Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Stairway 120 steps replaced
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Pinetree |
OgimaaBines: "I've not been since the stairs were put in but looking forward to seeing/using them this year in August. The Friends of the Boundary Waters has a podcast called "Big Red Canoe" and they did a good one with one of the US Forest Sled Dog team who helped backhaul the old stairway out during the winter and help maintain all the sites and implements at the sites. red canoe |
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straighthairedcurly |
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Pinetree |
LindenTree: "I volunteerd for the wilderness crew out of the Gunflint and Tofte Rd's last sumer and climbed the new stairs a few times, They are pretty nice. Cool, that would be neat to have something like that. |
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nctry |
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scat |
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pswith5 |
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HansSolo |
pswith5: "I heard a lady bought the old stairway. She thought it was heaven at the top!!" Nice Led Zeppelin reference Peter! :-) Hans Solo |
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Pinetree |
The old steps were spaced just so that I could take my Kevlar Souris river canoe, paddles, and one pack in one trip with no more than a few seconds for a break, never setting the canoe down at age 68. Those were the days my friend. Wonder if the rocks will be a lot slipperier than the wood steps when wet? |
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Pinetree |
Anyone been on it yet? hard as rock |
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Pinetree |
Old stairway materials were held at the end of the portage until they could be hauled out in January by Forest Service employees who own dog sled teams. Using two teams of 10 sled dogs, they made 14 2-mile round-trips over a frozen lake and through deep snow while enduring 30-below windchills over four days. Ideally, the Forest Service would have rerouted the trail to even further reduce the human-made imprint, but area terrain was too rocky. This was the next best thing, Quinn said, removing creosote-treated wood with something natural that will last. The check dams blend into the hill and eliminate the unnatural odor of creosote, an unexpected interruption to a wilderness experience, said Christine Kolinski, of the Superior National Forest. "In addition to the smell as you paddle across the lake, you could probably see those steps quite a ways back," she said. "So the visual impacts on the landscape today with the rock is just night and day." Funding for the $175,000 project came from the Great American Outdoors Act, BWCA permit fees, the Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration Fund and Secure Rural Schools grants. |
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Pinetree |
One More Step SUE PROM POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2008 POSTED IN NEWS I hope no one has been out to confirm the number of steps on Stairway Portage yet. If someone has then he or she may have been concerned when they counted 120 steps instead of 119! I spoke with Tom Kaffine from the USFS and he informed me there are now 120 steps on the Portage. The new steps were put in by a crew of retired Smoke Jumpers. According to Tom it was an interesting group of men including a Rancher, Math Teacher, Physician, Lutheran Minister, a CIA Analysist and one person who cooked for the crew. One of the Smoke Jumpers had just recently retired. Tom said something about this person who was considered "old" for smoke jumping and who had jumped for way more years than what most people do. I would have liked to have spoken with that man as I’m sure he had some amazing stories to tell. |
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LindenTree |
Here is a pic of an Aldo Leopold bench made by the rangers out of the old wooden stairways from the Rose Lake portage. Gunflint and Tofte Rd's each have one of these benches outside of their wilderness shop. |
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Z4K |
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Samsquatch |
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Pinetree |
scat: "Wow, that's interesting. So, they replaced 120 creosote treated wood steps with rock steps. What you are calling a check dam is the rock steps. Is that correct, how high does it go up. Must have been fun throwing those rocks around, sounds like I job I would enjoy. The way it was might have been easier as stcurly said, just start pumping those legs one after another, higher and more random steps can put more stress on the knees. I'd like to try it tho." You needed a strong back to throw those rocks around. They must have done a lot of splitting the rocks to get flat? |
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OgimaaBines |
It's called "Working Like a Dog in the BWCA". https://www.friends-bwca.org/podcast/ |
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plmn |
They are definitely beautifully done. |