Saturday, September 06, 2025
Another frost advisory overnight, yet another morning waking up snug and warm in my Ridgerunner Hammock. Temperatures are supposed to move into the mid 50's today, which will feel like a heat wave when it happens. Getting from Boulder Lake to Adams lake proved quite challenging, as both paper maps show 2 portages (one in the 40/50 rod range and one in the 10/12 rod range), but neither of these are correct. Online maps show differently (and are much more accurate in this case), but with no knowledge of that at the time, I just followed the route others have used as best as I could, did a few beaver dam pullovers, and made it through. The area between the stream leading into the north end of Adams and Adams Lake itself would have been a terrible slog in low water conditions, which I was very happy was not the case on this trip. There is supposed to be a portage somewhere in that area, but I could find no sign of it. Adams Lake, just as Boulder before it, left me wishing I had left more time for exploration and enjoyment along this route. Making my way though the northern portions of the Kawishiwi River, I spot and the first humans I have seen in nearly 48 hours, marking my return to a bit more popular route. I fish my way down the Kawishiwi River without luck, but I do get to see 3 very playful but nervous otters, bobbing up and down from under the water as though they were playing a game of visual whack-a-mole with me in my canoe, less than 30 feet away.
Uncharacteristically, I somehow completely forget about the Fishdance pictographs as they are off the bottom of my map (and thus out of mind) and make the turn west towards Alice Lake without heading south to see them first. That's ok, I now have a tangible reason to return to this route again in the future.
At this point, i make what to some may seem an irresponsible choice. I ignore the portages into Alice Lake, choosing instead to pick my way through each of the 3 rapids in order to fish the bottom of each. It's slow, wet getting in and out in the middle of the rapids, and definitely gave my Northstar Solo more than its share of character scratches, but it was so much fun! I did almost dump sideways once, but even that was somewhat exhilarating and taught me some good lessons for future attempts. Fishing below the rapids was a very good choice, as it seemed to the the only place the smallmouth bass were active. I landed a nice 18 1/2" bass and a few smaller ones as well and lost what was definitely the largest SMB I have ever seen. It jumped twice within just a few feet of my canoe and was nearly in my net when it gave one last effort to escape and did just that. I've personally measured 20" smallmouth before, and this made those fish seem small. My best estimate is that is was somewhere near 22", but I'll never know for sure. The image has been inscribed in my mind though and was a definite highlight of this whole trip.
I ended up taking the second site on the east shore as I entered Alice Lake, as the rest of the lake was fully whitecapped and unsuitable for travel at that point of my day with my current energy level. The site was catching a lot of wind, but I found a way to arrange my tarp that I didn't even notice it while inside. Despite the warmer temps, the evening still feels cool and damp and a heavy 30 minute rain forces me temporarily under cover just before dinner time. Clearing skies soon followed and I was treated to the best sunset views of the entire trip. Note to others- this camp site is completely overrun with mice and I could hear them all night climbing on my stuff under the hammock. Two of them even managed to crawl inside the "dirty" bag for my gravity filter and die there in the cold overnight (GROSS!), so I had to wash that out very well in the morning in order to still use it. If you stay here, make sure your gear is secured from these mini-bears.

Lakes traveled- Boulder, Adams, Beaver, Kawishiwi River, River, Fishdance, Alice