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
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (13 messages)
Part 4 of 9
Tuesday, July 3 - Day Two
We woke late on Tuesday, and I fixed a large breakfast of coffee, eggs, spam, and scones. It was already warm and humid when we finally hit the water at 11:15, but overcast skies helped keep it from being hot right away. The paddle up to Knight was quick and easy, and thanks to some excellent advice from fellow forum members that was corroborated by the outfitter, we navigated the boulder-field section between Knight and Hazel without serious scratches or issues. The half-mile portage at the end of the stretch between Knight and Hazel was easy, and beautiful:
This is where I made a mistake that I usually don't make. We had eaten breakfast late, and we'd gotten on the water late, so I wasn't especially hungry but it was almost 1:00 by the time we reached Hazel. It was a quick paddle across Hazel, we were making good time, and we planned to stop on Polly anyway, so I didn't think to stop for lunch. The stretch from Hazel to Polly isn't very far as the crow flies, but there are five portages along a fairly tricky river section, with two of those portages being about a third of a mile.
I don't think M realized how hungry she was getting as we did the first portage, navigated the river and took the second portage around some rapids. But neither of us was focusing as well as we should have, and we apparently went right past the start of the third portage, as the little section of rapids there looked too minor to be the cause of a portage. We ran that little rapid, much to M's annoyance, as she doesn't like rapids, and then realized that there was a substantial rapid ahead and that we must need to get on a portage. It became clear there was no portage trail between the little rapid we'd just done and the big one ahead, so we realized it must have been before the little rapid which, minor though it was, I wasn't going to try to get upstream of to catch the portage. So after a good bit of searching we found a faint trail where clearly others had found themselves in the same situation, and it led to the proper portage trail. M dragged both portage packs up from the water to the portage trail while I fought with the underbrush to get the canoe up to it, and as I was fighting to get the canoe aligned with the portage trail (one of only two times I wished I had a smaller canoe), M said the thing I've never heard her say on any trip in her entire life: "I wish I was at home right now". That was the lowest point of the whole trip, and it seemed to come out of nowhere: she'd been smiling and enjoying herself on Hazel, and she's never shrunk from a bit of random adversity before. As I was portaging the canoe down the portage trail I realized: we'd had breakfast at 10, it was now 2:30, and we hadn't even had any snacks, and very little water. We were both behaving accordingly. So I declared it "lunch time" right there, and we sat down on the portage trail, drank a liter of water, ate lunch with lots of salty snacks, and admired the view for a while.
Moods instantly improved for both of us, and by the time I was packing the bear vault back up, we were both joking about how dumb the whole incident had been and how stupid it is to get "hangry". We headed out from the portage a little before 3, and were on Polly 45 minutes later:
We thought we wanted the first island site (1074) on Polly, but after not having seen another person since the fisherman on Alton Lake, we were surprised to find that site taken, so we paddled on to the far northwestern site, 1072, which we realized was a much nicer site, and landed our canoe at about 4:00. It was a gorgeous site, with a wraparound view, a high protected area looking north for the fire grate, and a gently-sloping rock area to the southwest where we could dry our boots. It also made an easy entry for swimming in the lake, which I did while M relaxed in her hammock and read.
Content that we'd managed to cover 9.6 miles despite a late start and a little adversity, and pleased that the next day was intended to be an easy day of paddling up to Malberg, we were pleased to have an easy dinner of Mountain House meals, played cards and watched some stars, and called it a night.
~Phoebe Lake, Knight Lake, Hazel Lake, Polly, Lake
We woke late on Tuesday, and I fixed a large breakfast of coffee, eggs, spam, and scones. It was already warm and humid when we finally hit the water at 11:15, but overcast skies helped keep it from being hot right away. The paddle up to Knight was quick and easy, and thanks to some excellent advice from fellow forum members that was corroborated by the outfitter, we navigated the boulder-field section between Knight and Hazel without serious scratches or issues. The half-mile portage at the end of the stretch between Knight and Hazel was easy, and beautiful:
This is where I made a mistake that I usually don't make. We had eaten breakfast late, and we'd gotten on the water late, so I wasn't especially hungry but it was almost 1:00 by the time we reached Hazel. It was a quick paddle across Hazel, we were making good time, and we planned to stop on Polly anyway, so I didn't think to stop for lunch. The stretch from Hazel to Polly isn't very far as the crow flies, but there are five portages along a fairly tricky river section, with two of those portages being about a third of a mile.
I don't think M realized how hungry she was getting as we did the first portage, navigated the river and took the second portage around some rapids. But neither of us was focusing as well as we should have, and we apparently went right past the start of the third portage, as the little section of rapids there looked too minor to be the cause of a portage. We ran that little rapid, much to M's annoyance, as she doesn't like rapids, and then realized that there was a substantial rapid ahead and that we must need to get on a portage. It became clear there was no portage trail between the little rapid we'd just done and the big one ahead, so we realized it must have been before the little rapid which, minor though it was, I wasn't going to try to get upstream of to catch the portage. So after a good bit of searching we found a faint trail where clearly others had found themselves in the same situation, and it led to the proper portage trail. M dragged both portage packs up from the water to the portage trail while I fought with the underbrush to get the canoe up to it, and as I was fighting to get the canoe aligned with the portage trail (one of only two times I wished I had a smaller canoe), M said the thing I've never heard her say on any trip in her entire life: "I wish I was at home right now". That was the lowest point of the whole trip, and it seemed to come out of nowhere: she'd been smiling and enjoying herself on Hazel, and she's never shrunk from a bit of random adversity before. As I was portaging the canoe down the portage trail I realized: we'd had breakfast at 10, it was now 2:30, and we hadn't even had any snacks, and very little water. We were both behaving accordingly. So I declared it "lunch time" right there, and we sat down on the portage trail, drank a liter of water, ate lunch with lots of salty snacks, and admired the view for a while.
Moods instantly improved for both of us, and by the time I was packing the bear vault back up, we were both joking about how dumb the whole incident had been and how stupid it is to get "hangry". We headed out from the portage a little before 3, and were on Polly 45 minutes later:
We thought we wanted the first island site (1074) on Polly, but after not having seen another person since the fisherman on Alton Lake, we were surprised to find that site taken, so we paddled on to the far northwestern site, 1072, which we realized was a much nicer site, and landed our canoe at about 4:00. It was a gorgeous site, with a wraparound view, a high protected area looking north for the fire grate, and a gently-sloping rock area to the southwest where we could dry our boots. It also made an easy entry for swimming in the lake, which I did while M relaxed in her hammock and read.
Content that we'd managed to cover 9.6 miles despite a late start and a little adversity, and pleased that the next day was intended to be an easy day of paddling up to Malberg, we were pleased to have an easy dinner of Mountain House meals, played cards and watched some stars, and called it a night.
~Phoebe Lake, Knight Lake, Hazel Lake, Polly, Lake
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