BWCA journal
October 3-6, 2004
Schuyler, Mary, David, Lisa and Gary.
Written by Gary Hochgraf
October in the Northwoods can be anything from cold and windy to warm and sunny. We get a little of everything on this trip.
And so we begin. Our put-in is the Little Indian Sioux, a campground by a set of rapids on a river of the same name. The trail was well maintained and well used. Schuy and I put in and waited for the others, and picked a few of the last grains of wild rice standing in the shallows. The Little Indian Sioux River is a pleasant paddle, not too twisty, flanked by wild rice, rushes, and eventually tamarack and black spruce.
Got to the first portage, also well maintained, and met at least three other parties who were on their way out as we went in. This portage is also past a set of rapids, which looked line-able until we passed a 5’ waterfall. Once we had carried all the gear to the lower end, we went back and had lunch at the falls. The water here is quite dark brown - full of tannins.
As we launched a rain squall hit us, with a strong headwind. We got our raincoats on, but the rain was horizontal and not much fun. It stopped in about half an hour, but the wind continued all day.
Soon we reached Upper Pauness Lake, where we had no protection from the wind, but turned east to the portage into Little Pauness Lake. Upper Pauness is quite shallow with rice, sedges and grasses covering much of it. Lower is much deeper. The portage between the two is around another set of rapids. We all carried the gear over, then Schuy and I ran the rapids in Mary’s boat, which is made of Royalex. It was a short but challenging set, requiring reading of the water, then back-ferrying immediately after the first drop, and lots of rock-dodging.
In a short distance was a beaver dam. Schuy and I ran the drop through it, but hit lots of rocks. Mary and David, and Lisa dragged over a grassy spot after our experience. A very brief squall hit us again, and it ended with a low rainbow.
We were able to get some wind protection along the shore along this lake. The first campsite was taken, so we took the next, around a point and totally exposed to the wind. It’s a pretty site, built on a big exposed bedrock outcropping, with a few tent areas back in the woods and slightly protected.
A few more squalls, some with sleet, came through in the evening. The woods were wet, but we managed to get a fire going, but the wind (about 20mph) blew all the heat away and it didn’t warm us very much. But we stood around it anyway and enjoyed it’s ambiance.
Lisa served us a nice batch of spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner. As soon as it was dark I turned in and was soon asleep.
Monday. We were greeted by a rosy sunrise, sunlight on the far shore, then a deck of clouds blotted it out. Breakfast was simple, then the tents came down and we packed up. There was frost on the tents and graupel in protected areas. Then we headed out into the lake and into the wind. The portage is just around a bend in this small lake, which is ringed with green pines, spruce and cedars, and the yellows, reds, and oranges of the paper birches, aspens, and sugar maples.
The portage is wide, with a hill to climb & descend. The river tumbles over a long series of cascades which were nice to look at. Hiking was good to warm us all up.
We continued into the wind, north along the Little Indian Sioux River, which eventually widened into Loon Lake. Here the wind was more of a problem, and waves too, but we hugged the shore for it's meager protection. At the end of the river we heard a loon, then saw a large raptor. We got closer and identified it as an immature Bald Eagle. It circled us twice and perched high in a red pine while we ogled it. Its markings were quite unremarkable - mottled brown, blacks, whites, and tan.
We left the protection of the shore and pulled hard for the lee of an island, rested, then made a longer crossing through heavy chop to a point on the north shore. The wind is still blowing a steady 20 mph. Once in the lee again, we took out for lunch on a sunny apron of bedrock, well protected from the wind. It was finally warming. The deck of clouds is breaking up. First a few patches of blue through the clouds, then an even mix of small cumulus-humilus clouds and blue patches, then scattered little clouds in a field of intense blue.
After a long and leisurely lunch, we headed down-wind to a very nice, sunny, wind-protected campsite. Within an hour of arrival, the last of the clouds were gone, and we all enjoyed the warmth after yesterday’s cold. Mary made dinner - a beef-barley stew. Quite tasty. David tried his luck with the fish, and Schuy and I bushwhacked east to the next curve of the shoreline. The walk included some scrambling over bedrock. Motor boats are allowed on this lake, and several have gone by, and pulled up on the beach across the lake from us, where the next portage trail leaves from. The fire this evening was quite enjoyable, as the wind wasn’t as fierce and firewood gathering was easier and more plentiful. With the clear skies, the stars came out, bright and clear with no light pollution. Our view was NE-E-S-SW, so we could see Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and it’s galaxy, Delphineas, and Scorpio, and the milky way overhead.
Tuesday. Bright and fair, still windy. Some cirrus clouds, and warming up quickly. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast for Schuy and I. The others had the usual oatmeal.
Got under way and headed for the beach where there was already one motorboat, and began our longest portage, 220 rods, about a half mile, with a 100 foot hill in the middle. We did it all in two trips, and met two bow hunters on the trail. They were after moose.
Paddling up the last bit of Heritage creek was beautiful - lots of sunshine, a winding channel between grasses and forest, with the northwoods turning colors. The first two days we paddled NNE into a headwind. Starting yesterday afternoon the wind shifted around, and now we paddle SSE into a quartering headwind, but not as strong and much warmer. Lunch was at a campsite on Heritage Lake, then we portaged into Shell Lake. The stream from Shell to Heritage rushes over smooth bedrock, and would be lots of fun to slide down in a swim suit in the summer. We found a wind-sheltered campsite on an island in Shell Lake. There are three campsites on this island, and ours is the smallest and is challenged for places for our tents. We visited the other campsites, both huge and over-used and over-improved. David tried his luck fishing again.
Dinner was mine tonight. I served curried rice with vegs, with a chocolate cake for dessert. This site has Canada Jays, so we had to clean up well, then we walked down the shore to the south end campsite to watch the sunset. Schuy and I walked back the long way - the rest of the way around the island. It was quite dark by the time we finished our circumnavigation. The others had the fire going already. As it darkened, the starshow was even more impressive than last night. We had a great view of the galaxy in Andromeda, and saw many shooting stars.
Wednesday. Dawned bright, no wind at all. The lake is a mirror. I paddled David around while he fished (no luck) but we saw a beaver. It slapped the water when we got too close, and another one further away repeated the warning.
Breakfast was blueberry muffins, then we packed up and headed out. We have a short distance to go today, so we wandered around the lake for a while before heading for the portage. We met a party of grouse hunters on the portage trail, also some canoeists/fishermen. The end of the portage put us back in Lower Pauness Lake. It has warmed to t-shirt weather, with a 10mph south wind (headwind).
We stopped for lunch at the rapids and portage where Schuy and I ran the rapids on Sunday. After lunch we tried lining Mary’s Royalex boat up the rapids. Schuy and I worked the boat, Mary helped, and Dave and Lisa took photos. Schuy and Mary paddled and poled up the tailwater, then I lined it around the next rock, and Schuy helped pull it into an eddy. The next chute proved difficult. We tried several times, but shipped water each time, until finally we swamped it, and the current pulled it downstream and lodged it crosswise, swamped, in the middle of the stream. Canoes get broken doing this! But Schuy and I managed to get one end up enough so we could roll it over and free it from its entrapment. We tried again, this time one of us on each side of the river, and were met with success. I then poled it through a quieter stretch while Schuy scrambled out on the beaver dam. We ferried across below the dam to the break, then handed the lead rope to Dave, and while I continued to pole, he pulled it up the last chute and into Upper Pauness Lake. The exercise was much slower and harder work than portaging, but lots of fun!
From Upper Pauness we turned up the Little Indian Sioux, into the warm headwind, and also into the very bright sun. One more portage, through the wild rice beds, and to the take-out. A delightful and eventful trip, with a cold beginning and a warm ending.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Riding Horses in Wyoming with Scouts
Troop 7 Venture trip to
Wyoming Horseworks
July 21-30, 2006
Journal by Gary Hochgraf
Adults:
Rich, scoutmaster
Frank
Gary Hochgraf
Scouts:
Nate, SPL
Andy, Trip Leader and organizer
Garrett
Will
Zach
Jeff
Maxime
Devin
Andrew
Friday 7/21
Departed about 6:30 am from Ann Arbor - two mini-vans headed west with eight scouts and three adults. We’ll drive 2 ½ days to get there, and pick up the last scout at the ranch.
Arrived in Grinnell, IA about 4 pm and found ‘Scoutland’, a 40 ac BSA property just off I-80, but far enough that we don’t hear traffic. The scouts choose to sleep under the shelter while we adults are in tents. We’ll see how the mosquitoes are this evening. A contingent went off to get groceries while the rest of us played soccer. Jambalaya for dinner (great!) and more soccer until sundown
Saturday 7/22
Up early, packed, quick bagel breakfast, and on the road. The land gets slowly drier and more rolling as we head west, with more irrigated fields, then a sudden change to rangeland with no crops as we near the Wyoming line. A few oil wells, and eventually we reach Cheyenne, WY. We have lodging in a HS gymnasium.
After settling our stuff there, we left to check out Frontier Days, which happened to be on this week. They have rows of vendors in their booths selling cowboy hats, belts, t-shirts, all sorts of western wear, trinkets, jewelry, and food - mostly hot dogs & soda & similar stuff you’d expect at a fair. And they had a carnival with midway games. The scouts all buddied up and were off, and in an hour and a half had done the games, while we wandered the vendors and saw what sights there were to see.
Back to the gym near sunset, where we cooked up a pot of spaghetti on the outside tables. Despite the streetlights here in town, the sky is very dark and the stars brilliant.
Sunday 7/23
Camping with Venture is great. Without a word, everyone is up and packing at the break of dawn. The sky was still rosy as the first bags were brought out to the cars. Passed through Casper, lunch at a McD in Thermopolis with the worst service ever. Arrived at Horseworks about 2:30.
The terrain is typical basin and range sagebrush dessert, with eroded tablelands of horizontal beds, either sedimentary or volcanic - can’t tell from this distance. Vegetation is grasses, sagebrush, rabbit brush, with occasional evergreens on the highlands and cottonwood and willow on the river banks. Most of the rivers are dry. The skies are now overcast and we’ve had a few drops of rain.
About 5pm we got oriented, which meant busting up bales of hay and scattering them for the horses, and a brief introduction to saddling. We’ve met Nate, an older gentleman and the owner; Maecile, his wife; Dane, one of the hands, in his upper teens; and Kate, the other hand, in her teens.
Some of the key points we learned about saddling are:
- Check for dirt before saddling,
- Pad, front edge about 4” ahead of the back of the shoulder blade,
- Saddle, at the edge of the shoulder blade,
- There should be daylight under the horn,
- Latigo, go around 4 times, make it tight.
The orientation is pretty lax and low key. Kate showed us how to saddle and bridle a horse, then Maecile tested us briefly, and fitted helmets too. As dinner was getting ready, Nate assigned each of us a horse. Mine is Sandy. Dinner is spaghetti, salad, garlic toast, cake. In the evening we scrambled up the nearest ridge top. Its all part of Horseworks’ property. We saw a few horses in the next valley, and mule deer, and prickly pear cactus. At the edge of the hay field we heard a hissing/buzzing noise, and soon uncovered a 3’ long diamond back rattlesnake! He was not happy we crossed his path, but no harm was done and we each moved on.
There are heavy clouds to the west, and as we settle for the night we have strong winds that rattle our teepee tents and just a bit of rain.
Monday 7/24
Woke before dawn, cool and pleasant, and began feeding chores. Last night we had filled the feedbags, and now we give one to each horse. They like it and tussle each other to get at the grain. The grain is followed by hay, then the horses to be ridden were separated, haltered, hitched to a corral post, and brushed. Then the breakfast bell rang. After breakfast, Nate and Kate got the 20-odd horses saddled, and one at a time they got each of us on our horse. There are lots of details to keep in mind - no straps or other tack under the saddle, proper tension on the girth, daylight under the horn, position of the saddle behind the shoulder blades, etc. Garrett had to re-saddle several times, as his horses’ withers were so high, it took many pads to get any daylight under the horn. Once we were all up, we did some simple exercises -take 5 steps and stop, back a few steps, and turn the horses’ head without moving his feet. Then we played tag - walking only. If your horse went to a canter, you’re automatically it!
This took all morning. After lunch we took a trail ride. It was supposed to be short, but ended up being 2 ½ hours long. Some of the horses would go too fast crossing a ravine (translation: the scout let them go too fast) and on one of them, Devin fell off. He was fine. He got up and ran after his horse and got right back on. But later, his horse (Queeny) shied at crossing the next ravine. The trail wound up a valley and onto a ridge. The views in every direction are stark and bold of more ridges sparsely covered in sagebrush and bits of grass. With scattered junipers, cedars and pinion pines. The bedrock layers are steeply tilted and exposed on the sides and tops of the ridges. The skies have clouded over again, and we get a gentle rain for the last half hour of the ride.
Sandy (my horse) is the mother of Butterscotch, who is ridden by Kate. They are both palomino, but Sandy is a Champaign Palomino, a rare color. Kate says there may be only four in the US. It is a pretty color, uniform pale tan, with a short darker (almost salt & pepper) mane and tail. Her temperament is quite good and gentle, and she mostly does what I ask of her. Toward the end of the ride, she knew we were heading home, and she’d get antsy whenever we stopped. She and I took the last position, so we stopped often.
There are some other groups here too. A family from Seattle, and another from Ohio, and some folk from Tennessee. After the ride, we unharnessed and the scouts were put to work spreading out the hay for an afternoon feeding.
A light rain settled in. Much needed in this parched country. Which also interfered with any evening rides or chores. So the scouts were bored, throwing stones at each other and generally goofing around. So we got a campfire going. At sundown everybody turned in.
Tuesday 7/25
Chores before dawn as before. And everyone turned to as the sun peaked over the ridge. We had most of the horses saddled before the bell rang for breakfast. We spent some time practicing horsemanship - trotting, posting, and playing tag. Devin was given a different horse, and Queeny was given to Frank. As soon as he was on, Queeny reared and threw him. So Frank got My instead. And Queeny will get some re-training. Eventually we went out for a trail ride, with Maecile drilling us. She had us paired up, walking two abreast and a horse-length between. The horses easily settle into walking nose-to-tail, so it is sometimes hard to keep them apart. Where the road narrowed we went single file, then back to pairs when it opened up. Some of Horsework’s horses are left loose on the land and they feed themselves. We encountered a herd of them around a watering station, and one of them fell in line with us and followed us all the way out and back to the ranch and into the corral. We encountered two rattlers on a sunny hillside.
After lunch we drove out to the town of Thermopolis and played in the hot springs. There are several purveyors of the mineral waters, and the one we entered had several slides and pools, and smelled of hydrogen sulfide. We had lots of fun.
In our free time before dinner we got some of the scouts to write in their journals, and after dinner we were put to work in the hayfield, putting all the bales in lines so they could be picked up onto a trailer.
Its been raining again, but you dry off very quickly. One of the drawbacks is that we don’t get a star show. Maybe the weather system will pass and we’ll have clear skies some evening.
Wednesday 7/26
I woke up in the middle of the night, looked out the door to my tent, and saw the star show. Millions and millions of bright points and a clear view of the Andromeda galaxy. Wow.
Later, I arose for morning chores with a rosy glow in the east and Venus high and bright overhead. The rest of the crew slowly drifts in, and Nate selected the horses for the day and we lead them out of the pasture into the corrals. Then we put on feedbags. Our plan for today is to ride out to a remote camp (Cow Camp.) it’s a 6hr ride, and we’ll spend the night there. So we’re packing up our sleeping bags, tents, stoves, and Horseworks is providing food. Instead of pack horses, our gear will be brought by truck.
We’re getting to know more of the personalities here. Maecile runs this place. She’s married to Nate. She keeps tabs on everything that’s going on, and works to train both horses and clients.
Nate is married to Maecile, and this ranch has been in his family for years. He’s 80 something but spry and energetic. He knows horses. Horses are his life and his life is horses.
Our cooks are Roxan and Vijay, both from Jamaica on an internship. The scouts say that they like the food here and it is better than at Scout camp.
Kate is one of two wranglers. She’s 15,very personable and loves horses. She does barrel racing. She gets along great with all our scouts. On rides she usually brings up the rear, but then races ahead to open gates or help whoever needs it. We’ve gotten to know Kate quite well.
Dane is the other wrangler, but Maecile has been keeping him busy painting and fixing stuff.
Charlene is an intern here from Colorado, and rode with us for the overnight.
Our ride today was the most fun, as we were allowed to use the skills we’ve learned, could fan out from the trail and pick our way through the sagebrush, ride with whoever we choose, change places, trot, canter, or just walk. Nate leads, and he keeps a steady pace. We encountered a half dozen cows, and Nate tells us we should herd them over the ridge to better grazing and water. So we fan out - some to the right, some to the left, and some on the road, and they dutifully walk ahead of us to the ridge, down the other side, and to a creek valley. We stop here for a break, and just as we get up to go, the two trucks with our gear arrive. So we let them lead us to another spot where we have lunch.
On the trail again, went over hills and down into creek bottoms, and reached Cow Camp.
From a distance it’s a small collection of buildings in a cottonwood grove. Closer, all the buildings but one are quite dilapidated. The one is a relatively newer structure that was skidded in and is now home to mice. Three are log structures - a cabin, a barn, and a half underground barn. The cabin’s walls are intact but the roof is no more. The other two buildings are worse. There are several metal buildings, and everything is in serious need of repair or demolition. There is a corral for the horses, and after we take them to the creek for a drink, we turn them into the corral with some hay, and remove saddles and bridles. Then we all relax for a while. Rain threatens again, so we turn to and spread a tarp over the saddles and collect wood for a fire. As the fire burns down to coals, Nate P. and I prep potatoes, onions and ground beef for hobo dinners. Then while some of the crew takes care of cleanup, everyone else heads for the creek. There was great hooting and hollering, and within an hour most of them were soaked from head to toe, and muddy too. So we built up the fire and soon everyone was trying to dry out.
The storm clouds finally broke this evening, and once it was totally dark we walked to an open area and enjoyed a magnificent star show.
Thursday 7/27
Slept under the stars last night. There were very few mosquitoes, and the ants didn’t bother me. Heard coyotes twice in the night and again in the morning. A whole pack yipping and yapping over something. Perhaps rabbit. There are lots and lots and lots and lots of little cottontail bunnies everywhere. There’s also an occasional jackrabbit, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and we usually encounter a rattler or two each day. They hiss at us from just off the trail.
There’s a large fenced area around Cow Camp, so the horses are out there grazing somewhere. So we focus on breakfast and striking camp. Charlene decided to ride back in the truck, and we also have the 4-wheeler here. So it is tight to pack everything in so it won’t rattle out. Her horse, My, will just walk along with us. They are social animals.
Nate called the horses in and they all came running, Sandy at the rear, right into the corral. So we got their nosebags on and left them to eat for a bit. Then saddles and bridles, and we each rode down to the creek for a drink. And shortly we were off. We ride back on a different path, but similarly beautiful basin and range landscape of ridges with rock outcroppings, incised alluvial fans down to the dry creek bottoms, and all of it covered with grass, sage, and rabbit brush. We watched a golden eagle riding the ridge uplift. Then Andrew fell while cantering. The fall didn’t hurt him, but he put his hands into a prickly pear. So we had an long break as we picked spines out of his hands and pant legs. These prickly pears have spines of several lengths. The long ones are easy to remove, but there are lots and lots of little ones that you just have to wear away at. But he’s Ok, so on we go, over a ridge and steeply down the other side, through the oil field, and into Horseworks. We are all quite tired, dirty, thirsty and hungry by the time we dismount and take care of our horses.
A quiet afternoon, then off to the Cody Nite Rodeo! Its just an hour away (the road crawling with police and speed traps) and Dane, Kate and Charlene come too, to help us understand the events. They had bronc riding and bull riding, barrel racing, calf roping, bulldogging, and team roping. I enjoyed watching them trying to catch the broncs and bulls after the rider fell off. There’s a lot of skill there.
Friday 7/28
Beautiful sunrise again as we bring the day’s horses into the corrals for feedbags & saddles. Garrett and others practice their hand at roping each other.
Maecile held class after breakfast in horsemanship and the merit badge.
Then it was time for fun and games. Out in the hayfield on horseback, we played tag, freeze tag and tried barrel racing. There are two boys from Seattle here, and they joined us. Patrick was awesome as one of the un-freezers during freeze tag.
Goodbyes were hard and sad. We all really bonded with the crew at Horseworks Wyoming, especially Kate. We all turned to and helped them here - feeding, grooming, saddling, straightening hay bales, learning, fixing things, food prep and cleanup, especially at Cow Camp. And the crew really appreciated it. We were so green the first day that other Horseworks guests complained and opted to do trail rides separate from us. But by today we are all quite competent in our level of riding ability. Nobody’s an expert of course, but we can do most everything asked of us.
It’s a long and uneventful drive south to Cheyenne for a night at the Storey Gym. There’s another group here too, but we don’t interact much and are up and gone before they even stir in the morning. Rich got a phone call from the ranch. They miss us.
Saturday 7/29
A long and uneventful drive east to Grinnell. Its so humid here we’re quickly drenched in sweat just standing around.
Went to a DQ for a dessert, and we all signed a troop t-shirt to mail to Kate. The guys miss her too.
Sunday 7/30
Another long uneventful drive. Arrived in Ann Arbor about 4:45.
Wyoming Horseworks
July 21-30, 2006
Journal by Gary Hochgraf
Adults:
Rich, scoutmaster
Frank
Gary Hochgraf
Scouts:
Nate, SPL
Andy, Trip Leader and organizer
Garrett
Will
Zach
Jeff
Maxime
Devin
Andrew
Friday 7/21
Departed about 6:30 am from Ann Arbor - two mini-vans headed west with eight scouts and three adults. We’ll drive 2 ½ days to get there, and pick up the last scout at the ranch.
Arrived in Grinnell, IA about 4 pm and found ‘Scoutland’, a 40 ac BSA property just off I-80, but far enough that we don’t hear traffic. The scouts choose to sleep under the shelter while we adults are in tents. We’ll see how the mosquitoes are this evening. A contingent went off to get groceries while the rest of us played soccer. Jambalaya for dinner (great!) and more soccer until sundown
Saturday 7/22
Up early, packed, quick bagel breakfast, and on the road. The land gets slowly drier and more rolling as we head west, with more irrigated fields, then a sudden change to rangeland with no crops as we near the Wyoming line. A few oil wells, and eventually we reach Cheyenne, WY. We have lodging in a HS gymnasium.
After settling our stuff there, we left to check out Frontier Days, which happened to be on this week. They have rows of vendors in their booths selling cowboy hats, belts, t-shirts, all sorts of western wear, trinkets, jewelry, and food - mostly hot dogs & soda & similar stuff you’d expect at a fair. And they had a carnival with midway games. The scouts all buddied up and were off, and in an hour and a half had done the games, while we wandered the vendors and saw what sights there were to see.
Back to the gym near sunset, where we cooked up a pot of spaghetti on the outside tables. Despite the streetlights here in town, the sky is very dark and the stars brilliant.
Sunday 7/23
Camping with Venture is great. Without a word, everyone is up and packing at the break of dawn. The sky was still rosy as the first bags were brought out to the cars. Passed through Casper, lunch at a McD in Thermopolis with the worst service ever. Arrived at Horseworks about 2:30.
The terrain is typical basin and range sagebrush dessert, with eroded tablelands of horizontal beds, either sedimentary or volcanic - can’t tell from this distance. Vegetation is grasses, sagebrush, rabbit brush, with occasional evergreens on the highlands and cottonwood and willow on the river banks. Most of the rivers are dry. The skies are now overcast and we’ve had a few drops of rain.
About 5pm we got oriented, which meant busting up bales of hay and scattering them for the horses, and a brief introduction to saddling. We’ve met Nate, an older gentleman and the owner; Maecile, his wife; Dane, one of the hands, in his upper teens; and Kate, the other hand, in her teens.
Some of the key points we learned about saddling are:
- Check for dirt before saddling,
- Pad, front edge about 4” ahead of the back of the shoulder blade,
- Saddle, at the edge of the shoulder blade,
- There should be daylight under the horn,
- Latigo, go around 4 times, make it tight.
The orientation is pretty lax and low key. Kate showed us how to saddle and bridle a horse, then Maecile tested us briefly, and fitted helmets too. As dinner was getting ready, Nate assigned each of us a horse. Mine is Sandy. Dinner is spaghetti, salad, garlic toast, cake. In the evening we scrambled up the nearest ridge top. Its all part of Horseworks’ property. We saw a few horses in the next valley, and mule deer, and prickly pear cactus. At the edge of the hay field we heard a hissing/buzzing noise, and soon uncovered a 3’ long diamond back rattlesnake! He was not happy we crossed his path, but no harm was done and we each moved on.
There are heavy clouds to the west, and as we settle for the night we have strong winds that rattle our teepee tents and just a bit of rain.
Monday 7/24
Woke before dawn, cool and pleasant, and began feeding chores. Last night we had filled the feedbags, and now we give one to each horse. They like it and tussle each other to get at the grain. The grain is followed by hay, then the horses to be ridden were separated, haltered, hitched to a corral post, and brushed. Then the breakfast bell rang. After breakfast, Nate and Kate got the 20-odd horses saddled, and one at a time they got each of us on our horse. There are lots of details to keep in mind - no straps or other tack under the saddle, proper tension on the girth, daylight under the horn, position of the saddle behind the shoulder blades, etc. Garrett had to re-saddle several times, as his horses’ withers were so high, it took many pads to get any daylight under the horn. Once we were all up, we did some simple exercises -take 5 steps and stop, back a few steps, and turn the horses’ head without moving his feet. Then we played tag - walking only. If your horse went to a canter, you’re automatically it!
This took all morning. After lunch we took a trail ride. It was supposed to be short, but ended up being 2 ½ hours long. Some of the horses would go too fast crossing a ravine (translation: the scout let them go too fast) and on one of them, Devin fell off. He was fine. He got up and ran after his horse and got right back on. But later, his horse (Queeny) shied at crossing the next ravine. The trail wound up a valley and onto a ridge. The views in every direction are stark and bold of more ridges sparsely covered in sagebrush and bits of grass. With scattered junipers, cedars and pinion pines. The bedrock layers are steeply tilted and exposed on the sides and tops of the ridges. The skies have clouded over again, and we get a gentle rain for the last half hour of the ride.
Sandy (my horse) is the mother of Butterscotch, who is ridden by Kate. They are both palomino, but Sandy is a Champaign Palomino, a rare color. Kate says there may be only four in the US. It is a pretty color, uniform pale tan, with a short darker (almost salt & pepper) mane and tail. Her temperament is quite good and gentle, and she mostly does what I ask of her. Toward the end of the ride, she knew we were heading home, and she’d get antsy whenever we stopped. She and I took the last position, so we stopped often.
There are some other groups here too. A family from Seattle, and another from Ohio, and some folk from Tennessee. After the ride, we unharnessed and the scouts were put to work spreading out the hay for an afternoon feeding.
A light rain settled in. Much needed in this parched country. Which also interfered with any evening rides or chores. So the scouts were bored, throwing stones at each other and generally goofing around. So we got a campfire going. At sundown everybody turned in.
Tuesday 7/25
Chores before dawn as before. And everyone turned to as the sun peaked over the ridge. We had most of the horses saddled before the bell rang for breakfast. We spent some time practicing horsemanship - trotting, posting, and playing tag. Devin was given a different horse, and Queeny was given to Frank. As soon as he was on, Queeny reared and threw him. So Frank got My instead. And Queeny will get some re-training. Eventually we went out for a trail ride, with Maecile drilling us. She had us paired up, walking two abreast and a horse-length between. The horses easily settle into walking nose-to-tail, so it is sometimes hard to keep them apart. Where the road narrowed we went single file, then back to pairs when it opened up. Some of Horsework’s horses are left loose on the land and they feed themselves. We encountered a herd of them around a watering station, and one of them fell in line with us and followed us all the way out and back to the ranch and into the corral. We encountered two rattlers on a sunny hillside.
After lunch we drove out to the town of Thermopolis and played in the hot springs. There are several purveyors of the mineral waters, and the one we entered had several slides and pools, and smelled of hydrogen sulfide. We had lots of fun.
In our free time before dinner we got some of the scouts to write in their journals, and after dinner we were put to work in the hayfield, putting all the bales in lines so they could be picked up onto a trailer.
Its been raining again, but you dry off very quickly. One of the drawbacks is that we don’t get a star show. Maybe the weather system will pass and we’ll have clear skies some evening.
Wednesday 7/26
I woke up in the middle of the night, looked out the door to my tent, and saw the star show. Millions and millions of bright points and a clear view of the Andromeda galaxy. Wow.
Later, I arose for morning chores with a rosy glow in the east and Venus high and bright overhead. The rest of the crew slowly drifts in, and Nate selected the horses for the day and we lead them out of the pasture into the corrals. Then we put on feedbags. Our plan for today is to ride out to a remote camp (Cow Camp.) it’s a 6hr ride, and we’ll spend the night there. So we’re packing up our sleeping bags, tents, stoves, and Horseworks is providing food. Instead of pack horses, our gear will be brought by truck.
We’re getting to know more of the personalities here. Maecile runs this place. She’s married to Nate. She keeps tabs on everything that’s going on, and works to train both horses and clients.
Nate is married to Maecile, and this ranch has been in his family for years. He’s 80 something but spry and energetic. He knows horses. Horses are his life and his life is horses.
Our cooks are Roxan and Vijay, both from Jamaica on an internship. The scouts say that they like the food here and it is better than at Scout camp.
Kate is one of two wranglers. She’s 15,very personable and loves horses. She does barrel racing. She gets along great with all our scouts. On rides she usually brings up the rear, but then races ahead to open gates or help whoever needs it. We’ve gotten to know Kate quite well.
Dane is the other wrangler, but Maecile has been keeping him busy painting and fixing stuff.
Charlene is an intern here from Colorado, and rode with us for the overnight.
Our ride today was the most fun, as we were allowed to use the skills we’ve learned, could fan out from the trail and pick our way through the sagebrush, ride with whoever we choose, change places, trot, canter, or just walk. Nate leads, and he keeps a steady pace. We encountered a half dozen cows, and Nate tells us we should herd them over the ridge to better grazing and water. So we fan out - some to the right, some to the left, and some on the road, and they dutifully walk ahead of us to the ridge, down the other side, and to a creek valley. We stop here for a break, and just as we get up to go, the two trucks with our gear arrive. So we let them lead us to another spot where we have lunch.
On the trail again, went over hills and down into creek bottoms, and reached Cow Camp.
From a distance it’s a small collection of buildings in a cottonwood grove. Closer, all the buildings but one are quite dilapidated. The one is a relatively newer structure that was skidded in and is now home to mice. Three are log structures - a cabin, a barn, and a half underground barn. The cabin’s walls are intact but the roof is no more. The other two buildings are worse. There are several metal buildings, and everything is in serious need of repair or demolition. There is a corral for the horses, and after we take them to the creek for a drink, we turn them into the corral with some hay, and remove saddles and bridles. Then we all relax for a while. Rain threatens again, so we turn to and spread a tarp over the saddles and collect wood for a fire. As the fire burns down to coals, Nate P. and I prep potatoes, onions and ground beef for hobo dinners. Then while some of the crew takes care of cleanup, everyone else heads for the creek. There was great hooting and hollering, and within an hour most of them were soaked from head to toe, and muddy too. So we built up the fire and soon everyone was trying to dry out.
The storm clouds finally broke this evening, and once it was totally dark we walked to an open area and enjoyed a magnificent star show.
Thursday 7/27
Slept under the stars last night. There were very few mosquitoes, and the ants didn’t bother me. Heard coyotes twice in the night and again in the morning. A whole pack yipping and yapping over something. Perhaps rabbit. There are lots and lots and lots and lots of little cottontail bunnies everywhere. There’s also an occasional jackrabbit, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and we usually encounter a rattler or two each day. They hiss at us from just off the trail.
There’s a large fenced area around Cow Camp, so the horses are out there grazing somewhere. So we focus on breakfast and striking camp. Charlene decided to ride back in the truck, and we also have the 4-wheeler here. So it is tight to pack everything in so it won’t rattle out. Her horse, My, will just walk along with us. They are social animals.
Nate called the horses in and they all came running, Sandy at the rear, right into the corral. So we got their nosebags on and left them to eat for a bit. Then saddles and bridles, and we each rode down to the creek for a drink. And shortly we were off. We ride back on a different path, but similarly beautiful basin and range landscape of ridges with rock outcroppings, incised alluvial fans down to the dry creek bottoms, and all of it covered with grass, sage, and rabbit brush. We watched a golden eagle riding the ridge uplift. Then Andrew fell while cantering. The fall didn’t hurt him, but he put his hands into a prickly pear. So we had an long break as we picked spines out of his hands and pant legs. These prickly pears have spines of several lengths. The long ones are easy to remove, but there are lots and lots of little ones that you just have to wear away at. But he’s Ok, so on we go, over a ridge and steeply down the other side, through the oil field, and into Horseworks. We are all quite tired, dirty, thirsty and hungry by the time we dismount and take care of our horses.
A quiet afternoon, then off to the Cody Nite Rodeo! Its just an hour away (the road crawling with police and speed traps) and Dane, Kate and Charlene come too, to help us understand the events. They had bronc riding and bull riding, barrel racing, calf roping, bulldogging, and team roping. I enjoyed watching them trying to catch the broncs and bulls after the rider fell off. There’s a lot of skill there.
Friday 7/28
Beautiful sunrise again as we bring the day’s horses into the corrals for feedbags & saddles. Garrett and others practice their hand at roping each other.
Maecile held class after breakfast in horsemanship and the merit badge.
Then it was time for fun and games. Out in the hayfield on horseback, we played tag, freeze tag and tried barrel racing. There are two boys from Seattle here, and they joined us. Patrick was awesome as one of the un-freezers during freeze tag.
Goodbyes were hard and sad. We all really bonded with the crew at Horseworks Wyoming, especially Kate. We all turned to and helped them here - feeding, grooming, saddling, straightening hay bales, learning, fixing things, food prep and cleanup, especially at Cow Camp. And the crew really appreciated it. We were so green the first day that other Horseworks guests complained and opted to do trail rides separate from us. But by today we are all quite competent in our level of riding ability. Nobody’s an expert of course, but we can do most everything asked of us.
It’s a long and uneventful drive south to Cheyenne for a night at the Storey Gym. There’s another group here too, but we don’t interact much and are up and gone before they even stir in the morning. Rich got a phone call from the ranch. They miss us.
Saturday 7/29
A long and uneventful drive east to Grinnell. Its so humid here we’re quickly drenched in sweat just standing around.
Went to a DQ for a dessert, and we all signed a troop t-shirt to mail to Kate. The guys miss her too.
Sunday 7/30
Another long uneventful drive. Arrived in Ann Arbor about 4:45.
Backpacking on Isle Royale with Scouts
Troop 7 Summer Venture Expedition
Backpacking on Isle Royale
July 22-30, 2004
Thursday 22nd
Departed Ann Arbor about 8:30am, drove north, over the Mackinac Bridge, then west and north to the Pictured Rocks area, east of Munising, where we found a campsite at North Gemini Lake in the State Forest. After setting up we drove west to Miner Falls and Castle Rock, and joined the other tourists and looked at the falls, then abandoned them at Castle Rock and hiked down to Miner Creek and the beach at Lake Superior. We found a large log and the boys attempted to turn it into a bridge over the mouth of the creek. They all carried it easily, but how to get it across? So they put one end down and tried to flip it over and across the river, but they couldn’t get it to tip, and dropped it. And it hit Zack on the way down. So he and I slowly walked back to the cars. The others tried to float the log across, but the current caught it and swept it out into the lake. Zack is OK, but has a big bump on his head. Back at camp we made dinner, looked at the moon, enjoyed the evening, and turned in.
Friday 23rd
Went for a hike this morning until about 2pm at Castle Rock, the Portal, Castle Beach and Mosquito Beach. It served as a good shake-down hike We had magnificent views from the tops of the Pictured Rocks cliffs.
On the road again, we drove west then out to the end of the Keweenaw, and found our campsite. There’s a falcon (or similar) nesting in the campsite. I’ve seen at least three of them, and they call constantly when flying.
Saturday 24th
Got up early to the sound of white throated sparrows, got the tents down, breakfasted, and drove a short way to the ferry landing. The boat ‘Royale Queen III’ departs at 9:00am, and most of the troop took Dramamine and slept for most of the 4.5 hour trip. Those of us who didn’t watched the mainland recede, and raised the island about 30 miles away. The weather is perfect. Very small waves, minimal wind, bright blue skies, beautiful.
Landed at 12:30, and had a few minutes of NPS orientation, then started hiking. I’m hiking with the older scouts, and with Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich.
Tonight’s destination is Daisy Farm, about 7.5 miles away. The trail follows the lakeshore along Rock Harbor, over patches of glacially scoured bedrock of the Greenstone formation, and through black spruce-hemlock-red pine forests, or white birch-aspen forests. I found a few ripe strawberries, and there are many thimble berry and blueberry bushes along the trail, but alas, they are not ripe. We have many vistas across Rock Harbor to the islands and out into the lake. We passed a few mine pits, abandoned in the 1850s. They consisted of pits dug into the rock about 5-20 ft across and full of water to about 10’ below the surface. Copper was mined on the island as native copper, often found in veins, large lumps, sheets, or small bits clinging to the rocks. But mining on the island was expensive, and the mines generally didn’t last long.
Daisy Farm Campground consists of about a dozen wooden shelters, like an Adirondack with a screened front. But the groups have tent sites with a picnic table. There’s a concrete pier and a beach, and we all enjoyed hanging out there. I saw a fox checking out the campsites for leftover tidbits. They can be quite a problem in the camps here. But on the plus side, we don’t have to worry about bears, as there are none.
Sunday 25th
I slept soundly, but some of the others reported hearing wolves in the night, and one scout saw the northern lights. Heavy dew on the tents and lots of mosquitoes. But the wind picked up and sun dried us out soon.
On the trail, we left the shore and hiked along a ridge with blueberries! Delicious.
All the boys were way ahead when we met the trail ranger near a marsh, exchanged pleasantries, then she realized that our group consisted of 11, but the limit is 10, so we are in violation. When we reached Moskey Bay campsite, two rangers arrived by boat as we were taking a break and filtering water. We discussed the violation and they decided to let us go, but we’ll have a written warning.
So, we have to be on our best behavior from here on. But these guys are really quite responsible so I don’t foresee any problems.
We arrived at Richie Lake about .5 hours behind the boys (we had left before them) and relaxed around lunch on some bare rocks at the waters edge. One of the tents is missing its fly, so some of the boys tackled the problem with a ground cloth and a few ponchos. I took my fly rod down the trail to try my luck at fishing, and Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich did an extra 5 miles to Chippewa Harbor campsite and back, just for the fun of it. I didn’t have any luck with the fish, but collected about half a cup of blueberries. On the way back I saw a cow moose climbing out of the water into an island. After dinner we watched a pair of bald eagles circle the lake, and later watched a family of loons feeding. The chicks didn’t dive, but the first adult would dive repeatedly and about one third of the time brought up a little tidbit, perhaps a leach? We wonder. The second adult came by later and helped with the fishing.
Monday 26th
Breakfast was blueberry muffins.
We watched a beaver swim by. The three of us adults headed down the trail as the boys were just starting breakfast. We made good time to West Chickenbone Lake campground, where the other Troop 7 group was last night, but they had left already. So we collected water, then turned west down the Greenstone Ridge trail. We soon began a hot, dry climb to the first (of 3) peaks of Siskiwit peak. The wind that we’ve enjoyed for the previous two days has died, so the mosquitoes are worse when we are in the woods. We can only stop on bedrock clearings. We had lunch on the first peak, with a great view over Chickenbone, Richie, and other lakes to the north and east. From the other peaks we enjoyed views south over Siskiwit Lake and Siskiwit Bay. And we could see Ryan Island in Siskiwit Lake - the largest island on the largest lake on the largest island on the largest lake in the world. Eventually we arrived at Hatchet Lake campground, hot and sweaty. The water looked sooo inviting, and I waded in and splashed water over me. Then Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich went in for a swim, and Mr. Riker came out with one large and about 30 small leaches between two of his toes. The first group of boys had arrived by then, so they all decided against swimming. As they were leaving Lake Richie they saw two moose crossing the trail! And got pictures too.
A few of the boys and Mr. Strodtman showed up in the evening. They had hiked over from their camp at Todd Harbor.
Tuesday 27th
I have developed a few foot blisters, so I left camp before the others so I could walk at my own pace. The faster boys (Team Awesome) caught up with me at Todd Harbor when I stopped for water. It’s a very pretty harbor, but the mosquitoes today are bad. I headed out again, and nearly everybody passed me along the 6 miles on Minong Ridge to Mc Cargoe Cove. Here we laid on the pier for about 2 hours, and did some ‘extreme’ wading. Some of the boys wanted to do a 20 mile hike, so they headed for West Chickenbone camp, dropped their packs, and looped the lake. They saw two male moose grazing on the shore, and got more pictures. They also met up with the other T7 group.
The weather continues to be beautiful - blue skies, no clouds, afternoon breeze, clear nights. Wow.
Wednesday 28th
Hiked east on Greenstone Ridge (lots of blueberries) to the old fire tower on Ojibway Mtn. I had stopped for the blues at one particularly nice patch, when Team Awesome came by (Luke, Pete, Sam, Brendan). I showed them a handful of blueberries, and they quickly decided it was break time, and they soon depleted the patch.
The tower is maintained for air quality measuring today. From up on the tower we saw another moose. Lunch was taken at the base. From there we headed south to Daisy Farm for some more extreme wading (much colder here) and lounging on the pier for a while. My blisters are still bad, but Sam’s are worse. But he’s keeping pace with the fastest.
The weather has changed, heavy clouds and strong winds in the afternoon.
Thursday 29th
It rained in the night, so the tents got packed up wet. The lake is foggy, and the views to the islands is surreal. Its just six and a half miles to Rock Harbor and the ferry, and we all made it with ample time to spare. There’s a store on the pier, and troop 7 did our best to clean it out of candy, ice cream, and other snacks. Many in the troop took advantage of hot showers too.
The boat arrived out of the mist at 12:30 with a new crop of backpackers and lodge people. At 3:00 we boarded and departed. The wind is still strong, and once away from the protection of the harbor, we were into 3-foot waves, which would send sheets of spray over the bow and foredeck. But about 1 hour from landing, the seas calmed, and while still rough, they were no longer spraying the foredeck. So, some of us plus other passengers hung out there for the final approach. On shore again, we collected our gear, and drove to Houghton and a campground, and a Pizza Hut for dinner.
Friday 30th
The sun came up, the tents came down, and we were off amazingly fast. The drive was uneventful, arrived at the church about 6pm.
Backpacking on Isle Royale
July 22-30, 2004
Thursday 22nd
Departed Ann Arbor about 8:30am, drove north, over the Mackinac Bridge, then west and north to the Pictured Rocks area, east of Munising, where we found a campsite at North Gemini Lake in the State Forest. After setting up we drove west to Miner Falls and Castle Rock, and joined the other tourists and looked at the falls, then abandoned them at Castle Rock and hiked down to Miner Creek and the beach at Lake Superior. We found a large log and the boys attempted to turn it into a bridge over the mouth of the creek. They all carried it easily, but how to get it across? So they put one end down and tried to flip it over and across the river, but they couldn’t get it to tip, and dropped it. And it hit Zack on the way down. So he and I slowly walked back to the cars. The others tried to float the log across, but the current caught it and swept it out into the lake. Zack is OK, but has a big bump on his head. Back at camp we made dinner, looked at the moon, enjoyed the evening, and turned in.
Friday 23rd
Went for a hike this morning until about 2pm at Castle Rock, the Portal, Castle Beach and Mosquito Beach. It served as a good shake-down hike We had magnificent views from the tops of the Pictured Rocks cliffs.
On the road again, we drove west then out to the end of the Keweenaw, and found our campsite. There’s a falcon (or similar) nesting in the campsite. I’ve seen at least three of them, and they call constantly when flying.
Saturday 24th
Got up early to the sound of white throated sparrows, got the tents down, breakfasted, and drove a short way to the ferry landing. The boat ‘Royale Queen III’ departs at 9:00am, and most of the troop took Dramamine and slept for most of the 4.5 hour trip. Those of us who didn’t watched the mainland recede, and raised the island about 30 miles away. The weather is perfect. Very small waves, minimal wind, bright blue skies, beautiful.
Landed at 12:30, and had a few minutes of NPS orientation, then started hiking. I’m hiking with the older scouts, and with Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich.
Tonight’s destination is Daisy Farm, about 7.5 miles away. The trail follows the lakeshore along Rock Harbor, over patches of glacially scoured bedrock of the Greenstone formation, and through black spruce-hemlock-red pine forests, or white birch-aspen forests. I found a few ripe strawberries, and there are many thimble berry and blueberry bushes along the trail, but alas, they are not ripe. We have many vistas across Rock Harbor to the islands and out into the lake. We passed a few mine pits, abandoned in the 1850s. They consisted of pits dug into the rock about 5-20 ft across and full of water to about 10’ below the surface. Copper was mined on the island as native copper, often found in veins, large lumps, sheets, or small bits clinging to the rocks. But mining on the island was expensive, and the mines generally didn’t last long.
Daisy Farm Campground consists of about a dozen wooden shelters, like an Adirondack with a screened front. But the groups have tent sites with a picnic table. There’s a concrete pier and a beach, and we all enjoyed hanging out there. I saw a fox checking out the campsites for leftover tidbits. They can be quite a problem in the camps here. But on the plus side, we don’t have to worry about bears, as there are none.
Sunday 25th
I slept soundly, but some of the others reported hearing wolves in the night, and one scout saw the northern lights. Heavy dew on the tents and lots of mosquitoes. But the wind picked up and sun dried us out soon.
On the trail, we left the shore and hiked along a ridge with blueberries! Delicious.
All the boys were way ahead when we met the trail ranger near a marsh, exchanged pleasantries, then she realized that our group consisted of 11, but the limit is 10, so we are in violation. When we reached Moskey Bay campsite, two rangers arrived by boat as we were taking a break and filtering water. We discussed the violation and they decided to let us go, but we’ll have a written warning.
So, we have to be on our best behavior from here on. But these guys are really quite responsible so I don’t foresee any problems.
We arrived at Richie Lake about .5 hours behind the boys (we had left before them) and relaxed around lunch on some bare rocks at the waters edge. One of the tents is missing its fly, so some of the boys tackled the problem with a ground cloth and a few ponchos. I took my fly rod down the trail to try my luck at fishing, and Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich did an extra 5 miles to Chippewa Harbor campsite and back, just for the fun of it. I didn’t have any luck with the fish, but collected about half a cup of blueberries. On the way back I saw a cow moose climbing out of the water into an island. After dinner we watched a pair of bald eagles circle the lake, and later watched a family of loons feeding. The chicks didn’t dive, but the first adult would dive repeatedly and about one third of the time brought up a little tidbit, perhaps a leach? We wonder. The second adult came by later and helped with the fishing.
Monday 26th
Breakfast was blueberry muffins.
We watched a beaver swim by. The three of us adults headed down the trail as the boys were just starting breakfast. We made good time to West Chickenbone Lake campground, where the other Troop 7 group was last night, but they had left already. So we collected water, then turned west down the Greenstone Ridge trail. We soon began a hot, dry climb to the first (of 3) peaks of Siskiwit peak. The wind that we’ve enjoyed for the previous two days has died, so the mosquitoes are worse when we are in the woods. We can only stop on bedrock clearings. We had lunch on the first peak, with a great view over Chickenbone, Richie, and other lakes to the north and east. From the other peaks we enjoyed views south over Siskiwit Lake and Siskiwit Bay. And we could see Ryan Island in Siskiwit Lake - the largest island on the largest lake on the largest island on the largest lake in the world. Eventually we arrived at Hatchet Lake campground, hot and sweaty. The water looked sooo inviting, and I waded in and splashed water over me. Then Mr. Riker and Mr. Polich went in for a swim, and Mr. Riker came out with one large and about 30 small leaches between two of his toes. The first group of boys had arrived by then, so they all decided against swimming. As they were leaving Lake Richie they saw two moose crossing the trail! And got pictures too.
A few of the boys and Mr. Strodtman showed up in the evening. They had hiked over from their camp at Todd Harbor.
Tuesday 27th
I have developed a few foot blisters, so I left camp before the others so I could walk at my own pace. The faster boys (Team Awesome) caught up with me at Todd Harbor when I stopped for water. It’s a very pretty harbor, but the mosquitoes today are bad. I headed out again, and nearly everybody passed me along the 6 miles on Minong Ridge to Mc Cargoe Cove. Here we laid on the pier for about 2 hours, and did some ‘extreme’ wading. Some of the boys wanted to do a 20 mile hike, so they headed for West Chickenbone camp, dropped their packs, and looped the lake. They saw two male moose grazing on the shore, and got more pictures. They also met up with the other T7 group.
The weather continues to be beautiful - blue skies, no clouds, afternoon breeze, clear nights. Wow.
Wednesday 28th
Hiked east on Greenstone Ridge (lots of blueberries) to the old fire tower on Ojibway Mtn. I had stopped for the blues at one particularly nice patch, when Team Awesome came by (Luke, Pete, Sam, Brendan). I showed them a handful of blueberries, and they quickly decided it was break time, and they soon depleted the patch.
The tower is maintained for air quality measuring today. From up on the tower we saw another moose. Lunch was taken at the base. From there we headed south to Daisy Farm for some more extreme wading (much colder here) and lounging on the pier for a while. My blisters are still bad, but Sam’s are worse. But he’s keeping pace with the fastest.
The weather has changed, heavy clouds and strong winds in the afternoon.
Thursday 29th
It rained in the night, so the tents got packed up wet. The lake is foggy, and the views to the islands is surreal. Its just six and a half miles to Rock Harbor and the ferry, and we all made it with ample time to spare. There’s a store on the pier, and troop 7 did our best to clean it out of candy, ice cream, and other snacks. Many in the troop took advantage of hot showers too.
The boat arrived out of the mist at 12:30 with a new crop of backpackers and lodge people. At 3:00 we boarded and departed. The wind is still strong, and once away from the protection of the harbor, we were into 3-foot waves, which would send sheets of spray over the bow and foredeck. But about 1 hour from landing, the seas calmed, and while still rough, they were no longer spraying the foredeck. So, some of us plus other passengers hung out there for the final approach. On shore again, we collected our gear, and drove to Houghton and a campground, and a Pizza Hut for dinner.
Friday 30th
The sun came up, the tents came down, and we were off amazingly fast. The drive was uneventful, arrived at the church about 6pm.
Bicycling in Wisconsin with Scouts
Troop 7
Core Bike Trip, Wisconsin
July 19-28, 2005
Journal by Gary Hochgraf
July 19
In 5 vehicles, seven adults and fifteen scouts departed from Ann Arbor on Tuesday afternoon. The drive was uneventful, and we arrived at the campground in Ludington around 8:30
July 20, Wednesday
We got up with the sun, and the tents were down and packed quite quickly. After a short drive we arrived at the ferry landing, re-packed, and rolled our bikes onto the USS Badger. The Badger is an old railroad car ferry, rebuilt with space for lots of cars and even busses or trucks, and with cabins, deck chairs, snack bar, movies, etc on the upper levels.
We had breakfast of bagels & juice boxes, then brought everyone together for a core meeting and a venture meeting. We (Core) figured out our meal system, leadership, then everyone got to plan a section of the route.
About 4 hours on the ferry and we arrived in Manitowoc, WI. Once all the bikes and both mini-vans were off, and everyone had collected bike helmets, changed clothes, etc, and we found directions to a grocery store, we were off! The Core group consists of four adults, Joan, Nancy, Rob, and myself, and eight Scouts, Mike, Mike, Alan, Jeff, Andy, Luke, Matthias, and Eric.
We had a few mistakes at making left turns, but no accidents on the way out of Manitowoc. Lunch was at a park adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Then we settled into a ride along the Lake Michigan shore north to Point Beach State Park. Once we were past the town of Two Rivers, the road was very quiet and pleasant.
We’re in the group camp area at Point Beach. It’s a small opening in the woods, but harbors lots of mosquitoes and deer flies.
Once the tents were up we headed to the lake. We got split up, and entered from two beach heads. One had a sign declaring an e-coli hazard. But those of us who entered at the other didn’t know that and went swimming. So that gave everyone a good excuse to take a shower.
I had volunteered to do the first day’s menu and cooking (for the adults; Scouts do their own). Dinner was burgers, salad, chips and brownies. The boys had canned stew.
After dinner the boys played capture the flag, then all were in bed about sun-down.
Thursday July 21
The deer flies are still here this morning. But once I got a fire going we had a small bug-free zone. Blueberry muffin ring for breakfast, then north again.
It was good to get moving and out-distance the insects. Our route took us through farmlands of corn, oats, soy, wheat, and occasional cows. But the smell of cows was often with us.
Just before lunch we got a phone call from Tom P. back home. He had noticed a big storm just to the west of us on his computer. So we stopped at a drive-in for shelter, then moved to a nearby park with a picnic shelter. But the rains never came. Too bad, because this area looks very very dry. There was a group of kids (looked like a summer day-camp) hanging out there too. So some of us joined them in a game of dodge-ball. And Joan coached the next day’s menu planners for cooking merit badge. Then we found the next grocery store, and departed Kewanee, WI.
We climbed a long hill north of town and encountered headwinds the rest of the way.
From Algoma we picked up a bike trail for about 2 miles right to our campground. The path’s surface is crushed limestone, and not as firm as it could be, as it hasn’t rained here for months. Its also a multi-use trail, so there are hoof prints. I prefer the roads, which are also much faster.
Venture was at this campground last night, and we heard they had enjoyed the swimming pool. So once the tents were up, in we went!
Dinner (Nancy’s) was curried chicken and rice, pound cake with berries for dessert.
Nice sunset.
Friday july 22
Went for a morning walk before most were up, and found enough wild red raspberries to fill a sierra cup. Delicious.
Rice with fruit, honey and cinnamon for breakfast. The boys had yogurt & donuts. Today’s plan was to ride about 25 miles to Potowatami Park, northwest of Sturgeon Bay, and return. But there is dissent, so the options of riding the full 50, staying in camp all day, or riding a shorter route followed by half a day in camp were put to a vote. It was almost a 3-way tie, but Mike Bogen is leader for the day, and got a deciding vote. So we will ride about 15 miles and return, which will also give us time to work on merit badges.
The ride was perhaps the prettiest yet, along the lake on local roads. Very little traffic, some hills to climb & descend, views of the lake, forest, farm, gardens, etc. And the weather was bright and sunny (several of us ended the day with mild sunburn) (yesterday was high overcast.) We found a lovely park just 1 mile before our turnaround point, so most of the group stopped there for a bit. The park marks a spot where LaSalle (René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle) and his men stopped on their voyage of discovery along the western shore of Lake Michigan in 1679. Their journey later brought them past land that would someday become Chicago, then overland, and down the Huron River past the site which would eventually become Ann Arbor.
Andy, Mike, Nancy and I continued a bit farther. But we were drawn on another mile or so after our declared turnaround was met, made a loop out of it, passed a cherry orchard, and a very large old log barn, the largest I’ve ever seen. The roof had fallen in, but the walls were quite impressive. We picked wild raspberries there, then re-joined the others and rode back to camp.
After lunch at camp, two scouts went with Joan for groceries, and the rest went swimming. Other camping families began arriving for the weekend and at times there were up to 15 people in the pool, rather crowded. I held a class in bicycle maintenance for the merit badge in the afternoon.
Rob did dinner - welsh rarebit and salad. The boys had hot dogs, and made a fire to cook them over.
Saturday July 23
Another beautiful morning with heavy dew on everything. Today is Michael's route, so he gets to lead, and he likes to lead. The original plan was to follow the crushed limestone bike path, but we all agreed that these paths are not good for long distance riding. So an alternate was made, out along the county roads. The ride was typical Wisconsin; farms, woods, more farms. There were wind farms too and plenty of wind to turn them. We have headwinds, tailwinds and crosswinds. Nobody likes the headwinds.
Lunch at a Little League ball field, then in toward Green Bay. Suddenly Alan couldn’t pedal. One of the gears stripped right off the freewheel. I rode back and took a look. The cluster of gears had come apart. I thought the bike was dead, but we managed to get one or two gears to work, and sent him off again. This slowed him down, but he made it all the way. I expected heavy traffic approaching the city, but it really wasn’t too bad. About 5 miles from Green Bay we got warnings of an approaching storm; which hit us with about 3 miles to go. Fortunately it was all downhill, so we flew through the rain to the Isaac Walton League land south of town.
It’s a welcome place at a moment like this. A 25’ building with a similar size picnic pavilion offering welcome shelter to wet and weary travelers. We were met there by Don J. of the I. W. League and of a local scout troop. Then Joan and I took off in the van, after calling a bike shop and asking them to stay open an extra half hour. We brought Alan’s wheel, Luke’s pedal, and Jeff’s pedal with us. We bought a new cluster for Alan and toe clips for Jeff, Luke, and Nancy. Then to Gander Mtn, and a pharmacy, then we picked up a stack of pizzas for all. What a surprise when we showed up with pizza! And they disappeared very quickly. We got the bikes repaired, then to bed.
Sunday July 24
Hot and muggy. The forecast is for more hot and muggy with west winds.
Cycling through Green Bay showed how the group has advanced their cycling abilities and traffic skills. Once we were out in the country we noticed the wind more than the traffic (which is light, it is Sunday.) Today’s route is to the west. And the wind is from the west at 10-20 mph. After a long (15 mile) pull into the wind we got a few miles reprieve when we turned south. Then straight into the wind again. Instead of taking breaks at intersections and re-grouping, we took breaks at any place we found shade, which wasn’t very often in the farmlands. We struggled on. It was hot and slow. We drank lots of water and Gatorade, and ate vast quantities of bananas and granola bars. And more scouts took rides in the van. We finally decided to sag everyone in to camp, about four at a time. So Nancy and three scouts left us, found camp and began set-up, and Joan came back for the next batch. We managed to fit five in, leaving Andy L. (who really wanted to complete the ride) and myself. It was very different riding with just one other, and not having to worry about those left behind. We just kept up a steady pace, negotiated a construction zone, took a detour (due to the construction) with a great downhill, rode into town, stopped for groceries, and continued on to the campground. We arrived about 8pm.
Wolf river campground is on the Wolf River near New London, WI, and caters to tubing trips on the slow river. It draws a partying crowd. Our site is in their ‘rustic camping’ area, which on a Sunday evening was deserted except for us and the bugs. But the partyers had been there before us, and the litter was quite bad. We didn’t bother picking up much, as the effort probably wouldn’t have been noticed.
Brats and cole slaw for dinner, then we shuttled to the main campsite for showers, and Andy, Eric and I made blueberry pie for breakfast tomorrow.
Saturday July 25
To Osh Kosh! We shortened today’s route to go more directly. The original plan avoided busy roads, but our skills have advanced so that we can handle these. Part of our route is on a rails to trails path, but this one is smooth and hard packed, not like the one out of Algoma. Joan found us a park along the trail for lunch, quite pleasant. Once we entered the city we sent the sag wagon on ahead to the campsite. Traffic around the airport was crazy. But getting through the town of Osh Kosh wasn’t bad, even though it was rush hour.
Just after turning onto the airport road we stopped to re-group, looked back, and saw a string of cyclists in yellow jerseys. The venture crew had caught up with us! The last few miles along the frontage road we did together.
The campsite is a huge open field full of tents, RVs, trailers, etc. our (V & C) site is on the outer edge near the noisy highway. But we have lots of space. Closer in they’re packed like sardines.
The tents went up, and since we could see thunderstorms on the horizon, we set a dining fly off the side of the van. The storm hit, but we continued to cook. After that storm finished pounding us, a second came, then a third. Dinner was done and mostly cleaned up. I went with Nancy and Joan to get more water. On the way back the fourth storm hit. Heavy horizontal driving rain. Wild winds. A young man gave me a ride most of the way back and the car was sliding around the muddy track. We had taken the fly down once we finished meals, which was fortunate otherwise it would’ve been torn to shreds. The wind was fierce. Most scouts were in their tents. I was at the open (downwind) back of the van. Soon wet scouts came running over “My tent collapsed!” Other tents were straining. Soon about five boys had elected to spend the night in the car. The wind let up a bit but the rain continued. I retired to my tent.
Sunday July 26
No cycling today. We’re here for the airshow. Everything is wet, three tents are broken. We have one spare tent with some missing pieces. It donated parts to make the others complete. Mr. Squires took a run to a Laundromat with wet sleeping bags.
Once things settled, we walked off to the airshow. We tried to keep together as two scouts to an adult, but were not always successful. Looking at all the planes was fun. There were lots of restored WWII planes, new planes and stuff for sale, and certain prize pieces, such as Glacier Girl and Spaceship One, plus reproductions of historic planes, ultra lights, rotorcraft, etc. In the afternoon were the aerial shows - amazing performances at the edge of control. One scout got lost in the evening when he went back to check out the lost and found, but he eventually found his way back.
Monday July 27
On the road again. Bright blue skies, tailwind, many planes in the air. We cycled to FonDuLac and stopped at their lighthouse, then continued east with a light crosswind, eventually reaching Kiel, where we stopped for lemonade then at a DQ and a Piggly Wiggly. For the last 5 miles I told the boys they could go at their own pace - no stops unless they wanted to. They all made it. Just as we entered the parking lot of the scout camp, we had our first accident - a scout skidded on loose gravel, fell and skinned his knees and one hand. A little first aid, check-in, tents, dinner, and soon we were all asleep.
Tuesday July 28
We (adults) were nearly finished with breakfast and all packed up before the boys were up. That gave us some time to check out the camp. This BSA camp is used for Cub Scout Overnight camp, and has four themed areas each with amazing architecture. One is a castle, built of pigmented concrete blocks with crenellated walls, turrets, and a drawbridge. Then there is a railroad station, which really looks like an old station. They have a space station, a concrete octagonal building, with huge galvanized steel corrugated tunnels (drain pipes) as entrance tubes. They also have a western town which I didn’t see. Each camp is extremely well done, an amazing piece of work.
Soon we were on the road, heading east with a light tail wind to the lake. We turned north at the lake. The sag wagon for Venture passed us, saying that Venture was only a mile behind. That really prompted some of the Core guys to pour on the steam. We pedaled hard all the way into Manitowoc and to the ferry. About 5 minutes later Venture rolled in, and other parts of the Core group drifted in.. We had lunch there near the harbor, and soon enough the SS Badger steamed in. We boarded, and four hours later were back in Michigan, then we drove home.
The end.
Core Bike Trip, Wisconsin
July 19-28, 2005
Journal by Gary Hochgraf
July 19
In 5 vehicles, seven adults and fifteen scouts departed from Ann Arbor on Tuesday afternoon. The drive was uneventful, and we arrived at the campground in Ludington around 8:30
July 20, Wednesday
We got up with the sun, and the tents were down and packed quite quickly. After a short drive we arrived at the ferry landing, re-packed, and rolled our bikes onto the USS Badger. The Badger is an old railroad car ferry, rebuilt with space for lots of cars and even busses or trucks, and with cabins, deck chairs, snack bar, movies, etc on the upper levels.
We had breakfast of bagels & juice boxes, then brought everyone together for a core meeting and a venture meeting. We (Core) figured out our meal system, leadership, then everyone got to plan a section of the route.
About 4 hours on the ferry and we arrived in Manitowoc, WI. Once all the bikes and both mini-vans were off, and everyone had collected bike helmets, changed clothes, etc, and we found directions to a grocery store, we were off! The Core group consists of four adults, Joan, Nancy, Rob, and myself, and eight Scouts, Mike, Mike, Alan, Jeff, Andy, Luke, Matthias, and Eric.
We had a few mistakes at making left turns, but no accidents on the way out of Manitowoc. Lunch was at a park adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Then we settled into a ride along the Lake Michigan shore north to Point Beach State Park. Once we were past the town of Two Rivers, the road was very quiet and pleasant.
We’re in the group camp area at Point Beach. It’s a small opening in the woods, but harbors lots of mosquitoes and deer flies.
Once the tents were up we headed to the lake. We got split up, and entered from two beach heads. One had a sign declaring an e-coli hazard. But those of us who entered at the other didn’t know that and went swimming. So that gave everyone a good excuse to take a shower.
I had volunteered to do the first day’s menu and cooking (for the adults; Scouts do their own). Dinner was burgers, salad, chips and brownies. The boys had canned stew.
After dinner the boys played capture the flag, then all were in bed about sun-down.
Thursday July 21
The deer flies are still here this morning. But once I got a fire going we had a small bug-free zone. Blueberry muffin ring for breakfast, then north again.
It was good to get moving and out-distance the insects. Our route took us through farmlands of corn, oats, soy, wheat, and occasional cows. But the smell of cows was often with us.
Just before lunch we got a phone call from Tom P. back home. He had noticed a big storm just to the west of us on his computer. So we stopped at a drive-in for shelter, then moved to a nearby park with a picnic shelter. But the rains never came. Too bad, because this area looks very very dry. There was a group of kids (looked like a summer day-camp) hanging out there too. So some of us joined them in a game of dodge-ball. And Joan coached the next day’s menu planners for cooking merit badge. Then we found the next grocery store, and departed Kewanee, WI.
We climbed a long hill north of town and encountered headwinds the rest of the way.
From Algoma we picked up a bike trail for about 2 miles right to our campground. The path’s surface is crushed limestone, and not as firm as it could be, as it hasn’t rained here for months. Its also a multi-use trail, so there are hoof prints. I prefer the roads, which are also much faster.
Venture was at this campground last night, and we heard they had enjoyed the swimming pool. So once the tents were up, in we went!
Dinner (Nancy’s) was curried chicken and rice, pound cake with berries for dessert.
Nice sunset.
Friday july 22
Went for a morning walk before most were up, and found enough wild red raspberries to fill a sierra cup. Delicious.
Rice with fruit, honey and cinnamon for breakfast. The boys had yogurt & donuts. Today’s plan was to ride about 25 miles to Potowatami Park, northwest of Sturgeon Bay, and return. But there is dissent, so the options of riding the full 50, staying in camp all day, or riding a shorter route followed by half a day in camp were put to a vote. It was almost a 3-way tie, but Mike Bogen is leader for the day, and got a deciding vote. So we will ride about 15 miles and return, which will also give us time to work on merit badges.
The ride was perhaps the prettiest yet, along the lake on local roads. Very little traffic, some hills to climb & descend, views of the lake, forest, farm, gardens, etc. And the weather was bright and sunny (several of us ended the day with mild sunburn) (yesterday was high overcast.) We found a lovely park just 1 mile before our turnaround point, so most of the group stopped there for a bit. The park marks a spot where LaSalle (René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle) and his men stopped on their voyage of discovery along the western shore of Lake Michigan in 1679. Their journey later brought them past land that would someday become Chicago, then overland, and down the Huron River past the site which would eventually become Ann Arbor.
Andy, Mike, Nancy and I continued a bit farther. But we were drawn on another mile or so after our declared turnaround was met, made a loop out of it, passed a cherry orchard, and a very large old log barn, the largest I’ve ever seen. The roof had fallen in, but the walls were quite impressive. We picked wild raspberries there, then re-joined the others and rode back to camp.
After lunch at camp, two scouts went with Joan for groceries, and the rest went swimming. Other camping families began arriving for the weekend and at times there were up to 15 people in the pool, rather crowded. I held a class in bicycle maintenance for the merit badge in the afternoon.
Rob did dinner - welsh rarebit and salad. The boys had hot dogs, and made a fire to cook them over.
Saturday July 23
Another beautiful morning with heavy dew on everything. Today is Michael's route, so he gets to lead, and he likes to lead. The original plan was to follow the crushed limestone bike path, but we all agreed that these paths are not good for long distance riding. So an alternate was made, out along the county roads. The ride was typical Wisconsin; farms, woods, more farms. There were wind farms too and plenty of wind to turn them. We have headwinds, tailwinds and crosswinds. Nobody likes the headwinds.
Lunch at a Little League ball field, then in toward Green Bay. Suddenly Alan couldn’t pedal. One of the gears stripped right off the freewheel. I rode back and took a look. The cluster of gears had come apart. I thought the bike was dead, but we managed to get one or two gears to work, and sent him off again. This slowed him down, but he made it all the way. I expected heavy traffic approaching the city, but it really wasn’t too bad. About 5 miles from Green Bay we got warnings of an approaching storm; which hit us with about 3 miles to go. Fortunately it was all downhill, so we flew through the rain to the Isaac Walton League land south of town.
It’s a welcome place at a moment like this. A 25’ building with a similar size picnic pavilion offering welcome shelter to wet and weary travelers. We were met there by Don J. of the I. W. League and of a local scout troop. Then Joan and I took off in the van, after calling a bike shop and asking them to stay open an extra half hour. We brought Alan’s wheel, Luke’s pedal, and Jeff’s pedal with us. We bought a new cluster for Alan and toe clips for Jeff, Luke, and Nancy. Then to Gander Mtn, and a pharmacy, then we picked up a stack of pizzas for all. What a surprise when we showed up with pizza! And they disappeared very quickly. We got the bikes repaired, then to bed.
Sunday July 24
Hot and muggy. The forecast is for more hot and muggy with west winds.
Cycling through Green Bay showed how the group has advanced their cycling abilities and traffic skills. Once we were out in the country we noticed the wind more than the traffic (which is light, it is Sunday.) Today’s route is to the west. And the wind is from the west at 10-20 mph. After a long (15 mile) pull into the wind we got a few miles reprieve when we turned south. Then straight into the wind again. Instead of taking breaks at intersections and re-grouping, we took breaks at any place we found shade, which wasn’t very often in the farmlands. We struggled on. It was hot and slow. We drank lots of water and Gatorade, and ate vast quantities of bananas and granola bars. And more scouts took rides in the van. We finally decided to sag everyone in to camp, about four at a time. So Nancy and three scouts left us, found camp and began set-up, and Joan came back for the next batch. We managed to fit five in, leaving Andy L. (who really wanted to complete the ride) and myself. It was very different riding with just one other, and not having to worry about those left behind. We just kept up a steady pace, negotiated a construction zone, took a detour (due to the construction) with a great downhill, rode into town, stopped for groceries, and continued on to the campground. We arrived about 8pm.
Wolf river campground is on the Wolf River near New London, WI, and caters to tubing trips on the slow river. It draws a partying crowd. Our site is in their ‘rustic camping’ area, which on a Sunday evening was deserted except for us and the bugs. But the partyers had been there before us, and the litter was quite bad. We didn’t bother picking up much, as the effort probably wouldn’t have been noticed.
Brats and cole slaw for dinner, then we shuttled to the main campsite for showers, and Andy, Eric and I made blueberry pie for breakfast tomorrow.
Saturday July 25
To Osh Kosh! We shortened today’s route to go more directly. The original plan avoided busy roads, but our skills have advanced so that we can handle these. Part of our route is on a rails to trails path, but this one is smooth and hard packed, not like the one out of Algoma. Joan found us a park along the trail for lunch, quite pleasant. Once we entered the city we sent the sag wagon on ahead to the campsite. Traffic around the airport was crazy. But getting through the town of Osh Kosh wasn’t bad, even though it was rush hour.
Just after turning onto the airport road we stopped to re-group, looked back, and saw a string of cyclists in yellow jerseys. The venture crew had caught up with us! The last few miles along the frontage road we did together.
The campsite is a huge open field full of tents, RVs, trailers, etc. our (V & C) site is on the outer edge near the noisy highway. But we have lots of space. Closer in they’re packed like sardines.
The tents went up, and since we could see thunderstorms on the horizon, we set a dining fly off the side of the van. The storm hit, but we continued to cook. After that storm finished pounding us, a second came, then a third. Dinner was done and mostly cleaned up. I went with Nancy and Joan to get more water. On the way back the fourth storm hit. Heavy horizontal driving rain. Wild winds. A young man gave me a ride most of the way back and the car was sliding around the muddy track. We had taken the fly down once we finished meals, which was fortunate otherwise it would’ve been torn to shreds. The wind was fierce. Most scouts were in their tents. I was at the open (downwind) back of the van. Soon wet scouts came running over “My tent collapsed!” Other tents were straining. Soon about five boys had elected to spend the night in the car. The wind let up a bit but the rain continued. I retired to my tent.
Sunday July 26
No cycling today. We’re here for the airshow. Everything is wet, three tents are broken. We have one spare tent with some missing pieces. It donated parts to make the others complete. Mr. Squires took a run to a Laundromat with wet sleeping bags.
Once things settled, we walked off to the airshow. We tried to keep together as two scouts to an adult, but were not always successful. Looking at all the planes was fun. There were lots of restored WWII planes, new planes and stuff for sale, and certain prize pieces, such as Glacier Girl and Spaceship One, plus reproductions of historic planes, ultra lights, rotorcraft, etc. In the afternoon were the aerial shows - amazing performances at the edge of control. One scout got lost in the evening when he went back to check out the lost and found, but he eventually found his way back.
Monday July 27
On the road again. Bright blue skies, tailwind, many planes in the air. We cycled to FonDuLac and stopped at their lighthouse, then continued east with a light crosswind, eventually reaching Kiel, where we stopped for lemonade then at a DQ and a Piggly Wiggly. For the last 5 miles I told the boys they could go at their own pace - no stops unless they wanted to. They all made it. Just as we entered the parking lot of the scout camp, we had our first accident - a scout skidded on loose gravel, fell and skinned his knees and one hand. A little first aid, check-in, tents, dinner, and soon we were all asleep.
Tuesday July 28
We (adults) were nearly finished with breakfast and all packed up before the boys were up. That gave us some time to check out the camp. This BSA camp is used for Cub Scout Overnight camp, and has four themed areas each with amazing architecture. One is a castle, built of pigmented concrete blocks with crenellated walls, turrets, and a drawbridge. Then there is a railroad station, which really looks like an old station. They have a space station, a concrete octagonal building, with huge galvanized steel corrugated tunnels (drain pipes) as entrance tubes. They also have a western town which I didn’t see. Each camp is extremely well done, an amazing piece of work.
Soon we were on the road, heading east with a light tail wind to the lake. We turned north at the lake. The sag wagon for Venture passed us, saying that Venture was only a mile behind. That really prompted some of the Core guys to pour on the steam. We pedaled hard all the way into Manitowoc and to the ferry. About 5 minutes later Venture rolled in, and other parts of the Core group drifted in.. We had lunch there near the harbor, and soon enough the SS Badger steamed in. We boarded, and four hours later were back in Michigan, then we drove home.
The end.
Glacier N. P., Backpacking with Scouts
Journal
Troop 7 backpacking trip 2007
Glacier National Park
Gary Hochgraf
July 21 Saturday
We met at the Ann Arbor Amtrak station around 7:45am, and the train pulled in on time.
And we’re off! Headed west.
The adult leadership for the trip is Rich, Greg, Scott, and myself. The scouts on Team 1 are Adam, Devin, Jeff, Maxime, and Xavier. Team 2 is Andrew, Andrew, and Zach. Three people had to drop out for various reasons.
About noon we arrived at Union Station, Chicago. On time.
At 2:15 we boarded the train to Glacier. There was a bit of a struggle to get all our gear on, but we eventually succeeded when the car attendant opened the baggage section.. Night fell somewhere in Minnesota, and after a miserable night in cramped and uncomfortable coach, we awoke in South Dakota. On and on through the northern plains, along the Platt river. We long for forests. Things finally get interesting in western Montana as we approach Glacier National Park. They have some Park Service naturalist volunteers who narrate the scenery and history from the lounge car. Riding along the southern edge of the Park we saw much magnificent scenery. When we arrived at West Glacier station, our ride was not waiting for us to bring us to the KOA. And cell phones don’t work. We finally got in touch and they sent out a little car! So three of us went, ant he came back with a van, which still took two trips.
Reached the campsite as dusk was just beginning to fall, and the tents were quickly up. There was much discussion about bears and our food stores for the night. Then we noticed the rather ordinary trash cans nearby and realized that they don’t have a bear problem here. So we just hung most everything just high enough for raccoons. It looked like a clear night and there don’t seem to be any mosquitoes, so I slept under the stars. The humidity is higher than I expected, so the late night star show, while nice, was not spectacular. There is also a waxing half moon.
July 22 Sunday
Awoke to a noisy flock of crows overhead. There are some horses next to our campsite, and the Gray jays came by to inspect the campsite for crumbs.
Once we are all finally packed, we made our way to the campground office, where they gave us a ride to the Backcountry Permit Office, where we picked up our permits, watched a bear and backcountry etiquette video, hiked to the transit center, and boarded a shuttle to the Lake McDonald Lodge. By now it was time for lunch, followed by locating the trailhead, and we’re off!
This is a popular trail, served by busses at both ends, with a chalet in the middle, and open to horses. It is very wide, well eroded, and smells of horses. It climbs steadily up 900ft in about 2 miles. We then leave the main trail for Snyder Lake in 2.2 miles with another 500ft of gain. Its hot and dry, and no relief from climbing. We’re in sun and shade, and everyone is drinking and snacking as we go, with lots of rest breaks. But with a mile to go Xavier gets a headache and dizziness. After a break he goes on. So he and Scott took it slow while I took the rest of the crew on to the campsite. We had planned to send some of us back to help, but by the time we recovered, they had made it in to camp.
Snyder lake is a classic tarn nestled in the glacial cirque ringed by Mount Brown to the west, the Little Matterhorn to the north, and Edwards Mountain to the east. Snyder creek flows out to the south.
After dinner (spicy beans and rice for Scott & I), we were cleaning up and some clouds drifted in from the west. I was anticipating watching the shadow from the setting sun cast across the valley onto the east wall, rising and turning rosy. But the valley was now all in cloud shadow. There were a few rumblings of thunder, then the skies cleared and we had light on the eastern wall for a few minutes, then back to clouds. The clouds thickened, rumblings increased, and most of the crew turned in for the night. But I couldn’t. I walked down to the little bridge over the lake’s outfall, and watched the storm’s approach. Scott joined me for a while and we saw a beautiful lightning strike further down the valley. As the light was fading, and the first drops of rain fell, Scott retired. But I stayed on. I walked up the trail to the tiny beach for a different view. Now the wind was picking up in brief gusts from every direction, seemingly caught and tangled by the craggy peaks above. The rain slowly increased. I stood and felt the light rain on my face, listened to the erratic wind, the musical notes of raindrops on the lake surface, the static hiss of rain on the leaves of bushes and trees behind me, and the thunder. When the rain finally came in earnest I retreated to my tent in the last of the day’s light.
July 23 Tuesday
It really rained last night, and my 25 year old tent is no longer up to the challenge. Yeah, some of my stuff got wet. Morning broke with heavy overcast. This is not the kind of weather I expected. Breakfast of pancakes, a failure, and the skies cleared. There is morning light on the western wall, but too late to show us that rosy morning glow. The scouts had pancakes too, and theirs were a total success.
There’s another couple camping here too, and we’ve enjoyed chatting with them. He was an Eagle Scout, and they both enjoy the backpacking life.
We got a late start, headed back down the trail to the junction, and began the climb up to the Mount Brown Observation Point. It’s a steady climb, with many switchbacks. Some of the scouts keep asking “how far have we gone?” or “how much further?” or “how high are we?” etc. Scott has a GPS unit, and my map is readily accessible. Yesterday we just gave them the answers. But today I just hand them the map and say “figure it out.” It becomes a teaching moment. We had lunch at a grand vista point, overlooking the lower half of Snyder creek valley, and far to the south, outside of the park, to Great Northern Mountain with its glaciers. We push on and up with many more switchbacks. Higher, we came to a wonderful view westward over Lake McDonald, Heaven Peak, and north to the Granite Park area of Glacier N. P. A raven kept us company on the ridge.
By now we were worried about water, but so close. We pushed on to another east view down into our own valley (Snyder creek), just half a mile from the observation point. At this point I returned down to fetch more water, while everyone else made it to the Obs pt. 3.7 miles down at a steady speed was hard on my ankles and legs, but I made it, got water, and made it back up about half a mile to where I met the others coming down. We passed around the water, continued down, got more water and hiked back to camp about 7:30. Dinner was curried couscous with vegetables for Scott and I. The boys had tuna chowder. Devin really enjoys cooking for his crew.
Beautiful alpine glow on the Little Matterhorn and Edwards Mountain to the East and North from our little camp as the sun sets.
July 24 Wednesday
Sore. I’m feeling beat-up from yesterday's hike to Mount Brown and back. Simple breakfast of Oatmeal today.
Our plan for today is to day-hike to Sperry Glacier. We had thought it to be a 6 mile hike, or 12 miles round-trip. But now we know its 10 miles each way. And that’s too far, with much of the hiking on horse trails in the woods and not too interesting until the finale. Instead we decided to explore our own little valley. The map shows an Upper Snyder Lake, and we can hear quite a waterfall cascading down the headwall at the north end of our lake. So we collect some camelbacks and backpacks for a day hike, and follow the trail beyond the campsites. It is not an official trail and is not maintained or improved. It soon opens onto a scree slope, which we follow to a crevasse in the headwall. This section takes some serious scrambling and bouldering. We don’t have a heavy rope nor the expertise to use it, so we did all the climbing unaided. We did have a 25’ bear-bag rope of 1/8” nylon which we used to haul packs up the tough spots.
From the top of the wall we headed cross country through forest and thicket to Upper Snyder Lake. It’s a small lake, about the same area as Lower Snyder, but shallower. From here we can see a snow field quite close by on the East wall, so we make it our destination. Across the creek again, through a forest, and up another scree slope, and we’re there! The snow patch is about 100ft across and has two tunnels through it. We stop for lunch near the larger one, then go exploring through it. And we throw snowballs at each other. A snowball fight in July! The melted surface is very irregular, and it drips off the ceiling. We are in shade, and a very cool breeze flows off the snow. There’s a stream flowing through each tunnel, and is most likely the creator of the tunnel. Further along the scree is a pair of larger streams falling and cascading down the high headwall between Edwards Mountain and the Little Matterhorn. These streams come off Sperry Glacier above us and feed the Snyder Lakes. So we follow across the scree to the lowest section of the falls (home to a pair of water ouzels) then back down to the lake. From high up on the scree we see a deer browsing the lowlands around the lake. Near the bottom of the scree we see a family of marmots sunning themselves on a large boulder. We continue around Upper Snyder through thickets of Alder, grass, wildflowers, and other vegetation. Scott and I remind the scouts to spread out to distribute their impact on the environment. For the most part they do, but often settle into a single file. Our plan to get down is to follow around the west end of the headwall between the two lakes. It’s a long way, but less difficult than the way we came up. Sometimes we find a game trail and follow it, loose it, bushwhack, find another trail, and repeat. The scouts saw a large mule deer with velvet antlers quite close-up. Its really steep and tough going, but eventually we find our way down and cross the cascade between the lakes, and scramble over the scree back to the trail and into camp. We’re hot and sweaty, and we choose to refresh ourselves at the lakeshore. Its been quite a day with some unique challenges and unique opportunities. Today was really a highlight for the trip, as we got to experience a wide variety of environments, vistas, and challenges. While many of us had cut through woods before, to spend a full day hiking off-trail was a new experience, and something I would look forward to doing again.
We share the campsite with another couple again tonight. We first met them as they were heading out over the scree to the cascade as we were nearing camp. Dinner was tacos for Scott & I. The boys had ‘West African Stew’ which looked quite good, followed by pineapple upside-down cake. I watched a Golden Eagle gliding along the headwall and perch on a ledge.
July 25 Thursday
Today we leave Snyder Lakes and hike 12 miles to Lincoln Lake. As we were about to depart, a large 10pt buck mule deer walks right into camp. We got some good photos. He was not afraid of people at all and came quite close to us. We get a late start, and the last 4 miles or so got real old. The trail is not well used, and the weeds crowd the path. It passes a pretty beaver meadow. Lincoln Lake is a absolutely beautiful and worth the long hike. There’s a huge waterfall and cascade pouring down the headwall of this cirque into the tarn. We are surrounded by steep rocky crags dotted with snow packs, and the black spruce march up the slopes between debris slides. We’ve been picking and eating huckleberries all along the trail, and now the first of the thimbleberries are ripe too, but very few and far between. Another couple is here too, and they have a 2-year old boy with them. Its great to see families starting young in the wilderness.
The boys are making tremendous strides in many skill areas. Xavier could teach map reading. Devin is becoming a very good cook. Adam and Maxime are both showing great leadership. Jeff is so quiet but also such a strong and steadfast member of the team.
July 26 Friday
Last day. We strike camp, and hike 8 miles to the Going to the Sun Highway. Its mostly the same trail, just as uneventful, but with lots of huckleberries. We flagged down a shuttle bus, but they couldn’t pick us up there. We had to hike another ½ mile up the road to the official shuttle stop, board the shuttle, and ride to Apgar. Zach and Rich were waiting for us, and walked us the last bit to the campground (full of pickups and RVs). And now we share stories! Team 2 encountered a bear at Reynolds Creek campsite. They were cooking breakfast and heard some snapping and crashing noises near their tents. There had been mule deer in the campsite, so they thought it was one of them. But when Greg went to investigate he found a 2yr old bear clawing up his tent! The bear ran off a short ways, but the tent was ruined. There were also holes in his thermarest pad. They reported the incident to the rangers, who closed the site. Their last campsite was located in an area that had burned about 4 years ago. There was no shade anywhere. And since there would be no shade at the camp either, and it was very hot, and the sun was intense, they decided to abort the campsite and head straight for Apgar.
We all took a swim in Lake McDonald to cleanse off the sweat and trail dirt. Felt great.
Dinner, more stories, a walk to the little tourist village, and I sat by the lake looking north toward glacial carved valleys and peaks, then to bed.
July 27 Saturday
We struck camp and stuffed all our backpacks into the bear boxes, and walked to the transit center to board shuttle busses to Logan Pass. The ride is spectacular. High peaks rise up on either side with craggy ridges, alpine meadows, snow fields, and white water streams running down.
At Logan Pass is a visitor center and associated parking lot full of tourists. We walk the boardwalk up through an extensive alpine meadow studded with all sorts of wildflowers, a flock of bighorn sheep, a family of mountain goats, a marmot, and countless ground squirrels. Further up the trail were a few snow packs, little streams, moraines, then a grand vista down into the next valley, over hidden lake, and the Going to the Sun Highway. On the way down the highway we all boarded one shuttle, but despite the magnificent scenery and twisty turns, many fell asleep. One last visit to the tourist village at Apgar, pick up our packs from the bear boxes, and re-join to meet our shuttle to the KOA for the night. Here we have showers!
Our campsite is on the end of a cul-de-sac, with a few trees and a water spigot on the island in the middle of the turn-around. Two teenage girls are camped with their family next door. We (the adults) have been noticing how our boys and the girls were eyeing each other discretely. The girls were tossing a Frisbee around on one side of the island when I went to get some water. I joined their game for a few tosses, then returned to camp. Soon a challenge was made, and shortly about four of the boys, the two girls, and I were tossing a Frisbee around the perimeter of the cul-de-sac. Later the whole bunch of teenagers settled at a picnic table for card games.
July 29 Sunday
On the move again. We are up and packed in record time with breakfast delayed until we get to the station. Our KOA hosts drive us to the station, and we board the train, on time, at 8:30. Also boarding happens to be a venture crew from S. Carolina. They were scheduled to camp at Reynolds Creek, but the night before was Troop 7’s incident with the bear at the same site, and it was closed!
Riding the train was uneventful and entirely to be expected. We were 4 ½ hours late getting into Chicago and missed our connection to Ann Arbor. They put us on a bus and we arrived at about 4am.
I feel this journal would benefit from a glossary.
Bushwhack: Hiking off-trail, often through bushes and undergrowth vegetation.
Cirque: An amphitheatre-like valley of glacial origin, formed by erosion at the head of the glacier.
Headwall: The name given to the highest cliff in a glacial cirque
Marmot: Related to the woodchuck, found in high alpine areas often in scree.
Moraine: A glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated debris.
Scree: Broken rock that appears at the bottom of a cliff or mountain wall.
Tarn: A Norse term for a lake situated in a cirque formed by a glacier.
Water ouzel: A small dark gray bird which inhabits the environs of high mountain streams. Habits include bobbing up and down while perched by the stream.
Troop 7 backpacking trip 2007
Glacier National Park
Gary Hochgraf
July 21 Saturday
We met at the Ann Arbor Amtrak station around 7:45am, and the train pulled in on time.
And we’re off! Headed west.
The adult leadership for the trip is Rich, Greg, Scott, and myself. The scouts on Team 1 are Adam, Devin, Jeff, Maxime, and Xavier. Team 2 is Andrew, Andrew, and Zach. Three people had to drop out for various reasons.
About noon we arrived at Union Station, Chicago. On time.
At 2:15 we boarded the train to Glacier. There was a bit of a struggle to get all our gear on, but we eventually succeeded when the car attendant opened the baggage section.. Night fell somewhere in Minnesota, and after a miserable night in cramped and uncomfortable coach, we awoke in South Dakota. On and on through the northern plains, along the Platt river. We long for forests. Things finally get interesting in western Montana as we approach Glacier National Park. They have some Park Service naturalist volunteers who narrate the scenery and history from the lounge car. Riding along the southern edge of the Park we saw much magnificent scenery. When we arrived at West Glacier station, our ride was not waiting for us to bring us to the KOA. And cell phones don’t work. We finally got in touch and they sent out a little car! So three of us went, ant he came back with a van, which still took two trips.
Reached the campsite as dusk was just beginning to fall, and the tents were quickly up. There was much discussion about bears and our food stores for the night. Then we noticed the rather ordinary trash cans nearby and realized that they don’t have a bear problem here. So we just hung most everything just high enough for raccoons. It looked like a clear night and there don’t seem to be any mosquitoes, so I slept under the stars. The humidity is higher than I expected, so the late night star show, while nice, was not spectacular. There is also a waxing half moon.
July 22 Sunday
Awoke to a noisy flock of crows overhead. There are some horses next to our campsite, and the Gray jays came by to inspect the campsite for crumbs.
Once we are all finally packed, we made our way to the campground office, where they gave us a ride to the Backcountry Permit Office, where we picked up our permits, watched a bear and backcountry etiquette video, hiked to the transit center, and boarded a shuttle to the Lake McDonald Lodge. By now it was time for lunch, followed by locating the trailhead, and we’re off!
This is a popular trail, served by busses at both ends, with a chalet in the middle, and open to horses. It is very wide, well eroded, and smells of horses. It climbs steadily up 900ft in about 2 miles. We then leave the main trail for Snyder Lake in 2.2 miles with another 500ft of gain. Its hot and dry, and no relief from climbing. We’re in sun and shade, and everyone is drinking and snacking as we go, with lots of rest breaks. But with a mile to go Xavier gets a headache and dizziness. After a break he goes on. So he and Scott took it slow while I took the rest of the crew on to the campsite. We had planned to send some of us back to help, but by the time we recovered, they had made it in to camp.
Snyder lake is a classic tarn nestled in the glacial cirque ringed by Mount Brown to the west, the Little Matterhorn to the north, and Edwards Mountain to the east. Snyder creek flows out to the south.
After dinner (spicy beans and rice for Scott & I), we were cleaning up and some clouds drifted in from the west. I was anticipating watching the shadow from the setting sun cast across the valley onto the east wall, rising and turning rosy. But the valley was now all in cloud shadow. There were a few rumblings of thunder, then the skies cleared and we had light on the eastern wall for a few minutes, then back to clouds. The clouds thickened, rumblings increased, and most of the crew turned in for the night. But I couldn’t. I walked down to the little bridge over the lake’s outfall, and watched the storm’s approach. Scott joined me for a while and we saw a beautiful lightning strike further down the valley. As the light was fading, and the first drops of rain fell, Scott retired. But I stayed on. I walked up the trail to the tiny beach for a different view. Now the wind was picking up in brief gusts from every direction, seemingly caught and tangled by the craggy peaks above. The rain slowly increased. I stood and felt the light rain on my face, listened to the erratic wind, the musical notes of raindrops on the lake surface, the static hiss of rain on the leaves of bushes and trees behind me, and the thunder. When the rain finally came in earnest I retreated to my tent in the last of the day’s light.
July 23 Tuesday
It really rained last night, and my 25 year old tent is no longer up to the challenge. Yeah, some of my stuff got wet. Morning broke with heavy overcast. This is not the kind of weather I expected. Breakfast of pancakes, a failure, and the skies cleared. There is morning light on the western wall, but too late to show us that rosy morning glow. The scouts had pancakes too, and theirs were a total success.
There’s another couple camping here too, and we’ve enjoyed chatting with them. He was an Eagle Scout, and they both enjoy the backpacking life.
We got a late start, headed back down the trail to the junction, and began the climb up to the Mount Brown Observation Point. It’s a steady climb, with many switchbacks. Some of the scouts keep asking “how far have we gone?” or “how much further?” or “how high are we?” etc. Scott has a GPS unit, and my map is readily accessible. Yesterday we just gave them the answers. But today I just hand them the map and say “figure it out.” It becomes a teaching moment. We had lunch at a grand vista point, overlooking the lower half of Snyder creek valley, and far to the south, outside of the park, to Great Northern Mountain with its glaciers. We push on and up with many more switchbacks. Higher, we came to a wonderful view westward over Lake McDonald, Heaven Peak, and north to the Granite Park area of Glacier N. P. A raven kept us company on the ridge.
By now we were worried about water, but so close. We pushed on to another east view down into our own valley (Snyder creek), just half a mile from the observation point. At this point I returned down to fetch more water, while everyone else made it to the Obs pt. 3.7 miles down at a steady speed was hard on my ankles and legs, but I made it, got water, and made it back up about half a mile to where I met the others coming down. We passed around the water, continued down, got more water and hiked back to camp about 7:30. Dinner was curried couscous with vegetables for Scott and I. The boys had tuna chowder. Devin really enjoys cooking for his crew.
Beautiful alpine glow on the Little Matterhorn and Edwards Mountain to the East and North from our little camp as the sun sets.
July 24 Wednesday
Sore. I’m feeling beat-up from yesterday's hike to Mount Brown and back. Simple breakfast of Oatmeal today.
Our plan for today is to day-hike to Sperry Glacier. We had thought it to be a 6 mile hike, or 12 miles round-trip. But now we know its 10 miles each way. And that’s too far, with much of the hiking on horse trails in the woods and not too interesting until the finale. Instead we decided to explore our own little valley. The map shows an Upper Snyder Lake, and we can hear quite a waterfall cascading down the headwall at the north end of our lake. So we collect some camelbacks and backpacks for a day hike, and follow the trail beyond the campsites. It is not an official trail and is not maintained or improved. It soon opens onto a scree slope, which we follow to a crevasse in the headwall. This section takes some serious scrambling and bouldering. We don’t have a heavy rope nor the expertise to use it, so we did all the climbing unaided. We did have a 25’ bear-bag rope of 1/8” nylon which we used to haul packs up the tough spots.
From the top of the wall we headed cross country through forest and thicket to Upper Snyder Lake. It’s a small lake, about the same area as Lower Snyder, but shallower. From here we can see a snow field quite close by on the East wall, so we make it our destination. Across the creek again, through a forest, and up another scree slope, and we’re there! The snow patch is about 100ft across and has two tunnels through it. We stop for lunch near the larger one, then go exploring through it. And we throw snowballs at each other. A snowball fight in July! The melted surface is very irregular, and it drips off the ceiling. We are in shade, and a very cool breeze flows off the snow. There’s a stream flowing through each tunnel, and is most likely the creator of the tunnel. Further along the scree is a pair of larger streams falling and cascading down the high headwall between Edwards Mountain and the Little Matterhorn. These streams come off Sperry Glacier above us and feed the Snyder Lakes. So we follow across the scree to the lowest section of the falls (home to a pair of water ouzels) then back down to the lake. From high up on the scree we see a deer browsing the lowlands around the lake. Near the bottom of the scree we see a family of marmots sunning themselves on a large boulder. We continue around Upper Snyder through thickets of Alder, grass, wildflowers, and other vegetation. Scott and I remind the scouts to spread out to distribute their impact on the environment. For the most part they do, but often settle into a single file. Our plan to get down is to follow around the west end of the headwall between the two lakes. It’s a long way, but less difficult than the way we came up. Sometimes we find a game trail and follow it, loose it, bushwhack, find another trail, and repeat. The scouts saw a large mule deer with velvet antlers quite close-up. Its really steep and tough going, but eventually we find our way down and cross the cascade between the lakes, and scramble over the scree back to the trail and into camp. We’re hot and sweaty, and we choose to refresh ourselves at the lakeshore. Its been quite a day with some unique challenges and unique opportunities. Today was really a highlight for the trip, as we got to experience a wide variety of environments, vistas, and challenges. While many of us had cut through woods before, to spend a full day hiking off-trail was a new experience, and something I would look forward to doing again.
We share the campsite with another couple again tonight. We first met them as they were heading out over the scree to the cascade as we were nearing camp. Dinner was tacos for Scott & I. The boys had ‘West African Stew’ which looked quite good, followed by pineapple upside-down cake. I watched a Golden Eagle gliding along the headwall and perch on a ledge.
July 25 Thursday
Today we leave Snyder Lakes and hike 12 miles to Lincoln Lake. As we were about to depart, a large 10pt buck mule deer walks right into camp. We got some good photos. He was not afraid of people at all and came quite close to us. We get a late start, and the last 4 miles or so got real old. The trail is not well used, and the weeds crowd the path. It passes a pretty beaver meadow. Lincoln Lake is a absolutely beautiful and worth the long hike. There’s a huge waterfall and cascade pouring down the headwall of this cirque into the tarn. We are surrounded by steep rocky crags dotted with snow packs, and the black spruce march up the slopes between debris slides. We’ve been picking and eating huckleberries all along the trail, and now the first of the thimbleberries are ripe too, but very few and far between. Another couple is here too, and they have a 2-year old boy with them. Its great to see families starting young in the wilderness.
The boys are making tremendous strides in many skill areas. Xavier could teach map reading. Devin is becoming a very good cook. Adam and Maxime are both showing great leadership. Jeff is so quiet but also such a strong and steadfast member of the team.
July 26 Friday
Last day. We strike camp, and hike 8 miles to the Going to the Sun Highway. Its mostly the same trail, just as uneventful, but with lots of huckleberries. We flagged down a shuttle bus, but they couldn’t pick us up there. We had to hike another ½ mile up the road to the official shuttle stop, board the shuttle, and ride to Apgar. Zach and Rich were waiting for us, and walked us the last bit to the campground (full of pickups and RVs). And now we share stories! Team 2 encountered a bear at Reynolds Creek campsite. They were cooking breakfast and heard some snapping and crashing noises near their tents. There had been mule deer in the campsite, so they thought it was one of them. But when Greg went to investigate he found a 2yr old bear clawing up his tent! The bear ran off a short ways, but the tent was ruined. There were also holes in his thermarest pad. They reported the incident to the rangers, who closed the site. Their last campsite was located in an area that had burned about 4 years ago. There was no shade anywhere. And since there would be no shade at the camp either, and it was very hot, and the sun was intense, they decided to abort the campsite and head straight for Apgar.
We all took a swim in Lake McDonald to cleanse off the sweat and trail dirt. Felt great.
Dinner, more stories, a walk to the little tourist village, and I sat by the lake looking north toward glacial carved valleys and peaks, then to bed.
July 27 Saturday
We struck camp and stuffed all our backpacks into the bear boxes, and walked to the transit center to board shuttle busses to Logan Pass. The ride is spectacular. High peaks rise up on either side with craggy ridges, alpine meadows, snow fields, and white water streams running down.
At Logan Pass is a visitor center and associated parking lot full of tourists. We walk the boardwalk up through an extensive alpine meadow studded with all sorts of wildflowers, a flock of bighorn sheep, a family of mountain goats, a marmot, and countless ground squirrels. Further up the trail were a few snow packs, little streams, moraines, then a grand vista down into the next valley, over hidden lake, and the Going to the Sun Highway. On the way down the highway we all boarded one shuttle, but despite the magnificent scenery and twisty turns, many fell asleep. One last visit to the tourist village at Apgar, pick up our packs from the bear boxes, and re-join to meet our shuttle to the KOA for the night. Here we have showers!
Our campsite is on the end of a cul-de-sac, with a few trees and a water spigot on the island in the middle of the turn-around. Two teenage girls are camped with their family next door. We (the adults) have been noticing how our boys and the girls were eyeing each other discretely. The girls were tossing a Frisbee around on one side of the island when I went to get some water. I joined their game for a few tosses, then returned to camp. Soon a challenge was made, and shortly about four of the boys, the two girls, and I were tossing a Frisbee around the perimeter of the cul-de-sac. Later the whole bunch of teenagers settled at a picnic table for card games.
July 29 Sunday
On the move again. We are up and packed in record time with breakfast delayed until we get to the station. Our KOA hosts drive us to the station, and we board the train, on time, at 8:30. Also boarding happens to be a venture crew from S. Carolina. They were scheduled to camp at Reynolds Creek, but the night before was Troop 7’s incident with the bear at the same site, and it was closed!
Riding the train was uneventful and entirely to be expected. We were 4 ½ hours late getting into Chicago and missed our connection to Ann Arbor. They put us on a bus and we arrived at about 4am.
I feel this journal would benefit from a glossary.
Bushwhack: Hiking off-trail, often through bushes and undergrowth vegetation.
Cirque: An amphitheatre-like valley of glacial origin, formed by erosion at the head of the glacier.
Headwall: The name given to the highest cliff in a glacial cirque
Marmot: Related to the woodchuck, found in high alpine areas often in scree.
Moraine: A glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated debris.
Scree: Broken rock that appears at the bottom of a cliff or mountain wall.
Tarn: A Norse term for a lake situated in a cirque formed by a glacier.
Water ouzel: A small dark gray bird which inhabits the environs of high mountain streams. Habits include bobbing up and down while perched by the stream.
Killarney by canoe, 2005
Canoeing Journal
Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
August 27 through September 4, 2005
By Gary Hochgraf
Cast:
Gary Hochgraf
Karen H
Schuyler
Karen J
Saturday
Karen H. and I arrived at the ranger station just before their 5pm closing time after a long drive from the Adirondacks, and breaks when we took self guided walks as we passed through Algonquin Provincial Park. The first was around a spruce bog, mostly on boardwalks, where we learned the ecology of the acidic, nutrient poor bog; and the second to the brow of a gneiss cliff where we learned the local geology.
After checking in, we picked up the canoe at Killarney Outfitters, a Langford Nahani, re-packed, drove to the put-in on Bell Lake, and began paddling about 7:00pm. The third campsite was vacant so we took it. It has been drizzling on and off all evening, with low clouds, very high humidity and low visibility. We weren’t long in camp before night fell.
Sunday
The morning came with dense fog, visibility less than 500 feet. After breakfast the sun broke through and the wind picked up and soon the weather was clear with patchy clouds and a tail wind.
We followed Bell Lake north into Three Mile Lake, saw a Great Blue Heron and a few deer. We see many loons and mergansers. The lake level is low - a line of pollen is about 18” above lake level, and the old shoreline is above that. Many of the marshes are exposed to their muck.
The portage to Balsam Lake was especially easy. There is a little rail car big enough to hold one canoe, so we pulled the Nahani onto it with all the gear still in, and together we pulled the cart about 30m into Balsam Lake. Another small group of canoeists came in just as we paddled away into Balsam, and they used the cart to bring their two boats from Balsam to Three Mile.
Once into Balsam we slowed the pace, checked out a vacant campsite (a few blueberries but too much wind exposure) and poked along the shore looking at various flora and fauna.
We found a nice campsite on an island and claimed it for the night. The shore on the approach side is gently sloping bedrock, scoured smooth and striated by the glacier. Soil is thin but nevertheless supports a forest of stately pines and spruces. So we set up our tents and paddled back towards the portage to leave a note for Schuy and Karen, who arrive today. About half way there we saw a dark tandem canoe headed our way; as we got closer we could see it was black and competently paddled. It was Schuy and Karen.
We returned to the island together, set up a bear bag rope, more tents, had lunch, then went exploring. There is a second island connected to this one by an isthmus, and growing along the isthmus were wild cranberries! They weren’t quite ripe yet and very sour. Between our two island and the mainland is a marsh, but the water in this lake is about a foot low, so the marsh is mud, punctuated by tree stumps, logs, and occasional open water with water lilies. Many sun dew plants grow on the mud or logs. The sun dew is an insectivorous plant.
Dinner was tacos, with re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes, TVP with taco seasoning, and cheese. Very good, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. We took an evening paddle to a nearby rock face, scrambled around, and later collected firewood. The island has been scalped of all burnable wood. Later the stars came out. We hoped for an aurora, but settled for lots of stars, the Andromeda Galaxy, and a few shooting stars. Beavers swam by.
Monday
Bright and beautiful dawn, an orange sun peeking over the trees. I went for an early paddle, heard a beaver gnawing on a tree in the woods, and saw many swimming. Heard loons too.
Schuy made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Yum.
We struck camp and paddled west through Balsam Lake, turned right when it did, and stopped for 2nd breakfast on an island. Then on to the northern end of Balsam, through a marsh, then up a stream - wading and pushing the two canoes, over a beaver dam, and into Beacon Lake. This is a small lake with two campsites. We checked out the nearest first, on an island, and the other on the mainland, and one on nearby Fox Lake (occupied) and chose the island. The other Beacon Lake site was too hilly. Fox Lake is reached via a 200m portage along a lovely stream. We’ve been on gneiss bedrock all along, but Fox has the white quartzite along its southern shore and in the creek. This quartzite is part of what makes Killarney so dramatic.
After lunch Schuy and I took a swim and found out that the Nahani barely has enough buoyancy to float. Karen and Karen walked to the end of the island and back, and I paddled once around the lake. These are all incredibly clear lakes and quite nutrient-starved. Once we were all back together we took the portage to Fox again, and paddled around it. There we explored the remains of an old wooden cabin on the shore.
Back in Beacon, we had dinner while the low clouds thickened. Karen J. made us jambalaya rice with ham and peas, and rhubarb sauce for dessert. No stars tonight. We sat under the tarp when it intermittently drizzled.
Tuesday
Our hardest and longest day, but not really very hard or long. Morning broke still and foggy. The fog lifted by breakfast to reveal thin stratus clouds. When we entered this lake yesterday we pushed the canoes through a flowing breach in the beaver dam. Last night the beavers were busy. The breach is now closed with sticks, rocks and mud to about 3” above lake level. We dragged over it and waded down the channel into Balsam Lake. At the west end of balsam is a portage trail to David Lake, which we took. The path is heavily used and quite worn. The clouds lifted as we snacked at the put-in, and under patchy skies we paddled out into David Lake. To our surprise, there are cabins on David, which has no road access. And more surprising is that they are new cabins and a generator was humming behind them. We had thought that a camp on an island would be nice again, but as we passed that site we could still hear the generator, so we passed it on, and found ourselves in a delightful little channel behind the island, barely navigatable by canoe. We found the next campsite to be vacant and really quite nice, so we claimed it. Actually the campsite proper isn’t all that good, so we hung the tarp there to claim it (it had to be dried anyway), and set up our camp around the corner from it. Our site has a nice sloping apron of quartzite sloping down from it, just right for swimming, which we soon did.
Nearby is Silver Peak, the highest point in the park. So we packed up dinner, jackets, lights, and water, hung the bear bag, and paddled across the lake to the trailhead. We left the canoes on the shore and started hiking. The trail climbed a ridge adjacent to the lake, sometimes in woods, sometimes on open, blazing white quartzite with many cairns. It then dropped down to pass a few beaver ponds, and climbed steadily from there to the top of the peak. Karen J. decided not to go for the top, but the rest of us made it. We passed more than a dozen people coming down as we ascended. Most of the trail was in the woods, and much of that beside a babbling mountain brook. From the top we could see Lake Huron to the south and west, Manitoulin Island to the west, lots of small lakes in every direction, and to the north, the tall smokestacks of Sudbury, ON.
Shadows were lengthening, so down we went, joined Karen at the beaver ponds., then re-climbed the ridge by the lake. On the west end of the ridge we stopped and made supper as the sun set and the skies became ablaze with color. The low stratus deck of this morning had given way to cumulus in the afternoon, and by evening these had blown east leaving cirrus clouds; high wisps that caught the fading sunlight in pinks and purples, and reflected them in the lakes below. Magical.
We hiked the remainder of the trail in the dark to the canoes; then paddled under starry skies back to camp.
Wednesday
Blue skies, west wind. This morning the lake was not a mirror. I made a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast.
We paddled to the east end of David, and took a quarter mile portage to a lovely beaver wetland/meandering pond, paddled to the end of that for a half mile portage to the west tip of Bell Lake, then crossed the bay for a 0.1 mile portage to Log Boom Lake. We stopped on the dam between Bell and Log Boom for lunch. This is a man-made dam mostly of rocks. All over the top of the dam and the inlet to the dam are huge logs, many with 2” holes drilled through them, and some with chains around them. We guess that these may be the remains of log booms used to close-off a bay while transporting timber down the lake, back when Killarney was logged.
At the end of Log Boom Lake we dragged over the beaver dam, paddled a small pond, carried around another dam, and entered Johnny Lake. We soon found a nice campsite and I went swimming almost immediately.
The camp has nearly tame chipmunks. They’ll take a nut from your hand. They run right through camp with us there as long as we’re still. Its hard to say whether they are cute or annoying.
Schuy made dinner- spaghetti with his own dehydrated tomato sauce. We all went for an evening paddle after clean-up. There are many bedrock outcroppings that come down to the shore. Some have fantastic twisted trees growing out of a crevasse. One had a small blueberry bush with twelve fat blueberries on it. It has not been a good year for the blues, so these were quite a treat. As dusk fell the beavers came out and slapped the water if we got too close. We found a patch of pitcher plants - another insectivorous plant. The first stars were coming out when we got back to camp.
After a campfire and more stargazing we settled down for the night. Schuy and I opted for a rock outcropping near camp and slept under the stars.
Thursday
Clear skies. Light west wind, brilliant sun. I got up before the sun and took Nahani out. Its incredibly peaceful out on the lake in the morning.
The others got up, and we had breakfast, packed up, and left. By now the wind had picked up, but we headed into it to take photos of some of the gnarled trees growing out of the rocks and of the pitcher plants. Then we turned with the wind and followed Johnny Lake east, portaged up a beaver dam, which was followed shortly by a 200m portage back into Bell Lake and right past the parking lot and our parked cars. There is a little store here connected with Killarney Kanoes, so we browsed their book selection and ID’d some of the plants and birds we’d seen.
Downwind along Bell Lake we went, and stopped at an island for lunch. Another family paddled out from the lodge in inflatable kayaks to go swimming. They’re going to have a tough time getting back.
Our campsite is relatively secluded in a bay. We went exploring, and just south of our site is a portage trail to Chain Lake, which connects to Little Bell then to Balsam. Karen J. and Schuy headed up the trail while Karen H. and I walked along the shore looking for moose. We found beaver footprints, canine (probably dog, remote possibility of wolf) and lots of deer prints. Then finally we found one definite moose print, and further on several sets of moose tracks.
We then re-joined Karen and Schuy up the portage trail. At the end of the trail is a beaver meadow with a meandering channel. And what a beautiful meadow. So we lingered there for quite a while, took a few pictures, and planned to return tomorrow with canoes. There had once been a corduroy road across this bog.
Back at camp we finished setting up, lounged, explored, collected wood, and chatted until dinner time. Karen J. made dinner - black beans with rice with vegs and chicken., and I added a bottle of wine (I had stopped at the car) and made chocolate cake for dessert.
Schuy, Karen H. and I took Schuy’s canoe out for an evening spin, then we all sat on the huge rock apron and watched the star show and listened to the loons.
Friday
Gray dawn, drizzly rain from stratus clouds, then dripping from the trees onto the tents. We keep the same camp for two nights, so there’s no urgency to get up out of a nice dry tent. But I got up anyway, retrieved the bear bag, rigged the dining fly, and started hot water for breakfast. By the middle of breakfast we could see blue skies to the west, and soon we were drying out. Eventually we got together lunch and raincoats (just in case) and headed the two canoes down the shore to the portage to Chain Lake, then up the trail to the beaver meadow. The channel meandered through the meadow and soon became shallow as we got to the base of a beaver dam. We quickly lifted the boats over and were afloat on Chain Lake. This is a small lake with extensive bog mats along the shores. We found the next beaver dam and carried the canoes into Little Bell Lake. By now the wind had really picked up, and the lake was wide enough to really affect us. There’s a campsite here on Little Bell, so we stopped to check it out. Very nice, and no neighbors.
Instead of taking the portage trail directly to Balsam, we turned left and followed the shore to the lake’s inlet - another meadow. These lakes are very acidic and have very little nutrients. the main causes of this are the geology and man. The bedrock here is very dense metamorphic gneiss and quartzite, which offers up its minerals reluctantly, so the soil is very thin, and nether have much buffering capacity. Acid rain is the other culprit, mostly coming from Sudbury, ON and the huge nickel smelter there. As a result of this acidity, one first notices the clarity of the water. Little ponds like this, which in other regions would be clear to 2-3 feet and dark brown, are instead crystal clear with visibility to 10-15feet. One lake in Killarney is reported to have visibility to 27m. The vegetation is unique too. There are two insectivorous plants - the sun dew and the pitcher plant. There are wild cranberries and other acid tolerant plants. Huge mats of floating dead vegetation form over quiet water, starving the water of oxygen while also providing a place for bog plants to grow. Decomposition is very slow too, and there are extremely few fish in these lakes.
At the end of the lake we found a channel through the bog, and followed it about half a mile, twisting and turning until we found the base of the next beaver dam. I suppose we could’ve continued, but it would’ve been more trouble than we wanted. So we turned back and meandered into Little Bell, and portaged into Balsam.
Lunch was on an island on Balsam, where there happened to be quite a crop of cranberries. After lunch we picked about a pint of the ripest ones. From here we headed east and downwind toward the portage back to Three Mile and Bell, but first we tried to explore a large bay (according to the map) behind an island. But the water was low this year, and the entire bay is choked with logs and stumps. It was a significant challenge just to paddle and push our way around behind the island. We used the rail car to portage Nahani into Three Mile, but the wind made it difficult, so Schuy and Karen just carried theirs over. Paddling through Three Mile and to our campsite was uneventful. We did however pass other canoeists heading into the more interior lakes as we were heading out.
Dinner was my curried vegs, this time with Thai cellophane noodles. We also cut each of the cranberries in half (or quarters) and cooked them down with all the honey that I’d brought plus a few packets of sugar. We let it cool in a pool by the lake. Boy was it delicious.
Saturday
Dawn was crystal clear, then clouds moved in. A nice colorful sunrise. We all slept out under the stars on the huge apron of glaciated bedrock that dominates this campsite. But we left our tents up just in case.
Breakfast was done, tents down, and everything packed and underway within about an hour and a half of sunrise. I had anticipated a headwind to the take-out and parking lot, but as with most of our days here, we had a tail wind!
The end
Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
August 27 through September 4, 2005
By Gary Hochgraf
Cast:
Gary Hochgraf
Karen H
Schuyler
Karen J
Saturday
Karen H. and I arrived at the ranger station just before their 5pm closing time after a long drive from the Adirondacks, and breaks when we took self guided walks as we passed through Algonquin Provincial Park. The first was around a spruce bog, mostly on boardwalks, where we learned the ecology of the acidic, nutrient poor bog; and the second to the brow of a gneiss cliff where we learned the local geology.
After checking in, we picked up the canoe at Killarney Outfitters, a Langford Nahani, re-packed, drove to the put-in on Bell Lake, and began paddling about 7:00pm. The third campsite was vacant so we took it. It has been drizzling on and off all evening, with low clouds, very high humidity and low visibility. We weren’t long in camp before night fell.
Sunday
The morning came with dense fog, visibility less than 500 feet. After breakfast the sun broke through and the wind picked up and soon the weather was clear with patchy clouds and a tail wind.
We followed Bell Lake north into Three Mile Lake, saw a Great Blue Heron and a few deer. We see many loons and mergansers. The lake level is low - a line of pollen is about 18” above lake level, and the old shoreline is above that. Many of the marshes are exposed to their muck.
The portage to Balsam Lake was especially easy. There is a little rail car big enough to hold one canoe, so we pulled the Nahani onto it with all the gear still in, and together we pulled the cart about 30m into Balsam Lake. Another small group of canoeists came in just as we paddled away into Balsam, and they used the cart to bring their two boats from Balsam to Three Mile.
Once into Balsam we slowed the pace, checked out a vacant campsite (a few blueberries but too much wind exposure) and poked along the shore looking at various flora and fauna.
We found a nice campsite on an island and claimed it for the night. The shore on the approach side is gently sloping bedrock, scoured smooth and striated by the glacier. Soil is thin but nevertheless supports a forest of stately pines and spruces. So we set up our tents and paddled back towards the portage to leave a note for Schuy and Karen, who arrive today. About half way there we saw a dark tandem canoe headed our way; as we got closer we could see it was black and competently paddled. It was Schuy and Karen.
We returned to the island together, set up a bear bag rope, more tents, had lunch, then went exploring. There is a second island connected to this one by an isthmus, and growing along the isthmus were wild cranberries! They weren’t quite ripe yet and very sour. Between our two island and the mainland is a marsh, but the water in this lake is about a foot low, so the marsh is mud, punctuated by tree stumps, logs, and occasional open water with water lilies. Many sun dew plants grow on the mud or logs. The sun dew is an insectivorous plant.
Dinner was tacos, with re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes, TVP with taco seasoning, and cheese. Very good, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. We took an evening paddle to a nearby rock face, scrambled around, and later collected firewood. The island has been scalped of all burnable wood. Later the stars came out. We hoped for an aurora, but settled for lots of stars, the Andromeda Galaxy, and a few shooting stars. Beavers swam by.
Monday
Bright and beautiful dawn, an orange sun peeking over the trees. I went for an early paddle, heard a beaver gnawing on a tree in the woods, and saw many swimming. Heard loons too.
Schuy made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Yum.
We struck camp and paddled west through Balsam Lake, turned right when it did, and stopped for 2nd breakfast on an island. Then on to the northern end of Balsam, through a marsh, then up a stream - wading and pushing the two canoes, over a beaver dam, and into Beacon Lake. This is a small lake with two campsites. We checked out the nearest first, on an island, and the other on the mainland, and one on nearby Fox Lake (occupied) and chose the island. The other Beacon Lake site was too hilly. Fox Lake is reached via a 200m portage along a lovely stream. We’ve been on gneiss bedrock all along, but Fox has the white quartzite along its southern shore and in the creek. This quartzite is part of what makes Killarney so dramatic.
After lunch Schuy and I took a swim and found out that the Nahani barely has enough buoyancy to float. Karen and Karen walked to the end of the island and back, and I paddled once around the lake. These are all incredibly clear lakes and quite nutrient-starved. Once we were all back together we took the portage to Fox again, and paddled around it. There we explored the remains of an old wooden cabin on the shore.
Back in Beacon, we had dinner while the low clouds thickened. Karen J. made us jambalaya rice with ham and peas, and rhubarb sauce for dessert. No stars tonight. We sat under the tarp when it intermittently drizzled.
Tuesday
Our hardest and longest day, but not really very hard or long. Morning broke still and foggy. The fog lifted by breakfast to reveal thin stratus clouds. When we entered this lake yesterday we pushed the canoes through a flowing breach in the beaver dam. Last night the beavers were busy. The breach is now closed with sticks, rocks and mud to about 3” above lake level. We dragged over it and waded down the channel into Balsam Lake. At the west end of balsam is a portage trail to David Lake, which we took. The path is heavily used and quite worn. The clouds lifted as we snacked at the put-in, and under patchy skies we paddled out into David Lake. To our surprise, there are cabins on David, which has no road access. And more surprising is that they are new cabins and a generator was humming behind them. We had thought that a camp on an island would be nice again, but as we passed that site we could still hear the generator, so we passed it on, and found ourselves in a delightful little channel behind the island, barely navigatable by canoe. We found the next campsite to be vacant and really quite nice, so we claimed it. Actually the campsite proper isn’t all that good, so we hung the tarp there to claim it (it had to be dried anyway), and set up our camp around the corner from it. Our site has a nice sloping apron of quartzite sloping down from it, just right for swimming, which we soon did.
Nearby is Silver Peak, the highest point in the park. So we packed up dinner, jackets, lights, and water, hung the bear bag, and paddled across the lake to the trailhead. We left the canoes on the shore and started hiking. The trail climbed a ridge adjacent to the lake, sometimes in woods, sometimes on open, blazing white quartzite with many cairns. It then dropped down to pass a few beaver ponds, and climbed steadily from there to the top of the peak. Karen J. decided not to go for the top, but the rest of us made it. We passed more than a dozen people coming down as we ascended. Most of the trail was in the woods, and much of that beside a babbling mountain brook. From the top we could see Lake Huron to the south and west, Manitoulin Island to the west, lots of small lakes in every direction, and to the north, the tall smokestacks of Sudbury, ON.
Shadows were lengthening, so down we went, joined Karen at the beaver ponds., then re-climbed the ridge by the lake. On the west end of the ridge we stopped and made supper as the sun set and the skies became ablaze with color. The low stratus deck of this morning had given way to cumulus in the afternoon, and by evening these had blown east leaving cirrus clouds; high wisps that caught the fading sunlight in pinks and purples, and reflected them in the lakes below. Magical.
We hiked the remainder of the trail in the dark to the canoes; then paddled under starry skies back to camp.
Wednesday
Blue skies, west wind. This morning the lake was not a mirror. I made a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast.
We paddled to the east end of David, and took a quarter mile portage to a lovely beaver wetland/meandering pond, paddled to the end of that for a half mile portage to the west tip of Bell Lake, then crossed the bay for a 0.1 mile portage to Log Boom Lake. We stopped on the dam between Bell and Log Boom for lunch. This is a man-made dam mostly of rocks. All over the top of the dam and the inlet to the dam are huge logs, many with 2” holes drilled through them, and some with chains around them. We guess that these may be the remains of log booms used to close-off a bay while transporting timber down the lake, back when Killarney was logged.
At the end of Log Boom Lake we dragged over the beaver dam, paddled a small pond, carried around another dam, and entered Johnny Lake. We soon found a nice campsite and I went swimming almost immediately.
The camp has nearly tame chipmunks. They’ll take a nut from your hand. They run right through camp with us there as long as we’re still. Its hard to say whether they are cute or annoying.
Schuy made dinner- spaghetti with his own dehydrated tomato sauce. We all went for an evening paddle after clean-up. There are many bedrock outcroppings that come down to the shore. Some have fantastic twisted trees growing out of a crevasse. One had a small blueberry bush with twelve fat blueberries on it. It has not been a good year for the blues, so these were quite a treat. As dusk fell the beavers came out and slapped the water if we got too close. We found a patch of pitcher plants - another insectivorous plant. The first stars were coming out when we got back to camp.
After a campfire and more stargazing we settled down for the night. Schuy and I opted for a rock outcropping near camp and slept under the stars.
Thursday
Clear skies. Light west wind, brilliant sun. I got up before the sun and took Nahani out. Its incredibly peaceful out on the lake in the morning.
The others got up, and we had breakfast, packed up, and left. By now the wind had picked up, but we headed into it to take photos of some of the gnarled trees growing out of the rocks and of the pitcher plants. Then we turned with the wind and followed Johnny Lake east, portaged up a beaver dam, which was followed shortly by a 200m portage back into Bell Lake and right past the parking lot and our parked cars. There is a little store here connected with Killarney Kanoes, so we browsed their book selection and ID’d some of the plants and birds we’d seen.
Downwind along Bell Lake we went, and stopped at an island for lunch. Another family paddled out from the lodge in inflatable kayaks to go swimming. They’re going to have a tough time getting back.
Our campsite is relatively secluded in a bay. We went exploring, and just south of our site is a portage trail to Chain Lake, which connects to Little Bell then to Balsam. Karen J. and Schuy headed up the trail while Karen H. and I walked along the shore looking for moose. We found beaver footprints, canine (probably dog, remote possibility of wolf) and lots of deer prints. Then finally we found one definite moose print, and further on several sets of moose tracks.
We then re-joined Karen and Schuy up the portage trail. At the end of the trail is a beaver meadow with a meandering channel. And what a beautiful meadow. So we lingered there for quite a while, took a few pictures, and planned to return tomorrow with canoes. There had once been a corduroy road across this bog.
Back at camp we finished setting up, lounged, explored, collected wood, and chatted until dinner time. Karen J. made dinner - black beans with rice with vegs and chicken., and I added a bottle of wine (I had stopped at the car) and made chocolate cake for dessert.
Schuy, Karen H. and I took Schuy’s canoe out for an evening spin, then we all sat on the huge rock apron and watched the star show and listened to the loons.
Friday
Gray dawn, drizzly rain from stratus clouds, then dripping from the trees onto the tents. We keep the same camp for two nights, so there’s no urgency to get up out of a nice dry tent. But I got up anyway, retrieved the bear bag, rigged the dining fly, and started hot water for breakfast. By the middle of breakfast we could see blue skies to the west, and soon we were drying out. Eventually we got together lunch and raincoats (just in case) and headed the two canoes down the shore to the portage to Chain Lake, then up the trail to the beaver meadow. The channel meandered through the meadow and soon became shallow as we got to the base of a beaver dam. We quickly lifted the boats over and were afloat on Chain Lake. This is a small lake with extensive bog mats along the shores. We found the next beaver dam and carried the canoes into Little Bell Lake. By now the wind had really picked up, and the lake was wide enough to really affect us. There’s a campsite here on Little Bell, so we stopped to check it out. Very nice, and no neighbors.
Instead of taking the portage trail directly to Balsam, we turned left and followed the shore to the lake’s inlet - another meadow. These lakes are very acidic and have very little nutrients. the main causes of this are the geology and man. The bedrock here is very dense metamorphic gneiss and quartzite, which offers up its minerals reluctantly, so the soil is very thin, and nether have much buffering capacity. Acid rain is the other culprit, mostly coming from Sudbury, ON and the huge nickel smelter there. As a result of this acidity, one first notices the clarity of the water. Little ponds like this, which in other regions would be clear to 2-3 feet and dark brown, are instead crystal clear with visibility to 10-15feet. One lake in Killarney is reported to have visibility to 27m. The vegetation is unique too. There are two insectivorous plants - the sun dew and the pitcher plant. There are wild cranberries and other acid tolerant plants. Huge mats of floating dead vegetation form over quiet water, starving the water of oxygen while also providing a place for bog plants to grow. Decomposition is very slow too, and there are extremely few fish in these lakes.
At the end of the lake we found a channel through the bog, and followed it about half a mile, twisting and turning until we found the base of the next beaver dam. I suppose we could’ve continued, but it would’ve been more trouble than we wanted. So we turned back and meandered into Little Bell, and portaged into Balsam.
Lunch was on an island on Balsam, where there happened to be quite a crop of cranberries. After lunch we picked about a pint of the ripest ones. From here we headed east and downwind toward the portage back to Three Mile and Bell, but first we tried to explore a large bay (according to the map) behind an island. But the water was low this year, and the entire bay is choked with logs and stumps. It was a significant challenge just to paddle and push our way around behind the island. We used the rail car to portage Nahani into Three Mile, but the wind made it difficult, so Schuy and Karen just carried theirs over. Paddling through Three Mile and to our campsite was uneventful. We did however pass other canoeists heading into the more interior lakes as we were heading out.
Dinner was my curried vegs, this time with Thai cellophane noodles. We also cut each of the cranberries in half (or quarters) and cooked them down with all the honey that I’d brought plus a few packets of sugar. We let it cool in a pool by the lake. Boy was it delicious.
Saturday
Dawn was crystal clear, then clouds moved in. A nice colorful sunrise. We all slept out under the stars on the huge apron of glaciated bedrock that dominates this campsite. But we left our tents up just in case.
Breakfast was done, tents down, and everything packed and underway within about an hour and a half of sunrise. I had anticipated a headwind to the take-out and parking lot, but as with most of our days here, we had a tail wind!
The end
BWCA by canoe, 2006
Journal
Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 2006
August 7-13
Peter and I drove to Ely from Ann Arbor, Irene and Fred flew from NH to Madison, met Schuy, and drove north to Ely. We had our rendezvous at the Wolf Center, got our permits, and headed for town. Irene wants a green t-shirt, small. In all the stores in town we couldn’t find one. But we did find a delicious dinner at the Chocolate Moose. We have reservations tonight at Fall Lake campground, and soon we have the picnic table there covered with equipment or food, sorting what to leave behind. We were done just before nightfall, then traipsed down to the lake to watch the light fade.
Monday Aug 7
Up and packed early, breakfast at a diner in town, then out the Echo Trail to our put-in on the Moose River. It took five of us eight trips to get two canoes, six backpacks, paddles, PFDs & etc to the water. We head out with Dad in the bow of Schuy’s Bell Mystic. In the Minn II, Peter is in the bow, Irene in the middle, and I’m in the stern. The river is mildly twisty and very slow. Several other groups are coming out as we go in. We pass a high rock face, stop, and scramble to it’s top. We have a nice view down the river into Nina Moose Lake. Snack time. Back on the water we find an occasional sprig of wild rice, and as we reach the lake, expansive beds of it. Its not quite ripe yet, but Irene enjoys picking a few, husking them, and declaring them ‘sweet.’
From Nina Moose, on down the river to Lake Agnes. We find a nice campsite on a point with a wide rock apron in the sun. The tents go up and we filter water and go swimming. Dinner is tacos with instant refritos and sun dried tomatoes.
This lake is very popular, close to the put-in, and has many campsites. So it has some annoying chipmunks who refuse to be scared away when they climb into the food pack. Schuy and Peter, and Irene and I go out for an evening paddle and watch the full moon rise over the trees.
A bear visits us in the night, wakes up Dad and Irene, sniffs around, and leaves. Dad says he smells horrible!
Tuesday Aug 8
A nice tail wind drives us down Lake Agnes into Boulder Creek and Boulder Bay. Saw a Bald Eagle on a snag on the shore.
From Boulder Bay into Lac la Croix with more tailwinds. Our campsite is on a nice peninsula with a huge rock apron out front. After dinner we paddle across the lake into Canada to view the Native American petroglyphs on the cliff face. There are stick figures of men, profiles of moose and other animals, and many, many handprints. Wow.
Watched the sun set on the short paddle back.
Irene and I went for a moonlight paddle as everyone else settled into their tents. I slept out under the stars.
Wednesday Aug 9
Beautiful sunrise over Canada. Blueberry muffins for breakfast.
We follow Lac la Croix north then west through a confusing maze of islands, bays and points, then north again (more cartographic confusion) to a nice island campsite. On the way we watched two Bald Eagles fight over their territories. One was forced down into the water and had to swim to shore.
The fireplace/kitchen at this campsite is up on a rock bluff overlooking the lake. The tent sites are rough and small though. This area gets few visitors, and the sites are lightly used. We checked out some of the nearby sites. One had a spruce seedling growing in the middle of the fireplace.
Peter and Irene are both becoming very good paddlers. We switch positions often, so everybody gets a turn at stern, bow, or vegging out in the middle.
Dinner is curried couscous with vegs. The evening is quiet but buggy, thunderstorms in the distance and a lowering ceiling. After we all turn in for the night, the storm hits. From dead calm instantly to strong gusty winds, and a few light sprinkles. Dad, Schuy and I get up and made sure all is secure, then settled back down listening to nylon flapping.
Thursday Aug 10
Still blowing but no precipitation. It’s a short day of paddling, as we backtrack a bit of Lac la Croix, then up Pocket Creek, left into Ge-be-on-e-quet Creek and into the lake of the same name. Paddling the creeks is beautiful. Saw two beaver.
Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake is quite pretty, typical BWCA with rocky shores, thickly wooded, with bleached driftwood along the banks, and many huge pines. We liked the first campsite, and settle in. Irene found a special place in the woods - four very large pines defining a clearing about eight feet across. She’s planning on sleeping there, so she’s set it all up with her pad, bag, book, etc. Nearby is the lake with a secluded ‘pond’ complete with Lilly pads, driftwood, and rocks to sit on while reading.
Lunch was a very casual affair - food was arrayed in the kitchen, and those who desired, ate. The wind continues but not too strong. The overcast breaks up and by evening the skies are clear. We light a fire, but it is too hot and too smoky and too much bother to feed. So it dies. And we stoke it up again, and let it die again. I guess our hearts aren’t into having a fire. Did a little afternoon paddling too. This lake has lots of loons.
Friday Aug 11
We stay here for two nights, so we arise slowly and amble out to the kitchen. I’m making bran muffins.
We have a day trip in mind. Charm Lake is a small pond, about ¼ mile west of Ge-be-on-e-quet. We head out, wander along the shoreline of Ge-be-on-e-quet and paddle down the length of the western bay to an inlet. We manage to paddle a short distance up the beaver meadow before it becomes impractical to continue. So we back out, make for a rock on shore, and have lunch.
After lunch we pick a compass course through the woods, and Peter, Irene, Schuy and I head west and bushwhack our way to Charm Lake. It’s a lake much like any other BWCA lake, but with very few human visitors. We poke around a bit, then depart, and on the way back follow a moose trail complete with moose droppings and moose tracks and bedding spots in the grass. But no moose, instead we find a pine tree about 4‘ in diameter!
Dinner is kluski with pesto and cherry cheesecake. We watch the stars come out, Jupiter, constellations, the milky way, and a few meteors. A fabulous show until the just-past-full moon rises and washes most of it out. So we go to bed.
Saturday Aug 12
Windy and sunny, the wind continues all day, but clouds move in to block the sun. We strike camp and head south and upwind through beautiful Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake, portage to Green Lake, portage again to Rocky Lake and again into Oyster Lake.
The headwind keeps up all day as we work our way south. We keep to the shore for some protection, but Oyster Lake presents us with nothing but a big open water crossing.
We meet more canoeists coming in for the weekend. The Oyster River proves to be a difficult way to go. It’s a twisty channel through the grasses and the beaver have been at work. Most canoeists enter from a portage to Lake Agnes, but we continue on the river, which gets narrower, shallower, twistier, and weedier with more dams. Eventually we enter a delta with channels going everywhere. Only by paddling standing up can I find the right one. This leads us to a field of wild rice with no channel ahead. So we forge through and soon find the open water of the Nina Moose River. Quite a challenge.
Ramshead Creek joins the Nina Moose a little further upstream. But there is no channel here either. Just more wild rice. So we force our way through and eventually find the relatively open water of the creek. Each boat takes on about a half pound of rice. In two more portages and some more twisty channels, we reach Ramshead Lake. On the map this is our longest day. The creeks make it longer still, plus the headwind, about seven portages, and numerous drags over beaver dams, and we are quite tired when we finally settle into our campsite on an island.
Mac ‘n cheese for dinner with chocolate cake for dessert.
Sunday Aug 13
Dark, heavy gray skies and more south wind. The last day is always a bit sad. But we pack up and head out into the headwinds to a portage into Lamb Lake. Short paddle across, then a long portage into Nina Moose Lake. The trail ends in a large rice bed which we paddle through. Looking back at the portage trail head, you’d never know it was there nor how to get to it. Nevertheless, for such an inaccessible lake, the campsite we had was heavily used and there are six other sites on the lake.
We exit Nina Moose Lake into the Moose River, and twist our way up the channel through more wild rice, a few beaver dams and portages, and a pair of otter. More canoeists are coming in. A drizzle begins as we approach the last portage to the parking lot, and ends. On the drive to Ely it begins to rain in earnest. We pity those who are just starting out as the rain continues all afternoon.
Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 2006
August 7-13
Peter and I drove to Ely from Ann Arbor, Irene and Fred flew from NH to Madison, met Schuy, and drove north to Ely. We had our rendezvous at the Wolf Center, got our permits, and headed for town. Irene wants a green t-shirt, small. In all the stores in town we couldn’t find one. But we did find a delicious dinner at the Chocolate Moose. We have reservations tonight at Fall Lake campground, and soon we have the picnic table there covered with equipment or food, sorting what to leave behind. We were done just before nightfall, then traipsed down to the lake to watch the light fade.
Monday Aug 7
Up and packed early, breakfast at a diner in town, then out the Echo Trail to our put-in on the Moose River. It took five of us eight trips to get two canoes, six backpacks, paddles, PFDs & etc to the water. We head out with Dad in the bow of Schuy’s Bell Mystic. In the Minn II, Peter is in the bow, Irene in the middle, and I’m in the stern. The river is mildly twisty and very slow. Several other groups are coming out as we go in. We pass a high rock face, stop, and scramble to it’s top. We have a nice view down the river into Nina Moose Lake. Snack time. Back on the water we find an occasional sprig of wild rice, and as we reach the lake, expansive beds of it. Its not quite ripe yet, but Irene enjoys picking a few, husking them, and declaring them ‘sweet.’
From Nina Moose, on down the river to Lake Agnes. We find a nice campsite on a point with a wide rock apron in the sun. The tents go up and we filter water and go swimming. Dinner is tacos with instant refritos and sun dried tomatoes.
This lake is very popular, close to the put-in, and has many campsites. So it has some annoying chipmunks who refuse to be scared away when they climb into the food pack. Schuy and Peter, and Irene and I go out for an evening paddle and watch the full moon rise over the trees.
A bear visits us in the night, wakes up Dad and Irene, sniffs around, and leaves. Dad says he smells horrible!
Tuesday Aug 8
A nice tail wind drives us down Lake Agnes into Boulder Creek and Boulder Bay. Saw a Bald Eagle on a snag on the shore.
From Boulder Bay into Lac la Croix with more tailwinds. Our campsite is on a nice peninsula with a huge rock apron out front. After dinner we paddle across the lake into Canada to view the Native American petroglyphs on the cliff face. There are stick figures of men, profiles of moose and other animals, and many, many handprints. Wow.
Watched the sun set on the short paddle back.
Irene and I went for a moonlight paddle as everyone else settled into their tents. I slept out under the stars.
Wednesday Aug 9
Beautiful sunrise over Canada. Blueberry muffins for breakfast.
We follow Lac la Croix north then west through a confusing maze of islands, bays and points, then north again (more cartographic confusion) to a nice island campsite. On the way we watched two Bald Eagles fight over their territories. One was forced down into the water and had to swim to shore.
The fireplace/kitchen at this campsite is up on a rock bluff overlooking the lake. The tent sites are rough and small though. This area gets few visitors, and the sites are lightly used. We checked out some of the nearby sites. One had a spruce seedling growing in the middle of the fireplace.
Peter and Irene are both becoming very good paddlers. We switch positions often, so everybody gets a turn at stern, bow, or vegging out in the middle.
Dinner is curried couscous with vegs. The evening is quiet but buggy, thunderstorms in the distance and a lowering ceiling. After we all turn in for the night, the storm hits. From dead calm instantly to strong gusty winds, and a few light sprinkles. Dad, Schuy and I get up and made sure all is secure, then settled back down listening to nylon flapping.
Thursday Aug 10
Still blowing but no precipitation. It’s a short day of paddling, as we backtrack a bit of Lac la Croix, then up Pocket Creek, left into Ge-be-on-e-quet Creek and into the lake of the same name. Paddling the creeks is beautiful. Saw two beaver.
Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake is quite pretty, typical BWCA with rocky shores, thickly wooded, with bleached driftwood along the banks, and many huge pines. We liked the first campsite, and settle in. Irene found a special place in the woods - four very large pines defining a clearing about eight feet across. She’s planning on sleeping there, so she’s set it all up with her pad, bag, book, etc. Nearby is the lake with a secluded ‘pond’ complete with Lilly pads, driftwood, and rocks to sit on while reading.
Lunch was a very casual affair - food was arrayed in the kitchen, and those who desired, ate. The wind continues but not too strong. The overcast breaks up and by evening the skies are clear. We light a fire, but it is too hot and too smoky and too much bother to feed. So it dies. And we stoke it up again, and let it die again. I guess our hearts aren’t into having a fire. Did a little afternoon paddling too. This lake has lots of loons.
Friday Aug 11
We stay here for two nights, so we arise slowly and amble out to the kitchen. I’m making bran muffins.
We have a day trip in mind. Charm Lake is a small pond, about ¼ mile west of Ge-be-on-e-quet. We head out, wander along the shoreline of Ge-be-on-e-quet and paddle down the length of the western bay to an inlet. We manage to paddle a short distance up the beaver meadow before it becomes impractical to continue. So we back out, make for a rock on shore, and have lunch.
After lunch we pick a compass course through the woods, and Peter, Irene, Schuy and I head west and bushwhack our way to Charm Lake. It’s a lake much like any other BWCA lake, but with very few human visitors. We poke around a bit, then depart, and on the way back follow a moose trail complete with moose droppings and moose tracks and bedding spots in the grass. But no moose, instead we find a pine tree about 4‘ in diameter!
Dinner is kluski with pesto and cherry cheesecake. We watch the stars come out, Jupiter, constellations, the milky way, and a few meteors. A fabulous show until the just-past-full moon rises and washes most of it out. So we go to bed.
Saturday Aug 12
Windy and sunny, the wind continues all day, but clouds move in to block the sun. We strike camp and head south and upwind through beautiful Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake, portage to Green Lake, portage again to Rocky Lake and again into Oyster Lake.
The headwind keeps up all day as we work our way south. We keep to the shore for some protection, but Oyster Lake presents us with nothing but a big open water crossing.
We meet more canoeists coming in for the weekend. The Oyster River proves to be a difficult way to go. It’s a twisty channel through the grasses and the beaver have been at work. Most canoeists enter from a portage to Lake Agnes, but we continue on the river, which gets narrower, shallower, twistier, and weedier with more dams. Eventually we enter a delta with channels going everywhere. Only by paddling standing up can I find the right one. This leads us to a field of wild rice with no channel ahead. So we forge through and soon find the open water of the Nina Moose River. Quite a challenge.
Ramshead Creek joins the Nina Moose a little further upstream. But there is no channel here either. Just more wild rice. So we force our way through and eventually find the relatively open water of the creek. Each boat takes on about a half pound of rice. In two more portages and some more twisty channels, we reach Ramshead Lake. On the map this is our longest day. The creeks make it longer still, plus the headwind, about seven portages, and numerous drags over beaver dams, and we are quite tired when we finally settle into our campsite on an island.
Mac ‘n cheese for dinner with chocolate cake for dessert.
Sunday Aug 13
Dark, heavy gray skies and more south wind. The last day is always a bit sad. But we pack up and head out into the headwinds to a portage into Lamb Lake. Short paddle across, then a long portage into Nina Moose Lake. The trail ends in a large rice bed which we paddle through. Looking back at the portage trail head, you’d never know it was there nor how to get to it. Nevertheless, for such an inaccessible lake, the campsite we had was heavily used and there are six other sites on the lake.
We exit Nina Moose Lake into the Moose River, and twist our way up the channel through more wild rice, a few beaver dams and portages, and a pair of otter. More canoeists are coming in. A drizzle begins as we approach the last portage to the parking lot, and ends. On the drive to Ely it begins to rain in earnest. We pity those who are just starting out as the rain continues all afternoon.
BWCA by canoe, 2003
Journal
Expedition into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 8/29-9/7 2003
Gary Hochgraf (me, keeper of this journal)
Frederick (my Dad)
Schuyler (my cousin)
Robert (a friend of Schuy’s)
Friday
Departed about 6am from Ann Arbor and headed north through Michigan, across the Mackinac Bridge, then west across the UP. Dad and I switched off driving and just kept driving until about 8pm (eastern time). We found a small Wisconsin state campground on the Brule River somewhere west of Ashland. It’s quite a pretty little campground on a very pretty trout stream.
Saturday
Got up early, had breakfast in Superior, across the river from Duluth. The weather is really beautiful - deep blue skies. Duluth/Superior looks to be a prosperous area - lots of cargo coming and going, a clean city, and many yachts.
We continued north through the iron mining area and made it to Ely before noon. Schuy and Robert aren't expected until 4:00. So we checked out the canoe equipment stores in town. There are several of them, and they all have lots of good stuff to ponder. We didn't buy much. About every 10th vehicle has a canoe on its roof. They are mostly good Kevlar tripping boats, primarily Wenonah Minnesota IIs. And behind every outfitter are racks full of canoes and more canoes stacked like cordwood, all for rental.
About 3:30 pm we met up with Schuy and Robert at the Wolf Center, and got ourselves registered, then got our canoe registered, and found our lodging for the night. It’s an older house, set up as a guest house by one of the outfitters. Really quite comfortable. Then we walked through town, visited a nice gallery, and had dinner at the Chocolate Moose. They had a blackboard just outside where you would expect to read the daily specials. But instead was a list of canoes for sale!
Tomorrow we hit the water. The first two days will be the hardest with long portages, but then the trip gets easier. We've been getting familiar with our maps.
Sunday
Got up before the sun, breakfast at a diner, then headed for the trailhead. Robert and Dad shuttled a car to the takeout while Schuy and I carried the gear down to Hegeman Lake.
On the water. We hadn't been on the water long when we heard our first loon! However, a seaplane was flying over at the time, so he was somewhat drowned out. Near the northern end of Hegeman Lake are some very nice petroglyphs. The most distinctive is a man with outstretched arms, below him a feline or canine animal, and to the right a very clear moose. Above the man are three canoes, and above that a large 'X'. All very clear and distinct.
We had a short carry into the next lake, then a 1.5 mile portage to Angleworm Lake. Angleworm is very pretty, long and narrow. We had a nice tailwind and saw a pair of loons. From Angleworm a modest portage to Home Lake, followed by a 3/4 mile portage to Gull Lake. Along this trail we saw wolf scat and moose prints. The put-in here is on a great sloping slab of bedrock, with a fabulous view out over the lake. Through my binoculars we picked out two available campsites, and headed for one.
It’s a nice campsite, with a fire grate and a privy out in the woods. All BWCA campsites have these two amenities. The shore is rocky. After setting up our tents we went to the shore to filter water. While there we saw a bald eagle across the lake.
Schuy is making dinner tonight, Tomato and basil spaghetti with tomato sauce. He and Page made the sauce at home, then dehydrated it. Very good. While eating it and sitting on the rocks on the shore, a family of 8 mergansers swam by.
Later, a sliver of a moon came out, followed by Vega and other stars. Mars rose bright red over the treetops, then clouds moved in. We could hear something large splashing across the lake. Perhaps a moose? Or beaver?
Some time in the middle of the night an animal came through our site. Raccoon perhaps? I got up to investigate but never saw him. However, the clouds had moved away, and the star show was magnificent. Mars was intensely bright, high in the east, and reflecting off the lake.
Monday
Got up early to watch the day awaken over the lake. A loon called, and the mist slowly rose. Everybody was up, the tents came down, breakfast was made and eaten. Everybody knew what to do and how to do it. We heard a pack of wolves!
On the water early, and very shortly our first portage to Mud Hole Lake, a short paddle, and another portage into Thunder Lake, then a very short portage into Beartrap Lake. These are all such pretty and pristine lakes. A family of 5 otters were swimming and diving and frolicking in Thunder Lake. We encountered another family of mergansers too.
The next portage out of Beartrap Lake to the Beartrap River was the worst. Heavily overgrown, difficult turns, and many logs to duck under or step over. And it was more than .5 mile long. On the return for the second load we sawed, broke, snapped, jumped on and dragged some of the offending branches out of the way. There were both wolf and moose tracks in the trail and Dad saw fresh moose droppings.
Paddling the Beartrap River was quite nice. There was no discernable current, but the river was wide and deep. It was twisty too, with many beaver dams to drag over. The river opened out into Sunday Lake, where we found a large rock to sit on for lunch. Another portage put us back into the Beartrap. The river is wider now; the bed is 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide, but only 20' is navigatable. Extensive grass beds stretch out to either side. At the end of the last portage on the river we entered fields of wild rice. Many hundreds of acres of wild rice. We are about 1-2 weeks too late and nearly all the ripe rice had already fallen. There were a few grains still hanging on, so I tried them. The river eventually found its way to Peterson Bay of Iron Lake. We took the first campsite, on an island. Once the tents were up we each took a swim. Several times through the evening a Bald Eagle flew by quite close and would perch on a nearby tree. That was quite exciting to see. I made curried rice for dinner, which turned out spicier than planned, but we all ate it.
Loons called in the evening.
Tuesday.
Last night there were sounds of animals - probably beaver - in the cove by our campsite. It was cloudy all night, and we had a few sprinkles just as I was getting up. Then during breakfast we had a longer light rain with a building wind. The rain stopped and we set out.
We paddled in a quartering tailwind through the islands of Iron Lake, past campsites, loons, etc., until we reached Cascade Falls. We portaged up to the top and took a break while admiring the cascading water.
This is now Crooked Lake, which has (on the American side) Sunday Bay, Saturday Bay, Friday and Thursday Bays. It’s a large lake, but with so many islands and bays it doesn’t feel very large. Good thing too, as the wind has increased considerably and is more of a head wind. But by sneaking behind islands and points we can keep out of the worst of the wind. We've seen other people at campsites, but there is nobody else on the lake. We stopped in the lee of an island for a break and saw an otter there.
Paddled through Sunday Bay, and across the mouth of Saturday. We pulled in to a campsite there, with a beach (rare here) for lunch. After lunch our route turned so that we had some tail winds! Dad and I paddled a little in Canada, but then the winds forced us back to the American side of the lake.
The roughest crossing was to get from the relative shelter of the mainland to the island with our campsite in a headwind. The wind came up the length of Friday Bay and if the waves had been any higher we would've had to wait for the wind to abate before attempting the crossing. Schuy's canoe has higher sides, and they did well. Dad's Jensen sits low, so I had to angle the boat into the waves more than Schuy, and more than what was needed just to make the passage. The landing was the worst, but since Schuy and Robert where already there, they helped us.
Our campsite is on the windward side of the island, but with dense cedars which stop the wind. Our first site was in birches, the second in pines, now cedars!
Robert made dinner - bowtie pasta with lots of yummy stuff like sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, olive oil, pepperoni, etc. The wind has dropped some, but the skies are clear so we lay out on the bedrock apron in front of camp and watched the stars come out.
Wednesday
Today is our rest day. Breakfast was leisurely; I made blueberry bread in a reflector oven, Dad made pancakes. Later, Schuy, Dad and I circumnavigated the island by foot. Someone had caught a large pike and left the bones for scavengers. The upper jawbone was still there and it was about 6" across with 5/8" needle teeth. Big fish! We saw two canoes paddling into the wind - a single and a tandem. They took shelter behind our island, then headed off again. But they didn’t make use of any of the other islands - as far as we could see. Yesterday when we paddled into the wind we used every advantage we could find. On our walk we found a deer skull, wolf footprints - probably from yesterday - and wolf scat, about 1 or 2 days old. When we finished our loop around the island, we all took a nap.
The wind - now from the west - has built up to about the same strength as yesterday, and we had intermittent bouts of drizzle. Yesterday the wind was from the south.
After lunch Schuy and I paddled around our island, stopping briefly on another island nearby, which happens to be in Canada. The waves were fairly big for a canoe, so we didn’t go far.
Dinner tonight was mine again. I made couscous with chicken, and yeast bread in the reflector oven. Very good.
The bedrock on this island is granite and metamorphics. There are many xenoliths in it, with glacial striations over the surface. There is a layer of 1' to 4' rounded boulders over most of it except where the lake and ice has cleared them off, like at our campsite. The island's soil is found between the boulders.
Thursday
Today brings new weather. Bright and sunny, no wind at all in the morning. Dead calm. A few clouds along the horizon show some sunrise colors.
We've had red squirrels in every campsite. This one also has gray jays. They'll fly right into camp and perch just 10' away, hoping that we'll throw them a tidbit or something. But we didn’t. The squirrels scamper up the trees and chatter at us. And the loons call out every evening and every morning. The only engine we ever hear is float planes. We've heard at least one each day except yesterday - perhaps the wind kept them down.
A very light breeze picked up as we paddled south through Friday Bay. We enjoyed blue skies with little cumulus humilus clouds, and clear reflections of the shore and the other boat. At the end of the bay we had a portage of about 1/3 mile into a pretty little channel through the muskeg. The channel occasionally opened onto small ponds - Nicki Lake, Papoose Lake, others. There were lots of sundew/pitcher plants along the edges of the channel. A few more short portages, then a 1/4 mile one brought us to Wagosh Lake, our destination for the night, and it was just lunch time. An easy day. Wagosh has two loons, they appear to be an adult and a juvenile.
After lunch Schuy and I paddled (each solo) around the shore of the lake. It took about an hour and we paddled lazily.
The campsite is high on a rock overlooking the lake. The view is great, but there are barely enough spots to pitch our tents. Schuy made dinner - spaghetti with chicken, mushrooms & pesto. We stayed up to watch the stars come out. Brilliant and clear. Mars outshines all but the half moon. Our view is to the northeast tonight, but we saw no aurora. This is also the coldest evening yet. As the light was fading we watched a family of beaver come out. They swam along the shore nearby, then one of them clambered up onto the bank and into the woods. We could hear gnawing sounds and a kind of soft humming call. Then we could see them both sitting near the shore, then swimming around. Eventually it got too dark to see, even with binoculars. But we could hear them gnaw and call, and occasionally splash.
Friday
My tent faces east over the lake. I didn’t have to get out of bed to watch the world awaken, but just lie there cozy and warm as the sky brightened. A barred owl hooted "who cooks for you?" Orion faded away, loons called, a white throated sparrow sang, wolves howled far away, and blue jays flitted through camp. What a morning! Then I got up.
Today we started by inspecting the beaver's activities. There were many saplings lying in the water near where they had been working. Some were stripped of bark. Farther along the shore they were building a new lodge. We paddled across the lake, then a 1 mile portage, then we settled into lakes, streams, and short carries. On that first portage we saw a bear paw footprint in the mud.
The first lake is Gun. The water is very clear here, the clearest since the Beartrap River. The wind has picked up too, so we paddle near the shore. And by doing so we could inspect the rocks, mosses, beaver gnawings, wildlife trails (probably beaver) etc. After Gun comes Fairy Lake, a short portage, and Boot Lake. We pulled into an empty campsite on Boot for lunch and decided to stay. There's a steady wind coming straight into the site, but the vista is grand. A few other canoes are out fishing, and a few paddled by on their way in or out of long trips. We are getting closer to civilization, so there's more traffic. But it is still very much a wilderness.
Each of our campsites has yielded treasures. The first had an oven mitt and a set of keys. The second, Iron Lake, had a coffee pot and a cordless razor (batteries still charged). The island in Friday Bay gave us a deer skull, bald eagle feather, a live .22 shell, and a broken fishing lure. Wagosh Lake held three fishing lures. This site has a tent stake, and when Schuy and I walked to the next campsite on the lake he found a spoon.
Schuy and I took a moonlight paddle in his boat, came very close to a loon, and caused several beaver to slap the water in warning. It was totally dark out by the time we got back. But the moon was 2 days past half, and high and bright, so we could see well enough. Mars and all the stars came out. The humidity is a little higher this evening, so the stars aren't quite a striking.
I tried to sleep out under the stars tonight, but the wind has died and the mosquitoes came out and drove me in. We've been bothered by very few insects on this trip.
Saturday
Breakfast and the morning routines were slowed today. We all realized that this is our last day.
At the lower end of Boot Lake are several small islands, and a large wetland/beaver meadow on one side. We portaged to Fourtown Lake, which is liberally sprinkled with small islands - many just large rocks - plus bays and many campsites. There are many people out fishing in canoes in this lake. We really are getting closer to roads and the rest of our normal civilization. The next three portages were very close together, to get through a rather narrow rock strewn canyon into Mudro Lake. We got out at the campsite there for lunch, then paddled the length of Mudro, and up through a twisty sluggish channel, which had a sandy bottom, then the final portage to the parking lot.
Schuy and Dad drove to retrieve the other car, then we headed for Ely. We did some shopping, and dinner at the Chocolate Moose. This weekend Ely is hosting a fair. The park across the street from our lodging house is sprinkled with craft tents with all sorts of crafts for sale, mostly with a northwoods flavor, but not all. They also have a lumberjack demonstration setup; consisting of a portable 4' deep pool of water with a 'regulation' rolling log, two 'standard' logs for sawing, and a target for throwing axes at. A barker introduced the local log rolling champion, who was happily dancing on the log, then invited local kids to try their skill. About 30 kids lined up. Most lasted 2-3 seconds, but one stayed on for 11 seconds. Their racing chainsaws (tuned exhaust, nitro burning) zipped through a log twice in about 1 second. As the evening wore on to dusk, young people began to cruise Main St in hot cars, big pickups, land rovers, and rust-buckets. Small town Saturday night in midwestern America.
Sunday
Hit the road early after breakfast at the same diner. Stopped in Duluth for groceries and a few bags of wild rice. It’s a 14 hour drive, and we got to Ann Arbor at about 1am. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge after dark was pretty - the bridge was all lit up and the lake was dark. The moon and mars were up, but everything else was washed out by the haze.
Expedition into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 8/29-9/7 2003
Gary Hochgraf (me, keeper of this journal)
Frederick (my Dad)
Schuyler (my cousin)
Robert (a friend of Schuy’s)
Friday
Departed about 6am from Ann Arbor and headed north through Michigan, across the Mackinac Bridge, then west across the UP. Dad and I switched off driving and just kept driving until about 8pm (eastern time). We found a small Wisconsin state campground on the Brule River somewhere west of Ashland. It’s quite a pretty little campground on a very pretty trout stream.
Saturday
Got up early, had breakfast in Superior, across the river from Duluth. The weather is really beautiful - deep blue skies. Duluth/Superior looks to be a prosperous area - lots of cargo coming and going, a clean city, and many yachts.
We continued north through the iron mining area and made it to Ely before noon. Schuy and Robert aren't expected until 4:00. So we checked out the canoe equipment stores in town. There are several of them, and they all have lots of good stuff to ponder. We didn't buy much. About every 10th vehicle has a canoe on its roof. They are mostly good Kevlar tripping boats, primarily Wenonah Minnesota IIs. And behind every outfitter are racks full of canoes and more canoes stacked like cordwood, all for rental.
About 3:30 pm we met up with Schuy and Robert at the Wolf Center, and got ourselves registered, then got our canoe registered, and found our lodging for the night. It’s an older house, set up as a guest house by one of the outfitters. Really quite comfortable. Then we walked through town, visited a nice gallery, and had dinner at the Chocolate Moose. They had a blackboard just outside where you would expect to read the daily specials. But instead was a list of canoes for sale!
Tomorrow we hit the water. The first two days will be the hardest with long portages, but then the trip gets easier. We've been getting familiar with our maps.
Sunday
Got up before the sun, breakfast at a diner, then headed for the trailhead. Robert and Dad shuttled a car to the takeout while Schuy and I carried the gear down to Hegeman Lake.
On the water. We hadn't been on the water long when we heard our first loon! However, a seaplane was flying over at the time, so he was somewhat drowned out. Near the northern end of Hegeman Lake are some very nice petroglyphs. The most distinctive is a man with outstretched arms, below him a feline or canine animal, and to the right a very clear moose. Above the man are three canoes, and above that a large 'X'. All very clear and distinct.
We had a short carry into the next lake, then a 1.5 mile portage to Angleworm Lake. Angleworm is very pretty, long and narrow. We had a nice tailwind and saw a pair of loons. From Angleworm a modest portage to Home Lake, followed by a 3/4 mile portage to Gull Lake. Along this trail we saw wolf scat and moose prints. The put-in here is on a great sloping slab of bedrock, with a fabulous view out over the lake. Through my binoculars we picked out two available campsites, and headed for one.
It’s a nice campsite, with a fire grate and a privy out in the woods. All BWCA campsites have these two amenities. The shore is rocky. After setting up our tents we went to the shore to filter water. While there we saw a bald eagle across the lake.
Schuy is making dinner tonight, Tomato and basil spaghetti with tomato sauce. He and Page made the sauce at home, then dehydrated it. Very good. While eating it and sitting on the rocks on the shore, a family of 8 mergansers swam by.
Later, a sliver of a moon came out, followed by Vega and other stars. Mars rose bright red over the treetops, then clouds moved in. We could hear something large splashing across the lake. Perhaps a moose? Or beaver?
Some time in the middle of the night an animal came through our site. Raccoon perhaps? I got up to investigate but never saw him. However, the clouds had moved away, and the star show was magnificent. Mars was intensely bright, high in the east, and reflecting off the lake.
Monday
Got up early to watch the day awaken over the lake. A loon called, and the mist slowly rose. Everybody was up, the tents came down, breakfast was made and eaten. Everybody knew what to do and how to do it. We heard a pack of wolves!
On the water early, and very shortly our first portage to Mud Hole Lake, a short paddle, and another portage into Thunder Lake, then a very short portage into Beartrap Lake. These are all such pretty and pristine lakes. A family of 5 otters were swimming and diving and frolicking in Thunder Lake. We encountered another family of mergansers too.
The next portage out of Beartrap Lake to the Beartrap River was the worst. Heavily overgrown, difficult turns, and many logs to duck under or step over. And it was more than .5 mile long. On the return for the second load we sawed, broke, snapped, jumped on and dragged some of the offending branches out of the way. There were both wolf and moose tracks in the trail and Dad saw fresh moose droppings.
Paddling the Beartrap River was quite nice. There was no discernable current, but the river was wide and deep. It was twisty too, with many beaver dams to drag over. The river opened out into Sunday Lake, where we found a large rock to sit on for lunch. Another portage put us back into the Beartrap. The river is wider now; the bed is 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide, but only 20' is navigatable. Extensive grass beds stretch out to either side. At the end of the last portage on the river we entered fields of wild rice. Many hundreds of acres of wild rice. We are about 1-2 weeks too late and nearly all the ripe rice had already fallen. There were a few grains still hanging on, so I tried them. The river eventually found its way to Peterson Bay of Iron Lake. We took the first campsite, on an island. Once the tents were up we each took a swim. Several times through the evening a Bald Eagle flew by quite close and would perch on a nearby tree. That was quite exciting to see. I made curried rice for dinner, which turned out spicier than planned, but we all ate it.
Loons called in the evening.
Tuesday.
Last night there were sounds of animals - probably beaver - in the cove by our campsite. It was cloudy all night, and we had a few sprinkles just as I was getting up. Then during breakfast we had a longer light rain with a building wind. The rain stopped and we set out.
We paddled in a quartering tailwind through the islands of Iron Lake, past campsites, loons, etc., until we reached Cascade Falls. We portaged up to the top and took a break while admiring the cascading water.
This is now Crooked Lake, which has (on the American side) Sunday Bay, Saturday Bay, Friday and Thursday Bays. It’s a large lake, but with so many islands and bays it doesn’t feel very large. Good thing too, as the wind has increased considerably and is more of a head wind. But by sneaking behind islands and points we can keep out of the worst of the wind. We've seen other people at campsites, but there is nobody else on the lake. We stopped in the lee of an island for a break and saw an otter there.
Paddled through Sunday Bay, and across the mouth of Saturday. We pulled in to a campsite there, with a beach (rare here) for lunch. After lunch our route turned so that we had some tail winds! Dad and I paddled a little in Canada, but then the winds forced us back to the American side of the lake.
The roughest crossing was to get from the relative shelter of the mainland to the island with our campsite in a headwind. The wind came up the length of Friday Bay and if the waves had been any higher we would've had to wait for the wind to abate before attempting the crossing. Schuy's canoe has higher sides, and they did well. Dad's Jensen sits low, so I had to angle the boat into the waves more than Schuy, and more than what was needed just to make the passage. The landing was the worst, but since Schuy and Robert where already there, they helped us.
Our campsite is on the windward side of the island, but with dense cedars which stop the wind. Our first site was in birches, the second in pines, now cedars!
Robert made dinner - bowtie pasta with lots of yummy stuff like sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, olive oil, pepperoni, etc. The wind has dropped some, but the skies are clear so we lay out on the bedrock apron in front of camp and watched the stars come out.
Wednesday
Today is our rest day. Breakfast was leisurely; I made blueberry bread in a reflector oven, Dad made pancakes. Later, Schuy, Dad and I circumnavigated the island by foot. Someone had caught a large pike and left the bones for scavengers. The upper jawbone was still there and it was about 6" across with 5/8" needle teeth. Big fish! We saw two canoes paddling into the wind - a single and a tandem. They took shelter behind our island, then headed off again. But they didn’t make use of any of the other islands - as far as we could see. Yesterday when we paddled into the wind we used every advantage we could find. On our walk we found a deer skull, wolf footprints - probably from yesterday - and wolf scat, about 1 or 2 days old. When we finished our loop around the island, we all took a nap.
The wind - now from the west - has built up to about the same strength as yesterday, and we had intermittent bouts of drizzle. Yesterday the wind was from the south.
After lunch Schuy and I paddled around our island, stopping briefly on another island nearby, which happens to be in Canada. The waves were fairly big for a canoe, so we didn’t go far.
Dinner tonight was mine again. I made couscous with chicken, and yeast bread in the reflector oven. Very good.
The bedrock on this island is granite and metamorphics. There are many xenoliths in it, with glacial striations over the surface. There is a layer of 1' to 4' rounded boulders over most of it except where the lake and ice has cleared them off, like at our campsite. The island's soil is found between the boulders.
Thursday
Today brings new weather. Bright and sunny, no wind at all in the morning. Dead calm. A few clouds along the horizon show some sunrise colors.
We've had red squirrels in every campsite. This one also has gray jays. They'll fly right into camp and perch just 10' away, hoping that we'll throw them a tidbit or something. But we didn’t. The squirrels scamper up the trees and chatter at us. And the loons call out every evening and every morning. The only engine we ever hear is float planes. We've heard at least one each day except yesterday - perhaps the wind kept them down.
A very light breeze picked up as we paddled south through Friday Bay. We enjoyed blue skies with little cumulus humilus clouds, and clear reflections of the shore and the other boat. At the end of the bay we had a portage of about 1/3 mile into a pretty little channel through the muskeg. The channel occasionally opened onto small ponds - Nicki Lake, Papoose Lake, others. There were lots of sundew/pitcher plants along the edges of the channel. A few more short portages, then a 1/4 mile one brought us to Wagosh Lake, our destination for the night, and it was just lunch time. An easy day. Wagosh has two loons, they appear to be an adult and a juvenile.
After lunch Schuy and I paddled (each solo) around the shore of the lake. It took about an hour and we paddled lazily.
The campsite is high on a rock overlooking the lake. The view is great, but there are barely enough spots to pitch our tents. Schuy made dinner - spaghetti with chicken, mushrooms & pesto. We stayed up to watch the stars come out. Brilliant and clear. Mars outshines all but the half moon. Our view is to the northeast tonight, but we saw no aurora. This is also the coldest evening yet. As the light was fading we watched a family of beaver come out. They swam along the shore nearby, then one of them clambered up onto the bank and into the woods. We could hear gnawing sounds and a kind of soft humming call. Then we could see them both sitting near the shore, then swimming around. Eventually it got too dark to see, even with binoculars. But we could hear them gnaw and call, and occasionally splash.
Friday
My tent faces east over the lake. I didn’t have to get out of bed to watch the world awaken, but just lie there cozy and warm as the sky brightened. A barred owl hooted "who cooks for you?" Orion faded away, loons called, a white throated sparrow sang, wolves howled far away, and blue jays flitted through camp. What a morning! Then I got up.
Today we started by inspecting the beaver's activities. There were many saplings lying in the water near where they had been working. Some were stripped of bark. Farther along the shore they were building a new lodge. We paddled across the lake, then a 1 mile portage, then we settled into lakes, streams, and short carries. On that first portage we saw a bear paw footprint in the mud.
The first lake is Gun. The water is very clear here, the clearest since the Beartrap River. The wind has picked up too, so we paddle near the shore. And by doing so we could inspect the rocks, mosses, beaver gnawings, wildlife trails (probably beaver) etc. After Gun comes Fairy Lake, a short portage, and Boot Lake. We pulled into an empty campsite on Boot for lunch and decided to stay. There's a steady wind coming straight into the site, but the vista is grand. A few other canoes are out fishing, and a few paddled by on their way in or out of long trips. We are getting closer to civilization, so there's more traffic. But it is still very much a wilderness.
Each of our campsites has yielded treasures. The first had an oven mitt and a set of keys. The second, Iron Lake, had a coffee pot and a cordless razor (batteries still charged). The island in Friday Bay gave us a deer skull, bald eagle feather, a live .22 shell, and a broken fishing lure. Wagosh Lake held three fishing lures. This site has a tent stake, and when Schuy and I walked to the next campsite on the lake he found a spoon.
Schuy and I took a moonlight paddle in his boat, came very close to a loon, and caused several beaver to slap the water in warning. It was totally dark out by the time we got back. But the moon was 2 days past half, and high and bright, so we could see well enough. Mars and all the stars came out. The humidity is a little higher this evening, so the stars aren't quite a striking.
I tried to sleep out under the stars tonight, but the wind has died and the mosquitoes came out and drove me in. We've been bothered by very few insects on this trip.
Saturday
Breakfast and the morning routines were slowed today. We all realized that this is our last day.
At the lower end of Boot Lake are several small islands, and a large wetland/beaver meadow on one side. We portaged to Fourtown Lake, which is liberally sprinkled with small islands - many just large rocks - plus bays and many campsites. There are many people out fishing in canoes in this lake. We really are getting closer to roads and the rest of our normal civilization. The next three portages were very close together, to get through a rather narrow rock strewn canyon into Mudro Lake. We got out at the campsite there for lunch, then paddled the length of Mudro, and up through a twisty sluggish channel, which had a sandy bottom, then the final portage to the parking lot.
Schuy and Dad drove to retrieve the other car, then we headed for Ely. We did some shopping, and dinner at the Chocolate Moose. This weekend Ely is hosting a fair. The park across the street from our lodging house is sprinkled with craft tents with all sorts of crafts for sale, mostly with a northwoods flavor, but not all. They also have a lumberjack demonstration setup; consisting of a portable 4' deep pool of water with a 'regulation' rolling log, two 'standard' logs for sawing, and a target for throwing axes at. A barker introduced the local log rolling champion, who was happily dancing on the log, then invited local kids to try their skill. About 30 kids lined up. Most lasted 2-3 seconds, but one stayed on for 11 seconds. Their racing chainsaws (tuned exhaust, nitro burning) zipped through a log twice in about 1 second. As the evening wore on to dusk, young people began to cruise Main St in hot cars, big pickups, land rovers, and rust-buckets. Small town Saturday night in midwestern America.
Sunday
Hit the road early after breakfast at the same diner. Stopped in Duluth for groceries and a few bags of wild rice. It’s a 14 hour drive, and we got to Ann Arbor at about 1am. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge after dark was pretty - the bridge was all lit up and the lake was dark. The moon and mars were up, but everything else was washed out by the haze.
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