Ken Woods Race Report

Cat 5
2nd out of 47
Official time: 1:59:50
http://www.endurancepromotions.com/blog_wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kwmrr-results-men-cat-5.pdf
Normalized power: 274
Peak watts (1084 in first 10 minutes working my way through the field to the front), final sprint was only 848
Power records: New 6-7 minute PR (at the end of the race)

Pre-race: Got there early with Joe for his 9am race. Took in the scene, watched other racers, tried to pick up course notes on people who pulled off from their race. Managed to pull off a successful bottle hand-up for Joe after his 2nd lap.

Race goals: stay rubber side down, get some experience, have fun. If I got into a group up front, try to hang as long as I could. Before I got to the race I thought I could be competitive in the 5's given my numbers right now but I got there and realized that I needed to temper those expectations. With no experience in a road race, seeing a lot of fit and capable cyclists in the big group of 5's, and knowing that hill at the end was probably going to split any group and spit me off the back, I really didn't expect to be in contention. One could hope, but didn't expect it.

First lap:
Here's a nice summary from Josh Weigel, I was standing next to him when I started so pretty much the same for me except for the clipping in:

"Happened to be we were all ready staged and the race started while JG and I were talking about something, our conversation quickly switched to "we are starting now?" and we were off. OK, not knowing the race is going to start is one thing but having the race start and not being able to get clipped in is another. I started dead last and had to race to catch up with the field. Thank God no one decided to push the pace from the get go so I had time to catch back up. JG and I rode together for about 1/4 mile then I decided I needed to get closer to the front so I worked my way up. About 2 miles into the race I was 3/4 of the way through the pack and feeling really good. Mile 5 I joined the leaders and started taking my turns pushing the pace. The fun thing about this was we were going relatively slow so you could pull for a bit then settle back in the the pack and more or less just glide along. We turned the second corner and headed straight into the wind and really slowed down since no one wanted to be in front. The group was getting restless, you could just feel the anxiety building, people started to get pushed over the center line and the judge or referee (who ever the guy with the whistle on the motorcycle is) started yelling and making people go to the back of the pack. We were only going like 16 mphs for about 1.5 miles when someone said hell with this, literally yelled "to hell with this" and took off. The group sped up to about 19-20mphs and we quickly reeled him back in. This went on until the final turn of the first lap when we had to climb out of the valley. I was doing good until this point but the hill seemed to much for me. I turned the corner on Matt Maurer's wheel and started up the hill. 1/2 way up Matt and I were riding next to each other he looked at me and said "our bodies are not made for this" at the same time we were coming to a slower biker and he went around him on the right and I ended up behind the slower rider. The slower rider tried to get on Matt's wheel to draft up the hill but could not hold the pace and we both dropped back since I was behind him. "

Not much to add to that. First mass start race for me so I was just trying to get a feel for it all in the neutral start. I think I let too many people get in front of me, though. When we hit the turn and the pacing car pulled off it was on and I figured I needed to get my ass to the front pretty quick. I jumped from wheel to wheel, hopped in behind others moving up, and soon I was up where I wanted to be. Expended a bit of energy to get there but OK. I looked over at one point and saw Josh had made his way up to the front as well, so that was good to see. On the hill at the end of lap 1, I got towards the front of the group and tried to set a hard but manageable effort on the hill. People were starting to pass and pull away from me and I realized I needed to pick it up a bit to have a chance to stay with what looked to be the group, and that's probably when I lost Josh. I saw Coach Joe near the start finish line but I hadn't gone through much for fluids so didn't need the bottle hand-up from him. I doubt I would have been able to grab at as at that point I was barely registering anything happening beyond the 5 feet in front of my wheel.

2nd lap
I think I went across the start line in around 10th? There were certainly people in front but I was with a small group so I thought we'd be able to catch people, and if not I still had a group with to share the work on the 2nd lap. After a few minutes of recovery from the hill my legs felt pretty good so I was able to do some pulling and work my way up to the riders that were out in front. I wasn't sure what kind of group was going to form so I wanted to be in the front if/when it formed. I burned a little energy here but I felt like it was the right move. I was able to bridge up what looked to be the last of the people out front, and then was content to sit on the wheel and let the group catch up. By the turn heading west a group of 10 had formed. This was the windiest part of the course. We knew there was still a rider (riders?) up front. One of the riders (Rob Hillman) got us into a double paceline so we could push the effort a bit and try to bring the breakaway back. We got through a few rotations but I think people were pretty blown from trying to get into the group on the previous stretch. I was feeling OK at this point, felt like I could do my share of pulling and if anything I was leaving people off my wheel when I was pulling. We made the turn heading north and the race official let us know we were 45 seconds back. Again couldn't get any real coordinated effort to chase. We picked up a few stragglers from the other races. At this point there didn't seem to be much interest in the group to chase the lone breakaway, so I sat in the back of the group, let my legs recover a bit, and planned to mark any moves or else get ready to try to hang with the group up the final hill. I was curious if a move would be made on the shorter hill on this stretch but there really wasn't any attempts to get away, just a few surges, so it became clear we were going to hit the final hill as a group.

I knew we had short downhill before the turn into the final hill, so I got up to the front of the group and I think was in 2nd wheel behind Rob Hillman entering the hill. Rob attacked the hill from the start and I was able to stay on his wheel, though was running in the red to do so. As we made our way up the climb I really had to bury myself to stay on his wheel, but I looked back and we had dropped the rest of the group so I decided to stay on Rob until I blew up or hit the finish line, whichever came first. A gap started to open a couple of times but I dug in and closed it. The pace slowed a little when the hill started to flatten out, but memory starts to gets fuzzy a bit here due to lack of O2 to the brain and I'm going off of PT data since it all hurt at this point. We hit the little downhill before the finish I was able to recover a little and get ready for the last sprint. Another rider had almost caught up with us so it was going to be 3 people for the final sprint. At some point I touched wheels with Rob but didn't crash. Rob moved around the course a little to try to shake me but at that point about all I could physically see was his wheel and I was able to stay on him. He started the sprint pretty early and I know said some mean things under my breath since I knew this was really going to hurt but I matched his effort than moved around him and gave it all I had (which at that point wasn't a whole lot - 848 watts) until I looked back and could see I would take the sprint and proceeded to limp across the line collapsed over my bars. At least I think that's how it went. I really wasn't thinking too clearly at that point. Looking back at my data I was within 3 watts of my 5 minute power PR for the last 5 minutes of the race, so I left it all out there on the course.

I really expected to get dropped on the last hill since I had to kill it first lap to try to hang with the leaders and still dropped back. So I was very, very happy with the result.

notes:
-Put new PR3's and latex tubes in the night before. Was a little nervous racing on freshly installed tires/tubes with no miles on them, but figured I could ride around a bit and had plenty of time to swap stuff out if needed. The tires/tubes worked great, so no worries

-Peace Coffee kits not in yet so I picked up last year's skinsuit (will need for TT's anyway) and wore that for the race. Fit great, but could have used some pockets. Only had maybe 200 calories on me during the race and didn't go through all of that, so was definitely undercaloried and could feel it after the race. Lesson learned.

-It was chilly but dressed right. Wore normal longsleeve shirt and arm warmers and warm gloves. Also went with tights (good call) and cycling cap under helmet (also good call). Had to flip the bill up on the cycling cap about half way through the race since my neck was getting sore trying to see from under it. Probably looked stupid but at that point I really didn't care. Sore neck gone. Win. Temp was good, got warm and unzipped jersey going up the big hill on both laps, otherwise was good. When I got done, though, I was shivering uncontrollably.

-In retrospect I think maybe could have tried to bridge up to the winner (Joris Custers) on the southbound stretch since I was reeling in people, but as a sprinter I was thinking more about getting a group formed to stay out of the wind than getting in a small breakaway and going off the front. Obviously Joris was strong enough to stay away, though I'm pretty sure a more coordinated effort in our group could have reeled him in as the margin of victory was down to 16 seconds and we really weren't working hard in the group to bring him back. But even now I don't think that would have been the right move. Certainly no guarantee I would have won and I'm probably not a guy who's going to love being in 1 or 2 man breaks like that (or be successful at it). I'd rather sprint. :)

-no major cramping, calves got a little tight on the northbound stretch on lap 2 and I remember my hip flexors getting a little tight at times, but no worries. Legs started to feel the accelerations by the middle of lap 2, though. But I guess everyone's were at that point.

6 months later

Well, I'm finally finishing up the trip report. Only took me 6 months...

I still think about our trip a lot. Two weeks in the wilderness with no phones, no email, no electricity, no running water, and you have to earn everything you get. There aren't many things left where you get out of only as much as you put into it. I'm certainly proud of the accomplishment. We were really dialed in towards the end of the trip and physically it wasn't something I probably could have walked in and done without some pre-trip training. Maybe more than anything it gave me a purpose. For 12 weeks I had a goal in mind: getting to the end of the Grand Portage under my own power. I miss that tangible purpose (and the scenery).

Soooooo, I'm happy to report that I was excited over the holidays when it looks like Steve's wife green-lighted another trip. We probably have 10 days this time. We're still not sure what route. We could attempt the border route in 10 days. It's doable (we had 2 layover days and a couple of other shorter days) but would reduce the enjoyment a bit I think. A Quetico trip is a possiblity. But I think the current leader is Rainy (International Falls) to Brule. We'd cover some of the same ground but want to hit the interior lakes along Lac La Croix (a favorite spot for both of us). We'll have some big water (can we do 40 miles on day one???) but will have more time on smaller lakes. It will mean more portages but we won't have the Long, Foul, and Grand Portages (almost 12 miles worth) facing us at the end of the trip. We shall see...

Anything we'll do differently this time? Well, less gear, more Mountain House meals. Maybe a new tent or some newer and/or lighter gear. I've officially started training. I can't wait!

Post- trip

10:30 AM, day 14. After we had set our gear down and taken our pictures, we now needed to find my car. Our nephew Rob had driven our car from Grand Rapids to Grand Portage, but we didn't know exactly where it was located in Grand Portage. The primary option was to put it in the parking lot for the Isle Royale ferry. Great, but we had no idea where that was. We stopped in the office at the stockade and talked to the woman working there. She gave me a ride over to the overflow lot (abougt 300 yards from where we had dropped our gear) and there was my Civic. Awesome! Especially cause if it was in the regular ferry lot we wouldn't have been able to get it until 5pm. Soooo, nice work Rob in the parking spot. I forgot I had left a big bottle of Gatorade in the car from the drive up. The chilly night had even left it cold! Nectar of the gods! We loaded up our gear and were on the road south by 11am.

I love driving along the north shore. The drive was a nice, pretty way to slowly get back into civilization. When we got to Grand Marais, my cell phone started getting coverage so we called family members to let them know we were out and safe. We had planned on meeting our niece Mistyn and her husband Rob in Duluth for a beer and burger at Fitger's. Rob had to fly out to Maryland and Mistyn had to work until 4:30; we had gotten out early and now that the trip was over were anxious to get home, so we decided to change plans. I had to pick up my ipod and keys at their house so we figured we'd eat early and then meet Mistyn after work and shower up at their house. We still had some time so we stopped at the Granite Gear factory in Two Harbors. I picked up some old model thwart and stowaway bags, as well as a small torso/food pack at a good price. The Big Boat Oatmeal Stout and burger and fries were damn good and we drove to Mistyn and Rob's full and happy. After a well earned shower we thanked Mistyn and made the way back down 35 to the Twin Cities. We got to Steve's and unloaded and sorted all the gear. We got my stuff back in the car and I bid goodbye to Steve and his family and made the 1.5 hour drive back to Rochester. It was a difficult drive. I had spent the last two weeks with my big brother and I was on my way back to an empty house. The trip I had been planning for a year and training for for 10 weeks was now over. Getting out early meant I had 4 days off before I had to be back at work, but I knew I would need all 4 of those days to readjust back to my life in Rochester.

It was strange - when we finished the brutal day 8 (Saganaga) and everything was wet and cold, I couldn't wait for my warm bed, hot meal, hot shower, and indoor plumbing. But then it got nice out again and it was hard to leave. The Grand, while hard work, wasn't a killer and I wasn't feeling worn down and sore. I was wanting more. I got home and didn't know what to do with myself. It was fun to see my friends again and see what had gone on in the world while we were out, but after a day of that, I found myself lost - Lost in Transition (apologies to Sophia Coppola). I cleaned up my gear, did laundry, and started going through the pictures. I had to make a Cabela's trip the day after we came out to get some laundry detergent (I'm particular about my laundry detergent) and I wandered the store, still in awe at what we had done and seen, but sad that it was over. I found myself walking through the camping section. They had a big Fisher map display along a wall the had most of the BWCA pieced together from the individual maps. I traced our route along the map, thinking about what we had seen along the way. I ended up talking to one of the employees, sharing the highlights of our trip. It was exciting to relate the experience. I had done the Grand the morning before, and here I was back in regular life again...

Physically I had never done anything quite like what we did. I came out off the Grand in the best shape of my life. I went into the gym the day after I got out and I had lost about 13 lbs in the 15 days since I had left. I couldn't believe how loose my pants were. I was never really sore on the trip but I was sore in the days following the return. I felt good after the Grand, and I went into the gym the next morning to life and run on the elliptical machine, but the body just didn't respond. I ended up taking 4 days off from working out to let the body recover. A massage in that time period helped, too. 10 days later I'm back to my normal workouts, and ahead of where I was before I left, but I already feel like I've lost that edge we had on the trip.

The trip was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life. We worked hard, pushed ourselved physically, but still enjoyed every minute of it.

Day 14 (Grand Portage)

Chuck K - Paul said this one's for you...

We woke up at 4:15. Oy, that's early, but I hadn't slept that well and was awake. The tent pad was badly slanted and I had a hard time getting my sleeping pad level without sleeping right on top of Steve. It was also cold! Not just cool, but cold! Grand Marais had a low of 38 and I believe it. With my summer bag (rated to 45) and uninsulated Big Agnes REM air core pad, I got a wee bit chilly overnight, and that's after I had put on my poly-props. Throw the anticipation of the Grand on top and I was ready to go when we started hearing the birds chirping.

So, we got up and started putting the packs together (and tried to stay warm). We were pretty jazzed about the cool weather - I can't imagine what a 8.5 mile portage would be like in 90s and humid (OK - I can cause I did a post-trip hike with a loaded pack in this heat we've been having) but still, cool is good. We got the packs put together - I felt bad for Steve cause the light pack was a little heavier than we had planned. My heavy pack was a load - my guess is 100-105 lbs, but I was hoping to keep Steve's lighter after we got rid of all the food. I made myself eat some breakfast and we loaded up on water. We planned to carry 3-4 granola bars and a liter of water per person on the portage.

We started the portage at 5:24 AM. The path was pretty dewy and it took a bit to get heated up. We were both in shorts and long sleeve wicking shorts, so temp was fine but Steve's hands got a big cold from having his hands on the aluminum gunwales. We took a quick break to warm our hands up and moved on. The plan was to stop every mile or so for a rest break. I was ready to put the pack down after the first mile. I'm not a morning person and I have a hard time working out in the early morning. Based on the first mile, I thought it might be a long day. I had done a lot of pre-trip hiking with an 85 lb portage pack, but it didn't seem to be helping as we started.

I had my gps on me and we had the McKenzie maps of the portage so we were able to track our progress pretty well. Looking at the topo we could tell the portage would drop about 600 feet of elevation over the 8+ miles. Early in the portage we passed a sign that marked the high elevation sign for the portage. All downhill (about 700 feet worth) from here, right? :) The portage itself was in pretty good shape. A few trees down, but nothing like the Foul Portage from the day before. It's not a huge wide trail, just a small path through the grass and woods. At the higher elevations there wasn't much mud. There were planks over most of the wet/muddy areas and the planks were firm and dry. We had dried out our boots the day before and though the dew was getting them a bit damp, they weren't the soggy, heavy bricks we had the previous days. Unfortunately, we wouldn't keep our feet dry for the entire portage...

About 2 miles in we came across a beaver pond where the busy rodents had backed up a stream into a good size pond. The USFS (or whoever maintains the Grand) had put up a nice, wide boardwalk (complete with rails) to cross the pond. I'm thinking "awesome! stay nice and dry." Well, about half way across the pond the beavers had re-routed and added onto the dam so there was now some water across the boardwalk. I skirted the water as best I could using some beaver chew that was sitting on the boardwalk but still got one foot wet. Well, 1 dry foot is better than none, so I moved on. The rest of the boardwalk looked dry and I was looking ahead when the board I stepped on sunk to about mid-calf into the water. Doh! So much for the dry foot. We finished crossing the beaver pond and climbed up a short incline, set the packs down, and took our boots off to wring out our socks. We'd have wet boots the rest of the portage. Kudos to my Fox River X-static liner socks and Smartwool light hikers (and the Merrill boots) - no blisters or sore feet all trip. The mosquitos had woken up by then and there were swarms of them hovering around us. Thanks to Muskol I didn't get a single bite on the Portage and they weren't really an issue.

After the boardwalk we had about 2 mile to go before we reached old highway 61. The pack seemed to carry better this stretch and I was starting to wake up a bit and the energy level was starting to ramp up a little. We hit old hwy 61 a little after 8am. We were over half-way through and I was feeling pretty good. I believe the sign here said 3.7 miles to the stockade - which wasn't sounding too bad any more. The last few miles had been better and I was able to get the pack situated where the pain was one I could ignore. After a couple minutes on the back, there really isn't a comfortable way to carry that much weight, even with the Granite Gear Superior packs (I wouldn't use any other). So it becomes a matter of finding a pain you can deal with. I'm thankful I did so much pre-trip road work with a pack as I was used to the discomfort and could push it to the back of my mind. I felt like I got off easy just having one (albeit heavy) pack to carry. Steve had some problems getting the canoe/pack combo dialed in with the weighting of the pack and was adjusting the CVCA yoke pads at breaks. I offered to swap but he declined. I did carry Penelope for a few rods just to say I carried a canoe on the Grand. :) It's interesting what goes through your mind when you do a long portage like that. You find rhythms in your stride and the sway of the packs, and your mind will latch onto a mantra to keep the rhythm. There were some strange phrases that popped up in my mind as I hiked along. Probably (ok definitely) the most odd was 'Yevgeny Kafelnikov', former tennis champ and now poker player. For some reason that odd collection of syllabels kept me going in rhythm for a good mile or so. Very strange. Another sound clip, which was probably the theme song of the trip, was Woo Hoo by the 5678s (from Kill Bill and the Vonage commercials). But I digress... old hwy 61. We took a little longer food/water break on the side of the road and enjoyed the warming rays of the sun. All the work had finally given me an appetite and I ate a bunch of jerky - figure better in you than on you. A truck drove by and we got a salute from the driver. I thought that was pretty cool.

After 20 minutes or so we shouldered our packs and canoe and moved on. With the portage over half over at this point I was feeling good. We had about 2.5-3 miles from old highway 61 to the current 61. This was the easiest stretch for me. My energy level was much higher and I was getting the pack dialed in and feeling better as the day went on. I hit a good spot in the next mile and was singing along as I walked and started enjoying the view and the challenge of the hike. Steve was pretty surprised to see me perking up and singing as we went along. I don't think he was getting stronger as the day went on, but I was feeling it! The trail was a little thinner during this stretch, but still in good shape. Very few trees down here. Shortly before we hit hwy 61 we went through a pretty stretch of pines. We got to hwy 61 and crossed before taking another break. At this point we had less than a mile to go. I was still feeling really strong and energetic. As we went on and got closer to town, we started hearing sounds of civilization. I pulled the GPS out - we were less than 200 yards from Lake Superior! Soon we saw the stockade - our destination. We strode into the lawn in front of the stockade and set our gear down along the parking lot. We had done it! I pulled the camera out and our small Nalgene of Jack Daniel's and we made a toast to the trip - 236 miles, 14 days, 8.5 Grand Portage, and one hell of a good time.


This concludes the trip. Our day was not complete - we still had to find our car, drive to Duluth for a Big Boat Oatmeal Stout at Fitgers, and make our way back home, but I'll recap that and final reflections.

Day 13 (Fort Charlotte)

With a relatively short day ahead of us we slept in. It was cool and cloudy when we woke up:


We started the day with the Fowl Portage (which we will now refer to as the Foul Portage). It began with a steep uphill climb to start. Like most of the portages on the Canadian side, it was pretty rugged. More than the others, though, this one involved some bushwhacking. I lost count how many fallen trees we had to go over/under. With the constant off/on with the packs and canoe to get them over the fallen trees, we never got a rhythm going. It was listed at 393 but felt a lot longer. Steve took a fall climbing over some trees and took a nasty hit to his knee/leg. No cut, but a pretty serious contusion. After some recovery time he (rather impressively) shouldered on. It would (probably luckily) be the worst injury of the trip. There wasn't much of a trail and I wondered if we were still on the portage but we were at least heading in the right direction and eventually we were at the river.

We had maps of the river but didn't know how accurate they would be as to rapids and portages. We knew of the portage at Partridge Falls but didn't know if we'd have to look for others along the way. But, with the current in our favor and only about 12 miles to go we could take our time. I don't think the Pigeon gets much traffic so it felt adventurous and I hoped we'd see some wildlife. It was pretty; no wind, calm water made for some quiet paddling.

We hadn't gone too far when we spotted what looked to be a moose in the water ahead:



Yep... that's a moose!
he let us get pretty close before he lumbered off. You really get a feel for how big they are when you see them rumble off like that...
We hit a couple of rapids caused by narrows in the river and dams from the beavers. There were no good portages around them so we ran the rapids. I almost fell out of the canoe on one rapids when we took a good hit on a hidden rock. Penelope took some dings this day but made it through (though much more scratched and beat up than she started).

We had a heron with us for a good strech:

We also had several duck hens trying to lead us away from their chicks as we'd pass by:

One of them stayed in front of us for several miles.

I had the GPS on so knew when we were getting close to Partridge Falls. We got to the top of the falls and pulled into the portage. I went ahead and scouted the portage to see what we had in store. It was actually in very good shape for what I expected. It looked to be about 100 rods or so. There were some large moose tracks on the portage. It was a good place to stop and take some pictures as the falls were beautiful (and doesn't get much traffic):

Base of falls:

Side view of falls:


Steve at falls:
Matt at falls:

The crew at base of falls:
Crew at side of falls:
wildflowers above falls:
Steve looking at falls:
Boundary marker at top of falls:

Froth from the falls:

The Pigeon River below the falls:

There wasn't much at Fort Charlotte National Monument, but it worked perfectly for our needs. There was a register there so we were able to sign in for our camping. The Monument has two campsites, each had picnic tables. The Fort did have a really cool outhouse. After 12 days in the BWCA, an enclosed toilet was high class!

The sun came out when we got to Ft. Charlotte and we were able to dry everything out for the Grand. We spread out our gear and figured out what food we could burn off to lighten the packs for the Grand...

Steve got a little zealous with the remainder of the white gas... luckily he managed not to burn off all the hair on his legs. It was nice to camp here and have just the Grand to do in the morning. There were nice rocks along the river so we sat down there and finished our journaling. We also ate our supper along the river:
It was quiet, calm, and serene way to end our last night of the trip. Tomorrow we would be sleeping in our beds at home. It was a cool night, the sky was clear, and we'd have the rapids to sing us to sleep that night. Steve broke out a list of French names he had brought and I finally got my Voyageur nomiker. I settled on Gaspard (French for Jasper). I was bittersweet about the trip ending. I was excited to go home, clean up, sleep in my comfy bed, see friends, etc. But I would miss the quiet, the simple work, the company of my brother. The great weather at the end of the trip had greatly renewed my spirits and made the ending all the more difficult. 2 weeks is a long time away from everything... it felt longer... and shorter. I had really dialed into the rhythm of the woods the last few days and knew I would start to lose that the minute I got home. But I wasn't done yet - I still had the Grand to tackle tomorrow...


Final tally:
14 miles
2 portages (393, ~100)

wildlife:
3 loons, 1 moose (bull), 1 otter, 1 deer, 1 beaver, 4 herons, and lots of mama ducks leading us away from her chicks

Supper:
Mountain House terayaki chicken
Mountain House lasagna
garlic butter rice dish

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

Day 11 (South Lake - layover)

Woke up at 4am, got up to water the bushes and could tell there was a storm on the way. When the storm came in, we had a day to kill, so we declared day 11 an off day and went back to sleep. Read and lazed away the morning, got up around 10am. It looked like it would be socked in all day, but the sun came out early afternoon and it was a beautiful afternoon/evening. It was pretty windy in the afternoon but it calmed down for a great evening. We heard loons echoing across the still lake at dusk; very calm and serene.

We didn't put the canoe in the water all day, but I did do some reading and took some pictures...

sky reflected on the calm water:







Final tally:
0 miles

Wildlife:
2 loons

Weather:
rainy/stormy AM. Windy afternoon, calm and beautiful night

Day 10 (South Lake)

We slept in again. Felt really, really good. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was out, life was good. There was a bit of a wind out of the south.

We paddled out of the Granite River. There was a 100 rod portage along Little Rock Falls into Magnetic Lake - wasn't bad, but hilly. There was a group of people from Gunflint Lodge at the falls taking pictures. We saw one group heading into the Granite as we were leaving the portage.

We paddled past a very nice chalet style cabin on Magnetic/Gunflint; it was on its own island and was immaculately kept up. We bucked a south wind into Gunflint. We stopped at the Gunflint Lodge - our first dose of civilization in over a week. We had some time so drank a Moosehead and ate a burger and fries (our waitress's name was Lucia). Good stuff after all the Mountain House! We got news on the government shutdown and also heard the weather forecast: 80% chance of showers/thunderstorms in evening. Not so good. So, after lunch we planned to make tracks on Gunflint with the impending weather. After a quick stop at a neighboring resort to restock batteries and replace the duct tape I left on Sagg, we lit across Gunflint. We more or less had the wind at our backs and made some sweet time. I was keeping track on my GPS and we were averaging 5 mph in Penny.

We had a tough time finding the entrance into Little Gunflint. Eventually, though, we were off Gunflint and moving towards North and South lakes. We came across a pair of loons and their two young on Little Gunflint:

The railway portage connected Little Gunflint with North Lake. It was a short portage (20 rods) and you could see the old tracks along the portage. I found single white leather glove (hee-hee) at the end of the portage.

North Lake (and South as well) were very pretty, a different look than we had seen previously with elevation on the shores.

We had a south wind to buck on North and South lakes but it wasn't too bad. Just trim the canoe, point into the wind, and go. After our experience on the Sagg this wasn't anything to fret. It was in the 80s, the sun was out, and we hadn't seen any sign of the thunderstorms that were supposed to be on the way.

We had the 80 rod Height of Land portage to go to get into South Lake. Looking at all the elevation along the shore I was worried it was going to be brutal, but it wasn't too bad, actually. we got a picture at a marker on the portage:



We fought the wind again out of the south on South Lake, but had smoother sailing once we got the south shore of the lake. We checked out a campsite about half way across the lake but passed on it in hopes of finding something better. We ended up staying on the campsite at the east end of the South Lake (along Rat portage). Heading up to it we weren't sure if it was going to be on the US or Canada side (looked like it was going to be Canada), but we saw the USFS fire grate so knew we were OK. We set up camp and did a little exploring.

The site is right along the side of the portage and when looking for the latrine I came across this abandoned boat:
Not sure how it got there; you can't see it but it's tied down with a big 'ol hemp rope.

Our campsite had a bit of elevation so we had a pretty good view:


There was a big blow down near the entrance of Rat portage that our campsite overlooked:

After our big lunch of 'real' food we weren't that hungry but did make a little something for supper:

With 20 miles in today, we were looking at some short days the rest of the trip. Today had felt pretty easy. Our gear was dry and the packs lighter because of it. My hands were dried out and not pruny any more. My feet were still a bit fungy but not too bad (the X-static socks helped). We swam a bit - the water was very clear. I had a nice smallmouth swim within about 2 feet of me as I stood with my legs in the water.

We had a nice western view from the site so I took some sunset pics:



I went to sleep wtih the skies still clear and no sign of the storms.

Final tally:
20 miles
6 portages: 100, 30, 20, 25, 20, 80

Wildlife:
8 loons, 2 eagles

Supper:
Mountain House chicken terayaki w/rice
Chipotle Rice
Garlic toast (hamburger buns)
hot chocolate for dessert

Weather:
sunny
wind out of south

Day 9 (Clove)

We slept in until about 7am. Felt really good. Took our time getting ready in the morning.

We would be travelling on the Granite River today so the wind wasn't much of a factor but Sagg didn't look quite so bad in the morning:


Penelope was none the worse for the previous day's adventure...



We were on the water around 8:30. The wind had shifted to out of the north so would be at our backs on the river. While not nearly as bad as yesterday, it was still breezy.

After our first portage onto the Granite we came across a bull moose along the edge of the river. It was the first moose I had seen in the BWCA. My camera batteries were on their last legs, so I had to do some swapping to find some with any juice left, but I was able to snap one picture of a semi-obscured moose...


The Granite was pretty. Lots of new growth forest - very different from the western edge/LLC area. The portages were generally short, but a couple were pretty sloppy. I slipped along the rocks along the side of the river and almost took a fall while stacked pack portaging on one so I double shot a couple since they were short.

Finally! Sun!The sun came out in the morning and it ended up being a beautiful day. Mid 70s, low humidity, a bit of a breeze - perfect day for drying out our gear and enjoying the sunshine. So, after 9 miles we stopped at Clove lake and did just that:

It was nice to get our gear and clothing dry. We took the afternoon off and read, napped, and enjoyed the sun. It was nice to be in shorts again and feel the sun on the face. We planned out our schedule for the rest of the trip (weather and such dependent of course). Even with our short day we were looking at easier days from here on out.

Given the sun and time in camp we had time for a real supper again, so later in the afternoon we went looking for firewood. I caught a little northern - the last fishing I'd do on the trip. We happened across a family of beavers. Now you see beaver sign everywhere up there but I don't see many beavers. Well we were lucky to watch 6 of them at a big lodge - 4 adults and 2 young. The young ones were playful; while one was playing with an adult, the other swam up to us. When it got close enough, another adult slapped its tail and they all dove under.

I was suprised by the lack of people on the Granite. We saw one group on the portages as we were coming through but didn't see anyone else until the afternoon. All sites filled up on Clove, though, and around 6:30 we saw a group of 4 canoes move through.

Here's a look at Steve's fine duct-tape handiwork on the rainfly...
It may not look pretty but it kept us dry, so pretty by my standards.




Final tally:
9 miles
7 portages (34, 25, 36, 26, 25, 63, 46)

Wildlife:
5 loons
2 eagles
1 moose (bull)
1 turtle
6 beaver

Supper:
Mountain House lasagna
Asian garlic pasta
Parmasan flatbread toast
flatbread American cheese melt w/ garlic
hot chocolate for desert

Weather:
Windy, cloudy, brisk AM. Maybe 50.
Skies cleared, sunny, mid 70s. Low humidity