July 21-28, 2000
Trip Journal
Saturday, July 22, 2000
1st day out. Put in at site 54 on Seagull Lake at Trail’s End campground. Paddled the length of Seagull, then portaged to Alpine Lake. Portage was about 1/3 mile. Paddled across Alpine, then portaged to Jasper Lake, about 1/10th mile, nearly all uphill and rocky. Carried our canoe solo most of the way on both portages. (Pair of loons coming up through the lake right now.)
Had to take a break - turns out there were 4 loons in the area. Lynn and I were watching 3 across the lake. A pair seemed to have come to chase one away. After they did, they came close enough that I got a couple of shots of one. They then went back across the lake by the 3rd one. While we were watching them, another one came up really close to us. That one took off too quick to get a picture.
It’s just after sunset now, the sun down behind the hill across the bay. There are just enough clouds in the sky that I think we’re going to get a beautiful sky.
We stayed at Trail’s End campground last night. We no more than got camp set up and the camp host, a really affable guy from Iowa, stopped by to tell us there was a bear in the area. He (the bear, not the camp host) apparently broke a car window the night before when some late arrivals were setting up camp. They heard their horn honking and ran up to find the bear sitting on their steering wheel tearing their car apart and eating their food. The camp host also told us there was an eagle nest right across the bay from out campsite with two young eagles in it. We spotted them pretty quickly, and we could easily see them through the binocs.
Next up, while hanging around camp (on a cliff overlooking the Gull River) we saw two loons.
Later in the evening Dad and I went for a walk to see the rapids above our campsite. We just got down there and some guys pointed out a bear on the cliff across the river. We watched him for just a few minutes (and got some pics) before he headed into the woods. Like I said to Dad, you know you’re getting away from it all when you see 2 eagles, 2 loons and a bear.
Monday, July 24, 2000
We had a layover day today, on the south arm of Knife Lake. It was nice to have a rest, yesterday was a fairly long day. We put in on Jasper Lake about 8:00 or so. We quickly got to our first portage, 25 rods (< 1/10th mile - 320 rods = 1 mile) to Kingfisher Lake. A short paddle across Kingfisher brought us to a 38 rod portage to Ogishkemuncie Lake (Ogish). It was a long paddle across Ogish, and we fought a pretty good wind all the way. Next up was a 15 rod portage to Annie Lake, short paddle, then another 15 rods to Lake Jean. We took a short lunch break at the end of the Annie-to-Jean portage, then had to rush out of the way when 9 people in 4 canoes came up behind us. We let them by us on Lake Jean - they were traveling fast and light, looking like an Eddie Bauer catalog. From Jean we portaged another 15 rods to Eddy Lake. A short paddle across Eddy, then a 25 rod portage to Knife, the hardest, rockiest, steepest of the day. Then we had to fight the wind across the breadth of Knife to our present campsite.
It was sure nice having a layover. Me, Dad and Lynn paddled down to the next portage today to look it over. It’s 120 rods, almost all seriously uphill and rocky. There was a beautiful waterfall along the portage, so of course I burned up quite a bit of film. Next we paddled and portaged to Toe Lake (15 rods) where Josh and Patrick were fishing.
From Toe Lake we took a different portage back to Knife, then went to see a waterfall near the Eddy Lake portage. It was probably the prettiest one we’ve seen yet - the fresh water smell rolling off it was enough to make you dream of a cold drink of water.
On the way up to the waterfall we saw a young bull moose drinking from the lake. He was content to watch us and go on eating while we drifted in fairly close to shore.
It was pretty windy most of the day today, we had a pretty rough crossing coming back from the waterfall. You wouldn’t want to be out in a big channel like that with a fully loaded canoe if it was much rougher.
Well, looks like no fire tonight, the wind hasn’t died down. Because of the blowdown last summer, fires are restricted to between 7 pm and midnight, calm hours. The devastation here is just amazing. We’ve all commented on how it must have been to be here when it happened. I can’t imagine any way this place will avoid a whopper of a fire in the next 2-3 years. You could touch one off on a night like tonight with just a match, and they’d never get it stopped. I’m sure a lightning strike or a stray ember will get one going.
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
Another layover day today. It’s well deserved and much needed after yesterday.
Dad woke me a little before 7:00, “Storm coming, we’ve got to get packed up.” The wind had blown all night, and we kind of figured it would blow something up. We got the last of our stuff packed just as it started to sprinkle. The wind was still blowing hard out of the direction we had to paddle (of course). Unfortunately, it was also lightning. After an hour or so the lightning had moved past us, leaving just a light drizzle. We set off into the wind, paddling like mad across Knife Lake to the portage. The portage off of Knife Lake was the roughest of the day, all uphill and rocky and muddy. We continued all the way back to Alpine Lake, several short portages along the way. It was after 2:00 by the time we found an open camp site on Alpine Lake.
We had time for just a short rest, then had to get camp set up before another storm blew in. We were lucky that the morning rain had mostly stopped by the time we crossed Knife Lake, and we even had sun for part of the day. Our luck ran out though when the rain settled in for the afternoon. It rained hard enough to drive us into the tents for quite a while. We had a good meal of bean soup during one of the lulls in the rain. We called it a night shortly after. I went down by the lake for a quick bath, just as some of the sunset light broke through the clouds. The water was ice cold, but it felt good to get clean and then climb into a warm sleeping bag.
We got a pretty slow start this morning. I think everyone was feeling the effects of yesterday’s long paddle. After a huge breakfast of pancakes and hot chocolate, we decided to scout the rapids and portage ahead. We weren’t exactly sure where we were, as we had lost track of our exact position on the map. I used the GPS to get an idea of our position, and we found the long (102 rod) portage back to Seagull pretty easily. From there we paddled to the rapids leading to Seagull. Josh and Patrick tried to run the rapids, and found them too shallow to run with a loaded canoe. Dad, Lynn and I walked part of the short (20 rod) portage, and found that it hadn’t been completely cleared since the blowdown. So, it looks like our first task on the way out in the morning will be the 102 rod portage to Seagull. From there it’s a fairly short paddle back to our Trail’s End put-in site.
The campsite we’re on now is probably the best we’ve had. We spotted it yesterday while were trying to figure out where we were at. Right now I’m sitting on a big rock about 20 feet out from shore. Someone was kind enough to build a small stone bridge out to it, which forms a nice little sheltered cove to pull the canoes in. The fire pit has a nice set of double logs around to sit on, and a nice big rock. There’s plenty of grass area to set the tents up on, though there are low spots that are gathering a lot of water. Our tent is on a gentle slope, and we stayed completely dry through the downpour.
One advantage of my perch is that there’s just enough breeze to keep the bugs away. The mosquitoes and black flies are unreal here. Pure DEET doesn’t seem to even slow them down, so rain or wind are our only relief. I’ve been bitten so many times that I’m almost, but not quite, numb to them.
The quiet here is just amazing, broken more by loon calls than anything else. I haven’t heard a motor noise in several days.
We’ve had a small pine squirrel around camp. When we came back today at lunchtime, I heard something in the good packs. The squirrel had gotten into our food pack, which is falling apart, and helped himself to some rice. He at least was nice enough to pose for a few pictures.
Forgot to mention, when Dad, Lynn and I portaged to Toe Lake on our last layover day, we saw a bear track on the portage trail. Today when we went down to the portage, we talked to some people camped across the lake. They said a bear had visited them and 2 other campsites last night.
Well, I just laid down on this rock to take a rest. I no more than got my eyes closed and I heard wings flap overhead. An eagle flew right over and landed across the channel, probably a little less than 100 yards away. I pointed him out to Dad, and we watched for about 5 minutes until he flew away. When Dad came over to watch him, a camp jay that had been sitting next to him followed him over, staying just a couple of feet away.
Friday, July 28, 2000
We had a fairly tough paddle into the wind out of the wilderness yesterday - it was thankfully a fairly short paddle. Along the way we saw a pair of loons with a young loon, and they stayed close enough to us to get some great pics. I think the young one couldn’t stay under water long enough to go very far, so the adults stayed nearby to protect it.
Once we got out of the wilderness, we headed down the road for Ely. We had lunch at Dairy Queen (yum!), then headed down the lakeshore. When we got to Temperance River State Park, we got a campsite for the night. After MUCH needed hot showers, we went out for a great dinner with COLD BEER, then went back to camp to relax.