Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

EP 62 Clearwater to Caribou: Johnson Falls, Palisade, Fishing, Fallen Tree Almost Hits Our Tent
by tcoeguy

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/07/2017
Entry & Exit Point: Clearwater Lake (EP 62)
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 4
Day 4 of 5
Saturday, June 10, 2017

After sleeping in a little later on Saturday, we ate breakfast and hung out until late morning. Our day trip was to Johnson Falls. It took 2 short paddles and 2 portages to reach the hiking trail that led to the falls. The trail was very wet, muddy, and rocky. After about a 15 minute hike, we reached the falls and they were amazing. There were 2 levels to the falls, an upper and a lower. We swam in both. The upper falls were more rocky and you were able to sit in the lower part of the falls near the river bank and be blasted with cool refreshing jets of water. It really was like sitting in a hot tub except it was cool refreshing water, which was great because the temp was into the 80's. We were also able to stand under the falls, which was quite an experience.

The lower falls was deeper where the water came down and you were able to swim without touching bottom. After swimming down and not being able to touch the bottom, one guy in our group made the jump from the top of the falls and it was really cool to watch and I'm sure very thrilling for him.

After a lunch at the falls, we headed back to camp. The wind had started picking up and by the time we got back to the start of Caribou Lake, the wind got very strong. It made for a tough canoe ride back to camp, but thankfully we were paddling directly into the wind so we could hit the waves straight on.

Once we were back at camp, the wind picked up even more. Thankfully the campsite was pretty well protected by the trees but it was nothing but whitecaps on the lake. Then the scare of the trip happened. As we were sitting in our camp, we heard the very loud sound of a nearby tree snapping and falling. That is a very frightening sound. Thankfully it missed us and the tent, but it didn't miss by much. It ended up about 20 feet from our tent.

The rest of the day was spent at the camp just hanging out because it was too windy to go out onto the lake. It was a Saturday and I couldn't help but think of those poor souls trying to navigate bigger waters than ours in their canoes.