"Jordan Lake to Sagus Lake"

Friday, June 22:

It was a partly sunny day with temperatures in the mid-80s. I got up at 6 AM and was on the water by 8:30. The goal was to reach Sagus Lake or the north part of Fraser Lake today. I measured on the map the distance from the Jordan campsite to the Gerund portage on Fraser to be about 7.8 miles. It turned out that I decided to push on into Sagus Lake, arriving at the southwest campsite at 4:30 PM. So I still did only a little better than 1 mph overall despite a consistent paddling speed of 3 mph. This slower speed caused me to reevaluate my overall goals for the trip. I added some time to today’s trip by stopping to take some pictures of flowers, rapids and falls, cliffs, and lichen.

Except for a group of five guys at the Ima-Hatchet portage (Ima side), I saw no one on Ima, Thomas, Fraser, or Sagus Lakes as I traveled. I had a nice chat with the guys while I waited for them to load and shove off (not a lot of room at that steep portage and it has a deep, rocky landing). They said that they had been the only ones on Thomas the previous week.

I saw some nice wild iris and sets of rapids on the Hatchet River. I met a Ruffed Grouse on the second portage around the rapids. With its ruff out, it squawked at me, charged me, then ran ahead and around, all the time squawking or “mumbling”. I didn’t see it on the second time through the portage.

Wild Iris on the Hatchet River

Upper Rapids on the Hatchet River

The narrows between Thomas and Fraser Lakes is lined with steep cliffs; I took nice pictures there when the water was glassy and the cliffs reflected in the water. On Fraser, I stopped for some pictures of lichens on an eastern mid-lake peninsula.

Thomas-Fraser Narrows

Lichens on Fraser Lake

I took the northern 65-rod portage from Fraser to Sagus. There is a nice-looking campsite on Fraser just before the portage. Dave Sebesta said that the portages in this area of the BWCA were “thinner”, and he was correct. The portage into Sagus was less than a foot wide and the vegetation pushed in on it so that it was barely visible in spots. Previous portages were 2-3 feet wide. There were some beautiful Bunchberry flowers in several spots along the portage. There were 6 portages today, 4 of them in quick succession.

Bunchberry Flower

The western Sagus campsite has a duff ground cover that rain can really move around. The site could probably accommodate three 2-man tents, but you have to be careful where they are pitched because of the rain runoff issue. It is a fairly large site. Rain collects in a few places, especially in the fire grate area. There is a large red pine near the landing across from the island that is in the process of dying. A Pileated Woodpecker has been hard at work on it leaving a large and deep hole near its base. A sloping rock slab on the south side of the site enables ready access to the lake for gathering water.

Hole Created by a Pileated Woodpecker

The campsite is located about 100 feet from an island. The constriction would force any passing loons to be nearer the camp for a better picture. I heard a flock of Canada Geese on or over Sagus, and I saw Common Mergansers, too. There were lots of frogs singing after dark, and they kept it up all night. I put up the tarp because rain was predicted for the following day.

Saturday, June 23:

I wanted to try to catch walleye today. That was the reason I wanted to reach Sagus Lake. While fishing I was noticing mayflies and the carcasses of large Michigan Caddis nymphs (Hexagenia limbata) on the lake’s surface. I wished I had brought my fly rod. I had noticed fish sipping mayflies the previous evening.

The weather forecast from my Delorme/Garmin inReach device was for a 10-20% chance of rain. It started raining around noon. At the time, I had just caught and released a 12 inch walleye. The rig I used was a 5-inch bass-colored swimbait (Zman Elaztech Jerk ShadZ in Bad Shad) on a red 1/0 worm hook tied to a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader which was attached to a swivel with a small weight ahead of it. It was obvious when the walleye took the bait. It was a nice fish. Just as I caught it I noticed that I was opposite the southeast portion of the island and that a loon was onshore, seemingly on a nest. I hoped that I might be able to return with a telephoto lens to capture the scene.

Since it had started to rain, I quickly paddled back to camp to close the rainfly over the tent and have lunch while listening to Blue Jays and White-Throated Sparrows. An adult Bald Eagle sat on the highest tree on the island before flying to another high tree above the southern shore. I also heard and saw a merganser.

After lunch, I hung my hammock for a little while between rain squalls. I had hoped to go fishing again but thunder started around 2:30. The wind was from the northeast. Suddenly at 4:15 the wind shifted to out of the south and its strength increased greatly. A major thunderstorm was overhead with rain pelting down at a 45° angle. It lasted an hour or more. There were streams of water throughout the campsite and water collected under the tarp that was sheltering my gear near the fire grate.

I went to bed early, around 8:20, but within a few minutes I heard three loud plops in the water nearby. I rushed out to look, but I couldn’t see ripples in any direction, nor did I see any animal swimming. Maybe a tree weakened by the storm had fallen into the lake in large pieces? It was a mystery. I planned to go to Raven Lake the next day.