Day 1 BWCA Paddling Trip 2022

Saturday September 17, 2022

All the portages are measured and listed in rods. One rod is equivalent to 16.5 feet. The number next to mention of portages is their distance in rods.

I woke in the bottom bunk of three and rolled out unto the floor. It’s the only way I can avoid hitting the bunk over me about five inches from my face. It’s too early to get up at 3:30, which is 1:30 CA time, but we want to get an early start to avoid being out in the rain. The forecast called for clouds but no rain until 1:00.

I did all the things I could do without waking Terry showering, eating breakfast, carry non-gear to the car. At 5:00 AM, I announced I was turning the lights on. Per our normal standards, he was ready at 5:30 and me at 6:00. We hoped to get a 7:00 AM start.

Never has a canoe been on my car. At just three years old, I’m still protective. It was foggy, and Terry was reading the directions to me about Echo Trail which started out a nice paved road but soon became a nice dirt road. I drove slowly. Too slow to make our 7:00 AM planned arrival to the trailhead.

At 8:00 AM we started with a portage 40 rods down to the Little Indian Sioux River. We made three trips up and back. Terry carried the canoe over his head with the weight on his shoulders. We also carried all our gear to the canoe. We were ready but deferred to a guy with a light canoe over his head and a small backpack on his back. He flipped the canoe over and into the water in one movement. He jumped in and was paddling away. We resumed loading the two giant dry bags, our huge barrel, the soft-sided Budweiser cooler, borrowed from Brenda and our three paddles, three I case lose one.

We put in at Little Indian Sioux River. A marshy stream of water the let us get close to ducks and lily pads. In spots, the width of the river narrows to that of two canoes.

Two trumpeter swans fly over, followed by two more. They land a ways in front of us. One couple twine their necks around each other. And then they all trumpeted a blast that echoed endlessly.

An hour later we reached Elm Portage 65. We could see two guys paddling toward us. And we let them go first. We figured they’d be up and over in one pass. But like us, they had too much stuff and needed to go back and forth three times. One of the guys told me that Elm was the most beautiful falls in the BWCA. To me it looked like Guinness beer flowing over a short drop. I can understand why that might be appealing to some.

Our first lake, Upper Pauness, came quickly leading us to portage 38 that connected us to Lower Pauness. We had thought we might camp there, but it was only 11:30.

Our next portage was Devil’s Cascade 120. It connected us back to the Little Indian Sioux River and into Loon Lake. The portage was long and stumble-prone with roots and rocks snagging your toes.

The literature about our route claimed we would see few people. Of course we bunch up at these stops. There is a limit to how many can be at a portage at one time. Someone told us it was four. We thought we were the inky ones going out. But at the top of the pass, a canoe was left while the paddlers viewed the falls. People were coming from the other direction too. One couple had two yappy dogs on leashes and under toe. Nine people with us and it was crowded.

The portage was long enough for us to realize our fatal mistake. We forgot that all of our ultra lite backpacking practices apply to canoe trips too. Last year I used my backpack. Which is light filled with light gear. And it fits distributing the weight between shoulders and hips. Terry left his backpack home because he worried about his gear getting wet, he rented a huge dry bag. Along with being cumbersome, it was a tall dark hole that pulled our gear to the bottom of the bag. Retrieving items from inside was backbreaking. It allowed you to bring more stuff, but that’s just what you don’t want to do.

When the weather stations were threatening four to five inches of rain, I thought I needed a dry bag too for more warm clothes and more rain gear and a book. The dry bag was worse than ill-fitting. It only allowed painful lugging of unnecessary items.

The skies were overcast, but rain didn’t seem imminent. We could enjoy the rest of the day with no other portage looming. Paddling from the Sioux to Loon Lake we saw a Beaver Dam obstructing our passage. We scouted both sides and choose the right to pull he canoe around the edge. Once in Loon Lake, we looked at two camp sites and set up on the second perched high up a rock with a wide view of this big lake. This lake allowed motor boats, and we saw some fishing in the distance.

Our tent was up and camp arranged leaving time to paddling our empty canoe. Terry could do some fishing. We met two guys doing the same and had a friendly talk. They said the two previous days were hell. Five inches of rain!

Shortly another canoe paddled by. They had been doing this same trip for 30 years. Terry asked if they had any tips on negotiating beaver dams. They said a ranger told them if the drop was less the three feet, you pick up speed, choose a spot and go for it. They did this and cracked their boat.

Our night ended battening down for the coming rain and closing the fly behind a light drizzle. Hard rain passed over us during the night.