Two Final Adventures

The end of my Summer at Tuscarora turned into quite the whirlwind. After helping the Ahrendt family move down to Stillwater Minnesota (Sue Ahrent is working as a professor of Math Education this winter at Wisconsin River Falls), I had earned several extra days off for all the overtime work I had done. So naturally I was planning to use the extra time off to do something really adventurous such as potentially canoeing to Ely and back solo! But it was not to be as during my last week at Tuscarora my Grandmother passed away. The extra time off proved helpful as it allowed me to leave early to go to her funeral while still fulfilling my full work commitment to Tuscarora, and to be honest it was really nice to have some extra time to spend with all my family and friends before I headed out to DC for classes the following week.

So while there was not final great adventure during my last week of the summer I did do two other trips in August that I have failed to blog about previously. The first was a solo canoe trip from Poplar Lake to Round Lake and the other was doing the Caribou Rock Hiking Trail which goes from the trail center area of the Gunflint Trail all the way out to Rose Lake and Stairway Falls.

My trip from Poplar Lake to Round Lake is one of the more common routes we sent clients on throughout the summer, so it was fun to finally do the route and get to see the area for myself! Below is a map of my route and some pictures from my trip. Enjoy!

My Route: 25 Miles. I started from Poplar Lake and went to Otto Lake the first night where I camped. The second day I went to Long Island Lake where I stopped early in the day to relax and make camp (and get out of the huge headwinds). The final morning (I had a late start for work that day) I got up and canoed back to Round Lake.

On my first portage, a 300 rod portage from Poplar to Meeds Lake, I came across another trail, the Banadad Ski Trail! A couple winters ago my brother and I XC skied this entire trail which is over 30 km long.

Canoeing into the sunset to make it to Otto Lake the first night

Me after a portage

Campsite on Long Island Lake

A small northern I caught on the trip

The full moon rises over Long Island Lake

My final morning and sunrise of the summer in the BWCA

My last day off (I did not realize that it would be at the time) I did not end up going on a trip into the BWCA as I was a bit exhausted from both work and from all the long trips I had done. So instead I stayed in camp and slept in on my day off. Not wanting to waste the day though I went down towards trail center and hiked the Caribou Rock Trail. Round trip the hiking trail is about 7 miles long, in addition it goes up and down some huge ravines so it is definitely a more challenging hiking trail. The other interesting thing about this trail for me is the fact that I actually went on a BWCA trip years ago with my Church to Rose Lake to see Stairway Falls. The funny thing is we spent 4 days going out to Rose and back and never saw the falls, now in one afternoon I managed to make it all the way to the falls and back. I guess I am just a bit more fast (and efficient) then we were back then.

The Hiking Trail (approximately) round trip way 7 miles

Bearskin Lake

Duncan Lake

Stairway Falls

Me at Stairway Falls