One of the guys in the group offered the same sentiment, but I think that’s a dumb way to regulate ‘good behavior’.
I dont expect a red carpet or even a groomed trail. I hike off trail and in rugged wilderness weekly. I have hundreds of nights in wilderness in the last several years. California has many rugged trails, but few are as consistently bad as the BWCA that I experienced. Same compared to trails in colorado, massachusettes, or maine too.
I do not foresee a deluge of malcontents if the trails had a somewhat clear path, so politely reject the sentiment that unkept portage trails are needed to keep out the ner-do-wells. Or fine, keep some rugged portages connected to the front country lakes, but once you’re 15 miles deep, can they get nicer then…? I say it would be nice.
In these days of tax cuts, a lot of the places I camp at rely on “friends of” groups that do a lot of the maintenance. https://www.friends-bwca.org/bwca-trail-clearing/ This applies to everything from national to state, provincial and local parks and forests. You can donate money or time, or just buy a sticker for your canoe to commemorate where it has been.
I believe that you have totally misinterpreted the BWCA.
It was never meant to be a benched hiking trail. When the trail between lakes go up rock terrain, the trails or portages go up rock and the trail is just like everything else around there. Rock.
Different parts of the BWCA have different types of portages. If going thru some areas the portage has very few to no rocks, some are full of roots , some have both roots and rocks and some are steep and some are very flat and open. Some of the portages on the map have been taken over by beaver and you might have to improvise.
It is up to the person planning the trip to read the topo maps and plan . {get topo maps that show both depth of the water and land changes to plan . Nobody hauled rock in or out just to make a trail…it’s the way the land is. The land was not changed just for comfort {I can’t even imagine how it could be with minimum funding {basically only covering crews that move thunder boxes and cut trees that have fallen across the main portage trail only using hand tools. No motorized allowed, not even chain saws.
BTW some of the shorter portages are the most challenging. Designing a trip there requires some studying of maps and interpretation of what is on them.
I spent over 20 years portaging and paddling there before I got into kayaking. I have paddled a good portion of the BWCA since I mostly did 9 or 10 plus day traveling trips.
Good luck if you decide to go again now that you know some of what is there and what you will deal with. It is nothing like what you find anywhere in California. Many of the portages date to the fir trade days. I have many fond memories. You can always do the boarder route…The last portage into Grand Portage is a wee bit long, but the trail is good.
I loved my time there and will certainly return. I love Northern MN and don’t meant to complain as much as it sounds. I had a superb time amd really enjoy the terrain up there. The trails are more than passable.
Just like anything. Acclimate to it and roll with what there is. Don’t change the land. You find that there are fewer and fewer places on our planet that well meaning people haven’t brought in a dozer to make it easier…that is NOT what the BWCA is about.
If everyone that visited changed just one thing, because they thought it would be an improvement, pretty soon , it would be just another theme park. {needing to pass a dark sky ordinance}
In Quetico just north of the BWCAW the portage trails are not maintained in any way whatsoever. At least, that is how it used to be, I haven’t been for a while.
The portage trails are basically the paths that large animals made to get from one water source to another. If you are off the main routes you might be the first person to have traversed a portage trail in quite a long time and they can be hard to even find at times. You can expect to find large trees fallen completely across the trails at times.
MClmes thanks for sharing your insights. BWCA is on the list to do in the near future. I figured Fall would be a good time to go, less boyscouts and less bugs. Thank you for keeping it real about portage conditions. I probably would have gone this year but exhausted my travel budget. You have given me a better idea of what to expect.
Actually, the rangers will portage our gear so we can run the Chase Rapids empty - assuming we can run the Chase Rapids. Anyone know how that works in high water. I know it is controlled at the Churchill Dam, so helpfully they will be releasing a reasonable level.
P.S. - one of the crew called the rangers, and apparently at flows greater than 5K they recommend that you take out above Allagash Falls. As it turns out, we had already decided to do that because as MCImes says – portages suck.
There is one short section of whitewater – Chase Rapids below Churchill Dam – and apparently they release at the normal level of 500 cfs during the day even if they let it rip at higher levels at night.
We are good to go – days in the 60s/70s, night in the 40s, maybe a little rain early in the week.
I volunteer with the Los Padres Forest Association a few days a year. They are a nonprofit dedicated to maintaining LPF trails, and advocating for preservation and low impact stewardship of the wilderness.
They organize ‘working vacations’ about 4 weeks a year which are 2-5 days long (attend whatever you can). 3-5 group leaders supervise volunteer groups to clear brush overgrowing the trail, and do trail maintenance such as building water bars, clearing rocks across dry river beds, filling in ruts and wash outs, building small retaining walls, building ramps down steep banks, cutting fallen trees, and similar maintenance activities.
Its fun because they provide tools (saws, clippers, hoes, etc) and direction, plus they typically take a pack mule train into the camp (generally home base is 3-15 miles from a trailhead) and they provide food, a camp chef, and free beer (donated from local breweries), so your pack can easily be under 20lbs for the hike in/out.
This year the first one got almost 40 people that restored about 7 miles of trail, and the 2nd had almost 30 that revitalized 4 miles of trail after the horrible January 9th storm flooding (the area got 12" of rain in 12 hours and 18" in 24hrs).
Im thinking the friends of the BWCA could organize something similar if they don’t already. Among other things, it was a great way to meet like minded friends and added 3 people to my backpacking friend group.
I’m confused. I call it destroying nature to make it more comfortable. The YumYum portage is a thing of beauty. When I went through it seemed like wonderland. It was probably even more magical when it was not a portage trail at all.
I “went into” BWCA on July 5 1999 . Derecho, produced straight-line winds of up to 100 mph, which uprooted and toppled nearly 500,000 acres of the BWCA’s trees. The storm had passed. Portages were bad news, several narrow water passages were dammed up with huge trees. My route was Gunflint north to Sag. I ran rapids which I usually avoided in the folder. And I lined up rapids, swam. It was July. Every portage was a
forest of pickup sticks. I’m glad I went. I ran into a five canoe group of teenage woman, they had lived through the big show. Shell shocked but still focused and motoring.
Lives were lost in the BWCA from that storm.
Short story long. The Forest Service had to do that clearing work. Brutal logistics.
Sounds like a great trip, easy portages eh?
I disagree that a marginally groomed trail is destroying nature. A half decent path for a high use trail is common sense to me, and a cause i do volunteer my sweat and time for locally.
I’m not saying pave a path or even groom it carefully, I am only suggesting removing small and medium sized obvious obstacles in trails and at landings (like rocks and logs) under the supervision of a BWCA ranger or authorized representative, which do not harm the character of the greater surroundings.
Like I said, it’s not a big deal, just surprised me how little improvement has been done considering the volume of visitors.
And I remember that Derecho making the news in the twin cities. That was a storm of the ages. Bad times up there in high winds No doubt! No shelter, no open areas away from trees. Would have been terrifying!
Man’s propensity for modifying nature is by default destroying nature.
There is a difference between a Wilderness Area and a Park, be it National, State, or Municipal. In a park modifying the landscape to provide a more pleasurable visit could be acceptable, but in a Wilderness Area the land should be left wild.
Once you travel away from trailheads about 15 miles, maybe 20 there is little trail maintenance. That seems to be the case whether you are in the BWCA or the Sierra or the Rockies.
There is a certain charm to me in seeing less distinct trails with fallen trees across them. They are what wilderness areas are all about.
I spent most of my career working in places that don’t have trails. It is a different experience than the ones most people have. It is definitely slower, steeper and much easier to get turned around. I would not change it. Keep wild country wild.
I was up in Quetico at the time doing shuttles and my son was guiding a group. He was on Knife when it hit. They sat on an island on Knife …saw it building all morning. They tied all the canoes and sat in a circle sheltered by a huge bolder as the storm raged all around them.
They couldn’t see the person across from them…and after it was gone…no trees for as far as they could see. Took him 3 days to bushwhack his way out.
I spent a lifetime able to bushwack through the woods, but stayed on trails where possible to keep damage in a limited area. Now at 72 yrs old, most of my joints are worn out, but I still want to enjoy nature.
Some day, that will happen to many people, yet some are blessed with perfect health and unlimited mobility. As a society, we had the good sense to make buildings and sidewalks handicap accessible. I admire anyone’s desire to limit damage to any wilderness area, but think carefully about the result of limiting access. Rather than drag a kayak through the woods and risk breaking my bones, i shoukd just give in and buy a 26 ft boat with three Mercury outboard motors, then go anywhere it takes me.
When we witness farms being converted to housing developments and deforestation to build highways, does anyone really believe that removing some vegetation to make a trail safer for gimps like me is the ruination of nature, then I’ll just get that power boat so I can take the long way around and meer you on the other side. If you were in my place, what would you do?
After all, there are some who might say you shouldn’t even be walking in pristine wilderness dragging a boat. They might lobby to keep people like us out altogether. Maybe somebody could unleash a virus to kill a couple million humans to help save the planet. Wouldn’t that be grand.
One component of happiness is to leave a legacy - passing on what we know and love to others so they can get a head start. Its a bit like empathy, which for some reason is not featured in society today. It’s satisfying to share without personal gain. That’s why its important to answer questions. Not out of narcissistic pride that the boat or paddle is either unique or beautiful, but because someone cares and took the time to ask. Its easy to tell those who have a genuine interest. They have a look - where are you headed, how fast is it, how far can you go, is it stable . . . They reflect adventure. My goal at that point is to convince the person to try it, rent one, buy one. Don’t do it for fun, but do it because it’s a challenge and it provides a means to explore. I’ve seen the entire Upper Chesapeake from the entrance of Baltimore Harbor to the foot of York, PA, as well as all the feeding tributaries and rivers along the way. I didn’t start out trying to do that, it just happened, over and over. It never gets old, but I didn’t do it for fun, because sometimes it hurts and most of us don’t like to hurt when we think of fun.
My legacy will be to give mostly my grand daughters a head start; two grandsons have no interest in the water. Girls and women are just as adept at paddling. My sister is 6 years older than me and she is the only person who can hang with me or who would accompany me more than a few times.
Yes, access is important, but so is wilderness. Wilderness by its very nature will limit access, but that is one of the costs to have it.
Yes, there are rules about wilderness areas, and yes there are people that advocate for humans to not be allowed in some areas. However, it seems you’re making a slippery slope argument, but if we’re going to resort to that argument then it could be used the other direction, e.g. allowing for trail improvements could lead to sidewalks and boat ramps that would allow powerboats in the BWCA. We need balance between access and wilderness.
Ypu hit the nail on the head. The question then becomes access being limited to only the fit. I accept that. One if my favorite pastimes was backpacki g woth a group of svoutd, then around midnight, I’d go with the another guy and hike to a peak or bushwack through the woodsto try getting lost. We’d use the stars and terrain to orient our direction. We laughed at times because we’d fi d ourself on the side of a steel incline and the only thing keeping us from rolling diwn the hill was the briars. Those days are done. I can no longer hike even improved trails. Lately, I have trouble covering distance on sidewalks.
All y’all remember one thing - that time creeps up slowly snd hits many. What will you do when you’re on the other side? Will you buy a motor boat, or trade your pack and tarp for a Winnebago. How about trade your mountain bike in for an Ebike or better still, a knobby wheeled durt buke or one of those 4 wheel crawlers with wheels tall enough so I don’t get brook trout in the cab when I cross a stream. No sidewalks needed.
