On September 23, 2020 Emily & I departed from Duluth on a very calm and sunny morning. We had oatmeal at Brighton Beach and continued to the Gunflint Trail.
From the boat landing on Poplar Lake we had a short paddle to our mile long portage. The portage had fresh trail work with new bridges over wet areas. A full gear pack pulled hard on my shoulders and we swapped loads half way through. The canoe felt better for a little bit. We had lunch at the end of the portage and went into Skipper Lake.
The "portage" from Skipper to Little Rush was tricky. Balancing on rocks and pushing/pulling the canoe through shallow water.
On Rush Lake we accidentally went on the South side of a peninsula. Before we realized the wrong turn I spotted a large moose getting a drink of water.
The moose turned and went into a woods and that is when we heard/saw her calf
Long portages = quiet lakes
The Banadad Ski trail
We setup camp on Banadad Lake (Day 1) The site had not seen campers in months and it has a Dolman rock (large rock resting on small rocks).
Dolman Rock
Day 2 involved a lot of portaging and short paddles. Very tough mentally at times. No photos taken while on the move. We did bump into a Outward Bound group on a 27 day BWCA trip. Humbled by their trip and their very heavy aluminum canoes.
We made it to Long Island Lake and found a beautiful campsite.
Day 3
Happy to set off paddling and have a break from long portages...for a little while.
Muskeg to Kisskadinna Lake portage - We found a note in a ziplock bag that described a lost dog. 6 days before we got to this portage a couple had lost their dog and spent days looking for it. They had to head for home and left notes on each side of the portage. We thought the dog would be wolf food all alone in the woods. (A couple days after we were out of the wilderness new broke about how the dog had been found)
We did a lot of travel on day 3 and hoped to camp on Gaskin Lake. While making our way through Gaskin we saw more boats/people than expected and found no empty campsites. On the East side of the lake we decided to push...& it started to rain.
We started our journey on Horseshoe Lake and had hopes of finding an empty site but didn't get too hopeful. My arms didn't have a whole lot of pep and the rain grew more steady. On our left in a cedar grove we saw the landing for a site. We cautiously approached and we found that it was FREE! Perfect timing as the rain came down. So happy to find a home after 14 miles of travel today. The furthest I have traveled in the BWCA.
In the cedar grove we setup the tent and a tarp. While the rain came down we had hot coco and made dinner. At sunset the clouds broke up and a orange sun glowed over the lake.
Day 4 - A sunny morning.
We were pumped when we saw blue sky through the dense cedar grove. Paddling through Horseshoe Lake with warm sun and glassy water was much appreciated. We even saw empty campsites. Backup plan last night was to camp on the Banada Ski Trail near Poplar if we weren't able to find a site. Glad we didn't have to do that.
A short easy portage brought us into Caribou Lake
From Caribou we went into long & skinny Liz Lake. Officially out of the wilderness.
On Poplar we did a shoreline tour and checked out some very nice homes. Back at the boat ramp I did one last portage up stairs to the car. As always, it feels weird to be in a car traveling so quickly. We had a great trip and loved the single portage system even though it seems to hurt more at times.
