The Boundary Waters

Unloading the Van to Get on the Water

​Guiding trips always has its challenges.  Sometimes it’s organizing the group or finding the right route or making sure everything during the trip works out.  I can honestly say leading trips through UCMC (University of Cincinnati Mountaineering Club), the biggest issue I usually run into is people signing up for trips they aren’t prepared for.  Luckily, on this trip, that wasn’t the case.
 
We left Cincinnati late on a Tuesday evening with the intent to drive overnight 15 hours to Northern Minnesota and enter the Boundary Waters Wilderness at the furthest point along the Gunflint Trail via our outfitter, Voyagers Canoeing, we would spend 4 days on the water in the wilderness.
 
Right off the bat getting there I was worried about my plan.  My last big UCMC trip had ended in a change of plans (but a wonderful trip), not getting to complete our route at Crater Lake due to poor weather.  This trip I had the same worry, the weather in Cincinnati leaving was in the 80s and up in Minnesota it was in the low 40s with snow forecast overnight the first evening.  That swing in temperatures was enough to make me shiver a bit those first few hours...  I tried to stress how cold it would be, and feel having not acclimated to that weather yet and I think everyone got the point but not one of us would say that we wouldn’t have brought something extra if we could have after the journey.

Once we arrived and rearranged our bags, we got our boats and paddles then set to loading up and launching down the Gull River.  Within minutes, someone had already fallen in the water trying to get in their canoe, my worst fear.  The water and air temperature were a perfect recipe for hypothermia, luckily, we were still right by the outfitter and warm dry clothes.

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Useful Vocabulary: 
Portage - “The carrying of a boat or its cargo between two navigable waters.”

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Mile's Island Cove Camp

​After picking up the pieces after that first mishap we began our journey.  Since there was a batch of storms rolling through, the wind was blowing hard out of the northeast, so I elected to flip the route to avoid a strong head wind the entire first day.  Doing that meant I had no idea what to expect of how the day would go.
 
We paddled for a short while before coming to Trails End Campground and our first portage.  It was a messy and long portage that most people would usually avoid in warm weather by walking their boats up the small creek, but in our freezing temperatures that was a no go.  So, we unloaded boats, spent some time bushwhacking a trail and put in at the next small lake.  Not long after we had yet another portage, this one with a bit better of a trail...  Again, we unloaded boats and carried gear to the next put in.  After about an hour of all of that crap right out the gate we found ourselves on Seagull Lake entering the wilderness.
 
Seagull was the second largest lake we would find ourselves on, and it
was dotted with islands, this made navigating somewhat a trick.  Since
you didn’t have signs you just had to pick islands and paddle to them
then check to make sure you had the right island by looking for where the
next one should be.  It was definitely a learning curve the first bit and
I definitely got us off the easiest route a few times throughout the journey.
 
After about 6 miles of paddling and the two portages early on in the day
​we found ourselves in camp at Mile’s Island.  It was a nice spot with three tent spaces, a tree in the middle and a good area to setup a kitchen under some trees.  Everyone worked well together setting everything up and getting settled in.  After it settled down, I cozied up for a warm nap only to wake up to all 8 other people piled in one 3-person tent for warmth playing cards, luckily, they didn’t smell too bad yet.  A few hours later we all curled into our warm sleeping bags and began our first cold night’s sleep.

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The First Morning

​It wasn’t a terrible first night, sleeping laying down is honestly always a treat after a night driving...  What was interesting was waking up to snow in the beginning of October, I think that was a bit of a shocker to everyone.  To me it was beautiful and a welcome sign of the end of a hot summer.  Luckily there was only about 3” of snow so it was easy to dust everything off, get breakfast and get on the water.
 
Getting ready in the cold definitely led to later starts, we usually didn’t hit the water until between 10 & 11AM but that was alright because it meant less time sitting cold in camp.  That morning was a tough paddle, we had a good bit of wind and some decent waves as we made our way west across Seagull lake towards our first big portage.  Lake the day before, it was another day of island hopping but we had the added benefit of shelter from the wind.  We slowly slogged across the water and made our way to the bay that lead to our portage. At this point the sun was starting to pop out and the day was looking up.
 
My first idea was to avoid the portage by paddling up a small creek, when that didn’t work out, we ended up hauling all our gear across about 1/3 of a mile of puddly, muddy and wet trail to Alpine Lake and as we did the carry the weather began to change...  The snow came back, the sun went away, and the wind whipped up, it was trash.  People got chilly and the thought of cutting the day short began to circulate since we were near a campground.

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​I had to quell that thought in both myself and the group, we needed to complete at least 2 more miles of paddling to be in a good place for our third and longest day.  Luckily as we finished the carry the weather cleared up and we found ourselves back on the water.  I even found myself with a boat change, now sitting middle in the three man instead of captain in a two man, this made navigating so much easier. Over the course of the next hour we enjoyed some beautiful fall weather as we worked our way across Alpine Lake to the final portage of the day.  This one was short, less than 1/4 mile and it was relatively dry (compared to the first).  We quickly hauled gear and boats across to Red Rock Lake and could see our home for the night perched up on a rocky cliff just above the water.

​It was the first night with a fire, the first night with a clear sky and the first moment that I could just sit there and relax. We were all happy and warm, spirits were high, and we were ready for more adventure on the water.  The next day we awoke to more cool crisp air with cloudy skies and calm water to paddle on.  We headed north along Red Rock Lake to the small portage to Red Rock Bay and our final lake of the trip, Saganaga Lake.  Saganaga Lake was also the biggest lake of the trip, which gave it its own unique challenges.

The Last Morning

​Normally, if a boat blows over, no big deal, pick your stuff up, get to shore, reload and get back to paddling.  With the cold weather and water and the windy day, tipping here would be a recipe for disaster, sunken boats, hypothermia and much more could quickly become major issues.  We worked our way around the bay, paddling in on and off snow which added to the beauty.  As we neared the mouth of the bay the wind whipped up and blew hard south down from Canada giving us a difficult cross wind to paddle in.  It was a game of skipping across small inlets trying to get to sections of the lake that were slightly more protected by islands.  As we passed the largest part of the lake you could peer across the water into the Canadian wilderness, it made you feel how wild this place truly was.
 
As we continued on and got closer to camp the wind whipped up the greatest of the entire trip and the site wasn’t setup the best for it…. We had harsh wind blowing across the lake right into the campsite, there wasn’t much cover and it was already a cold day.  So, we setup the best we could, made a fire, hunkered down and enjoyed our last night in the wild the best we could.  In the morning we awoke to one of the coldest of the trip but luckily it was a short paddle back to our car that day.  We had a fun morning, enjoying every last bit of our final bit of the journey.

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​Once we arrived back at the dock and ended our journey a few of us made the unsmart decision to dive into the lake, it was freezing…. The air was about 30 degrees and the water might have been in the upper 40s, when I ran into the shower hot water felt like pins and needles, but it also felt amazing after 4 days of being cold and not showering.  We loaded up the van and headed south for some delicious Pizza Ranch, one last fun night camping out in Wisconsin and then a bit more of a drive back to Cincinnati the next day.
 
It was a rewarding trip, it was a difficult trip, it was a fun trip and it was rejuvenating.  I couldn’t have gotten any luckier with the group and the new friends I made. I couldn’t have had a more amazing time out there.  Hopefully I get feeling back in my toes in the next few weeks, but regardless this is a trip I’ll be dreaming about for months to come.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined"
​-Henry David Thoreau