BWCA -- Day 4, Elton Lake to Jenny

Little Saganaga, North Shore

This was one of the richest days, and the longest day. I left my site at Elton Lake early after a nasty experience the night before. I had set up camp at a really nice site on Elton Lake near the portage from Makwa. Around 8 PM when I was going over some maps on a rock outcropping next to the lake, there was some noisy buzzing back toward my tent. It was a large swarm of ginormous flying insects that were dive bombing around my tent. I went back to the tent and also saw a hole in the ground with a rock on top that was filled with most-lively maggots. This was just two feet from my tent. I figured that the last camper had buried fish guts in the middle of the best tent location at the campsite. Think.. What to do? I pulled out the stakes and relocated my tent 30 feet away to another location by dragging it by its footprint (the footprint is a plastic sheet that matches the base of the tent that you use to protect the flooring). But after that I was freaked out enough that I left at 6 the next morning. As I was leaving I heard a pack of wolves howling on the other side of the lake.

I would like to enter this picture into my own "inanimate things that look like people" contest. Mr. Tree, above might be saying, "Welcome to the  Other Side." After paddling between the two islands you see here, I entered strange waters.

North region of Little Sag take from a tiny islet

I reached Little Saganaga Lake after a couple of portages from Elton. Little Sag is not little. It is a large, scenic lake with lots of islands. My route took me from the south end to the north. The north end is a burned out, forbidding region that is also highly photogenic. There were a group of islands that separated the calm form the windy portion of the lake.

Young moose on the creek between Rattle and Gabimichigami Lakes.

 After leaving Little Sag, I paddled through Rattle Lake and took the portage to The large island-less Gabimichigami. The portage followed a rocky creek where I sat down to eat lunch of spicy tuna, nutella out of the jar (plastic!), and sour lemon drops. As I ate I was greeted by ma moose and her two teenagers. I sat for a while taking pictures with my telephoto lens. After a while when they wouldn't get any closer, I figured I would get closer to them. But they got scared and ran away. They shouldn't have been scared; I'm not a wolf after all; or a hunter.

Bridge over Mueller Falls. Check out the gusset plate.
 

Mueller Falls

This not a good bridge to linger on.

BWCA -- Day 3, Monosyllabic Chain of Lakes

Monosyllabic Chain of Lakes  is how I coined  the small lakes, separated by long, unkempt portages between Sagus and Makwa Lakes: They are Roe, Cap, Ledge, Vee, Fee, and Hoe. The lake namers had no imagination.

On day 2, I traveled between Ima and Cap via Thomas and Frasier Lakes. The fellow at Canoe Country Outfitters advised me that Frasier Lake would be a major decision point as to whether to take the easy route north to Kekekabic or the remote route of long portages to Little Saganaga. He told me that once I had started the latter route there was really no way out ... except to turn around or go all the way. I wasn't sure what he meant. But the remote route, he told me, had promise of moose and no people. That said, there was really no decision. I saw my last human beings at the west end of Frasier on the afternoon of day 2. After that I saw nobody except for one distant canoe on Little Sag around 11 AM on Day 4. The next signs of human activity came in the form of occupied campsites at Makwa Lake and Mueller Falls; but I did not see anyone else until Day 4, early evening on Lake Ogishkemuncie. Ironically, all the sites were full on Lake Ogishkemuncie so I had to travel on through a couple more lakes until Jenny Lake welcomed me with an unoccupied site at close to 8.

The map and my guide book (BWCA, Western Region by Robert Beymer) indicated an 80 rod portage between Vee and Fee. But here you can see, the portage ends and a bog begins. This came as sort of a surprise. I dropped by sack started snapping pictures and then sat down to figure out the problem. Solution: canoe goes into the bog and look for an exit at the other end.

Not sure how obvious it is that I was a little freaked out by the bog.

I think this is the east end of Ledge Lake heading into the portage.

More BWCA -- Cap Lake Morning 2

A rare glimpse of my campsite.

Here you can see the portage to the right of the canoe. It's not unusual to see canoes at a portage. What's odd, however, about this picture is that it is my canoe and I am a couple of hundred yards away at the campsite across the small bay. This was the morning after a huge storm. I had put the canoe far up on dry land the previous night and woke up the next morning in the fog to take pictures. As the fog started to lift, I thought it was unusual that someone would be portaging at 6 AM. That was when I realized the solution to my problem even before I knew that there was a problem.

Boundary Waters Canoe Area

I took a 7-day solo trip into the BWCA from Aug 7-13. Entered and returned at Snowbank. Roughly the trip was Snowbank, Disappointment, Ima (camped), Thomas, Frasier, chain of monosyllabic lakes--I'll explain later--(camped on Cap), Makwa, Elton (camped), Little Saganaga, Gabimichigami Lake, Mueller Falls, Muller Lake, Ogishkemuncie Lake (wanted to camp there but it was full -- moved on to Jenny Lake where I camped), Lake Kebekabic, Spoon Lake (camped), North Arm of Knife Lake (camped) from where I day-tripped to Benny's cove on Ottertrack Lake. On the last day I traveled East on Knife Lake through Vera, Ensign, Boot, and Snowbank Lakes, back to Entry Point 27, on Snowbank, where I started

This is the initial set of pictures. I'll add more, in chronological order, as I get them ready...Not much luck on the chronological order thing as I'm having a hard time inserting the pictures where I want them :-(

This bog 'happened' in the middle of my portage between two of the lakes on the remote chain of monosylabic lakes between Frasier and Little Sag. Actually, the trail just sort of ended and I had no choice but to put the canoe in and paddle through.

Cap Lake, Morning 2, I got up early to take pictures  in the fog.

Little Saganaga Lake, north end, Day 3. This area was hit by a huge fire fire. There were a lot of burned down trees and new vegetation.

Day 3: I saw these moose on the while eating lunch on the stream between Rattle and Ogishkemuncie. 

Day 3, North End of Little Saganaga Lake near the portage to Rattle Lake. There is a huge burnt out area that many people may look at as devastated; but I thought was very photogenic. I actually missed the portage and was pulling my canoe out of the connecting stream up to the trail.

Kekekabic Lake on Day 5. This is a very long lake. I entered on the west end which is very scenic with tall cliffs and seagulls. Unfortunately, I had to keep my camera in the case because of wind and rain. However, I kept toasty warm wearing my special tech-jacket from Jack and Katherine

North Arm of the Knife River, Day 6.

I paddled through a group of 5 loons on Day 7 after breaking camp on Knife Lake. I had never before seen that many in a group.

I call this 'Gratuitous Sunset." Gratuitous because I'm a bit snobbish and hadn't intended to take pictures of sunsets. But this  one stood out during my last night. I took it from my campsite on the North Leg of Knife Lake. We are looking across the lake into Canada.

Tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and beets