Donna's first BWCA adventure!
Off to the midwest for an almost month long trip. Donna and I took off on Labor Day weekend, heading to Sioux Falls, SD, and one night in a motel, then on to Bemidji, for a brief visit with my long term friend George at his home outside of Bemidji on three wooded acres - very peacefull setting and a great meal provided by George. Always a great time seeing George - lots of laughs. Then a three hour drive to Ely, where we picked up our new Souris River Quetico 17 kevlar canoe - only weighs 42 pounds - a beautiful canoe and perfect for the BWCA - George has had one for a few years now. Lunch at the Northwoods Cafe in Ely, before heading to Grand Marais, MN and the McArthur house B&B. This was a great B&B and we would definitely recommend it if you ever get up to far NE Minnesota. We had dinner at one of Grand Marais' signature restaurants - Sven and Ollie's Pizza. The next morning Max and Sheri, our B&B hosts graciously made us breakfast before the normal breakfast time, so that we could head out down the Gunflint Trail 55 miles to the end of the trail and Seagull Outfitters. We had hired a "tow service" to save ourselves about 5 hours of paddling on the first day crossing the biggest part of Lake Saganaga. So it was off on our BWCA adventure.
We worked hard that first day paddling in 14 miles, and 5 portages, including one of the harder portages I've ever done - the portage into Cherry Lake from Hanson Lake. Straight up and 110 rods ( a rod is 16 feet). A very impressive feat for first timer Donna - that body pump class clearly paid off. We had hoped to camp at Cherry Lake, but the two campsites on that lake were taken, so we pushed on to Topaz Lake and snagged the only campsite on the lake. Stayed two nights on Topaz, then moved to Amoeber Lake for two nights (a really beautiful campsite on a beautiful lake that we had all to ourselves), then canoed out through Knife, Little Knife and Ottertrack Lakes staying on the only campsite on Ottertrack Lake (so again we had the lake all to ourselves - one of the themes of this trip).
The word that we kept using for the trip was "idyllic". Donna kept waxing eloquent how much she loved it, and I loved sharing this area with her that I have been going to for over thirty years. September is such a great month to go, low or no mosquitos, less people, and often decent weather. Our weather actually bordered on hot, as it got into the low 80's on several of the days. Donna wore shorts the entire time, and we'd be in shorts and t-shirts at 9 at night. Full moon, spectacular stars - a very peaceful time. Fished a bit every day, and had a lot of fun catching a large number (albeit smaller - and yes Donna caught the biggest fish) of smallmouth bass, enough for three meals of fish - nothing better than fresh caught smallmouth or walleye. Lots of hammock reading time. We saw a few folks on the way in on a few of the portages, and had a few people pass by, but for 99% of the time it felt like we were the only ones there. You camp at designated campsites in the BWCA, so camping there is nothing like camping in a campground - no neighbors, except maybe across the lake - and in our case no one else was ever camping on the same lake as we were. Donna particularly loved the loons and the haunting sounds they make.
It was close to a perfect trip - one negative but memorable experience was the fire. The BWCA experience the biggest fire of record while we were there, and the fire "blew up" while we were there. Several of the pictures show the huge smoke plume that we could see from our lakes, and smoke drifted in for several hours on a couple of the days. The USFS actually closed of most of the BWCA after we got out, including the area we were in. People (including my sister Denise) smelled the smoke from the fire all the way in Chicago (over 400 miles away).
Another memorable experience was canoeing out the last day in the biggest waves I've ever canoed in. Big whitecaps. Luckily we had the wind at our back and kind of surfed the waves back, which sounds like fun, but keeping the canoe straight and not swamping is not an easy task. We would not have been able to canoe against those waves - going crossways in those waves would have swamped the canoe for sure. But we made it - the tow service young man said they were the biggest waves they had seen all season.
So all in all a great first BWCA trip for Donna. Idyllic!
We worked hard that first day paddling in 14 miles, and 5 portages, including one of the harder portages I've ever done - the portage into Cherry Lake from Hanson Lake. Straight up and 110 rods ( a rod is 16 feet). A very impressive feat for first timer Donna - that body pump class clearly paid off. We had hoped to camp at Cherry Lake, but the two campsites on that lake were taken, so we pushed on to Topaz Lake and snagged the only campsite on the lake. Stayed two nights on Topaz, then moved to Amoeber Lake for two nights (a really beautiful campsite on a beautiful lake that we had all to ourselves), then canoed out through Knife, Little Knife and Ottertrack Lakes staying on the only campsite on Ottertrack Lake (so again we had the lake all to ourselves - one of the themes of this trip).
The word that we kept using for the trip was "idyllic". Donna kept waxing eloquent how much she loved it, and I loved sharing this area with her that I have been going to for over thirty years. September is such a great month to go, low or no mosquitos, less people, and often decent weather. Our weather actually bordered on hot, as it got into the low 80's on several of the days. Donna wore shorts the entire time, and we'd be in shorts and t-shirts at 9 at night. Full moon, spectacular stars - a very peaceful time. Fished a bit every day, and had a lot of fun catching a large number (albeit smaller - and yes Donna caught the biggest fish) of smallmouth bass, enough for three meals of fish - nothing better than fresh caught smallmouth or walleye. Lots of hammock reading time. We saw a few folks on the way in on a few of the portages, and had a few people pass by, but for 99% of the time it felt like we were the only ones there. You camp at designated campsites in the BWCA, so camping there is nothing like camping in a campground - no neighbors, except maybe across the lake - and in our case no one else was ever camping on the same lake as we were. Donna particularly loved the loons and the haunting sounds they make.
It was close to a perfect trip - one negative but memorable experience was the fire. The BWCA experience the biggest fire of record while we were there, and the fire "blew up" while we were there. Several of the pictures show the huge smoke plume that we could see from our lakes, and smoke drifted in for several hours on a couple of the days. The USFS actually closed of most of the BWCA after we got out, including the area we were in. People (including my sister Denise) smelled the smoke from the fire all the way in Chicago (over 400 miles away).
Another memorable experience was canoeing out the last day in the biggest waves I've ever canoed in. Big whitecaps. Luckily we had the wind at our back and kind of surfed the waves back, which sounds like fun, but keeping the canoe straight and not swamping is not an easy task. We would not have been able to canoe against those waves - going crossways in those waves would have swamped the canoe for sure. But we made it - the tow service young man said they were the biggest waves they had seen all season.
So all in all a great first BWCA trip for Donna. Idyllic!
My parents are stunning inside and out. So glad you get to travel together. Up next, New Zealand! Love reading your blog Dad!
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