Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
(Six Days in a Canoe)
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I flew out of Reagan National airport on Wednesday, August 11th, headed for Minneapolis, MN by way of Charlotte, NC. My sister-in-law Jean’s boyfriend, Mike Bohn, had invited me to join him on a six day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). The flight from NC to MN had a bit of turbulence, so I was glad when we finally reached the gate about two o’clock in the afternoon. After picking up my checked luggage at the carousel I walked out to the airport pick-up area, where a few minutes later a “mountain man” stopped his car in front of me and said “You must be Rick!” I replied, “You must be Mike!” and loaded my luggage. We had only met once almost a year ago, so there wasn’t an instant recognition.
As we pulled away from the curb Mike informed me that Jean was planning on picking me up but she had to stay home to handle the details about the house fire they had the night before. It seemed that the upstairs tenant had left a candle burning on the deck and it had caught the deck on fire. The plastic chairs and table added to the inferno which then started to ignite the house. Jean was up working on the computer when she noticed the glow, so she woke up Mike, and after an unsuccessful attempt to douse the fire with a fire extinguisher they called the fire department. They responded in quick time, and the fire was put out. The rest of the night went sleepless.
As Mike and I arrived there were people shuffling through the house, making notes for the demolition and reconstruction of the sections affected. Jean said that she was handling the situation, and that we should still go on our trip. So Mike and I started to pack our supplies. We borrowed a seventeen foot canoe from his brother Jim and bungeed it to the roof of Mike’s car. The plan was to leave after midnight and drive north to Ely, MN arriving around 6:00 am. By 11:00 that evening we were getting antsy, so we headed north. One of our stops on the way was at the Grand Casino in Hinckley. We took a break and I lost a couple of dollars in the slot machines.
We pulled into Ely at 4:00 am Thursday and found a 24 hour gas station to get some snacks. The local café opened at 6:00, so we took a nap in the car. I didn’t sleep much because this was the last night of a major meteor shower, and the clear sky afforded a splendid view. A hearty breakfast was had when the café opened, and then we drove to the BWCAW office to get our permit. We made a brief stop at an outfitter for fishing licenses, a sleeping bag matt, and other necessities, and then headed for the boat landing.
We figured that with the supplies, tent, camera equipment, etc. the canoe weighed about 250 pounds. Mike had purchased a set of portage wheels for the canoe because we had 2 portages to cross each way of the trip. We pushed off the landing just after 8:00 for the first leg of our journey, about a mile paddle through Fall Lake to the first portage. We started slowly, switching the paddles from one side to the other every so often to loosen up muscles that hadn’t been used in quite a while. Mike was in the back of the canoe steering and navigating, while I in the front paddled and kept an eye out for sunken logs, rocks and other obstructions. We probably did 2-3 mph on that first section.
With the wind behind us we came to the portage and proceeded to attach the wheels to the center of the canoe. Pulling and pushing we hauled our supplies over the land for about an eighth of a mile to the beginning of Newton Lake. Once there we removed the wheels and set out over the water.
The two mile trip brought us to the second portage at Pipestone Falls. This time it would be twice as long, about a quarter mile up and down a trail filled with rocks. We didn’t quite have the wheels in place properly, so it was a struggle making it to the other side. A time-out was in order before we prepared the canoe for the water, so we had lunch. This consisted of hard tack, cheese (Mike), sausage (Me), soup and cold tea. Our position was the lower end of Pipestone Bay.
After the rest we continued on for a mile or so and decided to find our first campsite. They were marked on our map and easy to spot from the canoe. We pulled over to a place on the western shore of the bay that looked inviting. After unloading the canoe we pitched the tent, and then started organizing the equipment for cooking supper. We had two stoves that burned Coleman fuel, and each campsite had a fire area with a grating for cooking.
Mike pulled out two steaks from our cold pack and let them thaw. We ate well that night! Afterwards water was boiled so that the dishes could be cleaned, and we prepared our bed rolls. I had to take some Ibuprofen to relieve the pain in my arms from the paddling. Around 7:00 Mike turned in, as he was up for nearly two days without sleep. I sat and watched the water while listening to the birds calling in the woods. I finally called it a night around 10:00. Ducking into the tent I slipped into my sleeping bag only to find that the “sleeping bag matt” offered little relief from the hard packed dirt and rocks of our campsite. I tossed and turned for more then an hour before drifting off to sleep.
Friday morning we slept until about 8:00, waking to sore bodies from the previous day’s activities which were compounded by the hard floor of our campsite. A fog had set in during the night, and was slowly burning off.
Mike suggested that we continue on to an island in Jackfish Bay. We packed up after breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes, and then headed up the bay. A number of canoeists were out today and greeted us as we passed by. As the canoe came around a bend Mike spotted a deer on the shore, so we coasted in for a photo-op. I managed to get a shot despite the rocking canoe, long lens, and deep shadow that the deer was in.
Upon entering Jackfish Bay we noticed that we would be going into the wind this time. It would take almost three hours to travel the distance to the island, between three and four miles. Midway through the trip we stopped at another island and had lunch; sausage, hard tack and soup. By this time we had depleted the water we had brought, so our canteens were filled while out away from land and purification tablets were used.
Then we began the last leg of the journey out. Later that afternoon we circled the island and landed at the campsite, located on the south western tip. The canoe was beached, and we hauled our equipment up to the campsite.
