Since I had the 1st to the 6th off for sure I decided to do a 5 day solo trip into the Boundary Waters. I went in on Angleworm lake, the same lake I entered on my winter trip earlier this year. It's truly amazing how different it looks from season to season
Here is a view of my route
I traveled over 60 miles of pristine wilderness in this very beautiful section of the Boundary Waters. I started fairly late on Friday starting my 700 rod portage into angleworm well into the afternoon.
The portage in is long, but not terribly hilly so despite the length it is quite doable. Along the trail I saw this pine just covered in a lichen nicknamed "old mans beard".
A bit further down the portage I had just picked up my canoe again after a rest and within a few yards of walking I stumbled upon a immature spruce grouse. The grouse was incredibly close and reluctant to leave.
A much better view can be seen in this video
As I continued down the portage the sky kept getting darker and darker. Soon I was hearing the roar of thunder in the distance. With still a bit to go I really hustled to get to the lake. By the time I put in the lightning was striking on the south end of the lake maybe a 1/2 mile away. I pushed on to a campsite as quickly as possible and ended up setting camp in pouring rain. I ate dinner under my tarp and had a few toads hopping around nearby as I watched the lighting strikes.
The next day on angleworm was much calmer. Bluebird skies prevailed and I took my time breaking camp and allowing my gear to dry out. I took some time to explore the area around my camp and found some nice views looking north onto Angleworm Lake.
Continuing on my journey I passed through some familiar territory. Home and Gull Lakes I had traversed on my winter trip. It really is fun to go through the same area in different seasons as it looks so different. While canoeing I had a hitchhiker join me for a few miles.
Across Gull and Gun I had some strong west winds pushing me real quick to the east this made travelling very quick though challenging as the canoe often wanted to turn. To the north I passed through some small lakes and a few streams en route to Friday Bay of Crooked lake. The streams had beautiful scenery many times being dominated by Black Spruce/Tamarack and other wetland loving species.
I reached Friday Bay pretty late in the day. There was maybe a few hours of daylight left but it was so beautiful and calm on the water I wanted to push my way towards Thursday Bay and make my camp on one of the islands in between the two bays. On the lake I was treated to a beautiful sunset and a Loon with its chick. Loon babies will often ride on the back of their parent to save energy and this was the first time I was actually able to observe this behavior!
I took a video of the loon family as well.
When I reached my island campsite I had maybe an hour left until darkness. I really wanted to get camp set up before the mosquitos came out. It's really crazy how the bugs are up in the Boundary Waters this time of year. During the day you have the black flies and deer flies harassing you. At night you can hear the buzz of the Mosquitos rising from their homes first. After that you have maybe 5 to 10 minutes before they are upon you and darn do they come! There are hundreds swarming you right before it gets really dark so unless you want to brave the mosquitos you really need a good fire or to be in your tent before this time. Despite this knowledge I couldn't help but take a few casts from my fishing rod as fish were jumping like crazy right by the shore of my camp. My first cast landed a walleye and a third a small mouth bass. It proved to be a good decision indeed!
The picture below shows my canoe landed at the island campsite on Crooked Lake. I caught the fish just beyond the trees off the shore.
Day 3 of my trip was another gorgeous one. I had a red squirrel hanging out with me at camp all morning.
Canoeing on Crooked Lake all day was quite the treat. It's a large lake in terms of length but it's often very hemmed in by islands, bays, and narrow channels. I saw a variety of ducks on the lake.
The scenery of Crooked is all pristine Boreal Forest.
I took a video of some of the scenery of Crooked. It is a little goofy as I was trying to paddle away from the rocks the wind was pushing me towards.
Crooked also has some really nice cliffs. I got some great views climbing to the top of a few of them.
On the Cliffs that are shown in the last few pictures there were some Indian Pictographs. One of my favorite things about the Boundary Waters is the historical nature of the area. The canoe routes and portage paths have been used for many years. First by animals, then by natives, by the Voyageurs (fur traders), and now by recreational canoeists enjoying this pristine wilderness. Pictographs are a reminder that people have been a part of this beautiful landscape for far longer than any Europeans ever came to this continent.
I stopped for lunch on a rocky windswept island on Crooked. I was joined by what I believe is some sort of Plover or Sandpiper.
My journey on Cooked Lake ended with the dramatic portage around Basswood falls. Though not a very high waterfall it is spectacular in how powerful it is and by the multiple section of falls it has.
I took a video of the falls as pictures can only give it so much justice.
From Basswood Falls I headed south down the Horse River which led into Horse Lake. This river was scenic but had a number of very short rapids which, heading upstream, are impossible for me to traverse by paddling. Some I waded through and others I had to portage around. It's frustrating to have to take all you gear out and put it back in for such a short portage. I found this unlikely trio hanging out on a rock on the Horse River.
They seemed to enjoy each others company.
The Horse was a very calm river and offered some nice scenery.
I wasn't able to find a campsite on Horse Lake that was along my route so I decided to continue onto Fourtown and find a campsite there. This took a bit more time than I had hoped because there were several tiny rapids to portage again. One I ended up having to skirt someones campsite to get around the rapids. I apologized for intruding but they agreed that there was no better option. To my misfortune the campsites on Fourtown near the portage into it were taken. It was getting real close to being really dark and the mosquitos were already bad so I decided to just set up a bushwack camp (not in a designated site) in a bay that had a decent access. This worked out just fine and besides a few mosquito bites I was none the worse.
Day 4 of my trip I was planning on making my final push back to Angleworm where I spend my last night. Fourtown was a fun lake to traverse. It has a lot of islands and is very oddly shaped. It's definitely a lake I'd like to come back to and explore more in the future. It would be a great lake for a base camp.
The area where the portage was had some sweet boulders. Rocks like these really demonstrate the glacial history of this region.
Travelling on Boot Lake was pretty uneventful. I found a tiny rocky island which had some Blue Flag Iris blooming.
From Boot I portaged to Fairy and then to Gun Lake. I had lunch at a campsite on Gun and in the water I was able to watch a turtle hanging out with some small panfish. It's really amazing how clear the water can be in the Boundary Waters.
From Gun I portaged to Gull and then to Home Lake. I decided to camp on Home Lake instead of Angleworm so I would have more time to set up camp, fish, and enjoy the scenery. I fished the far side of the lake for a bit to no avail. I decided to head back and try a few casts near camp and then resign to eating camp food for dinner if I had no luck. Since I had to paddle anyways I decided to keep my line in the water and troll back across the lake. Right as I got it to the depth I wanted I had a hard strike and had a nice fight with this decent sized Northern Pike. No fishing near camp necessary I'm having fish for dinner!
The rest of my night I relaxed. I retired to my tent to read for a while when I started hearing some booming sounds. Since it was the fourth of July I thought it might be fireworks but it kept getting louder so I left my tent to investigate. There was some serious lightning flashes across the lake and the sound was actually some really bass heavy thunder. I made sure everything I wanted to stay dry was either under a tarp or in the tent and went back to bed. The rain started first and quickly became terresential. Very soon after the wind started whipping harder than I had ever experienced in a tent. It was strong enough that blew my tent at an angle almost flush to the ground. Lightning was striking every few seconds or so and I was beginning to become seriously concerned that I would either have a stike nearby or trees would start blowing down. Another thought that was crossing my mind was that, "the big blowdown", which was the most severe storm ever to hit the Boundary Waters hit on July 4th over a decade ago. I was really hoping I wasn't in the big blowdown part 2. Though it was a scary experience it lasted for 30 minutes or so then it calmed down to a more normal Thunder storm. I found out the next day that the winds were over 60 miles an hour! Luckilly I was safe and amazingly I didn't see any down trees. This is one of the dangers with wilderness camping, you are the mercy of the natural conditions. Despite these risks though the experience is so worth it and crazy storms like this don't happen that often.
My last day of the trip I was very glad to see a calm day. Having breakfast at my camp I was joined by the friendliest snowshoe hare I have ever encountered. They are usually very shy creatures and will run and hide at first site of humans. This hare though stayed around my camp for 45 minutes or so and was very curios.
I took a amusing video of the Hare investigating my camp.
You can tell it's a Snowshoe Hare because of it's very awkwardly large feet. They are adaptations to the often deep snow of its home in the North Country.
After a relaxing morning I broke camp and made my way back to Angleworm. The waters were very still in the narrow sections of the lake. This made for a gorgeous day of paddling.
Around noon I began the portage back to my car. Since I double portage when I trip solo the 700 rod portage actually ends up being 2100+ rods. This equates to well over 6 miles which is a long way to carry a canoe and gear. The portage is well maintained though and has some cool backcountry carpentry.
It took me around 4 hours to get back to my car but I made it! The trip overall was amazing. It was a challenging route and the couple of thunder storms I went through were at times scary but the scenery, wildlife, and solitude make it so worth it. The Boundary Waters is an area that really speaks to me and is a place I hope to spend a lot of time in. Feel free to post comments if you have questions!
