Trip Report and pictures, Day 5&6
Day 5
Today was to be a day trip - no camping gear - just a tour type paddle from our spot on the Kawishiwi River north to Trapline lake, then a portage west to Beaver Lake (uhhh huh huh) then East to Adams Lake, then North and West to Smite lake, then Southwest back into Beaver Lake, then out to Kawishiwi River and back to camp. We actually took a wrong turn at the very beginning, and carried our canoe over a portage that we didn't need to. The lake didn't look right once we got there and we fired up the GPS just to make sure. Generally, when turned around on one lake, the maps aren't precise enough for us to make a determination based on the GPS reading. But since we suspected we were at the wrong lake entirely, the GPS would probably be able to confirm that suspicion for us before we went any further. And our suspicions were confirmed - we had made a wrong turn. Carried the canoe back over the portage and went about our day's journey.
This loop is supposed to be among the most remote parts of the entire Boundary Waters - and I can see why. The portages here suck infected liquid monkey ass. They are rugged, steep, rocky, and rarely used - so the vegetation is not trimmed back like in higher use areas. It was quite physically demanding. We did manage to see a beaver in Trapline lake. Both times we saw it, the damn thing dove underwater before I could get my camera out to take a picture.
Lunch was genoa salami, smoked provolone cheese, and mayo on pita bread. Excellent lunch, doesn't take up a lot of space, and the bread doesn't get squashed or mashed. Definitely good for future use.
Right after we put into Beaver Lake, we saw a moose, which I did manage to photograph.
Photo: MOOSE!!
We saw some great scenery today, and the weather was mostly warm and breezy. It was alternately sunny and warm, then cloudy and breezy. And it was uncanny how a)when it was windy, the wind was always a head wind, and 2) the sun seemed to come out and beat us down when we were on the portage trails. Weird.
Photo: Nice weather we're having, eh?
Photo: Orr... not so much.
I'm a little concerned. I was really starting to get fatigued today - and weve got some serious paddling to do tomorrow (including the three huge portages mentioned previously,) then the mother of bogs to slog through for the finale on Friday. We're going to be worn OUT by the time we're done.
Dinner was freeze dried spaghetti with meat sauce. One of the best freeze dried meals I've had, I discovered it a couple trips ago, and make sure I take at least one pouch every trip.
How do freeze dried meals work, I hear you cry? Well, to begin with, let's start with why, then move in to how. Why? Because they are light. The food is prepared, then it's treated so that all of the water is zapped out of it. Then it's packaged in a foil pouch with a zip top and a wide base. No water means that the food is extremely light and easy to carry. This is far more important on backpacking trips than on canoe trips, but we learned last time that taking 4 days worth of fresh food makes it extremely difficult to carry everything, plus, you face the chance that your food can spoil. Freeze dried meals are light, and they won't spoil… they have a shelf life of years. How? Well, all you have to do is boil water, open up the pouch, pour the boiling water in, stir it up, zip up the pouch and let it sit for 9 minutes. Then it's dinner time. During those 9 minutes you can do other things, like lay out your sleeping bag and pad, wash your hands and face, get warm clothes out and ready. Then, when you are ready to eat, you can either eat right out of the pouch (easy) or pour it out onto a plate if you happen to have brought one. If you eat right out of the pouch, cleanup is very easy… lick the spoon, close the zip top on the pouch, and put the pouch in the garbage bag.
Photo: cool sunset at camp, but it looked better on the water than in the sky
After dinner, we did more stargazing, saw a couple more shooting stars and climbed in the tent.
Day 6
I actually got up before Chris. That's very rare. Today's agenda - break down our campsite of the last two nights, then backtrack to Mallberg, Koma, Polly, so forth to Kawasachong, where we'd camp.
Photo: Vacated campsite. We leave our camps in better shape than we find them.
By getting the big ass and numerous portages out of the way and moving as far as we could before dark, we'd minimize the effort required on the last day. Chris predicted that we'd be finishing up the day at about 5:00 pm on Lake Kawasachong - which would give us a couple hours to relax in addition to setting up camp and preparing dinner.
The day was largely uneventful - no new ground covered, no extradordinary wildlife seen, no major mishaps. Lunch was salami pitas again, and the day just sort of went by in a blur… all the long portages were difficult and exhausting. By the time we were done with those, we put the canoe into Kawasachong Lake, it was exactly 5:00. Chris really nailed it on the head. A couple minutes later, we floated up to our campsite, pulled the boat out of the water and started to set up camp.
The weather has been perfect today… we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was clear and sunny, but not too warm, and the wind wasn't a factor.
Photo: great weather, still waters
Photo: But just in case....
Today was somewhat of a role reversal between Chris and myself. I felt great all day, which is a rarity for me. Generally something ails or pains me the entire duration of these trips. Chris felt bad and said he felt like a zombie when we stopped for lunch. I said, “Now you know how I feel- I feel like that all the time on these trips.” He asked me why I enjoy the trips. I don't know… I just do. He felt better after some Excedrin Migrane and lunch, and the rest of the day went smoothly.
Dinner was freeze dried beef stroganoff, which has always been one of my favorite freeze dried meals (and excellent code.)
I think I have figured out what I like least about all these trips. It all revolves around the sleeping bag. It's so restrictive, it doesn't allow me to move around without tangling and twisting up. My arms constantly fall asleep, and if I want to move them I have to unzip the bag, which lets all the warm air out. Then in the mornings, I don't want to get out of the sleeping bag because it's warm and I don't want to face the arctic cold air. Also, I have yet to find a comfortable sleeping position in a sleeping bag, on a sleeping pad, on the cold ground. But I love coming on these trips - I wouldn't give it up. And this has been one of the best ones.
In camp tonight, we have encountered or noted a mouse watching us prepare dinner, a beaver swimming right in front of our dining room, a huge rabbit hopping around our tent (I thought it was a bobcat at first it was so big,) a campfire across the lake (we scoped out the campsite where that fire appeared to be, and we couldn't find a way to get to it, but didn't see anyone there - so it concerned us to see a fire over there.) It turned out to be a flashlight, much to our relief (didn't want to share the lake with a wildfire.) Lastly, what I hope was a bullfrog grunting and splashing in the water. If it wasn't a bullfrog, I don't want to know what it was. There was a cacophony of wildlife most of the evening, and on into the night.
Photo: Nightfall at Camp 3
Today was to be a day trip - no camping gear - just a tour type paddle from our spot on the Kawishiwi River north to Trapline lake, then a portage west to Beaver Lake (uhhh huh huh) then East to Adams Lake, then North and West to Smite lake, then Southwest back into Beaver Lake, then out to Kawishiwi River and back to camp. We actually took a wrong turn at the very beginning, and carried our canoe over a portage that we didn't need to. The lake didn't look right once we got there and we fired up the GPS just to make sure. Generally, when turned around on one lake, the maps aren't precise enough for us to make a determination based on the GPS reading. But since we suspected we were at the wrong lake entirely, the GPS would probably be able to confirm that suspicion for us before we went any further. And our suspicions were confirmed - we had made a wrong turn. Carried the canoe back over the portage and went about our day's journey.
This loop is supposed to be among the most remote parts of the entire Boundary Waters - and I can see why. The portages here suck infected liquid monkey ass. They are rugged, steep, rocky, and rarely used - so the vegetation is not trimmed back like in higher use areas. It was quite physically demanding. We did manage to see a beaver in Trapline lake. Both times we saw it, the damn thing dove underwater before I could get my camera out to take a picture.
Lunch was genoa salami, smoked provolone cheese, and mayo on pita bread. Excellent lunch, doesn't take up a lot of space, and the bread doesn't get squashed or mashed. Definitely good for future use.
Right after we put into Beaver Lake, we saw a moose, which I did manage to photograph.
Photo: MOOSE!!
We saw some great scenery today, and the weather was mostly warm and breezy. It was alternately sunny and warm, then cloudy and breezy. And it was uncanny how a)when it was windy, the wind was always a head wind, and 2) the sun seemed to come out and beat us down when we were on the portage trails. Weird.
Photo: Nice weather we're having, eh?
Photo: Orr... not so much.
I'm a little concerned. I was really starting to get fatigued today - and weve got some serious paddling to do tomorrow (including the three huge portages mentioned previously,) then the mother of bogs to slog through for the finale on Friday. We're going to be worn OUT by the time we're done.
Dinner was freeze dried spaghetti with meat sauce. One of the best freeze dried meals I've had, I discovered it a couple trips ago, and make sure I take at least one pouch every trip.
How do freeze dried meals work, I hear you cry? Well, to begin with, let's start with why, then move in to how. Why? Because they are light. The food is prepared, then it's treated so that all of the water is zapped out of it. Then it's packaged in a foil pouch with a zip top and a wide base. No water means that the food is extremely light and easy to carry. This is far more important on backpacking trips than on canoe trips, but we learned last time that taking 4 days worth of fresh food makes it extremely difficult to carry everything, plus, you face the chance that your food can spoil. Freeze dried meals are light, and they won't spoil… they have a shelf life of years. How? Well, all you have to do is boil water, open up the pouch, pour the boiling water in, stir it up, zip up the pouch and let it sit for 9 minutes. Then it's dinner time. During those 9 minutes you can do other things, like lay out your sleeping bag and pad, wash your hands and face, get warm clothes out and ready. Then, when you are ready to eat, you can either eat right out of the pouch (easy) or pour it out onto a plate if you happen to have brought one. If you eat right out of the pouch, cleanup is very easy… lick the spoon, close the zip top on the pouch, and put the pouch in the garbage bag.
Photo: cool sunset at camp, but it looked better on the water than in the sky
After dinner, we did more stargazing, saw a couple more shooting stars and climbed in the tent.
Day 6
I actually got up before Chris. That's very rare. Today's agenda - break down our campsite of the last two nights, then backtrack to Mallberg, Koma, Polly, so forth to Kawasachong, where we'd camp.
Photo: Vacated campsite. We leave our camps in better shape than we find them.
By getting the big ass and numerous portages out of the way and moving as far as we could before dark, we'd minimize the effort required on the last day. Chris predicted that we'd be finishing up the day at about 5:00 pm on Lake Kawasachong - which would give us a couple hours to relax in addition to setting up camp and preparing dinner.
The day was largely uneventful - no new ground covered, no extradordinary wildlife seen, no major mishaps. Lunch was salami pitas again, and the day just sort of went by in a blur… all the long portages were difficult and exhausting. By the time we were done with those, we put the canoe into Kawasachong Lake, it was exactly 5:00. Chris really nailed it on the head. A couple minutes later, we floated up to our campsite, pulled the boat out of the water and started to set up camp.
The weather has been perfect today… we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was clear and sunny, but not too warm, and the wind wasn't a factor.
Photo: great weather, still waters
Photo: But just in case....
Today was somewhat of a role reversal between Chris and myself. I felt great all day, which is a rarity for me. Generally something ails or pains me the entire duration of these trips. Chris felt bad and said he felt like a zombie when we stopped for lunch. I said, “Now you know how I feel- I feel like that all the time on these trips.” He asked me why I enjoy the trips. I don't know… I just do. He felt better after some Excedrin Migrane and lunch, and the rest of the day went smoothly.
Dinner was freeze dried beef stroganoff, which has always been one of my favorite freeze dried meals (and excellent code.)
I think I have figured out what I like least about all these trips. It all revolves around the sleeping bag. It's so restrictive, it doesn't allow me to move around without tangling and twisting up. My arms constantly fall asleep, and if I want to move them I have to unzip the bag, which lets all the warm air out. Then in the mornings, I don't want to get out of the sleeping bag because it's warm and I don't want to face the arctic cold air. Also, I have yet to find a comfortable sleeping position in a sleeping bag, on a sleeping pad, on the cold ground. But I love coming on these trips - I wouldn't give it up. And this has been one of the best ones.
In camp tonight, we have encountered or noted a mouse watching us prepare dinner, a beaver swimming right in front of our dining room, a huge rabbit hopping around our tent (I thought it was a bobcat at first it was so big,) a campfire across the lake (we scoped out the campsite where that fire appeared to be, and we couldn't find a way to get to it, but didn't see anyone there - so it concerned us to see a fire over there.) It turned out to be a flashlight, much to our relief (didn't want to share the lake with a wildfire.) Lastly, what I hope was a bullfrog grunting and splashing in the water. If it wasn't a bullfrog, I don't want to know what it was. There was a cacophony of wildlife most of the evening, and on into the night.
Photo: Nightfall at Camp 3
posted by Jeremy at 10/04/2006 02:44:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home