Temperance River / Frost River / Kelso River
by Hamstirly
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
06/08/2025
Entry & Exit Point:
Sawbill Lake (EP 38)
Number of Days:
6
Group Size:
7
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (3 messages)
Part 6 of 7
Day 5 - Hub to Kelso: Campsite #872
We got going quick the next morning with some granola bars and headed south to Mesaba over a hellishly buggy 108 rod portage that emptied out onto a little creek. Most of the creekbed along the portage was dried up, and covered in dead trees. On Mesaba we passed by a father and son fishing as we headed toward Hug and Duck Lakes. The four rod portage between those was the shortest one all trip and we practically just picked the canoes up and set them back down. The 80 rods from Duck to Zenith were basically straight uphill and took us through some brambles, but were nothing too we couldn’t handle.
We made our way across Zenith and landed just east of the real portage. The landing was a steep drop into the water, but had a well tread path going up the hill that people had clearly been mistaking for the portage. It got a little denser as we got into it and we found the real portage just to the west. After stopping to eat a homemade pemmican lunch, we took off down the 480 rod portage to Kelso we’d been dreading the whole trip. I won’t lie, it was hell. We swapped from my partner to me and then back again. I thought I could make it to the end after the first swap--we got a walkie talkie announcement when the guys ahead of us made it--but I just barely couldn’t. When we got to the other side we must have sat there for half an hour. Strangely it was the least buggy portage of the trip, even counting the crazy horse flies at the end. While we rested, we were treated to a loon taking off and landing multiple times at Lujenida.
480 rods deep
After a quick paddle down the Kelso river (and angrily pulling over a couple more beaver dams) we made it to the campsite on the peninsula at the north end of Kelso (#872) no later than 3pm. Here, at the last campsite on the last night, we discovered the tentpoles were different lengths (despite having the same number of links). Ah well, next time! We made a fire to cook all the dinner food we had left--instant potatoes, gravy, wild rice soup, wild rice, and the last of the brownies--and sat around it talking deep into the night. I know I needed that. It was a good night. A happy night. And we were a stone’s throw from home.
Mashed potatoes and cream of chicken wild rice soup for dinner
~Hub Lake, Mesaba Lake, Hug Lake, Duck Lake, Zenith Lake, Lujenida Lake, Kelso Lake
We got going quick the next morning with some granola bars and headed south to Mesaba over a hellishly buggy 108 rod portage that emptied out onto a little creek. Most of the creekbed along the portage was dried up, and covered in dead trees. On Mesaba we passed by a father and son fishing as we headed toward Hug and Duck Lakes. The four rod portage between those was the shortest one all trip and we practically just picked the canoes up and set them back down. The 80 rods from Duck to Zenith were basically straight uphill and took us through some brambles, but were nothing too we couldn’t handle.
We made our way across Zenith and landed just east of the real portage. The landing was a steep drop into the water, but had a well tread path going up the hill that people had clearly been mistaking for the portage. It got a little denser as we got into it and we found the real portage just to the west. After stopping to eat a homemade pemmican lunch, we took off down the 480 rod portage to Kelso we’d been dreading the whole trip. I won’t lie, it was hell. We swapped from my partner to me and then back again. I thought I could make it to the end after the first swap--we got a walkie talkie announcement when the guys ahead of us made it--but I just barely couldn’t. When we got to the other side we must have sat there for half an hour. Strangely it was the least buggy portage of the trip, even counting the crazy horse flies at the end. While we rested, we were treated to a loon taking off and landing multiple times at Lujenida.
After a quick paddle down the Kelso river (and angrily pulling over a couple more beaver dams) we made it to the campsite on the peninsula at the north end of Kelso (#872) no later than 3pm. Here, at the last campsite on the last night, we discovered the tentpoles were different lengths (despite having the same number of links). Ah well, next time! We made a fire to cook all the dinner food we had left--instant potatoes, gravy, wild rice soup, wild rice, and the last of the brownies--and sat around it talking deep into the night. I know I needed that. It was a good night. A happy night. And we were a stone’s throw from home.
~Hub Lake, Mesaba Lake, Hug Lake, Duck Lake, Zenith Lake, Lujenida Lake, Kelso Lake
Donate - BWCA.com