising sun - birds singing close by – the sound of running water somewhere off in the distance - and us. Beautiful.
I took some pictures, we ate a quick breakfast, broke camp, and were on the water by 7:00. Off to the river! We waved at the folks on the site right by the mouth and made a mental note of it for a future trip maybe.
The first set of rapids were well high enough to go through, and we did – a first for us up here for something of that size. I mis-read and thought this was the second set of water, hoping we had skipped a portage, but we figured out soon enough we hadn’t. Further up, as we drifted up to the drop above the 2nd portage, a big bald eagle lit out of a tree right at the put-out, startling us. We had been so occupied looking below the running water that we didn’t even see him sitting in the tree. It was too bad – could have been a really great photo opp.
Made short time of the little crossover, meeting a few groups during and as we put in, and made the long, casual paddle up and around the river towards the last of the 3 portages.
We passed and waved at two female Park Rangers coming South from the portage as we drifted up towards the takeout. I tipped my cap and said, “Hello, Ladies.” The one in the front smiled back and sort of laughed, and as we made a little distance between us, Matthew started to laugh and said, “Way to go Dad..the one in the back was a dude!” Oh well, I thought they were a skinny version of John Denver.
We made quick time of this portage, and wished we could have seen the rushing river water we were hearing beside us, but the brush was too thick. We would get our fill of white water soon enough, though! The rest of the Horse River was a nice leisurely paddle, and although we didn’t see any larger wildlife, we were pretty certain something was in the thick brush off to our right at one point. The greenery shook and rustled, and even though we slowed to a stop and got really quiet...nothing appeared.
When we reached the small bay above the falls, we went left first to check out the lower falls on the U.S. side, but didn’t see a take-out, so we back-tracked over towards the Canadian shore above the main water. As we took out on the shore, we noticed the water was moving quite a bit faster than we had expected, and after we headed over with our first load, we saw why.
The falls were much larger, longer, and stronger than I had envisioned, and they were easily the fastest moving water we had seen in the Boundary Waters. I have been to Niagara Falls, and even though these paled in comparison, it is exactly what I thought of when I walked through the trees to have a look, and take a bunch of pictures. This was pure, raw, natural power, and it was very humbling to stand before it, with an occasional white wave splashing towards me on the rocks. I couldn’t even imagine trying to take a canoe through it, and we hoped no one had ever been pulled into the current above in getting too close.
Matthew didn’t linger as long as I did to take it in, and soon enough, we got the rest of our gear and put into the moving water below and around the bend from the falls, able to see the campsites on the American side from where we were. For a moment, I thought I saw that park ranger from earlier on the far shore..watching us…perhaps thinking of catching up to us to give me some kind of mistaken-gender citation..but surely not. Matthew laughed again for my mistake!
We headed Northeast, surprised by, but very much enjoying, the current that pushed us along on our way. Besides the few people we saw back at the falls on the opposite shore, we would see no one else on Crooked as we made for the pictographs. (Note: Crooked, at LEAST up to Wednesday Bay, should be called Crooked River…but that’s just my take).
The pictographs were easy to spot on the left side going North, spaced out on the face of large granite rocks that served as someone’s canvas years ago. Matthew and I were both impressed, and more so, amazed. One of the paintings clearly looked to be a Mammoth, others something like a Moose, and the Sun, or Moon, and other figures we couldn’t make out or recognize.
But, the neatest thing to me, floating beside these walls, was trying to imagine just who drew these, and when ? The picture of the mammoth kind of gives a time-line. What kind of “paint” did they use that would last this long ? How did they reach up that far from the water, IF there was water here then. Or, did they hang over the rocks to draw this? Matthew and I also wondered - Could this have been just a couple of young kids doodling? Early graffiti? Regardless of the circumstances, I felt connected in a way to the artists. It was one of those moments that you will always remember.
We paddled (floated) further up river to the camp we were hoping for, just below Wednesday Bay, on the left-hand, U.S. side of the channel, no more than 60-70 feet from Canada on the opposite shore. I thought it was one of the best campsites we had ever had. We even caught a few fish over on the Canadian side of the water – Thanks, Dudley Do-Right!
There weren’t a whole lot of spots due to the moving current that you could sit and fish in the canoe. We had to get the hang of paddling back up river, and then letting it carry us down again as we fished the shoreline, but later in the afternoon Matthew latched onto a monster Northern, the biggest our group ever caught! (Sorry, Bear-Bait! You’re still second, though) It was a great thrill watching Matthew bring him in…and into the canoe. We would have fished more, but with the wind steadily picking up, and that strong current, we decided to do most of our fishing from the camp shoreline and hope for better luck in the evening.
Had a good meal/easy cleanup, a good campsite, we laughed and talked a lot, waved at the few folks that came by later in the day, and turned in at dark. We were already excited for the next day, and hopefully lighter winds for good fishing. *** Horse Lake, Crooked Lake ***