Paddle and pack
Outdoor folks are a bit between things at the moment. Deer season’s done and there’s no safe ice yet for hard-water fishing. Gaps like that are good times to prepare for future adventures, assessing needs, repairing gear and checking-off any administrative hurdles such as securing entry permits to wilderness areas where managers limit the number of users allowed access at any one time.
One such place is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) along the Canadian border inside the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota’s “Arrowhead” region. To explore this 2,000-square-mile wilderness you must first apply for permits from the U.S. Forest Service in an on-line lottery soon after the first of the year (www.recreation.gov), selecting your choice of trip dates and entry points then hoping for the best. The Forest Service manages the number of people entering the BWCA to protect trails and campsites from over-use and to preserve a unique wild experience for those drawn for permits.
Boundary Waters is a vast maze of hundreds of lakes and streams sprawling through dense forest of pine, spruce, maple and birch. Its natural inhabitants include moose, black bears, bald eagles, loons, several species of desirable game fish, and wolves. Once you’re inside you can go wherever your curiosity points and your endurance allows. No motorized travel is permitted inside Boundary Waters. All progress, one way or another, is by canoe–either paddled or portaged. Most of the time the canoe carries you but to get from lake to lake you have to carry it, plus all your gear. The desired practice is to make portages to a new lake in one trip–no going back for items you couldn’t quite heft. One partner carries the canoe and some gear, the other packing everything else. Planning ahead to eliminate unneeded “stuff” and weight is something you learn to improve with every trip.
The even larger and more remote Quetico Provincial (Ontario) Park borders Boundary Waters across 150 miles on the north and east, so that with additional Canadian permits and enough time and determination you could paddle right into Canada and back. Backcountry rangers patrol each side by canoe, but due to the expanse they must cover are rarely seen.
On the U.S. side, within Boundary Waters, you must camp at established campsites. Each site has a fire-ring, grate, a relatively flat and mostly rock-free spot to pitch a tent and a pit latrine placed in the direction that’s generally downwind. On the Canadian side, within Quetico, you can camp wherever you like. Most Boundary Waters lakes along the more traveled routes have from one to a dozen established sites, but they’re placed so that even if someone else is camped on that lake, you’re unaware of their presence, which is what most BWCA “voyageurs” like.
Visitors to BWCA come from all over the world, mostly to experience a wild place and to test their own self reliance and physical prowess. Some come to encounter wildlife, and you never know when rounding a stream bend might put a moose in your path, standing withers deep in the water. Guided trips take others into BWCA for one special purpose–to hear wolves howl. My son, Aaron, and I heard wolves howling as we at our supper of pike and perch fillets one night while camped on an island. That strange and arousing sound added much to our trip.
Many BWCA enthusiasts come primarily to fish, and it’s a great place for it, although like anywhere else the best fishing gets pushed back to the more remote reaches, accessed by few. Smallmouth bass are the primary draw but some combination of northern pike, walleyes and yellow perch also live in most lakes. Shallow, weedy and warmer waters typically hold northern pike, while deeper, rocky channels harbor walleyes and smallmouth bass. Serious angler or not, it’s worth packing fishing gear because fresh fish can rescue the typical dehydrated canoe-travel menu.
Dining on fresh fish has other rewards. Once we placed the heads, skins and skeletons of some filleted walleyes we’d eaten on rocks across a narrow inlet from our camp. Within minutes a pair of bald eagles dropped out of the sky and squabbled over the leavings within a few hundred feet of our campfire. Like hearing the wolves, it was not the kind of encounter you are privileged to savor every day.
Weather is always the “wild card” in such places. Bigger lakes can get dangerous when the wind blows hard, and sudden storms can soak and chill you if unprepared. Planning ahead to cross open waters early in the morning, before the wind mounts, is good practice but experienced paddlers know getting “wind-bound” is part of north-country lake travel, and they don’t attempt crossings until whitecaps settle and conditions are safe. Mosquitoes are an annoyance at some times of year but good repellant and an evening fire keep them at bay, mostly.
Paddling Boundary Waters is an inexpensive adventure. About four tanks of gasoline, from western Pennsylvania, is the main expense. The entry permits are cheap and once you’re paddling there is nothing to spend a dime on. The greatest investment is in the effort to reach the kinds of places hard to find in a fast-changing world. A trip does get more c
ostly, though, if you must rent a boat and all your gear from one of the many outfitters that operate out of Ely, MN and some smaller towns around the BWCA perimeter.
It’s a good feeling to know that places like Boundary Waters are still there, available to all so inclined to see and enjoy.