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.