Little Indian Sioux Getaway Trip
by bapabear
With an early start we are on the way up the Echo trail to EP 14. Clouds darken and lighten and rain starts and stops as we wind our way along. The parking lot was fairly full but we unload quickly and found plenty of room for the van and trailer on the far side of the parking area. The 40 rd portage to the river was wet and the sheer rock faces we have to travel were slippery but overall I thought it was a neat EP to start a trip from.
I have always liked traveling rivers and even though the clouds were thick and there was threat of rain we were underway. Thoughts of the rest of the world were disappearing with every stroke of the paddle.
Before too long we were hearing the roar of rushing water and we were soon portaging alongside a beautiful stretch of rapids. We double portage and on this particular one I was glad we do. I was able to enjoy the scenery three times and had time during the empty-handed trip to get lots of pictures.
As we left the portage we were treated to a pretty little waterfall off to the left.
We continued to follow the river reaching Upper Pauness. We had an oops moment as we were letting ourselves drift along not really watching the map carefully. When we heard the roar of the rapids to Lower Pauness and headed to the left thinking we were at the portage we started to unpack for the carry when Cody came back laughing saying we were at a campsite! Oops. We moved across the water and found the 17 rod portage tougher than one usually finds in a shorter portage. Near the beginning it was underwater and the end was pretty steep and rocky but it wasn’t long and we were on to Lower Pauness.
Our goal was Shell Lake so we needed the 216 rod portage on our right side. There was a break in the brush near the first of two beaver lodges located side by side. This one was a long 216. Much was mud and underwater yet there were some higher parts that were like a walk on a park trail. It was broken up about two thirds of the way across with about a 70 yard section that we had to reload the canoes and paddle across since the foot bridge was all broken apart. It looked like not all the parts of the old walkway were missing and we did find some alongside a beaver dam a short distance from the actual portage path.
Shell Lake. The wind was starting to pick up as we passed the first campsite on the right. Our lead canoe chose to move further into the lake where we found most other sites taken. As we approached the south end of Con Island I could see activity on the first site. As we passed by I noticed the Flying Moose on a canoe pulled up on the grass and gave a yell to the guy sawing firewood. It was Butthead! He told us the next site on the island had a decent landing but wasn’t much of a site and he was right. We paddled to the northernmost site and found it was also taken. With the wind picking up and our group feeling we had gone far enough today we went back to the middle site on the east side of the island. We squeezed our three tents in and made it home for a couple of nights. It was tight but we jury rigged a tarp and canoe contraption to block the fire grate from the north wind and we found a space for an overhead tarp to eat out of the rain under. That evening the other three went for a paddle around parts of Shell and came back after talking to someone (Butthead I think) and learning that below the rapids into Heritage Lake would be a good place to fish with jigs and yellow twister tails. Cody came back all fired up over that one and I knew where we’d be headed the next day. The evening brought a misty cold rain as we settled into our tents.