Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW)

Annual BWCA trip July 15 - 19. Julie rejoined the trip after a two year absence. We drove up north Wednesday and spent the night at Jenny and Andrew's cabin on Gust Lake just outside the BWCA.

Thursday morning we packed up my truck and drove up the Gunflint Trail which follows a northwest direction. It started to rain a bit as we arrived at our breakfast stop, Trail Center restaurant. While we were eating it started to pour... buckets. Decided another cup of coffee would be a good idea rather than start off on a driving rain. Soon the rain stopped and we headed to Nor'wester Lodge and Outfitters.

We got our permit and canoes. Also purchased some all natural bug spray that worked really well and smelled nice.

We put in on Poplar Lake which is a popular place to put in. Poplar Lake is not in the BWCA. The first portage put us in Lydia which part way through enters the BWCA. We were headed to Vista Lake and had our sights set on a campsite that looked nice on the map.

The portage were not bad this year. Poplar to Lizz. Lizz to Caribou. Caribou to Horseshoe. Horseshoe to Vista. The later portage was basically a creek. We all got our hiking boots soaking wet. The first portage Brian and I were asked how we got our wives to go camping. For the only time on the trip we were dumbstruck. But needless to say the rest of the trip was jokes about husbands and wives.

The campsite we were heading to was at the end of the lake opposite the portage. Once we got close, we saw that the site was already occupied. There was another camp but it looked like it would be buggy and dark (too many trees) and also sat high off the water so swimming could be a challenge. It was late but we decided to go one more lake, Misquah, where there was just one campsite. It was risky but the portage coming from the other direction was long so we thought few canoes would venture in from that direction.

We first hiked across the portage to see if we could scope out the campsite. We couldn't make it out so after eating a bit, we got the canoes and gear and paddled out to find the site. The camp was difficult to see even when right on it. It was close to the lake shore, very enclosed, and looked rarely used. There wasn't a tent area big enough for our tent. We decided to go back to Vista and stay at the high campsite, at least for the night. It was late and we couldn't afford to risk losing any other sites.

The high campsite turned out to be fantastic. The view was beautiful. The tent location was a bit on an incline but we were able to use both the tent entrance flaps. There was great sunshine and a good breeze to keep the bugs at bay. And the swimming was perfect.

skull and jawbones

Friday we paddled around Vista. There are some pretty islands. We also went back over to Misquah to hike the long portage at the other end. We continued to see different frogs along our way. On the Misquah to Little Trout Lake portage we came upon a wolf kill. First we saw a lot of fur/hair which looked to me like deer. We were fascinated by the hair until we then saw the skull and two jaw bones. We had never seen anything like this before and could not figure out what animal it was that the wolves (we assume) had gotten. The skull and jaw bones really confused us. Later after an internet search we decided it was a deer.

fishing on Misquah

We got to Little Trout Lake and to our surprise, luck and great pleasure there was a moose cow and TWO calves! The moose did not see us as she headed into the lake to swim across right towards us. Brian moved and she saw us. She immediately turned around and called out to her calves who quickly ducked into the woods. She  strolled out of the lake, stopped, and took one last look at us before disappearing into the brush. It was fantastic. We hadn't seen moose for several years. Neither the cow nor the calves were collared so they were not part of the moose population study.

We headed back to camp feeling good seeing a healthy moose with two healthy calves. The moose population on northeastern Minnesota has declined dramatically just over the time we have been visiting the BWCA.

morning stillness

Saturday morning Jenny and I got up early to go moosing (in search of moose). The east side of the lake looked like a good spot and so did Jack Lake, an easy 35 rod walk. No moose! But the lake was so calm it became a perfect mirror. We also so some really nice beaver lodges and heard all the song birds in action.

Rock Island selfie

The rest of Saturday was devoted to relaxing, reading and swimming. We had been really lucky with not having much of a bug problem. That changed Saturday night as first there were more mosquitoes (the natural bug spray worked well) but then replaced by biting flies. No spray worked against them even the stuff with deet. When the mosquitoes came back they brought reinforcements. It was too much and we piled into the tent. Lots of mosquitoes followed us unfortunately. We spent a lot of time and effort to kill them before that got us.

Sunday we broke camp and headed out. As often happens for some reason, we had a head wind paddling in and a head wind paddling out. Only the paddle out was 100 times more difficult. Caribou Lake was so bad a wondered if we should pull over.

It was another great trip. Brian did a great job shopping and doing most of the cooking. It was nice having Julie back. Jenny is always organized and seeing her smiling and relaxing is great.

Jenny's smile

the camp chipmunk, Chippy

view from campsite

Momma moose after the calves have gone into the brush