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

Frost River Loop

Last week in addition to my normal day off of work I also had a late start the following day (meaning I did not have to be at work till 1:00 pm). This allowed me to have almost 48 hours off in a row and as a result do a two night trip into the BWCA.

Once again I ended up doing this trip solo, as no one else from my outfitter had the exact same time frame off. As I had longer off then normal I decided to pick a longer and more challenging route then I had done in the past. I choose to do the Frost River Loop. Advisable in the early spring when water levels are high, by early August it can be a bit more difficult to navigate. While the route does not have too many long portages (although I did do the 428 rod Tuscarora Portage for the 7th time this summer) it still had over 30 portages total and that does not include the 15-20 beaver dams I had to portage over as well. As I was also going down a river I opted to bring an 15 foot aluminum canoe on this trip as opposed to a single person lightweight Kevlar canoe, which I brought on my previous two solo trips. So needless to say by the time the trip was over I was quite exhausted. None the less it was a fun and challenging route through a very beautiful area of the BWCA.

Below are some pictures that illustrate my trip, enjoy!

My Route: 30 Miles, I started on the Cross River and camped on Frost Lake the first night. The second day I canoed the Frost River and made my way all the way to Tuscarora Lake where I camped for the second night before going back to camp.

The view from my campsite on Frost Lake

The Frost River (although creek, swamp, or brook would all be more appropriate terms)

Canoeing down the Frost

One of the many beaver dams I had to get over

Canoeing a lake at the end of the Frost River

Turkey Vultures eating a dead moose I came upon on Mora Lake

A small northern I caught on Tuscarora Lake

Sunset over Tuscarora Lake

515 Rods

Portages, love or hate them are a big part of the BWCA experience. You really cannot get anywhere without at least hiking some in-between lakes. Sure you can choose to stay on one lake your whole trip or simply go down a river, but such trips miss out on so much more that the BWCA has to offer. These days though people are increasingly doing shorter trips to only the periphery of the BWCA and not working their way into the interior as much (Forest Service latrine cleaning statistics back this fact up, specifically periphery lake campsites have a lot more you know what in their latrines!). Reason being is that doing so requires a lot more canoeing and a lot more portaging, people would rather set up camp a couple lakes in and relax as opposed to pushing themselves to see a larger portion of the wilderness.

While I have done some trips this summer that have been a bit more on the lazy side, my most recent solo was definitely not! While I did not cover as much mileage as some of my past trips my trip did take me through a route that is traveled by only a handful of daring souls each year. While my route was not exactly deep in the BWCA, people avoid it for a completely different reason.....a dreaded 515 Rod portage! Not only is this portage 1.60 miles long, but the elevation change is brutal as one is constantly going up and down over huge rolling hills.

My Route: Seagull Lake to Round Lake. I originally planned to just spend my entire day off on Seagull relaxing, but when morning came I decided I wanted something a bit more challenging (and perhaps insane). The Entire route is around 15 miles, the first marker (going North to South) is my starting point, the second my campsite, and the third was my final destination of Tuscarora Outfitters on Round Lake. The large portage is from Seagull Lake to JA Paulson Lake

Of course 515 rods and massive elevation change was not enough for me so I decided to do this portage solo (meaning I got to carry all my gear and my boat) and I did it on one of the hottest days of the summer (90+ degrees, sunny, and very high humidity). Needless to say by the time I finished it I was exhausted (although I did find a bit more strength to filter some more water to drink!). Unfortunately the long 515 rod portage was only my first portage of the day and I still had 10 more to go in order to make my way back to Round Lake and Tuscarora Outfitters.

So after a quick rest I was on my way cutting across more lakes and portages. Surprisingly by the end of the day the dreaded 515 Rod portage was not my least favorite of the day. Upon arriving on Fay Lake I was unable to locate the portage to Flying Lake. I searched several deer trails and other potential paths and was completely exasperated. Finally after about 45 mins of searching I went back to where I thought it should be (according to the map at least) and bushwhacked around in the woods a bunch. Finally I discovered what appeared to be a small path heading off in the right direction. I had not found it earlier because there were tons of trees down by the lake so it did not look like a portage from the water. While I had finally found the portage my trials and tribulations were far from over. As hardly anyone does this route the portage was extremely poorly kept up. Trees had overgrown the portage everywhere and there was barely any room to walk. The result of this was that I got to spend 100 rods literally ramming my canoe through brush and trees the entire way. There were many times during the portage where I wondered if I was actually on a portage at all or if I had just followed some deer path into the woods and would never reach a lake on the other side! Needless to say when I finally arrived at Flying Lake I was greatly relived (and tired).

The rest of my trip was mostly uneventful as I worked my way through a handful more lakes and portages, all of which I had done before on previous trips, before finally arriving back at Tuscarora mid-afternoon.

The trip from Seagull Lake to Round Lake, via JA Paulson Lake (also called Jap Lake), is not one I would generally recommend. I loved the challenge and the remoteness of it, but it is not for the feint of heart. Campsites are few and far between and portages are frequent and long. Still if you are up to the task and want to take on a fun challenging route, go for it, just do not say you were not warned!

Granite River

Last Monday and Tuesday I went on another trip during my day off. Myself and another staffer, Rachel, decided that we would go down the granite river route which goes from Gunflint Lake to Saganaga Lake. While the area is still quite burned from the 2007 Ham Lake fire it still is a great route that offers a lot of cool things including good fishing, river rapids, fairly easy portages, and scenic views.

Rachel actually already blogged about this trip for the Tuscarora Blog, so instead of writing my own blog post about it I am simply posting the route we did (below) and the link to Rachel's Blog Post. Enjoy!

Gunflint Lake to Saganaga Lake (21 Miles) via the Granite River. We camped Monday night on Larch Lake

Seagull Rendezvous

After a bunch of trips in which I spent a lot of my time paddling and portaging long distances to see large sections of the BWCA I decided it was time for something a little different (and more relaxing!). Lucky for me a lot of other people had the same idea. Staffers from three different Outfitters (Tuscarora, Seagull, & Voyager) all had last Thursday off and decided that we would do a short group trip on Seagull Lake. The great thing about Seagull is that it is a large entry lake in the BWCA and thus requires absolutely no portaging and only some paddling but still allows one to get into the wilderness.

Our trip was full of good weather (minus a few isolated thunder storms), good food, fun people, an amazing stary night, beautiful wilderness, and while the fishing was not great we still enjoyed ourselves and did not get skunked completely! Below are some pictures from the trip, enjoy.

Seagull Lake and our brief (and easy!) route

Maggie and I Canoeing on Seagull Lake

Dylan and I soaking up the sun after an afternoon swim

Sunset on Seagull Lake

The Palisade on Seagull (if you look closely you can see people climbing it)

Part of the View from the top of the Palisade, we took the hiking trail up (as opposed to scaling the 50-80 ft cliff faces)

Picture of Maggie, Dylan, Alyssa, and I on top of the Palisade

Watching a storm approach from across the Lake