Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Aug 2016 Trip 1

We put into the BWCAW last Friday on Brule Lake.  This trip was going to be a little different from past trips.  Wayne and Lynda want to do easier trips (meaning no portaging).  They intended to stay on Brule Lake for 7 nights without moving.  While Dorcas and I can't do what we used to do, we still want to move a little bit.  A compromise was struck.  We would each get separate permits so we could   camp separately, but would spend the first night of our trip on Brule with Wayne and Lynda, then split away for a fairly easy trip.

Putting-in at Brule Lake

Brule Lake is a fair distance, almost 3 hours, from Ely and Fall Lake Campground, where we base camp and leave the RVs.  On Friday we got up before 6:00 and moved the RVs to the nice paved supervised parking lot at Fall Lake and headed to town for a traditional big breakfast at Britton's Restaurant.  After breakfast we headed north and east up MN 61 along the Lake Superior north shore.  We unloaded our gear at the Brule landing and then shuttled the Element to Homer Lake, where Dorcas and I would take out after 8 days.

Matilda says "Is it a good camp site?

We found a very nice camp site on the point of an island on Brule, which had a lake view to the north and south.

Our camp on Brule Lake

Since Wayne and Lynda were not going to portage, they carried gear much like we carry on river trips: 3 tables, two steel folding chairs, a Coleman 2-burner stove, a 50-quart cooler and 2 kitchen sinks.  Dorcas and I were traveling much lighter.

Matilda always hams it up for the camera

The next morning Dorcas, Matilda and I moved to Juno Lake and spent 2 nights.  Then on to Vern Lake and Homer Lake where we spent 2 nights on each Lake.

Beavers on an evening prowl

Are they on a a date?

Common loons off our camp on Homer Lake

A glorious sunset

A pretty portage path

A rainy afternoon

Dorcas sleeping in on a lay-over day

Making a firewood run

Firewood was scarce at the camp sites.  Several times we paddled across the lake to gather firewood.

Our kitchen on Juno Lake

Pre-s'mores

We kept some marshmallows out before we hung the food pack.  What better place to hold them before we burned the egg carton.

PERFECT!!!

A view from our camp on Homer Lake

Daddy, is that a fish?

A medium sized Northern Pike.

Fishing was generally slow.  We didn't fish too hard, but did catch a few.  This one was good eating size, but we caught him just before a portage and decided to let him go.

Pancakes and country ham 

Paddling through the lilies

A "sincere" wood pile.  We may have upset the beaver from whose lodge we stole the wood.

A misty morning on Vern Lake

Our view from Homer Lake

Is it Canine or Ursine?

At our camp on Homer Lake we found some scat on the path to the latrine.  At first I thought it was bear, but later I thought maybe it might have been coyote, wolf or even a large domestic dog.  I didn't pick it apart to see what the critter had been eating.  Matilda was very skittish at this camp.  She would bark at something back in the woods to the right, then to the center, then to the left, as though something was circling our site.  We never did see or hear anything ourselves, but did keep a can of bear spray handy.

We're likin' the lichen

One of our few portages

We think these are Eared Grebes

Our Route

It was a nice, easy, short trip.  We only traveled a total of about 19 miles.  We had nice weather, with just a few showers.  The temperatures generally ranged from highs in the mid 70s to lows in the upper 40s.  All was well when we got back to the car at Homer Lake and to the coach at Fall Lake.  We checked in at Fall Lake CG for 3 nights.  Tomorrow we will put in for another 8-day trip at Moose Lake.

Life is good!

Flashback Friday: BWCAW, The Whitley Way

In September 2013, in response to many questions I have had from friends about the Boundary Waters, I posted an essay on the Whitley Way of doing the BWCAW.  It is long and detailed.  If you are not an outdoor enthusiast or camping gear head, you might want to pass.

If you think this is your cup of the, click here.

Enjoy. We'll be back online in about a week.

Ely!

On Monday morning in Thunder Bay I started calling truck repair shops to see if we could get our sway bar bracket fixed.  Two shops I called were busy, and it would be at least tomorrow before they could look at it.  The third shop, Narvi's Auto Service, said they could work on it this morning.  So we packed up and headed to downtown Thunder Bay.  

In the shop at Narvi's Auto Center

We arrived at the shop about 9:30, and Mike looked at it right away.  They didn't have the part in stock, and it would take a day or two to get it. Mike said the broken part could be welded and be as good as new.  We had no other choice so said "Let's go for it."  Mike removed the broken part, welded the part, including a gusset to reinforce the weld and put it back together.  He observed the drag link bolts were also loose and tightened those, then put Loctite an all the bolts.  He then inspected the bracket on the PS and saw some cracks there, perhaps due to the unrestricted motion of the bar on the DS.  He took the bracket on that side off, and welded it as well.  By 11:30 we were on our way.  We were charged one hour of labor and a modest welding fee for repairing both brackets and tightening up all the drag link bolts.  Not bad. 

The repaired sway bar bracket

Mike was pretty cool.  He had been working for his dad, the owner of the shop, for eight years.  Mike owns and drives a race car, and every weekend he, his father and his crew pile into his RV and head south to Duluth MN and Ashland WI for three different races.

Mike the mechanic

We left Thunder Bay heading south and the US.  As usual the crossing was pretty smooth.  There was a backup of about 6 cars, but things moved along.

The border crossing to Minnesota south of Thunder Bay ON

In Grand Marais we pumped 105 gallons of diesel, about 3/4 tank.  The fuel price here was about $1.50 cheaper than in Thunder Bay, and Thunder Bay was the cheapest fuel we had seen in over a week in Canada.   We have fuel fillers on both sides of the coach.  Whenever we find cheap fuel and want to fill her to the brim, I can drop the air on the opposite side and get another 6-8 gallons in.

She's a thirsty beast

Cross Creek Falls on highway 61 in Schroder MN

We arrived in Ely MN in the late afternoon on Monday.  Faithful readers will know that Ely is one our favorite places.  We drove to Fall Lake Camp Ground where we had site #62 reserved.  We have stayed on #62 several times and knew we could not get satellite TV there, due to a tree blocking the antenna.  However, there had been a serious storm here in July and a lot of trees were blown down.  I turned on the antenna. and it locked on almost immediately, looking directly over the root wad of a downed pine tree.  I couldn't have done better if I had brought a chain saw.

A most fortunate blow down

This Mini Cooper was spotted in our loop.  Whatever floats your boat.

There are perhaps 50 canoe outfitters in the Ely area.  This is a scene from our favorite outfitter: Spirit of the Wilderness 

On Wednesday we paddled to the Kawishiwi Falls on Fall Lake, about a 5-mile trip.

It was a beautiful day to paddle.

Our friends Wayne and Lynda on Fall Lake

The Kawishiwi Falls on Fall Lake

 You never know what you will see on the streets of Ely.

This one's for you, Katie

Ely has a new public library where we always spend some time.  The new library has a rain water collection system for irrigation.  COOL!

We are going into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for 8 days starting Friday.  I will post on that adventure when we come out.

A Bump in the Road

Canada has very good signage.  Often there is no text on the sign; there is only an icon.  One sign we have come to watch for very closely is the "bump" sign, which looks a bit like an inverted saw blade.  The "bump ahead" sign is very similar, but has an arrow pointing down the road to the "bump sign".

Bump ahead sign

Bump sign

Bump ahead sign, orange variety used in a construction zone

This bump sign got bumped over. Perhaps it got pounded by flying debris from a motor home.

The Canadian bump signs are all well and good, much better than we do in the US, but there is still a problem:  All bumps are not created equal.  Some bumps are like "Was that it? Did you feel any thing?"  While other bumps are "Holy mother of crap!!!  How long were we airborne?"  And you really can't tell by looking until it's too late.  A bump in a motor home is nothing like a bump in an automobile.  On a big bump, teeth rattle, dishes clatter and the dog runs and hides under the bed with a whimper.  We don't want to take bumps so hard that parts fall off the coach, but we also don't want to brake so hard and go so slow that drivers behind us skid off into the ditch to avoid a rear end chain reaction.

What they really need is a five-point Bump Classification Scale, much like the Richter Scale, so you will know how to react.  A "1" on the BCS would be a mild but noticeable bump that can be negotiated at near the speed limit.  A "5" on the BCS would make the windows fall out at 15 mph (or whatever the kph conversion is).  On Monday we hit bumps on two separate occasions that triggered the collision event function on our Garmin Dash Cam.  One of these events was in the US and no bump sign even existed.

Here is a short video of a bump event that triggered a Dash Cam collision event.  It may not look like much in the video due to the extreme wide angle view of the lens, but it was bone jarring.   Also, this bump was almost invisible from the cockpit.  Click here to see video.

Looping North of Lake Superior

After we left Algonquin Park we had no more camp reservations and, for the most part, no particular idea where we would camp for the next seven nights.  We easily located a camp in Sudbury, and we were fairly sure we would camp at the casino in Sault Ste. Marie, but after that ????

We departed the Sault about 11:00 on Thursday morning and headed north and west on PH 17, the Trans-Canada Highway.  There was rain predicted.   We made a stop at a picnic area at Chippewa Falls, the half way point on the Trans-Canada Highway.

The Lower Cascade of Chippewa Falls

My two best friends at Upper Cascades Chippewa Falls

The rain finally caught up with us and lasted much of the afternoon and through the night after we parked.  It wasn't a great day to drive: Dorcas made a lot of sucky hissy sounds.  Click here for a short video clip (11 seconds).

We had hoped to camp in Lake Superior Provincial Park, but of course, we had no reservation.  No problem, eh?  It's a Thursday night and the weekenders haven't arrived yet.  NOT!  We stopped at Agawa Bay CG, and there were no sites.  They called the next park campground, Rabbit Blanket Lake, about 35 miles up the road and they had a site.  When we got there, there were no sites available, at least not one that would fit a 34' motor home.  DRAT!  It was now panic time.  It was raining and we had no home.  There was no Walmart within 300 miles, and I think the Canadians frown on roadside camping.  Dorcas went online (the internet is pretty good along the highway) and found us a site at Wawa RV Resort and Campground in Wawa, about 20 more miles further along the way..  Relief! We had a home.  We checked in and set up in the rain.  We had a nice level site, so level in fact, that no water would drain from the site.  Puddle city.  We had 30A electrical, but, as at Mine Mill CG, the voltage was terrible.  We throttled our charger, ran the fridge on LP, cooked with LP and struggled through it.  By morning the skies had cleared and most of the puddles had drained.  It looked like it was going to be a nice day with much cooler temps.

Our home in Wawa, after the rains

Check out the Airstream Base Camp

We checked out of the camp and went into Wawa and spent some time at the Visitor Center.

Everybody smile for the camera!

We love benches during a hard day of sight seeing

The famous Wawa Canada goose 

The regional airport is across the road from the Visitor Center.  The airport was closed and they were hosting the Northern Nationals Drag Races on the air strip.  It looked like a big deal. Cars, campers, RVs, vendors and race car trailers were piling through the single entrance to the track, causing a major traffic jam.  Luckily we escaped from the VC with minimal road rage.

Two different ways to see the country

We stopped for lunch at the Visitor Center in White River.  White River is where the real bear was found that inspired the Winnie the Pooh stories.  I won't repeat the story, but following is an excerpt from my post when we passed through White River last year.

We stopped for lunch at White River ON, which as it turns out, was the origin of Winnie the Pooh.  A Canadian soldier was waiting for a train at the White River station and bought a black bear cub from a trapper.  He named the cub Winnipeg or Winnie, after his home town.  The soldier carried the bear to Quebec and then to London.  Eventually he gave the bear to the London Zoo, where it became a favorite attraction.  It was at the zoo where A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin Milne met the bear, and it became the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh stories.  You can read the whole story here.

The monument to Winnie the Pooh

About every other bridge on the Trans-Canada Highway is under construction

Really?  Where are the ruby slippers?

For Friday night we had just two camping options.  It was the beginning of the weekend, and considering our problems finding a site the night before we were worried.  Option one was Neys Provincial Park.  We tried calling and checking for a reservation online, but their system was out.  DANG!  Option B was Neys Lunch & Campground, just across the road from the entrance to the park.  We called Neys Lunch and they had a site available for 2 nights.  In fact, it was the same site we stayed on in September last year.  So we were set.  Neys Lunch had a nice grill inside the campground office, and we were looking forward to eating a few meals there again.

It's not much to look at but they served a fine breakfast 

When I walked into the office to check in I was flabbergasted.  They had remodeled and taken out the restaurant.  DANG!  No breakfast, or lunch or dinner, for that matter.  I wonder if they'll change their name.

The LCBO stands for Liquor Control Board of Ontario.  It is the only place you can buy liquor, wine and beer in Ontario.  It is much like ABC stores in NC.  Most are fairly large and have a large selection of products.

Neys Lunch & Campground is an agent for the LCBO.  Their store is probably the smallest LCBO in all of Ontario.  I doubt they have more than 25 bottles in the store.  

On Saturday we bought a day pass to visit Neys Provincial Park.

While we didn't camp at Neys Provincial Park, we did check out the campground during our visit.  There are a lot of great sites in the park. Some are right on the shore of Lake Superior and have hydro (electrical service). There are also some very nice large private sites back in the woods close to the Little Pic River.

Black bear vs cooler.

Neys Provincial Park is located on the site  of a WWII POW camp.  Click here to read more about the history of the park.

Dorcas and the big lake trout

The Group of Seven visited the area as they traveled and painted all through the Algoma region and the North Shore of Lake Superior in the 1920-30s.  We have seen several monuments such as this one, documenting the site where one of the artists painted one of his works.   We also viewed an excellent documentary showing a group of art historians traveling through the surrounding wilderness areas, locating the exact spots where many of the works were painted.

Matilda says "Come on Mommy.  It's easy!"

We did a hike on the Lookout Trail.

At the top on the Lookout Trail

What a view!

Matilda sure is tired!

Lake Superior

The mouth of the Little Pic River and Lake Superior

Sunset on Lake Superior at NPP

On Sunday we continued westward.  The skys were dark and we had a bit of rain. We have a reservation at Thunder Bay ON.

Another gorgeous picnic area on Lake Superior

Pretty beach gravel 

Matilda found some friends, but preferred barking at the gulls

Once it quit raining it was a very pretty drive

This bridge was under construction last September and still is not finished

 We are parked tonight at Trowbridge Falls Park, a city park in Thunder Bay.  This is a wonderful camp ground.  Sites are huge and well separated.  We have a long pull-through that could accommodate 3 more RVs like ours, and 50A service to boot. We're cooking, heating water, doing laundry and basically using as much power as we can, just because we can.

Our site at Trowbridge Falls

The largest pull-through site I have ever seen

Now a bit of bad news:

I had been hearing a strange chunking sound near the front suspension for some time.  At first it was subtle and infrequent. I have looked underneath on several occasions, but could not see a problem.  Recently the sound became much louder and occurred much more frequently.  Today I crawled under the coach and discovered a sway bar bracket was broken.  CRAP!  I used to have a really good suspension guy in Minnesota, and we have visited him every fall since 2007 for lube, shock, tire  and alignment service.  When I called him in June to make an appointment, I was dismayed to learn that he had retired and had just closed his shop.  I called him anyway to consult about the issue.  It turns out it's not a difficult repair if I can find the parts.  I'll call some shops in Thunder Bay in the morning and see if anyone has parts and can make repairs on short notice.  If not I will make an appointment in Duluth for a few weeks from now and get it repaired after our canoe trip in the Boundary Waters.  My guy said driving was not unsafe.  If push comes to shove the whole sway bar can be removed until parts are found.

Our plan is to cross back into the US on Monday and camp at Fall Lake Camp Ground near Ely.  We'll see how that goes.