Boundary Waters - 2024

Clove Lake

I probably say this every year, but we had another fantastic adventure in the Boundary Waters.

Same foursome as the past 20+ years - Jenny, Julie, Brian, and me. This year we drove up to Jenny and Andrew's cabin on Saturday and paddled into the BWCA on Sunday.

Our usual route to the Gunflint Trail, the Grade, was closed due to a construction project so we had to drive all the way back to US61 then to Grand Marais. We took advantage of the detour to stop for coffee at Java Moose.

We made good time up the Gunflint Trail to Gunflint Lodge to pick up our canoes. We got good guidance from Carson (not Carston) at the outfitters. He estimated it would take us 4 hours and he was spot on.

I had wrongly anticipated that paddling up a river, the Granite River, would be easy going. The river was very pleasant but some of the portages around the rapids and waterfalls were tricky...especially the one marked as "split rock."

We had intended to make it to Larch Lake but decided to stop at Clove Lake which is a wide spot along the river. It was a great choice. Our campsite had a sandy beach and the sand extended well into the lake. It was so easy and comfortable coming into and out of the site.

The theme of this year's trip was, "Well, you are practically a scientist." This was based on our ability to determine (make up) several things including 1) why there was a sandy beach 2) why the snowshoe hare was so "friendly and 3) what makes a super moon.

There was a flat, grassy tent site and the perfect setup for the hammocks. Clove Lake was not busy and had an eagle nest on one side. The parent eagles would fly around occasionally and there teenage offspring flew around frequently.

There were several beaver lodges and on one of our day trips, we interrupted a family of otters playing in the reeds.

We were also visited by a snowshoe hare which was a first for us. This hare appeared very accustomed to humans and got very close at times. We also had some friendly chipmunks and a song sparrow.

The weather was perfect and we even had the supermoon. We were hoping for northern lights but the moon was so bright and we were facing south so didn't see any aurora.

The video is just over 6 minutes and available here. I suggest you watch the video in landscape.

BWCA 2021 Edition

 Well we did it again. The foursome of Brian, Jenny, Julie and Jeff ventured into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness.

This was the 20th anniversary edition. I think Jenny is the only one that has made them all.

I created a video for this year's trip. The link will be below. But a short recap...

The plan was to paddle Hog Creek from Entry #36 to Perent Lake and find an island campsite on the lake. That would be no portages. Side note - portages are where the team carries the gear and canoes from one body of water to another.

We had been warned that because of the drought our planned all paddle / no portage trip would be twice as long with several places where you had to get out of canoes and transport gear. Well, fortunately it did not turn out that way.

There were a few places we had to do just that but mostly the slow downs were caused by three large beaver dams that we would have had to negotiate anyway. Beavers are amazing architects and construction workers.

We did make it to Perent Lake and landed a very primo campsite. Nice layout on a private island.

We had an unbelievable encounter with a bald eagle. Saw a darling trumpeter swan family. Also, more loon action than we had seen in a long time. And a pesky red squirrel who we are pretty sure is now the proud owner of an orange spork.

Click here for the video. I suggest watching in landscape mode. It is 6 minutes long.