End of the road...or the beginning

Packing it all in, is it the end of the road or just the beginning?

We had another high wind day a head of us, but it would be to our backs most of the way. We watched other paddlers coming into the area as we did earlier in the week. What journey are they on, will our paths ever cross again?
-
As we departed Quetico, it felt like we were headed in the wrong direction. Was it really over? Where have the days gone?
-
We really dragged out leaving camp this morning. Just didn't want it to end. What's another cup of coffee and another handful of mini-wheats going to cost us in time? Who cares...

-

A little proof that we did indeed make it in and out of the park. My map reading skills were excellent. Unfortunately the application of what I read needed some work. :-/ But I got us around with out injury or fatality... most important Laura and I are still together ready for another adventure! :-)

-

When it is all said and done... hopefully you are left with wanting more. A great trip, one not soon to be forgotten. I've paddled in some pretty cool places, add this one to the list.
-

We took two days driving home easing back into the world. A little beer savoring and dinner out in Ely before we hit the road for home. Nothing like a steak cold beer and flush toilets.
-
The rain came and we heard the news... flooding and Hwy 60 bridge was washed out and the area was making the CNN news.
-
We took it slow. Spent the night in Chippewa Falls and took a brewery tour at the Linnie Lodge. It rained for 6 days straight after leaving Canada. Someone turn off the faucet.

-

Life can be one long portage, but the distance travelled and your journey are priceless. - The Capt'n

Warm summer days and lazy nights

Ah life out on the water. Those warm summer days and the lazy nights. Totally in our element totally relaxed and loving it.

Laura taking it all in as we leisurly get our day moving. Looking forward to an easy day of paddling and working our way down the lakes. Wind is really howling, we plan to stay to the lee of the windward shore.

We thought we had seen the last of the boat pulls, but one more for good measure. Wasn't too bad, not compared to what we have seen in previous days.

Laura smiles for the camera as we take a short break on one of the many islands we came across. A very windy day of paddling. We did get pulled over by a ranger making his way up the lake. Very pleasant. He asked for our travel documents and we were on our way.

I over shot our destination.... again and we had to do some very hard paddling into the wind to get to our island. We arrived and settled in. We were 6 hours from the world. We soaked up as much of the experience as we could.

A little swimming, cribbage and the last of our hot meals. So windy today that nobody was on the water. We would later learn that many groups were pinned on the wrong shore waiting it out.

Ely, where the road ends and the adventure begins - unknown

Portage paddle and drag

We had great sunrises on our journey through the Quetico Park. Here is a shot as we were getting ready to break camp for a very long day of paddling a portaging.

Water levels on the lakes were great. There were no fire ban in the Quetico, but the rivers that interconnected some of the lakes on our map turned into a boat pull and drag.

Here is an example of what turned into a boat drag. Two hours of shear hell allowed us to find beautiful spots like this beaver dam.

Finally a little open water. dead tired, we were on the hunt for a campsite. It was easy to make claim, when we came across this golden eagle nesting in a tree.

This was an outrageous find. We spent hours watching this golden eagle. He was a proud confident very dominant fellow.

Take a look at the size of the nest to the left. A juvenile eagle came into the nest and didn't set well with the larger eagle we caught on camera. They both were very vocal. It appeared the larger eagle was throwing the younger bird out of the nest (home) and the younger bird didn't want to go. It spite of our encroachment into their world... parenting had to be done.

Make it happen - The Capt'n

Refections MR340 - Thanks Kicker Fools

Long day of paddling

We had a very long day of paddling today and a lot of portaging. It was a good move to get our load down so we could single portage the route. It would have been a real drag having to go back and forth a couple of times to get our gear.

We paddled from Burke Lake to Sunday Lake. Sunday lake to Meadows Lake. Then Meadows lake to Agnes Lake. After a quick snack, it was off to Louisa Falls.

Laura and I hike up the right side and made our way up to the top. Here is a view from the top of the falls. The water pouring over as very cold.

It didn't stop Laura from taking a swim in one of the pools that were formed by the rushing water. I think I see mermaids.

Another shot of the falls from a different angle. We spent a couple hours here as we had lunch and boiled water. The sun felt so good after swimming through the falls. The weather was perfect.

Picture of the falls and Lake Agnes in the background. Can't see it from this shot. Still a very windy day of paddling, but if you made your way to the windward shore and hugged it. It was OK.

We battled the high winds and worked our way up the lake for 5 hours. We were looking for the portage onto Silence Lake, but it was starting to get dark, so we made our way to this great campsite on a peninsula which offered a great view and a family of beavers.

It was so cool cause the little one was riding on mom's back and they would go back and forth in front of our camp site. Every time the dad would slap his tail and dive under the little one would try and imitate.

Powered by nature - The Capt'n

On the water

We were on the water early. We were able to leave right from he outfitter's pier. Our first lake was Moose lake. We had about a 3 hour paddle up to Prairie Portage were we would use our remote CANPASS to cross the border into Canada.

There was lots to see as we skirted he windward shore to stay out of the wind. At least a 1/2 dozen bald and golden eagles soaring high above our heads.

Our arrival to Prairie Portage found us in the ranger station going over documents. It got kinda confusing, as we didn't make any of these arrangements and didn't really know what was paid for through the outfitter and what was paid in other fees. We ended up having to pay an additional $60..00 dollars for camp site fees. We were very lucky to have brought any money at all. Right before we left I just through my wallet into a dry bag. Laura's mom was originally heading up this family outing so we were going at it a little blind to the details.

Our first portage went pretty good. We did a one haul over to Inlet Bay and met some paddlers coming across from Bayley Bay. Laura and I were wearing matching shirts with our Mid-America X-treme logos embroidered on and they thought we worked at the ranger station and started asking us all sorts of questions about crossing back over to the U.S. Yea, we looked a bit dorky.

We made our way into Bayley Bay and stopped on Sunday Island for lunch. The wind was really blowing and Bayley Bay is quite large. Huge rollers white capping coming down the lake. I over shot the portage and ended up near Hobo Island, so we had to battle our way back a bit. We were taking waves over the gunnel's and bow so a bit of maneuvering was needed. The water was pleasant and the shore pretty close by. We weren't in any danger, but it made it exciting to surf the swells and bash some waves coming across the lake.

As we prepared to portage onto Burke Lake we met an outfitter and another paddle coming back to the world. They said rain was coming and we could see clouds in the distance filling in. We opted for a short paddling day in hopes to stay dry our first day out. We camped on this very cool island with plenty of shelter and a great fire pit.

It never did rain, it blew over north of us. Stopping early was still a good move as we swam and hung out and started to un-wind. Played some cribbage, sat around the fire and went to bed early.

-

The makings of a beautiful vacation. - The Capt'n

Quetico Adventure Continues

-

On our way up we stopped in at Amnicon Falls State Park did a short hike around the falls.

-

-

There was a very cute bridge over a narrow passage.

-

-

We were feeling adventurous and made the decsion to detour and make a run up the north shore of lake Superior. The weather was outstading and there ere a couple of light houses in route we wanted to see.

-

-
Our detour took to a road that was closed, so we really were on a detour. We named it the "detour from hell" as we left the pavement and hit gravel and then dirt. 30 plus miles... blah.

-

-

We made it of the detour and arived in Ely, Mn. shortly there after and hooked up with our outfitter. We originally had six in our party and the other 4 needed to rent canoes. When they bailed on us, we were beholding to the outfitter to take one of the rened canoes. A Souris River Quetico 17 in kevlar. It was old and beat up. The bottom oil canned, but it did the job. I eneded up really liking by the end.

-

-
On our way to the put in, we encountered a moose on the hwy. The picture is a bit blurry do to the lighting. He was huge and trotted off ino the woods.

-

-

The rest of the early evening we sorted gear and downsized our load. Our plan was to get our gear down to a one haul carry. Our present state: A triple carry... We worked the magic and got a manageable load. We were good to go.
-
We headed back into Ely for dinner. We hit this cute resturant the Cranberry, threw back a couple of brews and had dinner. We were planning to get out on the water early the next morning so we headed back to the bunkhouse on Moose lake.
-
Ely, Mn - a nice place to visit, would'nt mind living there 8 out of 10 - The Capt'n