That's What She Said: Boundary Waters canoe trip

Now for something (just a little) different. We'd heard about Boundary Waters quite a while ago and always thought it would be interesting to check out. Well, we're on a tour of the upper Midwest this month, visiting a few high points, and therefore already in the Boundary Waters area. On a whim I decided to try for a permit earlier this year and got one. OK, now what should we do with this?

It turned out to be pretty easy to plan for, especially since I had chosen an entry point next door to Sawbill outfitters and campground. We rented an excellent canoe but otherwise had all our own stuff. We really appreciated our lightweight carbon fiber paddles, I must say.

Having not yet completely unpacked from our mountaineering trips, we rearranged some gear, added waterproofing and additional camping amenities, and discovered the perfect 3rd drybag/backpack in the one that came with our inflatable kayak. John liked the idea of being able to easily carry more weight in the canoe, while I was uncertain how that would work with the portages. It was all a big "figure it out as you go" type of puzzle that we enjoy working through.

It was great fun studying the map and playing with ideas for where to go. Some people paddle in somewhere and stay in one place the whole time. We're more "on the move" type people, wanting to see what we could, but hopefully without going overboard (as it were) with grand aspirations. The guy at the Sawbill rental counter was super helpful with suggestions and helped us figure out a good first-pass scope of what we might want to try.

The map includes all the portages, and there are obvious routes and loops to choose from. We started out on Sawbill Lake and did our first little portage over to the Kelso River. We saw a couple groups of people right off the bat, but then no one else the rest of the day. I think our plan of heading away from the entry point right away made for a quieter experience.

Immediately clear was that the navigation was going to be fun and interesting. Adventure racing nav experience certainly helped, but the chance to spend several days crossing a variety of lakes and locating portage trails was great for practicing. More than once I was glad we weren't on the clock and had time to figure things out, because we weren't always immediately successful.

I had the camera in a waterproof bag in my PFD, but we were pretty focused on getting into the groove the first day so I didn't take any pictures. The Kelso River wound around, and right before we were about to reach Kelso Lake we saw rain coming so we pulled over to wait it out. It was a good immediate test of all the waterproofing systems, and it all worked well. And happily that was our only rain of the whole trip. Amazing and lucky for us.

We checked out a campsite on Kelso Lake but it looked pretty waterlogged so we decided we had enough time to tackle the longest portage of the week. Over 2 km long, between Lujenida and Zenith Lakes, and with a bit of wading through a (beaver-created?) creek in the middle. This was a good test of carrying 3 large packs plus the canoe. We initially tried bringing everything at one time but ended up leaving things and doing a back-and-forth shuttle to move stuff forward and get a break while trekking back for the trailing items.

The campsite on Zenith Lake was open (it's all first come, first serve) so we took it. What a lovely place for our first night out. Somehow the kitchen/gathering area didn't even have many mosquitoes, something about the airflow through the trees. Our first couple days were rather windy so that helped keep the insects down.

Every site has logs to sit on and a campfire with grill - very nice:

Thank you to Too Cool Racing for one of our camping mugs!

John discovered that this mushroom grew a bunch of spores overnight, super interesting even though we have no idea what that's about:

Our tent site nestled in the trees:

I didn't take a picture of one, but each campsite also has a path to a latrine so you don't have to dig holes while you're there.

Here's the map of most of our route in case you're interested in following along:

The next day we moved camp up to Mesaba Lake, which involved 2 "standard" length portages and one short one. The portages are listed in rods, which are 16.5 feet each. That made for some math we could try to do in our head to pass the time while schlepping stuff from one lake to the next and pace counting.

We were really happy that the rental canoe came with pads in the right location so John could balance it on his shoulders and carry it by himself. I was fine moving packs -- and taking pictures of John with a canoe over his head:

Treats for the walk back to get the other packs!

More interesting mushrooms, there sure is quite the variety in northern Minnesota:

Let's go that-a-way, across Duck Lake:

We found an excellent campsite on the south side of Mesaba Lake, with a northwest wind coming across and sweeping skeeters away. After setting up camp, we embarked on an ambitious loop to explore lakes to the west. Too ambitious, really, because it took the rest of the day and we were way tuckered out by the time we got back to camp. But we're glad we went because we saw a lot of little lakes and got some great experience with the portages without having to lug our entire set of gear along.

First we returned to Zenith, then paddled west to Frederick and Wine Lakes. We had a snack at a campsite on an island; that seems like a neat idea! We decided to try for sleeping on an island by the end of the trip if we could.

Checking out the scenery from the island campsite:

There's a short story behind this, I'm sure you can guess:

Mug Lake was next, and it's small but really cute. Possibly where the next 2 photos were taken (we saw so many lakes, for sure I cannot remember all of them!):

John taking a turn with the nav and steering:

Is this how it's done?

From the end of Poe Lake and over to Louse and beyond, we found the worst portage sections of the trip. I don't guess a lot of people come through here, or maybe it's low on the list to clear out every year. Side note - John is now thinking of coming back for a trail work week at Boundary Waters, which sounds like a fun variation on the mountain ones he likes to do.

Anyway, this section could use some help. It was overgrown and sometimes hard to follow. Somehow John managed to keep up with me, even with the canoe over his head:

Part of the "trail" went through grass that was over our head. Amazing. Then the trail made a 90 degree turn, which somehow John STILL managed even with the long canoe pushing through the vegetation, and another 90 degree turn back. How does this make sense as a portage trail? I don't know, but it sure started me laughing.

He even got to walk along a log, so I had to get a photo while trying to stay mostly out of the way. I got bonked by a canoe end only a couple times and it was usually against my PFD or hat brim...

I sure wish I had a photo of John's next trick - I turned around in time to see the canoe go straight down to the ground, like John had stepped into a very deep hole and disappeared. Not quite, he had actually just tripped, and I really, really hoped he was OK because I was laughing so hard watching it happen.

Yep, he was OK!

Phew, we finally reached the other end of the 2 crazy portages and found the river:

The rest of our loop back around to Mesaba was mostly basic paddling and portaging, although we did have our first experience being unable to locate the start of a portage trail. We weren't the first ones either, as little trails through the brush would give us hope and then peter out. The actual trail, once we located it past a large rock face, was wide and obvious. Well, if you'd been through the Louse Lake portages, you might not expect something so nice.

Back at camp, finally! Thank you Heath and Alyssa for our other camp mug!

That evening we were treated to a show by a family of floating loons. The two younger ones wandered off while the parents went hunting underwater, then Mom had to go collect them. Once the kids were getting fed they hung around and waited for a parent to pop up with food to hand over (beak to beak). All the while the group slowly drifted past our campsite as the wind carried them by. John had decided to bring binoculars so we could see them close up.

Loons serenaded us several times over the next few days and we started recognizing different calls. A bit eerie and very special. Occasionally we'd hear one make a loud splash, which I took to calling a "looner landing". Thank you, wonderful birds!

The next day we aimed for Frost Lake, with the option to stop earlier if we got tired. It was another long day but it felt like we made good progress the whole time so we just kept moving. The morning was gorgeous and the portages went smoothly.

After our long portage of the day (284 rods) we arrived at Fente Lake:

From there it was all upstream to Frost, but we never ran into challenging current. Just an occasional portage where one lake dropped down from the next one:

The canoe with the excellent shoulder pads, and two of our three packs:

It's a lovely day at Afton Lake:

Next up was Frost River, and we really didn't know what to expect. It's long and meandering and we wondered if it would be slow, narrow, and a lot of work. On the contrary, it was one of the highlights. It zigzagged through wide meadows, making for quick/fun turns and great practice with our steering teamwork.

Occasionally we'd reach a little beaver dam and need to find a way across. Lots of standing in water on piles of sticks and working together to haul the canoe over before taking turns getting back in the boat. Great little puzzles.

After one of the short actual portages, contemplating our next beaver dam obstacle:

The best part of the day was going around a sharp bend in Frost River and coming across two river otters. Awesome! Both dove before I could see them, but one came back up to say "hi!" before diving for good.

On the portage trail to Pencil Lake; John occasionally hauled both packs until I came back to take one from him:

The lily flowers were great, so pretty! We finally paused long enough so I could take a picture:

The portage into Chase Lake was short but super steep - I didn't get a good shot of John's Herculean effort getting the canoe up the slope, so this will have to do:

Giant rootstock:

Tiny adorable mushroom:

Huge mushroom:

One nav error for the day - turning off the main river into a side creek that seemed to be going the right direction but got smaller and narrower until it finally basically ended. We had to work to turn around. Back at the main river and actually checking the compass, oh right, we aren't supposed to be heading toward Noodle Lake (as fun as the name is).

Fixed that problem, one more portage to go. We reached Frost Lake and had a choice of 4 empty sites. The 5th site would have been the best one - a western-facing point for afternoon sun and some wind - but it was taken so we settled for the one around the corner.

In our campsite inspections we came across moose prints in a couple places and decided to get up early the next day to go moosing around Frost Lake. What a serene and peaceful morning it was:

On the trail of moose:

Possibly moose habitat:

Moose poop:

All kinds of signs of moose, but no actual moose. We did, however, see two beavers! That was super cool. They were swimming around, always on the move. Hey beavers, have you seen any moose this morning?

Breakfast on the water:

Lots of blues and greens:

We decided to spend two nights in one place and take a bit of a break. I'd found this in the outfitter store and there were plenty of trees to hang things from so John put it up. A great place for "no mosquito coffee"! A favorite hangout spot for the day:

Later that day we were just hanging around camp when a MOOSE walked right by. John heard it off in the trees, then it walked between us and the latrine. Super cool! I guess we didn't need to go looking for it after all. Here's a photo of the spot the moose had just been only a second before... I guess you'll have to trust me on that:

We hadn't seen anyone since day 2 but that changed at Frost Lake. Besides the guys in the next site over, several parties came through while we hung out there:

Demonstrating extra-proper bear bag hanging technique:

Warming up with a little campfire:

Another great tent location - although the mosquitoes were particularly loud overnight in their buzzing while trying to get in (happily almost none did). Kind of like a natural white noise machine?

Enjoying our view:

The next morning we got up early again, broke camp, and made the short journey over to Cherokee Lake. Along the way we saw another couple beavers, again really fun to watch, especially when they slap the water really loudly as an alarm call.

But the more amazing sight was a momma and baby moose swimming up the lake toward us. She saw us and turned around, swimming away to the far shore. We felt bad having disturbed their morning travel, but it was a really neat thing to watch (and the baby seemed just fine with the whole thing). I even got a sort-of a photo:

Cherokee Lake has a whole bunch of campsites and most weren't occupied that morning. We made a beeline to the one I most wanted - at the west end of a narrow island. We were learning which locations might be best for lower mosquito populations. The bugs were only occasionally ridiculous during our journey, like at dusk or after we jumped into the tent. The bug shirt and head net helped a lot.

But even better was a campsite with a nice northwest wind blowing across a big rock - and yes, the site was free (and did I mention it's on an island?). Yay! We'll take it.

The best afternoon chill spot, with shade plus wind plus trees to hang from. So nice.

We went for an exploratory paddle around the lake, enjoying the chance to see all the tiny islands with trees and large rocks.

And we finally found a bald eagle! We paused at a couple small flat rocks in the middle of the lake to check it out:

Thank you, Mr Eagle!

We'd brought a little weather radio, and that proved very helpful. The Weather Band always had the current forecast so we could plan, plus we could reach NPR on FM. Along with some small solar panels for charging it (and other electronics), we stayed fairly in touch with goings-on whenever we wanted.

There was supposed to be rain in the 2nd half of our trip, and that kept getting pushed back. Great! Finally for sure there would be rain that night. Coupled with the fact that we hadn't brought quite enough food for 7 days, we decided to cut it one night short. No reason to go hungry and spend a night in the rain as well.

So we started back south on day 6, out the end of Cherokee Lake:

Several portages, little creeks and lakes later, and we were back on Sawbill Lake. It was a nice morning for a long paddle. With a stop for a snack in the middle - we still have a little food left at least:

One last look at the pretty lake:

Hey, a wilderness boundary sign, that's neat:

Thank you Boundary Waters!

We drove down to the coast of Lake Superior and managed to snag a rare site at Temperance River State Park for the night. We hadn't realized how popular all the RV spots are along the coast - it's a big vacation area in August.

John started cleaning off the mud on the truck (it had rained on us during the drive on dirt roads into Sawbill the week before)...