Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Sawbill to Lake One, Across the Center of the BWCA
by TominMpls

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/02/2018
Entry Point: Sawbill Lake (EP 38)
Exit Point: Lake One (EP 30)  
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 2
Part 3 of 9
Monday, July 2 - Day One

We were woken super early to my cell phone's work alarm which I'd forgotten to disable, but we took our time getting out and going. Once everything was packed up, we walked everything to the landing, had outfitter coffee and pop-tarts for breakfast, and hit the water at exactly 8:00.


On a beautiful Monday morning, we moved quickly up Sawbill, took the Sawbill-Alton portage quickly, and saw the only other person we'd see all day fishing on Alton Lake. Within an hour of starting we reached our first significant portage, the Alton-Beth portage. With two roughly 50-pound packs and a 50-pound canoe, we'd decided we'd 1.5-portage this trip, and so this was our first significant chance to try it out - we've always double-portaged in the past. M grabbed the heavy pack and I grabbed the canoe, and we walked until my watch showed a quarter mile, then she set down the heavy pack to go back for the lighter one. I walked to the end of the portage, put down the canoe, and went back for the heavy pack, which in theory would mean we'd both reach the end of the portage together with the two packs, but youth is wasted on the young and I met her coming with the lighter pack before I was close to the heavier pack. This would become the norm for the whole rest of the trip, and so by the time I got back to the canoe with my half-carry of the heavy pack, she had everything else all ready to get back in the water. We both immediately realized that 1.5-portaging is absolutely brilliant.

A short paddle across Beth brought us to the longest portage of the whole trip, at just under a mile the Beth-Grace portage that supposedly thins the herd on the Lady Chain, though we hadn't seen anybody except that one fisherman anyway. The Beth side of the portage was absolutely beautiful:


We're both backpackers and enjoy portages, so we found this to be a pleasant walk in the woods, showing yet again the brilliance of 1.5-portaging. I'd left the possibility of us calling it a day on Grace if the portage took too much out of us, but we both felt great at the other side, and so at 11:30 we decided to go ahead and have an early lunch on the west side of the portage. About 12:15, after a tasty lunch, we set off to cross Grace and get to Phoebe. The west side of the Beth-Grace portage was perhaps even more beautiful than the east side:


Between Grace and Phoebe there are three tiny portages, and a nice little quarter-miler. All are easy and quick, and all were quite beautiful when we were there. The third had this beautiful rapids / waterfall:


Once on Phoebe, we decided to take site 1031, on the north side of the big island in the northwest of the lake. My two GPS devices - my running watch and our InReach Explorer+ - both agreed that we'd covered 10.8 miles, which was definitely a good day given the substantial portages. It was a fine site, but pretty rocky and not too spacious. With the two of us it was fine, but would have been a tight squeeze for a group.

For dinner we had ribeyes, couscous, and spinach, our final fresh-food meal of the trip. This was our first use of our new Helinox Chair Zeroes and Table One Hard Top in the backcountry, and we felt like royalty eating steak at a table and chairs in total solitude. We made it a fairly early night, tired and satisfied with our first day.

~Sawbill Lake, Alton Lake, Beth Lake, Grace Lake, Phoebe Lake