Novice tale of the BWCA
Written: Jul 11 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Scenery: |
 |
|
| Crowds: |
 |
|
| Time needed for visit: |
|
|
|
Pros: Quiet, beautiful
Cons: biting flies and people not obeying the boat rules on the lakes
The Bottom Line: If you are prepared the BWCA can be great. Have to like camping.
|
|
|
| Ybo's Full Review: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness |
I went with 5 other women on a 'girls camping' trip in 1999. It was my first trip there, and having always wanted to visit the place I was really looking forward to it. Thankfully I was going with people who had been there before and were experienced campers and canoers since I am not either. I guess the best way to talk about the BWCA to talk about how we prepared for the camping trip. My experience will help the novice camper, which the BWCA is not for by the way. It is roughing it at it's highest, but it is well worth the work you put in to it.
We went at the end of June, but started preparing for it in late March, attending a seminar at a park in the twin cities. The person who held this seminar was a woman maybe in her early 30's (as most of us were) who had been to the BWCA several times at all times of the year. As she talked of her experiences, it seemed like she had had everything happen to her that could happen to a person in the BWCA or any large wilderness for that matter!! Everything from being flooded out in the middle of the night by an unexpected storm to scaring off bears and moose from the campsite. Yet, when she spoke of the peace and beauty of the place the scary things she had spoke of earlier seemed like nothing. What was a bear between me and complete tranquility? Minnesota does not have grizzly bears that my friends talked about (and ran into in their home state of Montana). Just brown bears, but still dangerous if provoked but easy enough to scare away if they entered the site by banging on pots and pans (at least it worked pretty good in the video she showed).
One of the things my friends spoke about was the gear needed for camping in the BWCA. I thought, yeah, tent, sleeping bag, what else? Remember…novice writing here. There were packs for food, packs for clothes (including warm clothes and extra shoes), dishes (pots, pans, misc) bear rope, sleep rolls, water, camp stoves, water filters, bug spray, shovels, axes and of course the all important canoe.
My friends had much of this needed gear, still we had made plans to stop at an outfitters to get what gear we needed.
We loaded up one of the girls truck, with two canoes tied on top, one a 50 pound Kevlar and the other one, a standard canoe that weighed at least twice as much as the Kevlar and with three of us in the back under the camper, along with all that gear, the other three in the front we made the almost 300 mile trek to Ely Minnesota. We left the twin cities at bout 6pm, stopping once for a bite. We got into Ely between 11:30 and midnight. Warning to anyone who drives that curvy road from outside Duluth into Ely, deer are all over the place. My friend drove very slowly and we counted around 20 of them.
We staid at a motel for the night, all 6 of us in one room. The only problem there was using the shower the next morning. I ended up drip drying since there wasn't a dry towel in the place. After stopping at the outfitters where we rented the gear we didn't have we went to find our entrance which we thought was so clearly marked on our map. We ended up wasting almost half our day finding this entrance. This may have been hindered by some of the road work going on in Ely, but it was frustrating all the same. We were finally sent on the right path by two young, tattooed and pierced guys who we asked for directions.
Once finding our entrance on "Farm Lake" we loaded the canoes with the gear and then with three girls in each canoe along with a dog we set sail onto the lake which from where we launched looked tranquil and pretty, but once in it there were white caps. The girls in the heavier canoe were able to get going in the right direction, but our light Kevlar was a little harder to steer and me (a novice, only the second time in a canoe) well, we ended up swamping the canoe in the middle of the lake. Although Farm Lake is small compared to most lakes in the BWCA, it looked pretty darn big that day.
I had a life jacket on, but as I tried to submerge I realized that I had a dog on my head. I had to push the poor thing off to get above water and paddled over to the capsized canoe. Lucky for us this was still a part of the BWCA that allowed small motor boats, so we were rescued by a resident who towed us to a dock. Our companions in the other canoe did not tip, but followed us to the shore to make sure we were all right.
Our rescuers were kind of enough to tow us to where we the water was calmer, and the lake emptied into a smaller stream, which was more likely a river. If not for this the trip may have ended right then and there for me. There was no way I was getting in that canoe again.
Once on our way, and so much of our day wasted on first finding our entrance then getting towed after swamping out, it was hard to find a camp site. We had decided to do only one portage with all the gear we had there was no way we wanted to do more, and it was getting late on top of it. Another thing about the BWCA, find your campsites early. We weren't the only ones looking for a site.
We had to settle on one that "had" been a site. We were sure that if a park ranger came by he'd kick us off, but it was dark and there was no way we could find something in the dark. When it's dark in the BWCA it's DARK!
We did make a fire near the water and designated a 'restroom' to use since the commode had been removed from this site. We did make the restroom far from the water, and there were plenty of leaves near by to cover our duties. We felt guilty about staying there but we had no choice.
Thankfully our food pack had been on the other canoe so we feasted on steak and potatoes that night along with some wine (two of the girls that came insisted on bringing 5 bags of wine…) then went to sleep looking at the stars and listening to the night sounds.
We woke the next morning and packed our gear and headed out looking for a campsite. We found one not far away, on an island as the other one had been and made camp. Once it was all put up we finally started enjoying our selves, relaxing on the rocks, swimming in the cool clear, water. Some of the girls went 'adventuring' while I and another girl staid behind and swam and played cards.
That night after dinner we threw our crumbs along the edge of the lake and watched the craw daddies come out to feed. Not as big as the ones in the south, but fun to watch. We then went for a night canoe ride hoping to have beavers swim up to the canoe since we had spotted a dam not far from our campsite, but no luck. We heard splashes though and the moon light on the lake along with the quiet…it was just plain beautiful, eerie and tranquil all at the same time.
In the mornings loons would be chasing each other up and down the lake making that weird haunting sound of theirs. Eagles sat in trees and flew above us along with hawks and other small animals. Since we were on islands, we didn't use the bear rope to hang our food.
Mosquitoes were bad, but the biting flies were worse. "Off" kept the mosquitoes at bay, but the biting flies just laughed at it. They were the worse, but that was only one day before a storm. Speaking of storms, our last night a huge and loud thunderstorm hit. At our campsite one tent had been pitched near the lake, the other ours down in a small ravine. We were careful to check for flooding before pitching it and were pretty sure we'd be fine. As the storm roared it rained like crazy and even though there was some water on one side, for the most part we staid dry but scared until it calmed. My biggest fear was the girls in the other tent being blown into the lake. The week after we were there the famous storm hit knocking down about 30% of the trees and leaving several people trapped, and even in 2001 still threatens the area with fires. There are still portages blocked I believe, and for the first time powered tools were brought into the area to cut up the trees.
The next morning was cloudy, and a little drizzly but no thunderstorm. We packed up our campsite, careful to pick up every scrap we could find, and paddled back the way we had come. A loon swam beside us for awhile, and although he did not sing it was pretty neat seeing one that close. They are bigger then I thought!!
Once we got back to the dreaded Farm Lake, it was, you guessed it, white capped again and I sat in the canoe shaking in my duck shoes. My friends assured me all would be fine. I would've been happy being left off and hoofing it back if I could find my way, but instead I sat quietly as we paddled onto the lake.
This lake as I mentioned was only to have small horse powered boats, so you can imagine our surprise when we saw a yacht (at least a 30 foot boat) soaring around down near where the truck was parked. We couldn't believe it. This thing was leaving 6 feet waves in its wake. I saw myself once again being swamped in this big lake getting soaked. As we neared the landing, the boat came by. We waved to it, but not in a friendly way. They were too far away to really see what we were waving, but the wake was big. At first we thought about riding it, but instead we managed to stop the canoe and let the wave go by. I could actually hear the Beach Boys playing it was that big.
Once safely on land we packed out stuff into the truck and drove back to town. Tired and dirty we took a shower at the outfitters (seemed a large leech had hitched a ride with one of my friends who screamed so loud in the shower room the store's employees came running.) Then took the long drive back to Minneapolis. I was very happy I left a set of dry clean clothes in the truck.
I really enjoyed my trip, but bailed out of this years' and last year's trip (I actually had excuses). I may try it again someday, but just a day trip and a professional at the helm of the canoe. I really enjoyed the beauty, peace and quite of the BWCA, but seems the park needs to get a little more stringent on it's passes (too many people).
Things needed:
Dry clothes
Warm clothes
And a Good map these things will make the BWCA a great place to visit!!
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: June-August
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Ybo
|
|
Member: Yvonne Graf
Location: Farmington, Minnesota
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
The good times are better then the bad times are bad.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.