Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

40 Years Celebrated by 4-Nights Solo
by treehorn

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/30/2018
Entry Point: Ram Lake (EP 44)
Exit Point: Lizz and Swamp Lakes (EP 47)  
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 1
Day 2 of 5
Saturday, June 30, 2018

Jumped in with Carl from Rockwood who was shuttling me and my canoe and gear to EP 44 - Ram Lake. It's hard for me to recall exactly why I chose this EP back in the winter, but I know one thing I wanted to do was a point to point trip or a loop rather than an out and back, and I know I've always been intrigued by this area. I was familiar with Rockwoods because we've used them as a group a few years back going in to Skipper/Rush/Banadad, and it seemed pretty convenient to go in at 44 and back out through Poplar right to their location. I liked the options I had in terms of having the ability to travel farther and longer and see more lakes, or easily make it from my entry to my exit without a ton of travel, if I decided I didn't want to be on the move so much.

Being my first solo, and actually my very first time paddling a solo canoe, I really had no idea what kind of trip I was going to want to do. I felt like I was probably going to want to be on the move just to reduce the chances of pure boredom on these long, just after solstice, days. But then I also didn't know how much the portaging and paddling might take out of me and thought maybe I'd be perfectly content lounging around camp or fishing all day.

Anyway, Carl dropped me off at the remote and desolate EP....no cars there, only one permit per day, and having looked it up, I knew no one went in here the previous 3 days. That was a cool feeling when he drove off....just me and my stuff, ready to start my adventure.

The trip starts with an 85-rod portage into Ram Lake, and it's a good little workout to get you sweaty right away. Hills and boulders are a very common theme on these portages.

I doubled this portage as I would do the whole trip. I had one large CCS Pioneer pack and one small backpack basically serving as a food pack. So I could carry that along with my boat on one trip and the big pack on the second.

Loaded at Ram and started learning how to do the whole solo canoeing thing. First challenge is the landings. And I guess I jumped right into the deep end because landings are pretty much non-existent in this area. Usually just a field of boulders marking the "landing" to your portage or campsite.

But I figured it out and began the paddle across Ram. Since I paid for the trout stamp on my fishing license I felt obligated to throw in a spoon to troll for a trout on my way across the lake. No bites, but it did start raining. I did have a moment of..."nice, my first lake on my first solo and it's going to do THIS?" but in the end it didn't bother me much as it was humid and I was already plenty wet from sweating through the portage and under my life jacket while paddling. Not a big deal. I just really didn't want to see the wind pick up.

I was loving the kayak paddle I got from Rockwoods. They gave me both a canoe and kayak paddle and I could tell anytime I was trying to make up any real ground, I was going to prefer the kayak. Great control of the boat and with a blade in the water at all times you can fly.

I stopped at the vacant campsite on Ram just to have a look-see. I wasn't very impressed.

The portages from Ram to Kroft then Kroft to Rum are currently indistinguishable in my mind. Both a very reasonable distance - I think one was quite a bit hillier than the other one, but neither were a picnic. I was putting in some work on this put in day for sure, but it felt good and I was polishing my portaging process. It's a little tedious strapping the paddles, fishing rod & life jacket to the boat, and removing and attaching the portage yoke at every portage, but such is life I guess.

Stopped to fish for a bit on Rum before heading through the portage to Little Trout. I was parked casting a line on Rum about 50 yards from a loon when he suddenly started fly-walking directly toward me....he was flying about 6 inches above the water but his wings were whacking the water every time they flapped. Eventually he gained a couple feet of altitude and diverted from my canoe, darting past me about 10 feet directly in front of me and off down the lake he went. Really cool.

I got on to Little Trout through another portage similar to all the rest around here...tough landings, tough terrain, but short enough to get through before you get a chance to really hate what you're doing.

On Little Trout I was ready to find a campsite. The next portage was the infamous beast up to Misquah. And I knew the site on Misquah was pretty shabby, so I'd probably have to then go to Vista. And there are only 3 sites there - no guarantees they would be available this time of year. It would have felt silly for me to use this remote EP only to travel all day to what would probably be a very populated area. So I was plenty content to stay on Little Trout - it was pretty much my plan all along.

I paddled to all 3 sites on the lake which were all empty. I ended up liking the northeastern most site in the bay the best. None of them are great, but I liked the feel of this one, facing into the bay. I'll just post my campsite review here...."I liked the "feel" of this site better than the other two on the lake. It faces into the easternmost bay of Little Trout Lake and makes you feel like you have the place to yourself. It's not very big, and not terribly open to the lake, but I found it comfortable for a solo. There was one nice tent pad for my 3-man tent. No good opportunity for shore fishing. I did swim from here though."

After all that portaging, humidity, and paddling the entire circumference of Little Trout looking at the campsites, I was pretty spent, and took a moment to just sit in my chair before even setting up camp. I knew no one was going to be coming from the Ram Lake direction, and was 96% sure no one was going to be coming through from Misquah at this time of the afternoon (very few people do that no matter what time of the day). I have a feeling that Ram and Misquah and Little Trout are destination lakes in the spring for trout, but come July don't see much traffic at all.

So I took a long moment to just soak it in. Here I was finally in the wilderness, on my first solo. And I was about as solo as you can get. There was no one camped behind me in the Ram Lake direction. No one on my lake. A really long grueling portage up to Misquah where there was probably no one camped. So I figured the next closest people were probably up on Vista. What a feeling. I was loving it.

Had some lunch and set up camp, went for a swim to cool off. Took the boat back out to troll for an elusive lake trout. I really didn't have much idea what I was doing in terms of catching a trout in July, but had some time on my hands so gave it a shot. I put on the biggest heaviest spoon in my tackle box, a steel leader, and a couple sinkers farther up the line. Then I let out damn near all the line on my reel and just paddled for a while over the deepest part of the lake. From reading things on this site, that seemed about the best way to get a lure down as deep as the trout hang this time of year....but alas no bites came my way.

Back to camp I had pork chops and some camp chow wild rice soup for dinner...I have to give that soup a thumbs down. It just didn't have much flavor and the rice was rubbery. The other camp chow products I tried were good. The pork chop was great though. Idled around camp throughout the evening, starting a fire before it was dark, for no particular reason. It got me too hot so I let it die out. My site was facing north and east with no exposure toward the sunset, but I could tell it was probably a good one. The trees on the other side of the lake were lit up and there were some wispy clouds in the sky that generally make for a good sunset. So I took the boat out again to get a look at it, along with my fishing rod to see if maybe they would cooperate in the evening.

I got on the lake and was indeed treated to a nice view of the sunset. Gorgeous. On the lake with an empty boat for the first time though, I quickly learned how unstable the solo can be with so little weight in it. My movements would rock the boat and I became fairly uncomfortable out there, to the point that I didn't want to fish at all. Being solo, priority #1 on this trip was safety. I promised my wife I wouldn't do anything stupid and was pretty committed to following through with that. I guess lesson learned - throw some gear in the boat before heading out from now on.

I didn't go far from camp though so got back no problem and hunkered down for the evening. Started another fire, but the mosquitoes came out and it wasn't worth trying to ride out the 'squito storm that usually lasts about an hour right after dusk this time of year. I was tired and ready for some sleep. It was fun listening to all the critters that come out at night in a quiet, remote place like this. God knows what they all were, but plenty of things were lurking in my site that night!