Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Back Into The Outdoors: A Moose loop
by flynn

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/01/2018
Entry & Exit Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)
Number of Days: 9
Group Size: 3
Part 4 of 12
* Saturday, June 2, 2018 * BAM SON #14 (as of 8pm)

Wind... so much wind... We decided to push to Kek and got on the water just after 10am, a little later than desired but we didn't feel the need to rush. The portages to Bonnie/Spoon/Pickle were OK, a little challenging going uphill on some of them. Pickle to Kek however, I could have done without. Still didn't mind it that much, considering I was out in the Boundary Waters! We hit Kek and the wind was brutal. I mean brutal - the waves were treacherous for our MN3 which has only maybe 6 inches above the water line. Water came over the side a frew times. It was a very stressful paddle to the west side of Kek where we stopped at the first site we could see. We had to get out of the water.

The site turned out to be pretty nice actually, with a great view to the east down Kek, from the firepit. This wasn't the site we thought we wanted, but after looking at the maps again, this WAS the site we wanted, and I had it mistaken for the one even further west.

We set up the tent and tarp for bag/gear protection from rain as there was a 70% chance of rain (according to the weather radio). It is raining as I write this at 5:20pm. We ate Joe wraps an hour ago and now we are relaxing. Hoping for good weather tomorrow. I'll take rain over wind at this point.

We retired to the tent quite early due to our somewhat stressful day. E and I were reading while G snored away, when I mentioned that we still had to hang the food bag and tie up the barrel. We weren't necessarily set on staying in the tent for the rest of the evening, which is why we didn't do it before we went in. We figured G wasn't about to get up and help us so we put our clothes back on and headed out into the drizzle and did what we had to do. I was not particularly proud of the knots we used to secure the bag and barrel. :)

It had been cloudy both days so far without a single break for sunlight. We were hoping to wake up to a beautiful calm morning.