Saturday, September 08, 2012 Hard to sleep with mice running headlong into your tent all night long! Eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns were a treat for breakfast this morning. It looks like there will be plenty of sunshine today again. We got a super late start due to the extravagant breakfast. Today we will get out of the river system and head North into the heart of the BWCA. The birches were burnished bronze and gold, the rock cliffs got taller and more frequent. The portage from Beaver Lake into Adams Lake was beautiful. We almost didn’t believe the portage was where the map insisted. It’s a cliff! Well, turns out the trail skirts the bottom of the cliff and wraps around the backside of the rocky face. The air was pleasantly cool and the ground was made up of spikes of club moss, bunchberry, and bluebead lily.

Adams Lake was my favorite of the trip and featured a continuous shoreline of craggy basalt. Small trees clung desperately to the surface. Lots of rocky islands! We have definitely climbed in elevation from the river and the water is crystal clear. Rocks the size of vans litter the bottom of the lake. Getting out of Adams and into Boulder was not quite so fun. Lots of slogging through shallow channels, hefting the boat over two beaver dams, and the wind has picked up again. The struggle to get to Boulder Lake is worth it though and we ended up having the lake to ourselves. My Dad had camped on this lake as a boy and we headed over to an island which he said boasted a fantastic site. Many huge erratic boulders line the site and the view from the throne is great especially if you like geology.

Finally, some cloud cover and sparse drops of rain to give us relief from the glaring sun. Like my favorite outdoor humorist Pat McManus writes: “Camping is a fine and pleasant misery.” After all, what would a canoe trip be without blazing sun, wind, and mucky beaver dams? It just wouldn’t be right without them. ~River Lake, Beaver Lake, Adams Lake, Boulder Lake