Clearwater Lake

Snow squall over Tom Lake

P is for Paddling: Stairway Portage via West Bearskin, Duncan & Rose Lakes

The warm, sweet smell of pine needles inundate my senses.  A robin chirps in the distance.  Old wolf scat and moose droppings flow by along the ground.  There's certainly no irony there.  Today, amongst the norms of our northern reality, my view is shadowed by the hull of a canoe.  It is the first paddle of the season for us.  Most notable, however, is the fact that it is the maiden voyage of our "new to us" Kevlar canoe.  Penelope rides along on Amy's back down the portage trail and on to the next lake.  She bangs her tiny, delicate fists on the blades of the wooden paddles her mother carries.  I stroll a few feet behind- light weight, space-age synthetic canoe on my shoulders and traditional canvas & leather Duluth Pack on back.  A blend of new and old: today we are headed towards the Canadian border.

Canadian hills in the distance, Rose Lake below the palisades...

Round-Snipe-Ham Lakes Loop

The realization that we are officially day-tripping weekend warriors has come and gone.  Our days of month-long forays into the bush departed with our jobs and limited vacation.  We embraced that reality by splitting our normal trips into shorter, long-weekend travels.  We've made due.  The truth is our life is lived in the woods.  Everyday our routine revolves around the wilderness life we always dreamt of.

Now it is Penelope's life.  Through our daily hikes into the forest, our leisurely afternoons swimming and hanging out around the fire on the beach, nights falling asleep to the low soulful howl of timber wolves, mornings awaking to finches at the bird feeder, and canoe tripping; Penelope is already living a unique experience growing up in the north woods.

A couple of nights ago we decided that it was time for her to sleep her first night in a tent.  We made camp.  Granted the tent was pitched on our property no more than shouting distance from her cradle it was a new experience nonetheless.  She went to sleep under a clear crisp diamond studded starry night and woke up to trembling aspen glittering in the soft morning breeze.  It was a great start to our weekend adventure.

Penelope's first camp: our backyard!

Happy baby in the morning!

Heading up the Gunflint Trail with the canoe atop the truck and gear in the bed is a great freeing feeling.  Just knowing that solitude and new sights in only a couple paddles and a portage away reinvigorates me.  Penelope contently watched the forest and lakes cruise by her window.  At the landing she quietly laid down on the blanket in front of her mother as we launched her on her first wilderness canoe trip.  A loon greeted us within a paddles length of the starboard bow and a bald eagle surveyed Round Lake as we crossed.  Penelope just stared up at shining sky.

Penelope, clearly enthusiastic, crossing into the wilderness for the first time.

Our first portage of a 140 rods (one rod is sixteen and a half feet long, 320 rods equals one mile) followed a small stream, crossed a couple of springs flowing out of a bedrock contact, around a small moose pond and to Missing Link Lake.  Penelope rode in the front pack like it was a stroll in the park at home.

After paddling the small scenic lake we carried another 180 rod portage over rock ledges and through black spruce bogs carpeted with sphagnum moss into the gorgeous Snipe Lake.  Keeling and prying our way around sheer rock faces we soon found ourselves over the short, cobbled portage and launching into narrow Cross Lake.  Powering over beaver dams we realized that we had found the rhythm that we had hoped for!  A rhythm when time is determined by j-strokes, wind speed, waves and the weight on our backs.  All the while Penelope shared in our adventure.

The "porpoises" of the North's sphagnum-rimmed muskegs; river otter playfully followed our canoe.

At Cross Lake we found pitcher plants.  These colorful carnivorous plants are found in bogs where the methane rich waters and acidic soils make conditions difficult for much else to survive.  These amazing plants attract unsuspecting insects with their color.  Their leaves that are cupped and when the insects land on them their slimy leaves trap them.  Slipping into the main body of the plant the prey is then dissolved by bacteria.

Hundreds of pitcher plants lined this lake.  All awaiting insects to be lured to their ill fate.

Now paddling north we shared the route with three river otter and a huge snapping turtle.  A tail wind aided the travels.  Before we knew it we were crossing Ham Lake.  The day almost complete we took advantage of a stiff breeze and easy landing to watch a Bald Eagle soar the thermals above us.

Prehistoric relics of the Jurassic; this snapping turtle was content enough on his warm rock to let us get to within a paddle's length away!

 We ended the paddle with a couple of simple carries over the iron orange weathered slate of the Rove Formation.  The portages snaked through old growth white and red pines that were spared by the Ham Lake fire that started nearby.  The final portages around mild rapids on Cross River led to a leasurily paddle to the landing which completed the adventure.  Penelope's first canoe trip was a success!

Bogus Lake

Today marks the beginning of the paddling season!  

With gusty winds out of the west and temperatures in the mid forties all three of us explored Bogus Lake.  It's a small lake (only 17 acres), yet sports a decent population of Splake (hybrid of brook and lake trout).  A babbling, cedar and sugar maple-lined brook drops from the northwest shore and meets up with the Kadunce Creek.  A paddler along the southern shore of Bogus feels as if they're on the top of the world.  The shoreline itself is subtle but immediately drops into a black ash wetland.  Bogus Lake sits over 1,200 feet above Lake Superior and yet is barely five miles in distance giving it an odd alpine feel.  The big lake looms in the distance from it's southern shore.

True Northerner: 38 weeks and paddling  

Judging by the buckets hanging from trees along the sugar bush of Maple Hill sap is still flowing.  Wild blue flag iris have sprouted along the lakes and in our front garden.  A fox crossed the road during our drive down the hill.  Just shy of two tenths of an inch of rain fell yesterday evening. 

I recently built some pantry shelving.  I continue to sift through the poplar from the winter clearing for "keeper" firewood and figure that I have about one and a half cords stacked.  This prompted me into the beginning stages of planning a new wood shed.  Anyone wanna come help peel spruce logs?  

 

Mushing the team across the linear lakes of the Gunflint Trail

McFarland to Clearwater via Mountain and Moose Lakes

A guide to one of the most beautiful padddling trips around: 

The palisading linear hills first appear at McFarland.  Put in your canoe and gear at the end of the Arrowhead.

Paddle north through Little John.  In high water shoot the rumbling class one rapids into John Lake.  With another diabase bluff on left head east past a fine pine-studded campsite to the north.  The portage is on the right well before the back bay funnels into a river.  Easy portage.

Paddle the scenic Royale River east then northwest at opening of Royale Lake.

Notice the hills, wildrice, tamarack, cedar and balsam;  not to mention the muskrat lodges

On the left is the flat, longer but easy portage into South Fowl.  The river crashes over beaver dams and through the island chain that seperates South and North Fowl Lakes.  Long, linear diabase sills form the ridges all around you.

To the North is Canada.  A couple bites of bass on a chubbed-out jig head with a leech later you step up a  rock garden of a portage into Moose Lake.

At about four miles in length Moose is a good practice crossing for Mountain Lake.  There is a great historic ledge rock and pine stand form the west shore.  Moose Lake will produce walleye.  Not much luck for us this day as we made camp on a site eating soup about midway along the south shore.

Troll your way out for the early morning bite into Moose Mountain.  Near the end of the lake, cast off a small spinner tipped with some stink along the shores: particularily where those streams are coming in.

The Great Cherry Portage is an uphill climb going west.  At 140 rods, it's not horribly long though.  Slow down and look for critter while traveling through the Lily Lakes.  Moose, beaver, water fowl, snakes in the water...

Mountain Lake is a gem.  Cliffs line most of the southern American shore.  The lake is more than 7 miles long.  Lake Trout reign in her depths.

Fish the east outlet down the Pigeon River shallow with a spinner for small mouth bass.
There's some decent camping mid way down the lake on a broad point.  The evening can be spent trolling with a white chub and leech along structure and the Lake Trout will feed.  Land at your camp, put up gear and start a fire.  Gut the fish and throw one fish on the fire per two.  There really isn't a better meal than fresh lake trout over a fire and instant puddling!

Connect the points west crossing this large lake.  The cliffs are impressive.

Jig your way out of the west side of the lake.  Trout have been had all around the distinct point the protects the portage trail climbing the ridge over to Clearwater Lake.  The Border Route trail intersects the portage at the top of the hill.  Keep dropping straight ahead but keep yours wits about you for some grouse; especially if it is small game season.

Clearwater Lake is a classic.   There are some great areas on the far east end of the lake.  The cliffs provide habitat for plenty of birds of prey.  Considering the increased mobility being a motorized lake, these cliffs begged to be climbed and the bays and narrows provide an excellent fishery.  Take out at the Clearwater landing.

The total trip is 20 some miles.  Gradual portages dispersed by moderate open water crossings.  Great fishing.  Give yourself a few days to enjoy.

Height of the Land Route

The berries are ripe.  The fish are moving to colder water.  It' August.  To us this means the beginning of the paddling season.  Last weekend we paddled a classic border route through Gunflint-Little Gunflint-Little North-North-South-Rat-Rose-Duncan-West Bearskin Lakes.

In our ongoing quest to paddle all of the major canoe routes in the eastern Boundary Waters we've been marking our routes through the years on a regional map.  This winter we noticed something major was missing from the map: we haven't paddled a substantial amount of the Canadian border lakes.

These border lakes have a great historical significance.  Traversing the waterways from the Northern depths of Canada to Lake Superior, the "Voyageur Highway" was the route that Voyageurs traveled during the Fur Trade era of the 1630-1760's.  During this time fleets of birch bark canoes carrying beaver, moose, bear, caribou, fox and wolf pelts paddled and portaged the ancient trail. 

The furs were trapped in the winter by Natives.  They were then traded to representatives of the Hudson Bay and Northwest Companies for commodities like guns, traps and other supplies.  French Voyageurs packed up the furs into their canoes and made their way down the Voyageur Highway to the Lake Superior.  At Lake Superior, the "hivernants" (voyageurs who wintered in the north) rendezvoused with the "pork eaters" (voyageurs traveling in 30-40 foot canoes from Montreal). It was here, on the shores of Superior at the Grand Portage outpost that the two groups swapped their cargo loads.  After a couple weeks of celebrating the voyageurs turned around and headed back to complete the trade.  The Northerners carried their supplies North to spend the winter and trade with Natives for the next season of furs.  The large canoes carried the furs back to Montreal to be felted and made into hats for the robust European markets.

I call the route that we took the "Height of the Land route" after the portage between North and South Lakes that straddles the Laurentian Divide.  Geographically speaking, it's a major watershed divide (rivaled only be the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains): all of the water in North Lake flows to the Hudson Bay via the Rainy River watershed.  The water in South Lake flows to the Atlantic via Lake Superior and the rest of the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence seaway.

Significant as this divide might be portaging it is actually very anticlimactic.  I've seen artistic renditions of this point being some great, steep and rugged ridge in the Northwoods.  The reality is that most of the portage is a flat wetland with balsam, cedar, various sedges and thimble berry.  No, we did not stop at the "top" of the divide and smoke a ceremonial pipe.  I couldn't even really tell where the watershed break was.  Nonetheless, it was one of those places where you could almost still the see the moccasin prints and hear the music of the countless french voyageurs who trotted that trail long before us.

Looking east across Rose Lake into Canada

Shoe Lake

Shoe Lake is nestled into the rolling white pine-clad hills of the "Greenwood country" in eastern Cook County.  It's shoreline is rimmed with black spruce, northern white cedar, labrador, sphagnum moss and the occasional tamarack.  Common to many lakes in the higher elevations of the Duluth Complex, Shoe Lake's outlet is bedrock controlled.  The means that the lake's water level is trapped behind bedrock.  The lake is shallow (just shy of 20 feet at it's deepest point) yet it supports a decent population of brook trout and splake (hybrid of brook and lake trout).  

Northern Light Lake

A cow moose greeted us right off the landing as we paddled down the Brule River on our way to Northern Light Lake.  Turns out that this calf had two calves that we spotted on our way back.  Apart from that we spotted another young cow just downstream. The water was high and the bugs were thick as a large low pressure mass loomed above.  Osprey and Bald Eagles quarreled over rights to the prominant pines.  Jigs and leeches in 5-10 feet of water produced four perch, three Northern (one decent) and only one "fingerling" walleye.  There were no filets on the grill at the end of the day but it was a great paddle nonetheless.

Looking upstream the Brule Valley towards the Misquah Hills

2nd of four moose

Amy demonstrating the perfect "J" stroke!

First trees planted...

Windy, warm.  A red flag warning of potentially harzardous windy fire conditions issued today.  The forests have had little rain since the snow melted.  The giant Lake Superior iron ore ships are following the shore.  They are cautious as a strong northwestern wind is gusting up to 30 mph.  A black wall of cold superior wave trains pushing them out to the great lake.  In the woods, the warm air is heavy with the pungent smell of pine.

The great canoe waterways of the Border Country are open early.  We loaded the canoe with a day pack and lunch and entered the wilderness at Baker Lake.  We paddled north to Peterson Lake.  At the northern point of the lake we landed for a shore lunch.  The first paddle of the year feels like running into your childhood best friend for the first time in years.    There is a level of comfort that I feel in the wild places of this world that I would feel closing up the house for the night.  It's like going home.

After a rest at the Kelly Lake portage we paddled back south.  Amy showed off her strong draw from the bow while shooting the rapids between Peterson and Baker.  The move kept us in the current and away from a rock garden and grounding in the middle of the run!

Back home I planted the first trees on the property this week.  Two white pines have found new soil just below the spruce knob on the north western corner of the property.  After logging hundreds of trees during the winter it felt good to start the other half of my forestry plan: replant species with succession into a warmer climate.  Red and white pine, white spruce, sugar maple and red oak will dominate the landscape.  And with these two 10 inch tall white pine saplings my replanting begins.  

Since these first pines were planted one has disappeared.  Deer: I'll hope for a 50% survival rate.  

White spruce, northern white cedar and tamarack have also been planted.  Nonetheless I intend to keep planting...