Duluthed

Winter Comes Roaring Back

The 2023-2024 winter was odd from beginning to end (see previous post).

Thus it felt like a miracle of sorts when we got a grand finale – our biggest snowstorm of the year – on March 24-26. Eighteen inches fell in Duluth, thereby equaling all the snow we had gotten the whole winter to date. The girls got three snow days in a row from school, and I got two. We shoveled our brains out, and winter finally felt like winter again.

All the snow meant the previously non-existent ski season was suddenly back alive. Considering that there was still plenty of ice on northern (Boundary Waters) lakes, I saw our opportunity plain as day – this was our chance to do our traditional March ski camping trip. And I knew who I wanted to go with. Thankfully for me, Adriana was game.

We had only four days for planning. To simplify, I chose an easy destination for us, with the least possible driving time, and a familiar ski route: we would go from Sawbill Lake (entry point 38) to Alton Lake, crossing the short portage in between.

Adriana at the entry point – we were the only car in the lot, and did not see a soul the whole trip.

I took Adriana out of school early on Friday the 29th, and we hit the road at 3:30 p.m. We made a few stops on the way, and pulled into the Sawbill parking lot at 6:30. We packed the pulks, strapped on our skis, and headed down to the lake. We knew sunset would be about 8:00, and we expected to get to camp not long after.

We had no trouble skiing up Sawbill Lake, or across the portage to Alton. But we knew there was an Alberta Clipper predicted that evening (“a small-scale, short-lived weather event typically producing 8–15 cm (3-6 inches) of snow in a 3-6 hour period”).

And sure enough – there it was. We could literally see a wall of snow rolling down the hills from the west like a bowling ball. This storm cloud was heading right at us. We had about 5 minutes to enjoy it from across the lake, and then suddenly it was upon us.

The snow started coming down hard just as nightfall descended.

I don’t know if anyone enjoys skiing through a snowfall, in the dark, pulling a heavy tandem pulk, as much as I do. I live for these moments. They are moments of struggle and perseverance, and I always feel calm and comfortable, even as we’re getting pounded by snow. I hope Adriana enjoyed it like I did. We were prepared, with good clothes, a good tent, and the remaining necessities. Most importantly, we were psychologically prepared. Adriana was spot on, and she did a great job handling the conditions.

Eventually, about 9:00 p.m., we reached the campsite we were shooting for on the east side of Alton. First we set up the tent, which required a lot of shoveling to clear off a tent pad. Then Adriana scurried inside to set up our sleeping pads and bags. By a miracle, I got a fire going, and grilled hot dogs and pita under the falling snow for a quick, hot dinner.

Our cozy shelter for the weekend – a Hilleberg Rogen 2-person tent lent to me by a good friend.

We read some of the book “Mexikid” to each other in our sleeping bags, listening to the snow hitting the roof of the tent. What a soothing sound. We were soon both asleep, and I had one of the deepest sleeps of my whole winter. It was fabulous.

After 9 hours of hibernation, I woke up at 8:00 a.m. I took my time getting up, bracing for the snowy scene outside. Sure enough, the fresh snow did not disappoint.

Everything was covered in white, but the temps were hovering around freezing, and it was no trouble making coffee on my camp stove. I let Adriana sleep in while I did some ice fishing (unproductive, but I tried). We needed a hole in the ice to get drinking water in any case.

I made us both hot oatmeal for breakfast, and we set off on a day trip to the far southern shore of sprawling Alton Lake. The crescent shape created by seven islands at Alton’s southern end made an impressive backdrop for the snow squalls that kept cycling over the lake all day. Each one would be followed by some blue sky, before the next mini squall struck.

Adriana breaking trail as a mixture of sun and snow greets us out of the west.

Our “destination” was the portage to Wonder Lake. Fortunately, on beautiful ski vacation days like this, it really doesn’t matter where you end up, or how far you go. The grand purpose of it all is just to explore, with no result needed.

That’s another way of saying that we completely failed to find the portage to Wonder. It was nowhere to be found. Not to say we didn’t try. We even bushwhacked through a cedar and spruce swamp to try and find it, but no portage trail ever came into view.

We turned around after about 20 minutes. We had all our provisions, and a camp stove, in the pulk, so a hot lunch was guaranteed, no matter where we ended up. We retreated to the closest campsite on Alton for shore lunch.

En route to our lunch spot we saw an otter “leeching” his way (to quote Adriana) across the ice from his drinking hole. We got a really good view of the way otters “slide” across the snow. It truly does look like a leech undulating under water.

The hot soup tasted awesome, and we did some skiing on the little descent in front of the campsite. It was great to be in the middle of nowhere without a care in the world.

More snow starting to fall, but still a happy skier.

We made the push back to our base camp, and returned by 6:30 p.m. I made one more (unsuccessful) ice-fishing foray, then refilled all our water bottles for supper and the following morning. Temps were a little colder on our second night, but not enough to freeze our water bottles completely.

We were hungry again soon enough, and fell back on more hot dogs and flatbread grilled on the open fire. It felt good to get the fire going and warm up before bed. We were both in our bags by 8:30 on night two, and read “Mexikid” together again. We turned off the headlamps at 10:00, and had another incredible night’s sleep.

Day three was Easter. We knew we wanted to get home in time for Inna’s fabulous Easter dinner, so we didn’t waste any time making breakfast and packing up. We left camp about 9:45, and headed back to the portage to Sawbill. This time we could actually see where we were going, and had our old track to follow, which was much faster than breaking trail in the deep snow.

Adriana gets us going on a windy morning.

We cruised back to the portage, and then had an awesome wildlife sighting: a pine marten slowly crossed the portage trail about 100 feet before us. We both got a great look at it. It didn’t stop to stare us down, but it was still a fitting ending to our trip.

We got back to our car by 11:30, and started the ride home on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Overall, this late season snowstorm gave us an unexpected opportunity to put a positive finish on an incredibly dry and warm winter, and we took it. We ended the season on a very high note, and I thank Adriana for making it such a memorable trip.

Dream “Winter” Backpacking on the Powwow Trail

Sometimes (very rarely) conditions line up just right to explore the wilderness in unique ways.

Take this year’s “no-snow” winter. Conditions were dry in November. As soon as wild ice started to form on lakes, people went ice skating to remote Boundary Waters locations. This isn’t unusual, but then snow didn’t come in December either. Friends of mine started doing “ice-skate camping” trips, pulling their gear in pulks over frozen lakes through the BWCA on skates. Highly unusual.

Then it rained all day on Christmas 2023, and skating continued into early January with no snow. Finally, there was some temporary relief when about four inches fell the second week of January.

Winter then got dry as a bone again, and has continued that way for months.

At this point you have two choices: lament the lack of snow, yell and complain, or use some ingenuity and thinking outside the box to create alternative ways of exploring the wilderness.

Sometimes you make hay when your creative trip planning lines up just right with Mother Nature’s conditions.

I enjoy these opportunities for testing my problem-solving skills at wilderness travel.

Furthermore, this dry winter happened to coincide with my own newfound interest in Boundary Waters backpacking. I wrote two articles the summer before for Northern Wilds and Minnesota Monthly on how the Powwow Trail has been resurrected by volunteers since the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. I did a lot of research about the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee (volunteer trail maintenance group), and conducted interviews with Martin Kubik, Ken Hupila, and Rod Markin, all BWAC leaders at the time.

As a result, I ended up getting backpacking fever myself, and participated in a lot of BWAC meetings throughout the summer and fall. Specifically, I wanted to try circumnavigating the Powwow Trail.

Precisely at the beginning of my spring break week (March 9-10-11) conditions went from great to IDEAL for backpacking. Temperatures were forecasted to be well below freezing, making for fast walking on hard ground. Furthermore, there had been enough melting throughout the last few weeks that the unplowed Forest Road 377 to entry point #86 was passable for my car. The Powwow Trail itself would be generally ice free due to low snow totals this winter. And there was zero standing water.

Vanessa and I had been dreaming about and planning this trip for a couple months already, seeing the potential for good hiking instead of our usual spring break ski camping trip. We bought her a new down sleeping bag for Christmas, and a pair of insulated winter hiking boots. With all the conditions lining up just right, we set off to seize our opportunity.

Typically, we would drive up on a Saturday morning and spend all day getting deep into the wilderness. But this year, Vanessa and I benefitted from the dry weather in yet another way: Chester Bowl ski area, where I was scheduled to work the evening of Friday the 8th, was closed due to lack of snow. We had an extra evening to work with.

Thus, we left Duluth late on Friday. First, I made a big family dinner, and then it took forever to pack. It seemed like we would never leave. But good preparations are key to a successful trip.

Thanks to Martin for the Coffee Crisps from Canada! We rationed them through the three-day hike, and they made a difference. Getting support and advice from the pros was even more instrumental to us.

We finally hit the road at 8:30 p.m., and turned on to Forest Road 377 about 10:00. From there it’s a slow slog down a bumpy dirt road that dead ends at the edge of the BWCA. Our reward for driving late at night: we saw two lynx lounging on the side of the road, and got to observe them for several minutes from 15 feet away.

The Powwow Trail starts on an old gravel logging road, with the first campsite being about a mile in from the parking lot alongside the Isabella River. We walked into the open site about midnight, made a fire, and set up the tent.

It was a very cold night, and we had frost on the tent in the morning. I didn’t sleep very well, but Vanessa slept great on the down Exped sleeping pad that we had patched just in time for the trip (it arrived by mail the day we left). It was extremely cold taking down camp in the morning, and I made another fire. We finally set off at 11:00 a.m. We immediately crossed the Isabella River, and continued north from there.

The Isabella River on a crisp March morning.

We had bluebird skies for our whole three-day backpacking trip. About half an hour in, we finally started warming enough to take off our down jackets.

Warming up. The trail generally looked like this most of the time – small patches of ice, but plenty of dry ground.

We made it to the first “Wye” within 35 minutes – further than I’d ever gotten before on three previous tries on the Powwow Trail. This time, no scheduling constraints were holding us back.

Kind of a misleading sign at the first “Wye.” In fact, the whole trail is expertly maintained by BWAC. From here, the “lollipop stick” ends, and the loop begins.

We were on a roll now, making it to the second “Wye” an hour later. We decided to take off the heavy packs and go do a little bushwhacking down the previous Powwow Trail East Loop. It was definitely wild back there.

Then we started up one of the hardest sections of the trail, heading northwest. We were expecting there to be far more tree falls in this section (we had only climbed over a few downed trees to this point), but the trail was totally passable. We were building up an appetite, but made our goal of reaching Pose Lake before stopping for lunch. It felt like forever, but we actually got to the campsite within an hour from the second Wye.

The site was incredibly windblown, located high over the lake, and the wind had a polar feel to it. We retreated behind a rocky knob to make lunch and relax.

Grilled pita and cheese for lunch on day 1.

We packed back up and left by 2:45, and started the most “rugged” section of the hike. Again, it really wasn’t that bad. There were ups and downs, and some downed trees. Maybe 25-30 trees to climb over altogether for the day. The new forest growth was beautiful, and Vanessa was amazed by the density and intensity of the green jack pines, all under 13 years old following the forest fire.

Vanessa was born a year before the Pagami Creek Fire. Today she and the jack pines are growing fast together.

We had planned to reach North Wilder Lake to make camp for the night, but as time went on, we changed our destination, and headed for the canoe campsite across South Wilder Lake instead. This would make a shorter day, and get us to a water source faster. We had been drinking Duluth water all day, and it was time for refills.

We bushwhacked from the Powwow Trail down to South Wilder Lake (less than five minutes through thick jack pine) and walked the length of the lake on the ice to get to the canoe site on the far western end.

We gathered plenty of water, and proceeded to make an awesome coconut curry soup mix with added coconut milk for the night. Thankfully, the steady northwest wind completely died right at 6:00 p.m. as were setting up camp.

Our second campsite of the trip was on a slab of bedrock with a very small tentpad (no more than a 2-person tent could fit) in a protected spot in thick new tree growth. There was also the option of setting up the tent on the ice.

Morning of our second full day, with the campsite with fire grate in the background nestled in the jack pines.

We went to bed by 8:30 p.m., and I slept almost till 8:30 a.m. on our second full day. When was the last time I slept 12 hours in a night? It felt so good. This time Vanessa shared the inflatable down pad with me. It was luxury.

We played with the tent on the ice, saw a pair of trumpeter swans flying north, and then broke camp about 12:15 p.m. Conditions were again perfect for hiking. We refilled our bottles a second time from the open water connecting South Wilder Lake to the upstream river, and set off on our way.

We used solid lake ice to make our travel easier in many places. Using the bare ice as an alternate transportation route to the Powwow allowed us to incorporate shortcuts on day 2.

The first half of our hike on day 2 was about finding our way back onto the Powwow. We managed the quest, then left the trail again before reaching North Wilder Lake, so as to make a shortcut across three other lakes: Harbor, Brewis, and Horseshoe. All three are connected by maintained canoe portages.

Here we got to really explore a remote section of the Boundary Waters. As my friend Martin likes to say about this area, “It’s Alaska four hours north of the Twin Cities.”

We were treated to bluebird skies again, and hiked for about 2.5 hours before stopping for lunch at the far west end of Horseshoe Lake, where we reconnected with the Powwow. We had another fabulous hot meal, and then did a side trip to explore the canoe campsite on Lake Three.

It was already 5:00 p.m. when we finished exploring the Horseshoe/Lake Three area, and it was high time to get going again. The clocks had changed to daylight savings time the night before, but we decided to keep our watches on old time, which meant sunset was about 7:00 p.m. We hiked at a great pace from Lake Three to Rock of Ages Lake, and then again to Mirror Lake.

The view over Rock of Ages Lake on Sunday, March 10.

The hiking felt fluid and fun, despite our heavy packs. Spirits were high.

A big tree fall right before Mirror Lake. Still easy going.

We saw a beautiful sunset over Mirror Lake, and again walked the ice.

Mirror Lake – one of 15 lakes we saw in three days of hiking.

We then made the final push to Superstition Lake in the dark, by headlamp. We ended up doing another 10-mile day, with about 7 hours of hiking. It was good to make camp and eat a big pot of hot wild rice soup with cauliflower for dinner. We knew we had gotten ourselves into position to finish off the circumnavigation on our last day.

Our day 2 route, with shortcut across Harbor, Brewis, and Horseshoe lakes.

I didn’t sleep so well on the last night, as Vanessa again got the nicer down mat. Our second sleeping pad was leaky, and I was a little too exposed to the ice.

View from the ice at our third camp, on Superstition Lake.

I set my alarm for the last day – I wanted to be up by 7:00 (actually 6:00 by old time).

I made a fire in the morning, along with a third breakfast of oatmeal, coffee and tea. We packed up quicker than the first two mornings, and left camp at 9:45, after taking more pictures on the ice.

Soon we were making fast progress, as the southern section of the Powwow loop is the easiest part of the whole trail. We got to Campfire Lake by 10:45, but then accidentally made a wrong turn and took the spur down to Quadga Lake. Although we lost 25 minutes finding our way back to the proper direction, I was happy to get to see the beautiful open canoe site on the north side of Quadga. Definitely want to get back there in summer.

The temperature went from about 15F when we woke up to 55F by 1:30 p.m. on our last day. I hiked with no shirt on for some time, and would have loved to have shorts to hike in.

Thus we were thrilled to make it to Diana Lake, with it’s excellent fresh water source running under the bridge, about 1:00 p.m. We had been drinking water straight out of the lakes all weekend, and gulped down a whole quart of lake water each in minutes on Diana. We filled up two more quarts for the remainder of our hike.

Our route on the 3rd day was the longest in distance, but the shortest in time. We walked 11 miles from 9:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

We flew down the trail over the last two hours of our hike. We felt like we were walking on air. Still, when we got to the car, we were very happy to take of our packs for the last time.

The abundant sunshine, the thrilling achievement of hiking 31 miles over land and ice, and our sense of teamwork throughout our three-day trek brought Vanessa and I a lot of satisfaction together. It was a dream hike, and we have this winter’s unusual conditions, and our own initiative, to thank. We may have done the earliest-ever circumnavigation of the Powwow Trail. But that wasn’t the point – we were happy to immerse ourselves in the hike and explore a new region of the Boundary Waters in a brand new way to us.

Thank you to all who supported us in this endeavor, and in particular to Martin Kubik for the inspiration. We are lucky to have you.

One Last Winter Camp

This weekend was a prime opportunity to take my whole family winter camping. I really wanted to get out one more time before (if?) the snow melts. All my friends were busy doing their own thing (I invited four different guys on this trip). So, that left Inna and the girls as my next target. In the end, neither of the older girls had any plans or events for the weekend, which was a minor miracle. Plus we knew that we’re going to be busy the next two weekends. This was our chance! Only one complication – winter was back with a vengeance this weekend.

We had time Saturday morning to sleep in, do some computer work, make a big breakfast, and pack. The packing took the usual two hours, and somehow it never gets any easier. I do create a packing list spreadsheet now before each trip, which really helps. These lists have been one of my biggest camping innovations of this winter.

We hit the road at 1:15, and got to the Finland Co-Op at 3:15, after stops for gas, at the library to return books, and to buy a “magic” fishing lure at Marine General. The Co-Op is really the gateway to the northern MN wilderness, especially in winter.

Nice to be back as a family at one of our “gateways” to adventure.

Then we started heading up County Route 7. It was extreme driving! Some places were muddy and wet, other places were drifted with snow.

Wicked driving conditions – March 26, 2022.

I was hoping to take us to Silver Island Lake, where I had been once before whitefish netting last November, but the access road off of County 7 to Silver Island had not been plowed, and I saw no reason to risk it. Minnesota has plenty of lakes, including Windy Lake another five miles up County 7. The road to Windy was plowed, and luckily for us, the boat launch access to the lake had been half plowed too! We set up our home for the night right there.

Little Stella gets in on the action setting up camp.

We had a lot of shoveling to do to get our tent pad ready. I even used my ice saw to cut through some of the hard packed, icy snow. It was a lot of work. Thankfully I had lots of good helpers.

We used a shovel, a bucket, and an ice saw to get our tent pad ready.

Setting up the tent is a chore in deep snow. Thankfully, the wet snow makes for excellent guy-line anchors when attaching the line to a piece of wood buried in the snow pack. So, snow is your friend, too. It’s all about how you look at it.

Sawing snow into chunks was a first for me. Maybe we can make an igloo next time.

Meanwhile, some of our helpers went to make their own shelters.

This girl might become an engineer some day.

It takes a good hour and half to set up the tent in wintertime. Some of us got tired of working (or at least tired of waiting).

Two girls down. They love relaxing in the snow.

The tent finally went up, and it was a satisfying feeling to send Inna and the girls inside and out of the wind. They set up the sleeping pads and bags, while I got the woodstove going to cook wild rice soup and asparagus for supper.

An essential item for our winter camping trips.

I love playing with the woodstove in general, and on this night, the stove was essential for our well-being. We needed a hot meal – the evening was shaping into a really cold one. I made an exception this night, and let the family eat inside the tent for the first time ever. It was important to stay out of the Arctic wind.

Inna and the girls making due with the tent as their dining room.

The rest of the night was about survival. None of us had a great night’s sleep – it was just that cold. But we all had good warm winter sleeping bags, and pads. And of course we slept in our snow pants and jackets. I think there is some value to going through these kinds of difficulties. Maybe I’m totally wrong.

I went out for a nighttime ski on the ideal lake crust before bedtime. The sky was perfectly clear, and the moon hadn’t come up yet – conditions were ripe for Northern Lights. I was hoping for a repeat of last year’s March camping trip. But no dice. There were still billions and billions of stars to enjoy in the dark night sky.

The next morning dawned clear and sunny, but winter still had us firmly in its grasp.

I made hot cocoa, hot cocoa, and an omelette from eggs and hot dogs over my gas stove for a delicious breakfast. Inna and the girls spent much of the morning relaxing in the car with the heat on. It was a good compromise – I was able to go do some ice fishing on Windy Lake. It was a last ice-fishing hoorah of the season for me.

My ice-fishing shelter on Windy Lake, before the retaining straps broke and the shelter blew away. I was able to chase it down on my skis, and save it.

I got in some great crust skiing on the rock-hard snow surface, and I even had some fishing success, with a beautiful 24-inch northern pike.

All in all it was a challenging, memorable trip.

Even 24 hours like this is enough to get a blast of winter, and make memories for a lifetime.

Traditions – Backpacking the SHT with Adriana in October

A couple weeks ago I wrote about our tradition with Vanessa of hiking the Superior Hiking Trail on a father-daughter overnight trip each September. Thankfully, there is a part 2 to these backpacking trips, which is taking Adriana on a separate trip later in the season. Last year she and I went the first weekend of October, and this year we did it on the second.

Inna was nice enough to give Adriana and me a ride out to the Normanna Rd. trailhead on Saturday evening, and from there Adriana and I set out at dusk. We knew there was a lot of rain in the forecast for the evening, but I felt if we could reach the Lone Tree campsite and get set up with a tent and ground cloth, plus a tarp for extra protection, we would be fine. I was more worried about backpacking out in potentially heavy rain on Sunday morning. We took our chances, and it paid off brilliantly! Lesson learned – sometimes you have to just go for it.

Setting off for a night of backpacking, just outside Duluth.

We crossed the French River – which is more of a brook at this spot – almost immediately. The wooden snowmobile bridge over the creek here made an impression on us.

The sky was getting dark, but we only had a mile hike into our campsite. We weaved our way through the woods, turning our headlamps on at 7:00 p.m. We reached Lone Tree at 7:20, just an hour into our hike. This has to be one of the few Superior Hiking Trail campsites with a whole field available for tenting.

Our day 1 route in blue, and day 2 in orange. We hiked about 7 miles in all.

Setting up camp was perhaps my favorite part of the trip. We worked for about an hour on the tarp and tent, trying to get some extra protection in the event of heavy rain. I was pleased to be able to camp at the top of a grassy hill, out of the mud and standing water. Adriana was a great help, and pitching camp felt like our own engineering project.

Thankfully we had very long lines on all four corners of the tarp. We used all 50 feet in all four directions, with very little slack to tie any knots.

Once we had the tent pitched with adequate protection, I knew we were going to have a great night, even if it rained. We made dinner on my camp stove, and the rain kept holding off. As an added bonus, Adriana brought her storm proof matches, and we made a beautiful fire with some nice birch boughs. It was the first camp fire we’ve had since July. The fire ban here was initiated in mid-July, and was only lifted in mid-September. It felt great to warm up by the flames before we headed to bed. And it still wasn’t raining. We jumped into our sleeping bags and talked for a few more minutes before we were both ready to fall asleep. It felt wonderful to get to bed early at 10:15 p.m.

Sure enough, it started pouring right after midnight, and the rain kept coming all night ling. The winds were strong too. Still, we had excellent sleeping conditions in our dry shelter.

The weather was very generous to us – the rain knocked off about 7:00 a.m. We got out of our sacks at 8:00, and I made coffee and oatmeal outside while Adriana packed up our bags and pads. We were done with breakfast by 9:00, packed down the tent and tarp, and set off again at 9:45. We had no more rain the rest of the day. All told, we never had a drop fall on us outside of the tent the whole weekend, despite forecasts of rain Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Lucky!

The second leg of our hike was generally flat. The only obstacles were the massive puddles from the overnight deluge. It really wasn’t a problem though, and Inna and Vanessa and Stella came back out to meet us at noon after Vanessa’s sleepover with friends. We had quite the experience for an 18-hour trip!

Adriana and I are 2 for 2 so far backpacking the SHT in October. I look forward to keeping this tradition going.

A Heck of a Family Ride

The “Heck of the North” is a gravel cycling race that I first attempted in 2016, riding the 55-mile course. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of doing the 100-mile course twice, and getting some gravel cycling experience under my belt. This year, I wanted to build on the growth my family has shown in bicycling over recent years, and signed all five of us to ride the 20-mile course. It was a true family team-building experience!

Heck of the North 2021. Copyright Evan Frost Photography 2021

It was always going to be a lot of responsibility to take five people biking on the hardest course some of them had ever done. Thankfully, I enjoyed the process of preparing us all. The main preparation was to get us set up mechanically. This involved buying Vanessa her first-ever mountain bike back in June, getting Adriana her first-ever mountain bike six days before the race, and adding two water bottle holders to Inna’s bike. In terms of physical preparation, I can’t say we did any particular training, but I’ve never been great at training for these things anyway. Life gets in the way of religious training. With four proper bikes and a kids bicycle trailer on the car, we headed for Two Harbors the night before the race to pick up our race packets, and camp out for the night at Agate Acres Farm.

Camping out before these races is one of the biggest attractions to me. This year’s Heck of the North base camp had over 100 bicyclists camping out. Thankfully, Emily and Kyle – the farm owners – gave us a great spot in one of their back fields.

Stella at base camp the morning of the race.

Our “team” got to sleep in on Saturday thanks to our late start time (10:10 a.m.). That was definitely a nice change compared to the usual 8:00 a.m. starts I’ve had in the past. We were pleased to see some other kids as we pulled up to the start line for our wave. One of Adriana’s classmates was in the 20-miler, and it was fun to talk to other families.

Then we started cycling. Adriana and I took off down the Alger Grade, with Stella in tow in the trailer. As we cruised through the first half of the race, Adriana’s new bike was paying off, and we both had plenty of energy. There was a lot of excitement in the air, and I was happy to see that on Adriana’s face as well. Having that inner drive to take on the physical and mental challenge of a long race makes these events interesting to me. I was happy to be able to share that to some degree with my wife and kids.

By the halfway check point (with all kinds of free energy snacks and drinks for the taking), Adriana and Stella and I were way ahead of Inna and Vanessa. We waited a while, enjoying some calories and talking with the cool race volunteer. Then we finally circled around to backtrack for them. Sure enough, they quickly came roaring up the trail. It turns out they had had some small psychological setbacks, which is just part of the deal. It was a sign of things to come for all of us though. After reuniting, and resting, the two girls took off to do the second half of the race. The extra energy we got from our break lasted about 15 minutes, then the realization that there was still a long way to go set in.

About two thirds of the way through the course, all the dirt roads turned into a bit of a slog. Then the wind picked up, and naturally we were pedaling right into it for the last five miles. The race had turned into a grind.

It was no easy feat to keep going as the conditions got tougher. A few tears were shed, and we all had to find that will deep inside to keep going. We found it.

Crossing the finish line, and watching all the rest of us cross it too, was a tremendous feeling. I knew it would feel good – it always does. I was happy to be able to share that feeling as a family.

If all five of us do 20 miles each, does that make this a Pascone 100-miler?

I felt the quintessential sense of relief when it was all over, and we had all done it. The whole family pounced on the food truck next to the finish line, which was fine with me. We earned it with our dedication and responsibility to make this race work for us.

Adriana was the youngest finisher of the 2021 race, and Vanessa was third-youngest. Not to mention Stella did the whole race as well in the trailer, and was extremely agreeable all morning. I was a proud father on this day. When Inna asked me when the next race would be after we finished, I knew the spark had caught.

Traditions – Backpacking the SHT with Vanessa in September

Vanessa and I had our first ever father-daughter overnight backpacking trip on September 26-27, 2020. We took the Superior Hiking Trail from the Rossini Road trailhead to the Big Bend campsite on a Saturday evening, then hiked back to the car and across the road out to the McCarthy Creek campsite and back to the car on Sunday. It was a quick overnight trip, but we got a lot of satisfaction from it.

Vanessa, age 10, hiking in to the Big Bend campsite on the Superior Hiking Trail.

I never got a chance to make a write up of that trip last year, but the good memories remain strong.

So, with September on us once again, it was my intent to take Vanessa for another overnight trip this year. We got our chance on September 18-19. We attended an awesome Clover Valley community fish fry on Saturday evening, and we all left the party about 7:15 p.m. so that Vanessa and I could set off on our hike. Inna dropped us at the Western Fox Farm Road trailhead, and Vanessa and I started up the spur trail.

It was getting dark as we crossed the Sucker River for the first time.

We were the only ones out after dark, and had a great time exploring the woods with our headlamps. We hiked about 3.5 miles, occasionally coming to wide open spots in the woods were we could see the big moon shining down.

Moonlit night seen from another bridge over the Sucker.

We got to the Sucker River campsite around 9:30, and set up camp – without a tent. We decided there was no point bringing it for such a clear, bugless night. I put my sleeping bag on a ground cloth, and Vanessa hung her hammock, which she really enjoys sleeping in. We were the only ones at the campsite, which surprised me, considering this is the height of backpacking season in Minnesota. It felt so calming to fall asleep to the sound of the river flowing nearby – one of my favorite sensory experiences. We slept great.

Sunday morning, we were back on trail at 10:00 a.m. It felt good to sleep in first, make hot coffee on a crisp morning, and cook up some cinnamon rolls on my camp stove.

We then hiked for three hours through beautiful, varying forests.

Awesome oak savannahs on the section from Fox Farms to Normanna Rd.

We had set a pick up time with Inna at the Normanna Rd trailhead of 1:00 p.m., so Vanessa and I had to keep the pace going fairly fast. We had 5.5 miles to cover in the 3 hrs. We were hiking on a schedule because had plans to press cider with Cindy and Jeff and May on Sunday afternoon. Sure enough, we got to Normanna right on the dot.

Overall, Vanessa and I got in 9 miles altogether on this short overnight trip. Vanessa’s really good at backpacking! We got to camp at Sucker River and check out the Heron Pond campsite on our way. We saw plenty of other people out on Sunday, and enjoyed the beautiful September weather.

We are 2 for 2 so far backpacking the SHT in September. I look forward to keeping this tradition going.

Return to Canada

One of the things I’ve missed during COVID times is being able to swing up to Canada whenever we please. We’ve never gone there more than once in a year, but it’s just a three-hour drive to the Canadian border from Duluth, and places like Quetico Provincial Park, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, Loch Lomond Ski Area, and the Kamview Nordic Centre have always come through for us in the past. We had a tradition back in Inna’s student days of doing a spring break skiing trip to Thunder Bay in March. That all went out of the window when the border was closed for 16 months.

When the Canadian border was reopened to Americans on August 8th, I immediately saw our chance to get there this summer. We decided not to go the camping route in Quetico this time, as there were forest fires burning there. The decision turned prophetic, as the closure area for backcountry camping in Quetico went from a third of the park on July 12, to a larger area on August 13, to absolutely the entire park on August 17. Just wow. But I had a second option up my sleeve – Kashabowie River Resort. I learned about this resort when I met the owners back in my days working the DECC’s trade shows. They made a big impression on me, and I hadn’t forgotten about the place over the years. This was the year to rent a cabin.

Poor Quetico Provincial Park – the entire park was closed to camping as of September 5th due to forest fires.

We headed north to the border on Friday afternoon, September 3rd. The drive up is easy, and beautiful. We reach the Pigeon River crossing at about 6:00 p.m., and there were only 3 cars in line ahead of us. Not exactly booming tourism to Canada yet. There was a certain amount of understandable bureaucracy with COVID tests and immunization records to get into the country, so it was no surprise that the lines are short.

We crossed the border in no time, and made Odena Foods in Kakabeka Falls our next stop. It was a cool feeling to be grocery shopping in a foreign country. We got to Kashabowie by 8:00 p.m., for about a five hour drive total, having left Duluth at 3:00 p.m.

The resort held some immediate surprises for us. There are lots of people there! Lots of long-term RV campers from Thunder Bay. Many of these were families with kids. It turned out that we were in a “community.” The other campers were a tight-knit group, and very social. You can tell Canada is a more socialist country than the U.S. right away. The other campers had a lot of contests, games, prizes, and other fun for kids all weekend, since it was their “close-up” weekend for the season. At any one time throughout the day, there could be 20-25 kids participating in some kind of games right outside our cabin. Everything was communal, and Vanessa and Adriana got to participate, and loved it. It was a very different experience from solitary canoe camping.

I took Vanessa with me for a 5-hour canoe trip Saturday afternoon down expansive Upper Shebandowan Lake, with portages into Loch Erne and Teardrop Lake. All very beautiful. We had a nice mix of paddling, walking, the woods, and fishing.

Heading out with Vanessa from Kashabowie River Resort to explore area lakes.

Canada is so big, and there are so many lakes, I am eternally attracted to the place. It felt good to explore three new lakes!

Vanessa paddling east toward Loch Erne Bay on Shebandowan. This girl can paddle!

There was a brief rain shower just as we finished the portage from Teardrop back down to Shebandowan. The sunset was beautiful as we set out for home.

Vanessa getting a glimpse of that Canadian sun.

I set aside some time early on Sunday morning for a bike ride. It was phenomenal. I did a 25 mile ride, with most of it coming on Highway 802 – a gravel road to Burchell Lake. A small part of the ride was on King’s Highway 11, part of the Trans-Canada Highway. Cool roads! The ride felt so good – I love exploring by bike just as much as by canoe.

We did a family road trip to the Quetico Park Heritage Information Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. It is a stirring feeling for me to pass the Arctic Watershed sign on the Canadian Trans-National Highway.

We went specifically to the Quetico ranger station to see the Lac la Croix ponies (Ojibwa horses) that happened to be on exhibit for the weekend. According to Quetico:

Lac la Croix ponies are an endangered indigenous horse breed. The horses are compact, friendly, intelligent, gentle and playful. They are well adapted to life in the northern Ontario bush. Lac la Croix ponies once ran wild in Quetico Park and the boreal forests of northwestern Ontario and adjacent Minnesota. They shared the land and lived closely with the Ojibwa people. The ponies nearly went extinct in 1977, but rescue efforts at Lac la Croix First Nation brought them back from the brink.

Who knew? The girls fed the ponies carrots (Vanessa saved the day remembering to take them). Then we took a nice walk in the park around the visitor’s center.

Plaque on the boardwalk trail at the Quetico Heritage Information Pavilion.

Then it was back to Kashabowie for another evening of outdoor games and bike riding with the neighbor kids.

Finally, on our last day, I did a solo fishing trip to Sitche Lake, which is known to be a stocked speckled trout lake. I didn’t catch anything, but was lucky to add a fifth lake to my list of explorations for the weekend.

Getting ready to check out from Kashabowie. We will be back!

The drive home to Duluth was no trouble, and we stopped in Grand Marais for a quick bike ride with the girls on the new Gitchi-Gami trail section out to the Cut Face Wayside Rest.

Canada is my kind of place, and I am thankful we were able to round out our excellent 2021 summer with this trip north of the border.

Taking Us to the Timber

We pulled off three camping trips in July, for a total of seven nights. A proud accomplishment for me. Our last trip of the height of summer was to the the Timber-Frear canoe camping loop in the Superior National Forest. Adriana and Vanessa were game to join me, Jim, Andrew and Otis for a two-night trip.

We left late in the day on Friday, July 30, so that Adriana could go to her gymnastics open gym at 5:00. Vanessa and I picked her up 6:30, and we were at Whitefish Lake Rustic Campground by 9:00. We followed the US Forest Service’s advice, taking Forest Roads 343, 166, 346, 170, and 348 to get to the campground. What a route! We had never been on some of these roads before – they’re out there!

There was a short thunder storm that night about 2:00 a.m., and there were also some other loud campers at the campground, so it wasn’t the best night for sleeping. But no matter – we had paddling to do! We ate a big breakfast of fried cinnamon rolls off my camp stove, then packed up all the tents, brought the boats down to the water, and set off on Whitefish Lake.

The wind was blowing strong on Whitefish, but it was just a short paddle to the portage to Elbow. We did the easy 74 rod portage, and then set off on much bigger Elbow Lake. Jim got the first fishing success of the day, trolling up a nice pike. The night before, Otis had caught a walleye on Whitefish Lake while the girls and I were driving up. Finally, as we entered the deeper north end of Elbow, I hooked up with a good size walleye of my own – the largest walleye of my season to date. I caught it trolling, and Otis and I had an awesome experience landing it in the canoe. Andrew had just given the girls the fishing net from the canoe he and his dad were paddling when we stopped for lunch, and I’m sure we never would have gotten this “Walter” in the boat without it.

A very fine catch by my modest standards. The Minnesota State Fish – the walleye.

That put us up to three fish, which was plenty for dinner, even with four hungry young ones to feed. We decided soon after to take the far northern campsite on Elbow Lake, which served us very well. The girls and I set up our sleeping tent and our bug tent, and it was still only 6:30. Time to go fishing again!

Otis and I headed north to Timber Lake, while Jim, Andrew, Vanessa and Adriana stayed back to hang out and take care of dinner. Otis and I made the slightly mucky portage into Timber, and paddled the length of the lake. We were the only people on Timber. It felt so quiet there, as the wind died and the sun went down. Otis caught another walleye trolling, and we also explored the excellent campsite on Timber. A nice one for the future!

Our day 1 paddling in orange, or day 2 paddling in yellow.

We had a massive fish fry when we got back to camp at 9:30. I was dying for a big meal, and this one did not disappoint. Walleye and pike in spicy cornmeal batter. Just about the best food there is. I did all the clean up after dinner, and hung a bear bag – the National Forest had just mandated bear bags due to a severe lack in forage for bears. This year’s wild berry crop has been a failure due to drought.

We all slept great on night 2, and then it was time for more cinnamon rolls in the morning before breaking camp.

We decided not to continue the loop on day 2. We had heard a report from a kayaker on Saturday that the portages into Frear, Lost, and Elbow were more mucky. They were also longer. And we would have to do five portages from our campsite to get home continuing the loop, but just one if we turned around and headed back the same way we came. We settled on the easy route back.

We launched about 1:15 p.m., and soon we were paddling over about the same spot where I caught the big walleye the day before on Elbow, except this time Vanessa was holding the rod. She was using the same lure I had success on. I told her to be ready. Sure enough, we saw her rod bend over backwards in a wicked thump! This could mean only one of two things: either a big snag, or a big fish. I asked Vanessa what she had on, and for a moment she wasn’t sure. There’s always that first few seconds where you can’t figure out what’s really happening. Then her rod tip started moving! Always a good sign! Even as she was reeling in, she couldn’t believe she had a fish on. She broke into a huge smile as she fought what seemed to be a hefty fish. The fish pulled some line off her tight-set drag, which was a sign to me that she had hooked a big one. After some time she got the fish closer to the boat, and it suddenly turned on its side and flashed underwater – it was huge!! We got a great glimpse of a mighty pike. It wasn’t done though. Now we were all on the edge of our seats as Vanessa kept trying to work it closer, and the fish kept making runs, pulling line off the reel. At one point it seemed to be close enough for Otis to net it (thank God we had the net again), but as soon as Otis put the net in the water the fish took a mighty run straight under the boat. I was sure the fish was going to break the line, as Vanessa’s pole was completely underwater up to her hand! The tension on the line was just sickening! Somehow, miraculously, the line held, Vanessa pulled the fish back up to the surface, and on the third try Otis got it in the net! It was a giant, 26 inch pike. A catch Vanessa will never forget!

That fish was the highlight of the trip. We still had a long ways to go on Elbow though, and we kept fishing. I caught one more small walleye, and Jim caught one more small pike. Altogether, four of us caught fish on the trip, on three different lakes. Great results!

We got back to Whitefish, and went for a short swim to finish off the trip. From there it was back to Duluth, and we had two more fish fries on Monday and Tuesday!

As far as weekend canoe camping trips go, you can’t do much better than Timber-Frear. I hope to do it again some day, staying at Timber Lake, and completing the whole loop.

The Beaches of Trout Lake

People go to the Boundary Waters Wilderness for varying reasons. I’m sure I don’t even know the half of them. I personally go for the fishing, the exploring, and the discovery. Other people seem to really enjoy the solitude, the quiet, and solo trips. Yet others want to push their physical limits, and see how far they can go in a certain number of days. One reason to visit the BWCA that I don’t hear mentioned so often though is to enjoy a beach vacation. The truth is, there aren’t that many sand beaches in the BWCA. In fact, vast swaths of the wilderness are just endless rocky shores. And let’s face it – the climate up here can be less than compatible with lounging on the beach. But there are exceptions. Our recent trip to Trout and Oriniack Lakes proved it.

We headed in on Thursday, July 15, from Moccasin Point on Lake Vermillion with our friends Tim and Daley. We were extremely fortunate that Tim had a 4 horsepower 1974 Evinrude motor that he was able to mount on his Grumman canoe, and use it to tow our canoe with me, Vanessa, Adriana and Stella and all our gear across Vermillion (outside of the BWCA), and up the entire length of Trout Lake (completely within the Boundary Waters, but with a special 25 horsepower motor limit). Needless to say, getting a tow was an absolute luxury!

Living the life of luxury! Getting a tow from a motorized canoe was a first for us. and it worked great.
Vanessa: “This is amazing!”

Tim’s tow meant I could dedicate my time to keeping Stella in the boat (1 year, 10 months old), and take the pressure off Vanessa and Adriana to help me paddle. It felt like a real vacation! The tow also meant we could take a cooler, and lots of other extras, since we only had one 60-rod portage to do from Vermillion to Trout. We put in at 12:15 on Vermillion, and soon Tim had us cruising at 5 miles an hour with the motor, all while pulling our huge load!

We all stopped for lunch at the base of the falls coming down from Trout Lake – a beautiful spot.

The base of the falls from Trout to Vermillion.

We continued north on Trout Lake with Tim’s tow system after completing the portage. We stopped for a nice swim at the very same beach we had enjoyed with Jim and Andrew and Otis a year ago. It felt so good to know a special beach on the lake already. We cooled off, then motored up to the far northwest end of Trout Lake by 5:00.

We had done our campsite research before the trip, and we knew there would be three nice campsites close to the portage to Oriniack Lake. My main goal for the trip was to make it in to Oriniack, since we never made it that far a year ago after getting hit by the vicious storm. We found that two of the three sites we were interested in were taken, but the peninsula campsite was still open. According to the Paddle Planner website: “The campsite is on a point. It has great views. Numerous flat tent pads. Ideal for a large group. There are landings on either side of the peninsula. It is mostly red pines. Long walk to the latrine (100 yards), but it is a nice hike. It could be windy depending on the wind direction.” Well, there was no wind for all four days of our trip, and this campsite was to be our prime home base!

Our basecamp for three nights. The bug tent was critical every night. The mosquitoes came out in droves at 9:30 p.m each night, right as we were eating dinner. We would have been toast without the screen shelter.

We set up camp, had a great dinner, and got in the tent by 11:00. Not bad for day 1, considering we started in Duluth.

My dream came true on day 2: we made it in to Oriniack! We took our time packing for the day trip in the morning, and left camp about noon. It was just a short paddle to the portage, and we stopped at the beautiful sand beach (#2) just before the portage for our second swim of the trip. I bought us a new snorkeling mask to share the day before we left, hoping to take advantage of the clear water on Trout Lake, and Adriana wouldn’t take it off! She transformed into a dolphin for this vacation.

Adriana with her mask, and two little ones in the background.

The portage trail to Oriniack is one of the best I’ve ever seen. At a 170 rods, it’s not short, but it goes through beautiful oaks and maples, and there are some more open sections as well. A nice mix of terrain. Stella was able to hike all the way to the peak of the portage, about 10 minutes of climbing, then took a little spill and decided that was enough. I took the canoe off my shoulders and carried Stella down the second half.

When we got to Oriniack, it was time for snacks, then I went back up the trail to grab the canoe. Once I got it down to Oriniack, and we loaded it up, I saw an enormous snapping turtle watching us from five feet away. It looked me right in the eye – a spirit turtle that had come to tell me this was the right place for us to be. It swam slowly away after giving us its message.

We caught two nice northern pike trolling from the canoe. The second was particularly big and powerful. Thankfully we had just met up with Tim and Daley at their canoe as I caught it, and Daley was able to net it for me. A keeper for dinner! We were the only party on the entire lake! Oriniack fulfilled all my wildest dreams, and then some…

We continued heading east down the lake, looking for a lunch spot. Finally, about 3:45 p.m. we found a fabulous sand beach! Number 3! I was surprised – I wasn’t expecting to find any beaches on this relatively small lake. We got fabulously lucky – or maybe we just reaped the rewards that all explorers inevitably do. I cooked us all a hot lunch on my camp stove while all the kids swam. It was an idyllic setting, just like the rest of the trip.

Stella finally fell asleep for her daily nap in the canoe about 5:30, and we got back to our portage close to 6:30. We let her sleep a while longer, then I portaged her up the hill, and Vanessa carried her down to Trout. I returned to the canoe, and had a moment alone to say goodbye to this amazing body of water. Oriniack was generous to us – we had 2 walleyes and 3 northern pike on our stringer to bring back to camp.

We got “home” close to 8:30, and Daley and I went to fillet all the fish on a nearby island. Tim then conducted a massive fish fry, and we all ate so well in the bug tent. There were lots of dishes, but it was worth it.

Saturday just felt like a bonus, now that I had already achieved my main goal of reaching Oriniack. We headed out for the day around 1:00, and went straight to the huge beach campsite down the shore from our peninsula. Beach #4 for us! As luck would have it, the group that had been camping there packed up and left just as we were approaching. As Paddle Planner explains this site: “The most distinguishing feature of the campsite is the large, long sand beach. It is so big that you can pick it out on satellite photos.” We went on to enjoy swimming here for a good hour, before setting off for the North Arm of Trout Lake in our canoes. There was still no wind, and we were able to navigate the big water of Trout Lake quite easily. The incessant heat became somewhat of a problem for Stella. She started crying for the first time on the trip. But soon we pulled in to an island campsite, and I made another hot lunch of spaghetti and pesto and hot dogs, and all wrongs were righted. The kids ate a ton!

On our way home we stopped at beach #5 – an absolute gem that will go down as my favorite of the trip. We played a lot of water frisbee here, and the late-day-light was just perfect on the big west-facing rock ledge. The little cove was so protected and serene.

The obligatory Trout Lake frisbee – two years in a row now.

I really enjoyed being able to truly relax at this spot, and just dive, swim, play and splash. This was the pinnacle of the trip for me. We took a lot of photos, and let the spot sink into our souls.

Eventually we all got our fill of swimming, and felt so relaxed. It was heaven.

I found a leech swimming in the water as were leaving, and Tim baited my spinner rig with it, and soon we were trolling down Trout back towards our campsite. Stella fell asleep almost immediately as Vanessa and I paddled the canoe. We caught two smallmouth bass on the way home, and the second was a true beauty, which I released.

We had a nice last night in camp, and Stella napped until almost sunset. She could have slept right through the night, but I had to wake her up to feed her dinner, or else she would have woken me up at 4:00 a.m…

Our last morning was the inevitably sad packing up phase. The job was done by 12:45, and we headed back down Trout, Tim towing us once again. He had just enough gas for two full travel days. We did a little trolling in deep water on the way home to no avail, but stopped at beach #6 (another one we had found the year before with Jim’s family). Adriana swam the most, as usual, and from there we headed back to civilization knowing that we had just experienced the best beach vacation a family can possibly have in the BWCA.

Learning from the Legends

There’s a guy named Bob Cary, whom I never met, but I owe him a lot. His article “Border Lakes Silver Strike,” which I scanned from the Spring 1988 issue of “The Boundary Waters Journal” at the Duluth Public Library two summers ago, inspired me in multiple ways. It opened my eyes to the possibility of catching whitefish with hook and line, instead of netting them, as I’ve done the last three Novembers. It got me thinking of trying a canoe trip right after ice out, before the crowds come in. And it inspired me to visit a part of the Boundary Waters I hadn’t seen before – Prairie Portage. These inspirations all came together this spring for a trip with my buddies Joel and Brett. Little did we know how phenomenal it would be.

We left Duluth on Friday at 5:00 p.m. It had been such a busy week, seeing Inna and the girls off to Russia, and having so much work to do besides. I was dying to leave town and hit the woods. I had been dreaming of taking this trip ever since I read lines like “as the fish tore out broadside to the current, the rod bent over in a sharp arc, line whistling through the guides. In a flash of reflected light, a streamlined form broke the surface, revealing the silver sides and tell-tale forked caudal fin of a three-pound lake whitefish; then it pointed its nose toward International Falls, ran to the end of the line, and ripped the hook loose.” This was my kind of fishing! This was what I wanted to be doing on the last day of April in northern Minnesota.

We reached Moose Lake – entry point #25 to the wilderness – at 7:40 p.m., and set off in a northerly direction in my canoe, which was loaded to the gills. The guys had been poking fun at me the whole way to Ely about how late we would be setting off. But with three guys paddling, and a bit of a tailwind, we flew up Moose Lake, and passed through the channel into Newfound Lake. Reading the map by headlamp was fun, and we found our desired campsite by 9:15. The site was beautiful, and it was a great night for sleeping to the haunting calls of loons – they were back to their favorite place as well!

The first day of May dawned like this – unbelievable.

We had an awesome paddle on Saturday morning to the place of my dreams – Prairie Portage. This is the international border with Canada, and there was even a big sign on the Canadian shore.

Temptation… Thought long and hard about making a dash for Canada!!

Then we walked down to the falls of the Knife River, which would be our fishing grounds for the next two days.

About as picturesque a fishery as one could ask for.

I was able to hook into a beautiful whitefish on my third cast. The game was on!

We spent the next three hours standing waist-deep in 48 degree water. I can’t say we landed any more fish, but I also can’t say we weren’t getting any action. We were getting hits – we just weren’t hooking the fish. It was time to take a break for lunch and regroup.

The thundering Knife River falls and a bright, sunny afternoon made a blissful setting for our shore lunch. I had fun cooking hot soup on my gas stove, and we relaxed in the shade. My arms were already pink.

Joel tanning on May 1st. Also one of the few places where you’ll find a dock in the BWCA.

Not long after we went back out to try some more, a local old-timer showed up. He was in waders, while we had switched to fishing from our canoe. We were happy to finally see someone – the first person we encountered all day. I also saw this as an opportunity to learn from a local fisherman. We assumed he must have lots of experience. We went for a long paddle and let him do his fishing (meditation?) alone, but we were hoping he would still be there when we got back from our jaunt to Rice Bay on Basswood Lake. As we came back around the last bend, there he was, just packing up to go home at 8:00 p.m. We paddled as hard as we could, landed the canoe swiftly, and raced up the portage to catch him before he left in his motor boat. We caught him at the landing, and tried to nicely interrogate him on how to hook these wily whitefish. He turned out to be a really nice man – and a DNR fisheries biologist. We struck the jackpot! The half hour we spent talking to him made our whole trip. We learned a lot about whitefish, and Ely-area fishing in general.

We returned to our campsite under the cover of darkness, and I cooked the lone whitefish for our dinner. It tasted incredibly delicious after an extremely long day on the water. We started making our strategy for Sunday’s fishing around the campfire. We had learned from the “DNR guy” that the whitefish were eating walleye eggs. I had one tiny egg pattern in my fly box. I tied it on.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and beautiful, and we made our way right back to Prairie Portage after breakfast. We had this route memorized well by now, and 35 minutes later we were putting on our waders for another try at the Knife River outlet to Basswood.

It was instant action on my first cast with the tiny egg imitation on a size 12 hook. My bobber literally hadn’t been in the water a second! It vanished, and I was immediately into a nice whitefish. Brett helped me land it, and the game was on – again! This time we were determined to “match the hatch” of fish eggs, and did much better at establishing a pattern and working it. I got two more whitefish, and two suckers, all in quick succession. It was a thrill battling those big fish in the heavy current. One of the suckers was edging five pounds. One of the whitefish pushed four pounds. Both were a great fight on my light spinning tackle in the rapids!

Brett hooked into several big fish, one of which was a whitefish, and we landed two suckers for him as well.

Landing the fish in the net can be almost as much fun as fighting them on the rod. The net person has to run back and forth, up and down stream, chasing the action. It’s a real challenge to chase the fish over all the slippery underwater rocks in the fast current.

We rounded out the day with some more misses – I had a nice fish break my line after I failed to loosen the drag quickly enough. I think it was a whitefish, judging by the flash of silver I saw in the current as it broke me off.

Yet another unforgettable day of fishing in the BWCA.

Brett and Joel kept casting, and we no doubt could have fished all day, but we forced ourselves to leave at 2:30 and paddle back to camp for lunch. We had a leisurely lunch, packed up our three tents, and set off down Newfound Lake at 6:00. We were back at the launch by 7:05, rounding out an amazing 48 hours of border water silver strikes. Thank you Bob Cary. Without you and your article, I never would have known. We truly appreciate you.