Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Moose River First Solo
by crumpman

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 09/02/2015
Entry & Exit Point: Moose/Portage River (north) (EP 16)
Number of Days: 8
Group Size: 1
Day 3 of 8
Friday, September 04, 2015 This was the morning of the swans. While breaking camp the swans started flying. I had seen only 1 swan in all of my other trips; this morning changed all of that. My wife would have truly enjoyed seeing the swans; they were beautiful. My goal today was lunch at the stone chairs on Gebe and camp on Finger Lake. Everything was accomplished, but it was hard. I didn’t anticipate the vegetation on Pocket Creek, which really slows you up. I also only had 1 Nalgene bottle and was running low on water. I used a gravity filter, I think a hand pump for a solo traveling trip may be better. After being short on traveling water, I started carrying some water in my Nalgene canteen, which worked well. I got into Finger on the late side and I hoped to get the good site on the island, alas, it was taken. I took the other island site (108), knowing it had issues. If I had been using a tent, this site would have been miserable. I used a hammock and the site was more interesting to me than bad. After hanging the hammock, I decided to put up a rope railing in case I got up in the night and took a wrong turn. You could walk off the cliff side pretty easily. I got a good thunderstorm this night (9/4). I have a weather radio, new piece of equipment, so I knew it was coming. The weather radio was a nice addition to my gear. I learned to move my welcome mat and camp shoes further under my hammock in order to keep them dry. I considered spend 2 nights on Finger, but the forecast over the next 2 days gave me some concern so I decided to get a lot of LLC behind me.