Eddy to Fraser

View Day 3 - Perhaps my Favorite in a larger map

A Kekekabic Pond

Day 3 was probably my favorite day of paddling.  We had an awesome mix of big and small lakes; the portages were a great mix of short and medium length; I switched up to the front of the canoe and had the whole unobstructed view/lack of navigational concern thing going; and even though a fair amount of the day was overcast, we were out of the burned area, so it was still quite scenic.

One of the Ponds

We got up reasonably early, in an attempt to dodge the winds on Kekekabic Lake.  We got some oatmeal/fruit, packed up, and were on the water by 9.  (I think this might have been the earliest on-water day of the trip.)  We back-tracked a little bit on Eddy, and scouted out a portage to the Kekekabic Ponds.  (After the Ensign Lake problems, we scouted a couple of portages, including the 193 rod trek over to Knife Lake.)  The lake looked right, and we had 4 straightforward mini-lakes and 5 portages all under 21 rods to get us over to Kekekabic Lake proper.

The tiny lakes and tiny portages were just cool.  There were tiny one-tree island/rocks and incredibly easy to find portages.  (The lakes weren't really big enough to have more than two trails going to them.)  Even though we had a lot of getting in and out of the boats, we did so quickly.  The wind was gaining a little strength as we got on to Kekekabic, but it was still gusty, and we still had some shelter from the surrounding land.

We started on this narrow(ish) tail of the lake, going past a bunch of nice rocky outcroppings and headed up to this neat-looking constriction.  The far side of the lake was more open and tree-covered, but the shifting light/clouds made some eye-catching patterns.

The "Narrow" bit of Kekekabic

Up toward the constriction, we got a much pushier headwind.  Ali and I paddled hard to get through the opening, and we managed to dodge the bulk of the rain that was blowing in.  The other canoe was not so lucky, but by day 3, we were all pretty used to showers popping up.  Around the bend, we had less wind, more (really interesting) rocky islands, cooler body temps, and another 2/3 of the lake to paddle.  I grabbed a few handfuls of trail mix, and we kept paddling.  

The opposite side

The portage out of Kekekabic Lake was a little tricky to find, but we managed pretty well by hugging the shoreline.  Our buddies seemed a little bit tired, and we grabbed some tuna/cheese/crackers as soon as we got across the 72 rod portage into Strup Lake.  I found my first leech of the trip under a chaco strap (gross) and had it off quickly enough.  We had 4 small lakes to get over to Fraser Lake for the evening:  Strup, Wisini, Ahmakose, and Gerund.  One of the portages was nearing 100 rods, but most were in the teens and twenties.

Unfortunately, we realized we had lost our friends by the first portage we got to after lunch (an 11-rod).  The lake hadn't been that big, but even after I carried the canoe across, they were nowhere to be seen.  We started yelling, and after a minute or two, they came through the neck of the lake.  It turns out there had been a little too much dehydrated fruit and too little fruit with the morning paddle.

We did a couple more hops and skips, and Ali and I did our best to help carry as much of the gear and canoes as possible while our friends were recovering.  A couple of chalky tablets helped out, and we were back on a bigger lake for the home stretch in no time.

Orienting ourselves off a Campsite on K-Lake

We had a nice slab of a rock leading up to our campsite, with enough cover from the wind.  Soft dirt for our tents, a huge (and nearby) tree for our food, and some split and dried logs waiting for us made it even better.   It had been a pretty chilly day; post-set up, everybody crawled into the tents for a pre-dinner nap.  We had some awesome couscous curry and hot drinks (including hot jello drink) for dessert.  There were some crazy chipmunks that got into anything left unattended and accessible, but there were also some cute toads later in the evening.  There were also field mice once it got dark, but they kept their distance.

After just one day in the bow, my shoulders were getting sore.  Sleep helped some; the next day helped none.

Coming into the portage bay on K-Lake

Probably where I picked up that stupid leech

Strup, I think

Wisini

Fraser Lake

Home, for a night

One of the best Bear-Bag Trees I've ever made

Vera Lake to Eddy Lake

View Day 2 in a larger map

Starting out the second day, we knew we had some miles to make.  (10.7, as it was, to our decision point.)  Eddy Lake was the last lake where we could either cut back toward Lake One (via Kekabic, Fraser, Thomas, and Insula) or continue outward to small lakes and long days (out to Ogishkemuncie, Gabimichigami, and Little Saganaga).  If we made Eddy (or, better yet, even further), we might be up to the longer trip.  If not, we would need to shave the extra 10 miles and turn back toward Ely.
We got up at a reasonable time, and had some awesome ha-bros with peppers, onion, and cheese.  And though breakfast and packing up took us a little while, we were at our second huge portage (of the trip) in no time.  After 200+ rods of some rugged travel, we got to the lake we were going to spend all day on, Knife Lake.

Isle of Pines

Home of the Rootbeer Lady and the first we saw of the forest fires that have gone through in the past decade, Knife Lake wasn't half as bad as it could have been.  When we got there, the sun was out, and we were feeling pretty toasty from the hike over.  Ali and I got our only swim of the trip in, and after a couple handfuls of snacks, we were off.

We were lucky enough to have an awesome tailwind, which meant that Ali had a good half hour's worth of lounging in the first third of the lake.  We had some nice fluffy clouds and blue sky for that third, but it didn't last long.

The wind picked up just as we were getting to the North/South branching of Knife Lake - also right around the time we got into the burn area.  Giant grey clouds were rolling in behind us, and though we were paddling reasonably hard to stay warm, we probably didn't even make it half a mile before the rain caught us.

The rain itself wasn't too bad - nothing pelting or stinging, but the wind made it somewhat uncomfortable none the less.  Shortly after the rain started, one of our buddies got a little hungry.  We pulled off at this small island and found some shelter on the leeward side.  Nutella, flatbread, fruit, and veggies were on the menu, and we left just as I was starting to get chilled again.

We had a pretty overcast remainder of the lake, with maybe a break or two in the clouds while on the South Arm.  Just before the beach for the portage, the sun came through again, and stayed out pretty well for the rest of the evening.  The bay the portage was in looked like the prettiest thing ever, though I'm willing to admit that that may have just been due to the sunlight.  I don't think I'm used to such dramatic improvement of landscapes with the addition to sun.  The Smokies look pretty decent/misty even with rain, but the Boundary Waters' rocky outcroppings with really reflective water get rather stark/grim when the clouds darken.

Anyhow, the portage between Knife and Eddy was short (20ish rods), so I tried out the whole portaging thing minus my pack.  It was still pretty early in the day (3:00 maybe); after we shuttled our gear, we went back to find/check out the waterfall on the portage.  Eddy drains through a small creek into Knife Lake, and there was a pretty sizable falls right in the middle

We grabbed some pictures and headed a short way to our campsite for the night.  After putting up the bear bag line and tents (on pretty rocky ground - we had to tie some of our tent attachment points out), we started pouring over the maps and prepping some fry pizzas.  The shorter route looked best since (a) we were pretty inefficient at clearing out of camp and portaging and (b) there was still some illness going around in the group.  It wasn't the happiest of things for me to agree with, but it was the right decision.  The trip still was fantastic, and having only the shorter mileage to worry about, I relaxed a lot more the next few days.

Our fry pizzas were delectable.  All but the first held together well, though there is something to be said for the size and lid of a fry-bake.  The evening fire kept the bugs away (not that there were many), and I turned in pretty worn out.  I slept pretty lightly, thinking that the bear bags were awfully close to the trees.  In the middle of the night, I woke up to either the actual snapping of a branch or from a noisy dream.  Poor Ali had to come check the food with me, and while we did wake one of our friends up by stomping around, we didn't make him get out of the tent.  The food was safe, of course, and so we went to bed again.  I slept much more soundly the second half of the night.

I will give you that this was really pretty, if really dark and gloomy

Near our portage to Eddy 

Bringing us to Shore

End of Knife Lake (for us)

View of Knife Lake from the Portage

Top of the Falls

Portage + Falls

View from Our 2nd Campsite

Moose Lake to Vera

View Day 1 in a larger map

Day 1 started off bumpily enough.  After waking up to the beautiful (if a little cloudy) vista down from our campsite, we got on the road back toward Ely for breakfast.  I think we drove around half the town looking for Brittons, a well-reviewed diner, and when we finally got there, a loud hissing was coming from the front passenger tire.  We called Enterprise and started canvasing the nearby shops asking for a tire shop.  The diner lady looked at me like I was crazy and asked what a "Firestone" was, but the real estate lady next door called ahead to the dealership to clear stuff up.  (The rental place said that paying us back would be easier than towing us halfway across the state.)

Superior Forest Fall Lake Campground

Just Down From our Campsite

We walked back over to have breakfast, and it was a very fitting pre-adventure meal.  (Read as: HUGE.)  The stuffed hash browns were delectable, as was pretty much everything else there.  As soon as our car was ready (not one, but two nails in the tire), we hopped back in and headed off for Canadian Border Road.  It was a bit longer of a drive than I was expecting, but the sun decided to come out just as we got into our (motorized) boat.  We rode all the way to Ensign, though our map showed that as impossible.
We did have a short but pleasant portage from Splash Lake over to Ensign.  The guy who drove us over hauled one of the canoes for us, and then we were finally on water.

Moose Lake, by the outfitters

The first bit of business was to get the other couple situated in their canoe.  We tried a little of instruction first thing, but with the distance we had to go, they swapped bow/stern positions pretty quickly.  We passed a fair number of fishers on our way out, and there was a low-flying Forest Service plane running a grid over us.  (We thought it might be search and rescue, but we found out later that a fire closed our entry point the day after we started.)  Oh, and did I mention otters?  Yup, we hung out with a group of 4-5 otters for a bit.  It was awesome.  We did a good amount of fair-weather paddling with the wind at our backs to get down the length of Ensign.  Unfortunately, some rain started pushing in around the time we missed the first portage.  There was a campsite that we matched up with the map to start our portage-hunt, but we just missed the spot thinking it was too marshy.  We paddled a while in the wrong direction before turning into the wind (and eventually rain) to correct our course.

Ensign Lake, finally at a portage!

Though we had to use a different portage than the one originally intended, we finally found one way to get across to Vera Lake.  At around 200 rods and with full packs (my food pack was heavy and Ali had almost all of our camping stuff), this was one of the more difficult walks.  Blood sugar was also a bit low, but we fixed that once out of the rain on the far side of the portage.

After some hummus, tabouleh, and a break, we were home free for the last bit of the day.  Though we had put on pretty late, we were also off around 4.

Lunch time

Once in camp, we got a bear line and the tents up, and everybody got some down time.  We had a later dinner of angelhair pasta with cheese, garlic, and sundried tomatoes.  There was a pasta-draining issue, so we lost half our pasta.  In an attempt to dispose of it properly, we canoed across the lake to look for soft-enough ground to cathole it.  Unfortunately, the area is darned rocky (also causes non-freestanding-tent problems), so we ended up trying to scatter it out in the woods.  This also failed catastrophically, and I'm certain that some bear has since found our spaghetti-instead-of-tinsel Christmas trees.

Flowers near our campsite

Anyhow, we had some time to watch the sunset, fish, and finally tucked off into bed.

Home Sweet Home

Purifying some H2O

Evening