BWCA Flora and Fauna

 In addition to the crazy brilliant beaver rock dam, there were other wonders of plants and animals. Alas, there were no moose sightings again this year though we wouldn't have seen the beaver rock dam if we hadn't gone moose stalking.

Near Jenny and Andrew's cabin is the "Moose Pond" that has to be surveyed on every trip to the cabin. The Grade is being worked on (widened?) and as part of the project the culverts are being upgraded which has resulted in the "Moose Pond" being lowered. No moose this year but there were two beautiful swans. The Moose Pond is very close to the road so you can see truly how big these birds are.

The bear for the 'Daryl and the Bear' story was supposed to be here

We had lots of song birds at are campsite. They are often difficult to see though. From the vantage point of the latrine I as serenaded by a small flock of red breasted birds. And we had a robin and a song sparrow fist the campsite and show themselves.

Two really enjoyable bird events were: 1) an eagle pair flew very low and near the campsite and performed their aerial talon intertwining right next to us. We have had the good fortune of having seen this before but it is always breath taking. .. and 2) an adult Merganser duck with 15, yes 15!, ducklings. The ducklings were practicing diving while mom kept a watchful eye and made sure no one swam out too far. It was hilarious watching the little downy ducklings go underwater but because they are so buoyant, they actually pop out of the water before quickly swimming along.

We also saw a Merganser with a single duckling on her back. It was too adorable. After the two eagles performed their midair dance, a very large bird landed in a tree that was super far away. With our binoculars we could see it was huge but couldn't tell what it was. It might have been a Golden Eagle as they are bigger than a Bald Eagle and we could almost make out that it wasn't a Bald Eagle.

There was some sort of small mammal in the little cove next to our campsite. I'm going to call it a mink. I only saw it one time.

We had several chipmunks around camp and frogs and toads. We also enjoyed watching the fish in the crystal clear waters at camp.

So may variety of evergreens

The variety of evergreens in the BWCA is always amazing and stunning. I must have hundreds of photos of trees reflected in the water. There were not a lot of big trees where we were. You could tell the area was coming back from long ago fires and blow downs.

Tree reflection

There were a variety of bees on this flower

The mid summer flowers were wonderful though there were not many water flowers and hardly any water lilies on the lakes we paddled.

A water lily from under the water. The water is crystal clear.

Annual Boundary Waters trip (full recap)

Our annual Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness adventure did go on this year. We considered the COVID-19 situation and took precautions prior to departure. Afterall, we were going to be spending a great deal of time in very close quarters where wearing a mask was simply not possible or practical...the long drive up north, canoe paddling and sleeping in a tent together.

After careful consideration and precautions, the group decided to go forward with the trip.

Getting ready to paddle in

This year’s itinerary had us entering the BWCA far up the Gunflint Trail. We spent our first night up North in Jenny and Andrew’s cabin as usual but instead of paddling out of the BWCA and returning to the Twin Cities all in the same day, we returned to the cabin to spend the night and rest up. It was a good pre-decision.

There were really only two “tricky” parts to the trip this year. One was that we had planned on pitching our tent on a campsite on Ogishkmuncie (Ogish) Lake. But because of COVID-19, the BWCA and all camping facilities in Minnesota are super popular and there were no available campsites on Ogish. We knew that it was going to be along paddle to Ogish to begin with and never expected that it would be full of campers.

Seagull to Alpine to Jasper

We entered the BWCA from Seagull Outfitters on Seagull Lake. Seagull is a very big lake and we were to paddle pretty much the full length of it to get to our first portage. We got an early start but by the time we arrived at Ogish and paddled from campsite to campsite in and around confusing islands, there simply wasn’t a spot to stay so we proceeded to the next lake....Jenny Lake!

We ended up at a fantastic campsite on Jenny Lake. It was secluded in a deadend portion of the lake...which means there was not a portage near us so paddlers would not be going by on their way to another lake.

We did arrive in daylight (plenty of) and as usual got the site setup in no time at all. Brian fixed a great dinner and sleeping wasn’t a problem as we were all very, very tired after what ended up being 8 hours on the water and portaging. I think that was a record and not one we need to try to top.

We paddled into the BWCA on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday mornings we did our usual reading and napping and reading and snacking and reading. By mid-afternoons we were ready to do some adventuring.

Thursday we went to Eddy Falls. These are water falls from Eddy Lake to South Arm Knife Lake. Since we had passed the Lawrentian Divide, the waterfall flows to the north. And one advantage of COVID-19 is that most youth group camps up the Gunflint Trail are not in operation this year so there was no one at the falls. Jenny said there sometimes is a line of groups!

While you can’t jump into big pools of water here you can sit and enjoy the water running over you. It was incredible. We were able to spend 20-30 minutes by ourselves playing around before a boy scout group showed up.

Rock dam

Friday we paddled and portaged through Kekekabic Ponds looking for moose. We didn’t see any. We did come across the most interesting beaver dam we have very seen. It was a rock dam…entirely of rocks! We think they built it to catch fish. It was amazing.

We broke camp early Saturday morning. Though we had several portages none of them were all that long so we mad good progress getting back to Seagull even with some rain. Then there was Seagull. We had had some rain and heard thunder in the distance on the paddle but nothing bad enough that we had to stop for comfort or safety. Then the wind picked up on Seagull and we had two sections that were crazy difficult to paddle.

Taking a break after a portage

Small whitecaps started up in the first section. Whitecaps while in a canoe are not a good thing. Julie and I were in the front of our canoes and Jenny and Brian were steering. Not much was said as we battled through this. We reached calm water and rested a bit.

Before reaching"the outfitter, we hit another wind. This time coming right in our faces. It took what seemed like forever to get to the outfitter’s dock. We had paddled for two hours just on Seagull Lake.

Getting back to the cabin to spend a comfortable night was a brilliant idea. We ate and slept great and made it home on Sunday suntanned and a little sore but with great stories.

You will have to ask about Darryl and the bear, the eagle pair, mink?, Jenny the ghost, “I’m good,” and other stories I’m not remembering.

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