Day 12 (South Fowl)
We woke up at first light - really early - and on the water at 5:40 AM. It was a calm, sunny morning and there was steam coming across the water as the day opened. We hoped to make good time today with sunny calm weather. The plan was to make it into Moose Lake. We had lots of portaging on tap for today (the 4th of July) including our 2nd longest portage of the trip (480 rod Long Portage).
We rigged up the flag (Steve found on the portage from Lac La Croix into Bottle) on the front of Penny for the holiday.
We started the day wtih the 79 rod portage into Rat lake and a short 4 rod into Rose Lake. The Long Portage was next. We had figured it as about 480 portages from our maps, but weren't sure. Steve took Penny and a pack, I took the heavy pack and the small pack and off we went. Steve started out ahead. The portage doesn't get much use and so we kept our eyes on the trail. We knew there was a fork at some point and so we'd have to watch for that as well. The portage was WET! At one point the trail ran along side a stream and with all the rain we've had the trail was under water. Not ankle deep, not knee deep, not thigh deep... well, let's just say that I was glad I'm a few inches taller than Steve cause I wasn't quite waist deep. :) We slogged through the water and trudged on. We found the fork (nice sign pointing the way) and took the right path. We kept on - thinking that the portage seemed longer than the 480 - long as that may be. Well, eventually we saw water at end the portage. We set the packs and canoe down and looked at the maps. We were wrong - it was 480 to the sign and another 180 to the water; 660 rods total! Suprisingly we both felt great! We looked back and realized that neither one of us had set a pack down. Over two miles and nothing touched the ground. My shoulders were a bit sore but the back felt good and shoulders felt fine as soon as the pack was off. It was good to get it done early in the day (my back was getting sore on afternoon portages). The paddle was pretty in the morning.
We saw more of the elevation along the shores (though not as pretty as North/South lakes):
We kept on through Watap. I took a picture of the crew at the end of the Watap portage:
The sun was warm. I was sweating through my shirt by 10 AM just from paddling.
We spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree. ..
We got pretty close before he took off:
We paddled through Mountain and headed towards the Cherry lakes/portages. By the time we got to the first Cherry portage (9o rods) I was starting to hurt. I don't know if I didn't drink enough fluids early but I was having a lot of pain between my shoulder blades and could get comfortable paddling. Could have been cramps, could have been the all the early portages. We had a ways to go, though, and I'd be gutting it out from this point.
By the time we got to Moose I was hurting. We looked for campsites on Moose but there wasn't much to choose from, so we kept going. We finished the 126 rod Moose Portage and had officially gone through the BWCA (in through the western entry point and out the eastern entry point). There was a USFS campsite on South Fowl that Steve had stayed at on his previous border trip that we pulled into at 2pm.
The campsite on South Fowl wasn't anything to write home about:
It did have a sandy spot (dubbed butt-putty beach on Steve's previous border trip): but it wasn't exactly swimming weather...
It was the most grueling day of the trip for me. 22 miles on the water, 4 on land. 11 lakes (South, Rat, Rose, Watap, Cherrys, Moose, N Fowl, S Fowl), 8 portages. My back/shoulder blades were barking pretty bad when we got to camp and I tried to lie down and get them to settle down. It stormed in the afternoon (7th stormy day out of 12) and we spent most of the time in the tent reading and sleeping. The site was very buggy and there wasn't much for dry wood so we had supper over the camp stove (saved the last sweet and sour pork for tonight). Our plan for the rest of the trip was to do the Pigeon River the next day, camp at the old Ft. Charlotte site, and then tackle the Grand in the morning. After the way I was feeling on the last few portages, I was happy to be doing the Grand in the morning.
Final tally:
26 miles
8 portages (79, 4, 660, 100, 90, 40, 140, 130). 1243 rods total.
Wildlife:
5 loons, 3 eagles, 2 beaver
Supper:
Mountain House sweet & sour pork,
Mountain House lasagna
Mountain House Noodles and chicken
Weather:
hot, sunny
We rigged up the flag (Steve found on the portage from Lac La Croix into Bottle) on the front of Penny for the holiday.
We started the day wtih the 79 rod portage into Rat lake and a short 4 rod into Rose Lake. The Long Portage was next. We had figured it as about 480 portages from our maps, but weren't sure. Steve took Penny and a pack, I took the heavy pack and the small pack and off we went. Steve started out ahead. The portage doesn't get much use and so we kept our eyes on the trail. We knew there was a fork at some point and so we'd have to watch for that as well. The portage was WET! At one point the trail ran along side a stream and with all the rain we've had the trail was under water. Not ankle deep, not knee deep, not thigh deep... well, let's just say that I was glad I'm a few inches taller than Steve cause I wasn't quite waist deep. :) We slogged through the water and trudged on. We found the fork (nice sign pointing the way) and took the right path. We kept on - thinking that the portage seemed longer than the 480 - long as that may be. Well, eventually we saw water at end the portage. We set the packs and canoe down and looked at the maps. We were wrong - it was 480 to the sign and another 180 to the water; 660 rods total! Suprisingly we both felt great! We looked back and realized that neither one of us had set a pack down. Over two miles and nothing touched the ground. My shoulders were a bit sore but the back felt good and shoulders felt fine as soon as the pack was off. It was good to get it done early in the day (my back was getting sore on afternoon portages). The paddle was pretty in the morning.
We saw more of the elevation along the shores (though not as pretty as North/South lakes):
We kept on through Watap. I took a picture of the crew at the end of the Watap portage:
The sun was warm. I was sweating through my shirt by 10 AM just from paddling.We spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree. ..
We got pretty close before he took off:
We paddled through Mountain and headed towards the Cherry lakes/portages. By the time we got to the first Cherry portage (9o rods) I was starting to hurt. I don't know if I didn't drink enough fluids early but I was having a lot of pain between my shoulder blades and could get comfortable paddling. Could have been cramps, could have been the all the early portages. We had a ways to go, though, and I'd be gutting it out from this point.By the time we got to Moose I was hurting. We looked for campsites on Moose but there wasn't much to choose from, so we kept going. We finished the 126 rod Moose Portage and had officially gone through the BWCA (in through the western entry point and out the eastern entry point). There was a USFS campsite on South Fowl that Steve had stayed at on his previous border trip that we pulled into at 2pm.
The campsite on South Fowl wasn't anything to write home about:
It did have a sandy spot (dubbed butt-putty beach on Steve's previous border trip): but it wasn't exactly swimming weather...
It was the most grueling day of the trip for me. 22 miles on the water, 4 on land. 11 lakes (South, Rat, Rose, Watap, Cherrys, Moose, N Fowl, S Fowl), 8 portages. My back/shoulder blades were barking pretty bad when we got to camp and I tried to lie down and get them to settle down. It stormed in the afternoon (7th stormy day out of 12) and we spent most of the time in the tent reading and sleeping. The site was very buggy and there wasn't much for dry wood so we had supper over the camp stove (saved the last sweet and sour pork for tonight). Our plan for the rest of the trip was to do the Pigeon River the next day, camp at the old Ft. Charlotte site, and then tackle the Grand in the morning. After the way I was feeling on the last few portages, I was happy to be doing the Grand in the morning.
Final tally:
26 miles
8 portages (79, 4, 660, 100, 90, 40, 140, 130). 1243 rods total.
Wildlife:
5 loons, 3 eagles, 2 beaver
Supper:
Mountain House sweet & sour pork,
Mountain House lasagna
Mountain House Noodles and chicken
Weather:
hot, sunny
posted by the.mrrr at 11:17 AM
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