Trip was good. Not great! But not too bad. The weather was quite dynamic, with the first half of the trip in the upper 70s and even low 80s, with high humidity the whole time as well. It was actually hotter than most of my early June trips. In the second half of the trip, it shifted to windy, and at the tail end, we got more rain on and off, but just enough to keep stuff damp most of the time. We got to see a lot of the fall colors we wanted (though they dulled considerably halfway through the trip), and we got to do the full route I really wanted to do; we just didn’t quite get the desired “sunny and crisp” fall weather we all hoped for, so the mood of the trip changed a bit as a result and it was more about rewarding endurance than rewarding exploration.

As a result of the dynamic weather, my group opted to move on the sunny travel days (which are also sometimes the windiest days), which broke the travel-camp-travel-camp methodology to the route that I had originally planned for 10 days. We stayed night 1 in the NW corner of Snow Bay, nights 2 and 3 on Gun, night 4 on Gebe, nights 5, 6, and 7 on Hustler, and night 8 on Shell, to exit a day early on day 9, instead of 2 nights on every site except the first one of the trip. This moved our exit up from Sunday to Saturday, which gave everyone back their Sunday to decompress, unpack, and spend time with family, before going back to work. We’d enjoyed the trip, but it was mostly just going to be rain if we stayed another day (indeed it rained on the moved-up exit day; we just weren’t allowed to stay dry!), so we all agreed to leave early, and we were all glad to get out.

Some group members had issues with their footwear, which kept their feet warm but slid around too much, leading to blisters. I was sweating so much the first half of the trip that my neoprene Boundary Boots would start to slosh towards the end of the day after working hard. Gross but true. The more frequent than planned travel meant that our group was a bit more worn down than anticipated, and combined with the crappy weather, one of the guys said we weren’t able to really get in the groove of the trip, and I agree. We didn’t get to do as much fishing or exploration as we wanted; in fact, we didn’t go out for a pleasure paddle a single time on the trip. Don’t get me wrong, it was still beautiful out there, but with constant wind with high gusts and unpredictable rain, it’s tough to really enjoy it since you’re stuck on shore, under a tarp or in a tent, and you don’t want to be moving in the rain if you can avoid it. Staying dry was a big priority for us, not just for hypothermia concerns (at the end of the trip) but just for comfort. I learned just how much it sucks to get into a damp hammock with a damp topquilt on this trip (as the result of forgetting to keep the wet tarps outside the main portage pack compartment so as not to soak into all of the dry stuff).

Not only did we have to handle rain, but wind as well, with 12-18mph sustained and around 35mph gusts on several days. I feel comfortable paddling in higher winds as long as I’m able to get where I need to go without a severe detour (in order to cut into the waves instead of being broadsided). Thankfully we were able to handle high winds mostly since they were near-direct headwinds or near-direct tailwinds, but we did encounter some dangerous waves. With the wind continuing all day and only dying down around 9pm, we pretty much had to travel with that wind whether we wanted to or not. It could have been more dangerous and certainly more limiting. When at camp, wind was still more of a factor than usual for me as well.

I came to really appreciate wind protected campsites, which I normally don’t pay much mind to when considering a site. In the spring, I almost always want a breeze through the site to help keep bugs at bay. Chilly fall winds, on the other hand, are something that will quickly wear you down, especially when combined with rain; even just drizzle is chilly and draining. That highly rated northern campsite on Hustler is gorgeous and has an amazing panoramic view of the lake, but that meant wind from almost any direction can blow right in there. We were at the end of our desire to travel when we arrived at Hustler, so we pushed to the site, knowing it was supposed to be nice, but didn’t consider or care enough about the wind at the time (which we should have). Next time I’ll definitely try to think this through a little bit better.

This trip, more than average, was a trip of give and take, and I think my last few trips’ worth of good weather and campsite karma finally caught up to me. I think I will still remember this trip fondly in a “made me stronger” kind of way. It did have its “why do I even like coming here lol” moments, but with many “I am one with the earth and sky” moments as well. You have to take the good with the bad when you are out in nature with no hard shelter, no amenities, and I’ve had so many good days out in the BWCA that I try not to fuss about the bad ones, but just prepare for them and hope they are offset by good days. Of course, right after we exit, pressure stabilized and now the weather is steady and crisp like we were hoping, just not with any red left on trees!

This was my first peak color trip and I suspect it won’t be my last, but perhaps I will be a little less ambitious with the route to give us more downtime to appreciate our surroundings. Our new crew member had his first time be one of our worst for weather, fishing, and challenging terrain. Despite that, he said he might not be opposed to coming back, if it’s for less time, and involves a lot less travel. The whole crew got briefed on possible routes back in January, and this is the one we picked, so everyone should have known what to expect (as I am quite forthcoming with details, as much as people care to listen to!). Sometimes, though, the trail hits harder in person than on paper.

* We saw a lot of swans! Like, maybe a dozen? Maybe a few more? Pretty awesome.

* We saw mice at every single campsite, something I’ve only ever seen at one campsite before – maybe warm weather is required so they’re not active in June?

* I got like 2 mosquito bites. Nice.

* I got stung by a bee though!! Come on!

* Cold swims on humid days are awesome.

* No one got seriously injured.

* I didn’t catch a single fish, and probably only threw 50 casts the whole trip, if that. Thankfully my canoe partner caught a few smallies on Gun, with the biggest actually being a nice 3 pounder! Bright ball jig and curly tail grub.

* We still had way too much food at the end – most cheese didn’t get eaten so we had probably 6lbs of cheese alone across all of the lunch kits.

* Definitely good to have full rain gear immediately accessible to put on in a canoe if necessary, when rain is in the forecast.

* Put your wet stuff outside the container with your dry stuff! Duh… (or maybe get a spare big dry bag or two to put dewy/wet tarps into)

* October is definitely a good time for isolation – not counting the people we saw exiting on our entry day, or people entering on our exit day, or the people we practically shoved off with on the morning of our entry day, we saw:

** 1 canoe on Loon

** 1 boat on Loon

** 2 occupied campsites on LLC

** 1 canoe on Beartrack/Finger

** 2 canoe group on Green

** 1 canoe on Hustler

** 2 occupied campsites on Lower Pauness

** The only group we actually interacted with was the canoe of dads and boys day tripping from Fat to Finger; the only other group we hit at a portage was a group of two canoes exiting on our entry day who let us launch into Lower Pauness instead of trying to cram into the landing during a rainstorm. Much obliged, gents.

--A Parting Anecdote--

The canoe launching at EP14 with us was a three person, with maybe what looked like an older father/mother/daughter crew. They had seen us up at the parking lot unloading the VNO van, just cycling through grabbing more stuff and placing it in a corner away from everyone else’s stuff (as there was a crew exiting at the EP at the same time too). When I arrived at the river landing with the canoe, the man said to me, “Boy, you guys look like a machine looking for a place to go!” I like to think he was complimenting our organized process and not saying we looked like bleary-eyed gear haulers on auto-pilot (lol).