Our group just returned from a trip that has become tradition; it’s our fourth straight year heading up to the boundary waters. Much of this is because we take my 78 year old father in law and he really enjoys the fishing, shorter hops on the water and frequent, shorter portages to keep him moving out of the boat.
I’m not writing a full report as this route is similar to the route I’ve previously reported with slight variations. We completed a semi loop from moose lake to lake one via knife, ogishkemuncie, gabimichigami, little saganaga, river lake, Alice lake, lake insula. We experienced the best weather we’ve seen in the boundary waters. I never used my rain jacket or rain pants. All rain occurred overnight; unheard of!
Fishing was excellent and we ate our share of them. We had one wind day on lake insula that kept us on a fantastic campsite. No one in the group was too upset about this.
I want to stress a point I’ve previously hit on about bwca- solitude can be found. We saw no people for three days between rattle lake and Alice lake. We saw only two other groups between ogishkemuncie and insula. Of course the area from moose lake through knife lake and lakes 4-1 were madhouses. People are clearly hungry to paddle bwca after the 6 week closure and outfitters want to get people on the water. Nearly every group we saw near the access points were fully outfitted by commercial outfitters.
Portages on the interior were certainly affected by the low usage over the summer. We fought through lots of brush on many of our portages. We also saw some of the new burn around the eastern edge of knife lake, Jenny lake and eddy lake. In fact, the portage up mueller falls had a dug out fire break along one edge, the eastern side of the portage was burned and the western edge was lush. We experienced no smoke. The area seemed exceptionally healthy and wildlife was abundant. We completed 49 portages; the longest being about 1/2 mile.
It was really a quite wonderful trip.
I’m not writing a full report as this route is similar to the route I’ve previously reported with slight variations. We completed a semi loop from moose lake to lake one via knife, ogishkemuncie, gabimichigami, little saganaga, river lake, Alice lake, lake insula. We experienced the best weather we’ve seen in the boundary waters. I never used my rain jacket or rain pants. All rain occurred overnight; unheard of!
Fishing was excellent and we ate our share of them. We had one wind day on lake insula that kept us on a fantastic campsite. No one in the group was too upset about this.
I want to stress a point I’ve previously hit on about bwca- solitude can be found. We saw no people for three days between rattle lake and Alice lake. We saw only two other groups between ogishkemuncie and insula. Of course the area from moose lake through knife lake and lakes 4-1 were madhouses. People are clearly hungry to paddle bwca after the 6 week closure and outfitters want to get people on the water. Nearly every group we saw near the access points were fully outfitted by commercial outfitters.
Portages on the interior were certainly affected by the low usage over the summer. We fought through lots of brush on many of our portages. We also saw some of the new burn around the eastern edge of knife lake, Jenny lake and eddy lake. In fact, the portage up mueller falls had a dug out fire break along one edge, the eastern side of the portage was burned and the western edge was lush. We experienced no smoke. The area seemed exceptionally healthy and wildlife was abundant. We completed 49 portages; the longest being about 1/2 mile.
It was really a quite wonderful trip.
