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Boundary Waters Canoe Trip
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Forget Disneyworld, I nominate the Boundary Waters for the most magical place on earth. Had absolutely amazing time on my trip. I was out for 5 days and 4 nights. During the middle 48 hours I did not see a single other person. I got loaded up on the water at 8am Thursday morning. The outfitter planned a nice big loop for me paddling out from their site and returning there the following Tuesday. The forest service has designated campsites set up throughout the boundary waters which all have fire rings and pit toilets. They are the only places that you are allowed to camp at. The outfitter recommended a few along my route to try for and gave me some guidelines on about how far to try for each day. All helpful, but I was all alone and had to figure out a lot on the fly. I got my maps from them and off I went.
I took all of about 45 minutes for me to mistake and inlet for the path I wanted and to start wondering where I was. I figured it out quickly, but really made myself wonder what I was getting myself into. Things settled down for a while and I even found the first portage that two other canoes missed. The portages are areas that you have to carry all your gear and canoes overland because there are rapids ahead or to cross between two bodies of water. Because I was alone I had to carry one pack over the first time, walk back with nothing, and then get my smaller pack and put the canoe on my head and walk over to the other side again. The portages varied from 100 feet to ¾ of a mile long. They also had many obstacles along the way. Wading through 1-2 feet of water, climbing over fallen trees, boulders throughout the trails, tree limbs, mosquitoes, you get the idea. Kept things interesting.
After I while I got into a groove of paddling. That was also interesting by myself. 6 strokes on one side and I'm turned too far right, switch to the other side until I'm too far left and repeat. Like a sailboat having to tack back and forth continuously. That was better than the times when the wind or current had me paddling for 20 minutes all on one side. A lot work, but that was part of the fun too. I hadn't worked like that since I was in college, but it all came back and I wasn't even sore. Not sure how I got that lucky. I made it to the suggested camping area the first day after about 8 hours on the water and portaging. The campsites were nice. Some logs laid out by the fire ring and few choices of where to put up the tent. The maximum size you can have anywhere in the boundary waters is 9 people and 4 canoes so I had lots of room. There was a full moon while on Saturday which gave me lots of light to see by even at night. I was far enough north that the sun came up soon after 4am and didn't get dark until 10pm. That took a little getting used to.
It rained the middle of the night the first two days which sent me scrambling to put up my fly before it got too bad. The first night had a big thunder and lightning storm with it. I'd worked hard enough that it didn't keep me up much. My biggest issue the first day was my water and food pack weighed more than everything else put together thanks to all the water I was carrying. I was swigging it down just to lighten the load as much as I could. I also had to swing a rope over a tree branch and pull that pack up off the ground so that bears and other critters couldn't get at it. It was everything I could do to get the pack up high enough. The rope just didn't want to pull over the branches. The first night I forgot my sleeping pad in the food pack and wasn't about to try lifting it again. I took inventory of what I had on the ground and made do that night.
I'd made my reservations for the trip back in March and they sent me a menu to choose from for what I wanted to eat each day. The first day you can have fresh food (eggs and bacon, steak for dinner). Unfortunately I chose that for all three meals and once I got out there realized I had a bunch of fresh food to cook and eat. I made it through those two, but still had a pack of hot dogs. I cooked all of them the first night and ate two for breakfast the next morning, but couldn't make myself eat them again for lunch. I ended up putting them over the fire that night to burn out all the moisture and threw them in my trash bag. The rest of the food was good, pre-package camp food, heat up and add water, but it was all two person servings. Basically, it meant that at the end of the trip I had enough uncooked food that I could have stayed for another 5 days. I would have too if my permit wasn't up and I had my baseball trip to go too.
The second day I got going early. A couple quick portages and I was on Bald Eagle Lake that was the last time I saw anyone for the next two days. I saw how the lake got its name when a bald eagle swooped about 50 feet past me and caught a fish. It turned 90 degrees towards land, met up with its mate, and went to the top of a tree to dine. Made my heart skip a few beats and a couple of minutes to catch my breath. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. The picture I have of the bald eagle is one that I saw a couple days later. That was so unexpected that I wouldn't have had time enough if I could have moved. It took me a while to find the next portage, I'm still convinced it is further north than what it shows on the map. I had to walk around on some wet loose rocks to find it and took a spill scraping up one hand and banging my ankle. Thankfully, it wasn't anything serious. That portage and the next one were about half a mile each which was what kept everyone else away. The first night I had tried for my own island to camp on which was take, but I had the whole lake to myself the next two nights.
Never saw any of the big critters (bears, moose, or wolves) but a few deer, the bald eagles, lots of loons, and all the things I heard but couldn't see that went scurrying by my tent at night. Mainly just wanted to see them from a distance, but I still have my Glacier National Park trip too. I was going to use the same camp for nights 2 and 3, but after looking at the map decided to move a little the third day to shorten how far I needed to go on day 4. Glad I did because the next campsite was even better and day 4 was a long day. When talking about the route I would go on Day 4 the guide tells me, "Oh they forgot to mark a couple of portages on here". If anyone ever tells you that think twice. Yes, there is a trail there, but these were hiking trails, not necessarily canoe carrying trails. When you have 9 feet of canoe sticking out in front and behind you the space needed to get by changes, drastically. I put my paddle in the water at 7:15 that morning and spent the next three hours getting over the first the portages. They ranged from 3/4 of a mile to 1/4 and were up down, over trees, under trees, through water, didn't really look at the landscape there because I was just trying to get to the end. Made me glad I had moved 1.5 hours closer the day before though.
After that I ran into my first people 4 groups of nine at the start and finish of two consecutive portages. Felt like I was in the middle of a freeway after the last two days! It soon thinned back out and I saw a couple more bald eagles. Of course they distracted me enough to make one mild miss turn, but well worth it. I made it to the campsite I wanted around 3, but that and the next three after that were full. Finally turned around and backtracked to an empty one for my last night. An uneventful night there and smooth last day brought me back to the outfitter at 1pm. Since I returned there is a big wild fire up there so I'm glad to have gotten out when I did.
I think my favorite part of the Boundary Waters is how different it is from every other park I've been to. First you can't just drive up to the "must see site (waterfall, mountain top, whatever)". There is no must see site, everyone is there for their own reasons. Most people want to fish, I don't, or hike, or look at scenery, wildlife, or just get away. Second, the few people that you do see did just as much work to get there as you. Makes you and them respect where you are at. The outfitter had a large wall covered in maps that showed the entire boundary waters, I couldn't believe what a tiny portion of it I saw when I returned. Don't know the acreage, but it is gigantic. A place I highly recommend that everyone visit. If you aren't in shape or good with directions go with a guide or take someone with you who is, but worth a visit at least once. The first place on this trip that I definitely want to back to return to.
I know that I don't have the writing skills or vocabulary to do the place justice, and hopefully the 16,000 words in pictures I'm posting help. It really is a place you have to experience to get the full appreciation for it. More thumbnails ...
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