Crab Lake - First Solo
by Cricket67
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
08/31/2024
Entry & Exit Point:
Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake (EP 4)
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
1
Trip Introduction:
After 4 years of trips with Scouts I am ready for my first solo adventure. On permit day I had hoped for EP14 LIS North but that was full so switched to my second choice of EP4 Crab Lake. Brand new area for me to explore!
Drive up Friday morning was largely uneventful. Some minor car problems, construction delays, and Labor Day weekend traffic had me arrive in Ely a couple hours later than planned. First task was a quick check-in with Ely Outdoor Company, who were providing me a tow across Burntside Lake to the Crab Lake entry point. (Mostly they wanted to make sure I was going to show up at the correct landing at the correct time). First time working with this outfitter. They do the tows for Piragis but since I wasn’t renting any equipment Piragis just gave me their contact info to work directly with them.
From here I walked over to Whiteside Park where the Border Route Challenge peeps were having their informational meeting. As it happens, this was getting underway the same day as my trip, so an opportunity for me to meet some people and learn more about the challenge. Thanks GrandmaL for inviting me to sit in! Was great to hear everyone’s stories and put some faces to the BWCA.com names.
After the meeting I picked up my permit at Piragis and got a little intel on this area. Then proceeded to check into my room at Motel Ely before crashing the challenge group for their supper get together at Grand Lodge. Was lucky enough to be able to share a table and stories with MNGreene, Nomadmusky, and Ambrose.
On the way back to the Motel, did a quick trip to Zups for a small block of cheese and some spinach. The spinach is something new I wanted to try, packs pretty small and not much weight to add a little ‘real’ food to the menu for at least a couple of days. Once back at the Motel, went through the packs one more time and made sure the InReach Mini and my phone were fully charged before a short sunset walk around Ely.
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (6 messages)
Day 1 of 5
Woke up before the alarm and took that last good shower before the trip. Leftovers from the night before were heated up for a quick breakfast and a last call home. Drove the 15 minutes to get to the landing where I unloaded my Prism before parking in the overflow lot. Arrived back at the landing at 7:45 just as my lift came around the corner. Met Andy my tow boat driver and loaded the gear into the boat.
Andy was a super nice guy who knew the area well. His comments as well as the expected strong afternoon winds cemented by day one plan to quickly get to the smaller lakes to the West of Crab. My plan was to make it to Boulder, Phantom, or Battle for the first night. Clark or Glimmer were back-up options if the wind picked up earlier or I was going too slow.
The big bonus was when Andy offered to carry my big pack over the 400rod Crab Lake portage for me because he had time and wanted the exercise. The hour of time not to mention all the energy this saved me really paid off later in the day.
Before setting off on the portage, quickly sent my ‘traveling’ message on my InReach and started tracking. The 400rod portage was long, but otherwise pretty easy. A group was on the way out and were breaking the portage up into two parts, leaving canoes and gear around the half-way point before going back for more. Seems like this is common practice as I saw the same thing on the way out.
It had taken a little under 90 minutes from the time we left the landing until I was pushing off on Crab Lake. The wind was from the WSW but still not too bad as I made my way to the Clark Lake Portage. There is a healthy little climb out of Crab Lake on this portage but the rest of it was flat and easy through a rather striking stand of Red Pine.
Crab-Clark Portage
One of my goals on this trip was to review a number of the out of the way campsites and portages that did not have any reviews on the BWCA.com map. First up was the Clark Lake campsite, but couldn’t take much of a look as it was occupied. Based on what I could see of their set-up I would guess someone was base camping. I did take a few minutes to pull up to the Glimmer Lake portage and walk over to see if I could check out the one campsite on this small lake. As I suspected, there was a bit of a trail off the portage that allowed me to get to the site straight from the portage trail. The site is a bit small but well protected and had a couple of nice tent and hammock spots. Made a mental note that this was an option if I had to backtrack. The lake itself is pretty small, but seems like it would be a great place to see some wildlife with very little chance of seeing anyone else.
Glimmer Lake Campsite
The wind was still moderate as I made my way west through Meat and Sprite. Didn’t get out to check the site on Meat as I didn’t see a great landing spot. Meat is a very shallow Lake and not one I would camp on if I could help it. From the water, seems like a so/so campsite. Also noted that each subsequent portage was a little more overgrown with more and more downed trees to step over. That said, the portages were all pretty easy.
As I arrived on Phantom Lake the wind had noticeably increased and a check of the time said 12:30. I knew the forecast was for quickly increasing winds started at noon. At this time I would say the wind conditions were pretty unpleasant, but not yet dangerous. I had planned to check out the campsite and have a bite to eat either way. I paddled around the point and saw that the campsite was not occupied. I found the obvious landing spot and tied off the bow line before a quick walk around the site. Nice site but largely unprotected from the Westerly wind. I went back to grab my lunch and looked out on the lake and found that in the 15 minutes I had been poking around significant whitecaps had developed and the wind had picked up a couple of notches.
I quickly decided that this was to be home for at least one night. Unloaded the Canoe and carried it up into camp as much out of the wind as I could. Tied it down as a precaution before starting the water filter and having my Starkist BBQ chicken, cheese, and spinach tortilla. Decided then that the spinach was a great idea…gave my lunch some crunch and texture.
Setting up the hammock was a bit tricky with the ever increasing wind coming right into the site. Utilized all the windward guyout points on the tarp to hold it in place and keep it from blowing into the hammock. With that task finally complete I could relax a bit. By this time the wind was howling right into camp, and outside of going back to the thunderbox there was no protection to be had. There was also little shade in the kitchen area so I grabbed my camp chair and my book and found a spot off the thunderbox trail to set up and read for awhile. The day had turned quite warm as well as windy.
I’ll also note that there wasn’t good access to the water for fishing except for the one landing spot. Along the water there are plants all along the shoreline except for the landing. Also, trying to explore led to the discovery that the campsite is situated on higher ground but is surrounded by low wet ground that is very hard to walk through.
Supper was freeze dried yellow curry with of course some added spinach. I really found that I could add a good handful of spinach to any of my camps meals. Shortly after finishing up and refilling the water filter I could see some storm clouds moving in. I got everything put away and retreated to the hammock for some more reading and a little journalling. Rain was off and on the rest of the evening and clouds obscured the sunset so it turned into a pretty early night. ~Burntside Lake, Crab Lake, Clark Lake, Glimmer Lake, Meat Lake, Sprite Lake, Phantom Lake
Andy was a super nice guy who knew the area well. His comments as well as the expected strong afternoon winds cemented by day one plan to quickly get to the smaller lakes to the West of Crab. My plan was to make it to Boulder, Phantom, or Battle for the first night. Clark or Glimmer were back-up options if the wind picked up earlier or I was going too slow.
The big bonus was when Andy offered to carry my big pack over the 400rod Crab Lake portage for me because he had time and wanted the exercise. The hour of time not to mention all the energy this saved me really paid off later in the day.
Before setting off on the portage, quickly sent my ‘traveling’ message on my InReach and started tracking. The 400rod portage was long, but otherwise pretty easy. A group was on the way out and were breaking the portage up into two parts, leaving canoes and gear around the half-way point before going back for more. Seems like this is common practice as I saw the same thing on the way out.
It had taken a little under 90 minutes from the time we left the landing until I was pushing off on Crab Lake. The wind was from the WSW but still not too bad as I made my way to the Clark Lake Portage. There is a healthy little climb out of Crab Lake on this portage but the rest of it was flat and easy through a rather striking stand of Red Pine.
One of my goals on this trip was to review a number of the out of the way campsites and portages that did not have any reviews on the BWCA.com map. First up was the Clark Lake campsite, but couldn’t take much of a look as it was occupied. Based on what I could see of their set-up I would guess someone was base camping. I did take a few minutes to pull up to the Glimmer Lake portage and walk over to see if I could check out the one campsite on this small lake. As I suspected, there was a bit of a trail off the portage that allowed me to get to the site straight from the portage trail. The site is a bit small but well protected and had a couple of nice tent and hammock spots. Made a mental note that this was an option if I had to backtrack. The lake itself is pretty small, but seems like it would be a great place to see some wildlife with very little chance of seeing anyone else.
The wind was still moderate as I made my way west through Meat and Sprite. Didn’t get out to check the site on Meat as I didn’t see a great landing spot. Meat is a very shallow Lake and not one I would camp on if I could help it. From the water, seems like a so/so campsite. Also noted that each subsequent portage was a little more overgrown with more and more downed trees to step over. That said, the portages were all pretty easy.
As I arrived on Phantom Lake the wind had noticeably increased and a check of the time said 12:30. I knew the forecast was for quickly increasing winds started at noon. At this time I would say the wind conditions were pretty unpleasant, but not yet dangerous. I had planned to check out the campsite and have a bite to eat either way. I paddled around the point and saw that the campsite was not occupied. I found the obvious landing spot and tied off the bow line before a quick walk around the site. Nice site but largely unprotected from the Westerly wind. I went back to grab my lunch and looked out on the lake and found that in the 15 minutes I had been poking around significant whitecaps had developed and the wind had picked up a couple of notches.
I quickly decided that this was to be home for at least one night. Unloaded the Canoe and carried it up into camp as much out of the wind as I could. Tied it down as a precaution before starting the water filter and having my Starkist BBQ chicken, cheese, and spinach tortilla. Decided then that the spinach was a great idea…gave my lunch some crunch and texture.
Setting up the hammock was a bit tricky with the ever increasing wind coming right into the site. Utilized all the windward guyout points on the tarp to hold it in place and keep it from blowing into the hammock. With that task finally complete I could relax a bit. By this time the wind was howling right into camp, and outside of going back to the thunderbox there was no protection to be had. There was also little shade in the kitchen area so I grabbed my camp chair and my book and found a spot off the thunderbox trail to set up and read for awhile. The day had turned quite warm as well as windy.
I’ll also note that there wasn’t good access to the water for fishing except for the one landing spot. Along the water there are plants all along the shoreline except for the landing. Also, trying to explore led to the discovery that the campsite is situated on higher ground but is surrounded by low wet ground that is very hard to walk through.
Supper was freeze dried yellow curry with of course some added spinach. I really found that I could add a good handful of spinach to any of my camps meals. Shortly after finishing up and refilling the water filter I could see some storm clouds moving in. I got everything put away and retreated to the hammock for some more reading and a little journalling. Rain was off and on the rest of the evening and clouds obscured the sunset so it turned into a pretty early night. ~Burntside Lake, Crab Lake, Clark Lake, Glimmer Lake, Meat Lake, Sprite Lake, Phantom Lake
Donate - BWCA.com