Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

EP 62 Clearwater Lake
by PhilWhite

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/20/2019
Entry & Exit Point: Clearwater Lake (EP 62)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 4
Day 2 of 4
Friday, June 21, 2019 We all woke up a little later than we thought we would, maybe around 8:30am. We threw some coffee in the percolator and enjoyed a morning fire with oatmeal before packing up and heading out to Pine Lake. The head wind was a significant factor on this paddle. It probably took us almost as long to do the rest of West Pike as it took us to do all of Clearwater. We arrived at the portage and made the 300+ rod portage to Pine lake. Again, we double portaged this one. The halfway point of the portage intersects with the Boarder Route Trail so at that point we switched carrying the canoe.

After the portage, we took a about 15-20 mins to catch our breath on before heading west on Pine Lake. Thankfully at this point, we had a nice tail wind so paddling was much quicker. We took the 2nd site on the north side (west of the portage from West Pike). It's impossible to miss with a huge rock landing. The landing made for great shore fishing. The location was also nice as we could see a long way in either direction. The site also provided enough cover to be able to start a fire while the wind was still blowing.

Once we got all set up, we got the fire going, boiled some more drinking water, and made some freeze dried chicken and rice. One thing we always do up there is keep an pot over the fire to boil water. That way we constantly have a fresh supply of drinking water at camp. Once we ran out of wood, we spent about 30 mins down on the rock watching the stars. We saw plenty of satellites and shooting stars. Again, another perfect day. We all caught some fish, had plenty of sun, and found a great site to camp at.