Our May trip to the Boundary Waters was my first wilderness trip paddling and portaging my solo canoe. What a fabulous experience!!! I'm happy to report I didn't roll down any giant waterfalls, or tip my canoe.
Our drive both up and back across the northern prairies of South Dakota and MN was hampered by incredibly strong winds. Thank goodness Rusty is obsessive about tying down the canoes.
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| We had six straps and eight ropes daring the wind to separate the canoes from the car. |
The first day we paddled up Little Indian Sioux River to Lower Pauness Lake. Rusty ran the rapids around the portage into Upper Pauness Lake. Our final portage to Shell Lake was 216 rods long. Near the end of the portage, the
quasi-bridge had been blown out so we had to get in our canoes and
paddle across the low land. The high winds made it difficult. Once the
three of us had safely made it across, we heard a loud, long crack. We
turned around to watch a giant tree fall into the water, just a few
feet from where we had been standing! It was a long day! That night the wind calmed and we settled in for a lovely evening.
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| Waters have calmed and sun is getting low. Happy hour begins. |
We were pretty tired after our first day, so we decided to camp two nights on this beautiful island.
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| A bit of paradise, eh? |
The island was dotted with pretty flowers.
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| Steve said these were corydalis; they reminded me of tiny Columbine. |
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| Service berry, also known as June berry. |
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| The island was covered with wild blueberry bushes. In another month or so, this will be a favorite spot for bears and campers. |
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| Some day this little red bud will be a pine cone. |
Our second morning was sunny, warm and calm.
We took a day trip into Heritage Lake on what turned out to be our easiest day of the trip. Calm, warm weather and easy paddling made for a lot of fun.
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| Smooth sailing. |
Back to the island for another beautiful evening.
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| Rusty caught a nice bass and also a good sized Northern for dinner. |
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| The setting sun shines on the face of a happy camper! |
The next morning it was time to pack up and head farther north and into Lynx Lake.
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| Like nearly all of this wilderness area, you have rocks... |
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| or trees... |
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| or water. |
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| Check out my guns while paddling. |
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| Rusty trolls for fish, net at the ready. |
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| Di & Rusty having fun in solo canoes. |
Our portages sometimes have rocky landings.
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| Footing can be tricky when you're carrying a canoe or a pack. |
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| The flat spots are easy. |
Rusty spent weeks re-carving each of our yokes and then modifying them so that they could be easily inserted and removed from the canoes. He carefully determined the balance point of each canoe and then marked where the yoke needed to be for comfortable portaging.
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| I carried my own canoe on every portage. This was HUGE for me! |
Moving from Shell Lake into Lynx Lake, we encountered wind screaming out of the north. I headed in the wrong direction, but because of the wind, I could not hear the whistles of Steve or Rusty. Eventually I got to the end of Shell Lake and turned around to join Rusty and Steve.
Entering Lynx Lake, we paddled into white-caps which added to the challenge of paddling into a headwind. Rusty says I kicked ass. Our campsite was more primitive than some. The opportunities for setting up a tent were so limited, that our guide, Steve, paddled down the lake to bring back some sand so the site for his small one-person tent would be level. It was clear no one had camped there since last fall.
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| Boots are drying and the pot of water is boiling. Supper will be ready soon. |
On the following day we planned to go through Lynx, portaging into Heritage Lake, and then ultimately into Loon Lake. The portage into Loon Lake was labeled as a 220 rod portage (about 6/10ths of a mile), but the maps are not always accurate. It turned out to be about a mile long. At one point I was pretty sure I was lost. There were criss-crossing trails. Steve was way ahead of me and didn't answer my calls. Rusty was way behind me and didn't answer my calls. Because I expected the portage to be much shorter than it was, I began to doubt that I was on the right trail. I stayed with the trail and eventually hooked up with Steve who was returning for the double portage. Rusty was concerned about my whereabouts, and used his shrill rescue whistle at the junction of the trails to summon Steve who reassured Rusty that we were on the right trail.
The other exciting part of this portage was animal related. We had observed deer footprints, moose footprints, and moose calf footprints along the portage trail. Steve found fresh wolf scat (perhaps only minutes old) that was the result of a recent kill. My guess is that the wolf got the deer or calf shortly before we got to the portage.
The portage ended in a lovely, sandy beach where Steve went into the water for a quick dip to cool off.
We paddled to a campsite on Loon Lake, and pitched our tents for the final evening, totally exhausted.
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| Steve decided to use the vertebra of a moose for his amulet. |
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| Once again we had fresh, fried Northern Pike for dinner. YUMMY! |
Our route back to the entry point started with a crossing of Upper Pauness Lake. Although we only had to paddle about a half mile, it was into a heavy wind and took about 40 minutes, scary all the way. I led the way and as Steve passed Rusty he said, "Very few people could do this. She's doing it and pulling away." We had to paddle into the same strong headwind the rest of the way home. It was 25 mph, with gusts over 40, and at times it was demoralizing seeing the shore line and knowing we were barely moving.
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| I slid my canoe among these tall grasses (which kept the wind from blowing me around) in order to snap this picture. |
Each of us struggled to keep our canoes moving forward. All too often a huge gust would catch my canoe and send me sailing across to the opposite side of the river. I just kept paddling and staying focused, inching my way forward. Eventually we came to a portage bypassing the "Devil's Cascade". It was a steep portage up and then down, but the view at the top was awesome!
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| This is a still pic of the rushing water. |
This is a movie I can't seem to play. I've tried every format I can think of. If anyone knows the answer to getting movies to play in Google blogs, please let me know. The movie is WAY better than the still pic.
The hair stands up on the back of my neck every time I hear the rush of falling water. I imagine myself accidentally crashing my canoe down one of these. If you could actually play the movie, you would see why.
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| Rusty & Di at the top of Devil's Cascade. |
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| Sometimes it's windy; sometimes it's calm. It's always an incredible experience! |
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