Out of Minnesota

We are off the water from our annual Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) excursion. We put in on Sunday August 26 and took out on Friday September 7, a total of 13 days. This trip was different from our other trips in several ways. First, we took a very short and leisurely route, with a very long layover on one lake. Second, there was a total fire ban in effect due to the extremely dry conditions. This affected our cooking strategy and our trash management. When we picked up our permit we asked the ranger what it would take for the Forest Service to lift the fire ban. He said the ban would be over when Noah's Ark floated by.

We put in on Lake One, near Ely. This is one of the most popular entry points into the BWCAW. There were a ton of boats on the water and some real traffic jams at the portages. We portaged into Lake Two and then paddled into Lake Three, where we spent our first night. From Lake Three we paddled into Lake Four (see a pattern here?) Then we made two short portages into Fire Lake where we spent our second night. From Fire Lake we made another short portage into Hudson Lake where we spent our third night. Then we portaged into Lake Insula, where we base-camped for six nights. Lake Insula is a very interesting and pretty lake with a number of islands and coves. While at Insula, we spent our days paddling around to different coves, fishing, reading, and just plain goofed off. When we left Lake Insula, we basically reversed our route (but by-passed Fire Lake) and camped in the same lakes on the way out that we camped in when we entered.

We saw many, many bald eagles and loons, but saw very few big mammals. Camp chipmunks and camp mice were abundant (Izaak wouldn't have stood for that!), but we saw no bears, no moose, no otters, not even a beaver (actually Wayne, Lynda and Don allegedly saw a bear and an otter on Fire Lake). The lack of these sightings was pretty unusual. People have said that the warm temperatures have driven the moose further north. The fishing was good. We ate fish for two meals, but could have had more fish dinners if we had wanted to. The weather was pretty good. The temperatures were mild, ranging from highs near 80 and lows in the 50s. We had a few light rains, but nothing significant enough to end the fire ban ..... until day 12. On day 12, the Thursday before we would take out, it started raining about noon. When it finished raining about 24 hours later, it had dumped between 10 and 13 inches, depending who you wished to believe. We didn't see Noah's Ark, but the critter's were lining up two by two. Luckily we were in camp during the whole rain event and stayed fairly dry under our tarp and in our tents. We asked the first paddlers we saw that had put in on Friday the status of the fire ban; they said the Forest Service would make an evaluation on the following Tuesday. Typical government bureaucracy inefficiency. A few hours later after we had taken out, we talked to a ranger, and he said the fire ban had been lifted at noon on Friday, that the supervisor had caved to political pressure. Typical government bureaucracy flip-flopping. So, in the end, the fire ban was rescinded just about the time we hit the landing at the take-out. Figures.

We spent Friday night in Ely, where Don treated us all to pizza and beer. We perused the shops of Ely and visited the vendors in the park for the Blue Moon Festival. On Saturday we shopped in Duluth and ate lunch at Fitger's Brewhouse, where Wayne picked up a couple of "Growlers". We now start the long drive home to North Carolina. We expect to arrive late on Sunday afternoon.