Saturday, September 02, 2023 After a restful night at Canoe Country Outfitter's house on East Camp Street, we did some final packing and secured a couple of last-minute gear items at the outfitter's store. Having worked with and stayed with the Olsons at C.C.O. on numerous previous trips, being here again made me feel right at home. Their fine service is always appreciated. Next, it was off to a hearty breakfast at Britton's Cafe, another spot in Ely that has come to seem quite familiar. It's the same friendly faces greeting and serving you their generous portions year after year! Our newbies were impressed as well.
Finally, we were off to hit the water with a short trip from town out to the Fall Lake entry point. We found this to be a great way to start the trip with plenty of room at the landing to get organized before launch. To cap it off, the water was quite calm with only a slight ripple to the surface. That is always a bonus on larger lakes like Fall or the waters we would navigate later in the day and for the most part we were able to enjoy these conditions all the way to our campsite for the evening.
Upon reaching our first portage from Fall Lake to Newton, we were again pleased to experience an easy landing and a smooth, flat trail. This was the first time I'd been on a portage that regularly sees portage wheels and the absence of roots, boulders and bumps seemed odd at first but I sure didn't mind once I had a pack on my back and a canoe overhead. On the return trip across the portage for the last of our gear, I checked out the side trail that revealed a pretty view north out over the "falls" from Fall Lake to Newton. This is really just a riffle through some rocks in the channel but was still very scenic on this beautiful morning. The view seemed to once again be welcoming me home to what I've come to know on my BWCA trips and I could feel it inviting us to experience more of what awaited us on this adventure.
Once on Newton we decided to take the long way around the western side of the first big island we encounterd, unsure that we'd be able to sneak through the rocks and rushes guarding the narrow channel on the island's east side. Coming around the island, we obversed a few other canoes that did indeed navigate that narrow channel so we noted it for our return trip. Reaching the portage from Newton Lake to Pipestone Bay, there were more choices to make as this end of the portage has two landings. Our map showed the landing more commonly used by paddlers but just to the west of that is the landing used if you are wheeling a motorboat across the portage. As before, the boat landing was flatter and smoother than a usual canoe landing and in this case also made for a slightly shorter path than the other option did. This portage also had a scenic "pull-out" where one can get a view of Pipestone Falls. This cascade is more of an actual falls with whitewater you can hear rushing over a distinct drop of several feet.
After a falls photo-op we finished our final portage of the day and continued north into Pipestone Bay. The continued calm waters made for an easy paddle to our lunch stop at campsite 1588 along Pipestone Bay's western shore. We were only here for about half an hour but the site was nice enough that we could have spent the night had we needed to. Instead, it was onward north to see what other sites may be available.
Once we got through the skinniest part of Lewis Narrows, we did start to think about grabbing a campsite for the evening and stopped at site 1592 by the rock wall and nice landing right on the point, before the water turns west toward Jackfish Bay. This spot requires a short walk uphill on some rock "stairs" to get to the main site, but once up there it was quite appealing with lots of room and several tent-pad choices. We did check out another site or two nearby but did not find a better option so we decided to call this home for the next couple of nights.
Back in the day, this site had been a small resort and there were several artifacts as evidence of this including a drainage pipe and an iron trough that each came right out of the hill and ran down to the lake. The fire grate here is set up nicely, backed up against a big boulder that kind of acts as the centerpiece of the site. With the dry conditions, good firewood was abundant and we used it to cook our supper of fresh steaks and foil-wrapped potatoes, carrots and onions which we topped off with a dessert of Snack-Pak pudding. An inviting path out the back of the site led us down to a big lake-side rock from which I caught and released a few smallmouth bass before we enjoyed a little bit of bourbon around the fire and then turned in for the night. The day's unseasonably warm temperatures continued into the evening so that meant we were going to sleep on, rather than in, our sleeping bags. Still, we all slept comfortably (except for that damn noisy owl!) after a long but successful first day.