I just completed a 240 mile canoe trip across Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area following the US and Canadian boundary.
The journal is at
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=3681
Thanks
Enjoyed your journal. Over the years I’ve paddled chunks of your route and maybe someday I’ll do the whole border route also. What was your choice of canoe on this trip to handle the big water?
Canoe choice
Ed has and Old Town Prospector 16 I believe, dark green in color which he volunteered. It is a Royalex canoe which takes a great deal of abuse. When I did the eastern part of this trip in 2003 with Ramkitten, we rented a SR kevlar canoe. We were not nearly as careful with the Royalex canoe as we were with the kevlar. Showing my ignorance, big water relative to canoe selection was not in my calculus.
Great TR!
I think this was amazing trip…Ed had nothing but compliments about traveling with you. I was so pleased you posted such a great TR and your pictures were much appreciated…
Thanks MH
I appreciate the comment MH.
I could not have had a better companion for this trip. We got along well with periods of conversation and periods of silence to soak in the environment.
We had some discussion about a trip into Lac La Croix next year. Ed may be taking a newbe on an outing. If I can make it I will be paddling solo. My problem is the 1,600 mile drive to get there. Perhaps you would have an interest in joining up with your kayak. There are two short portages to get there from Crane Lake; both portages have a fee based boat tram if needed.
Having been in that country earlier in the year, the September - October time frame may be the best. It certainly is with respect to insects.
Stumped
congrats
I was up in the North Shore area around Grand Marais on Oct 4 - Oct 6, the last days of your trip.. The rain and wind were something else. I was in a motel and it was nasty. Canoe camping in that must have been a real treat. I've had a couple of those myself.
Small World
I did the same trip solo from Sept 11 to Sept 20. Overall, I had good weather and a lot of fun. I had several days with very large waves and sustained 30 mph winds (my guess, the tree tops were blowing in circles) The whole route is beautiful. There was one other group that I know about that did the trip this year about a month before I left. I think that it’s fantastic that people are running this route. I wonder if the forest service would have any statistic as to the number of people paddling the border in a year? Any idea?
If your interested here’s something I wrote on the trip:
http://www.nessmuking.com/solocanoeist.htm
Something I wrote after:
http://www.nessmuking.com/solocanoeist2.htm
And a gallery of photos from the trip. I shot over 600 pictures, but these 65 are a good representation of the trip:
http://www.bryanhansel.com/gallery/index.php?dir=./Boundary_Waters/Border_Route
Bryan
Sorry for double post
Sorry for the double post, but I just finished reading your journals. Very enjoyable. I was very amused about the rock cairn you saw on the lake after the pine portage. It took me forever to find the portage, so I built the cairn for the next person. I’m glad it may have helped you. I don’t know if you noticed, but the lake exited over an old dam, which broke. That’s why the lake was so low there.
The weekend of the 1st and 2nd when you were on the Gunflint, my SO and I were doing an overnight on Rose. We watched the controlled burn with interest.
Here’s a picture of what we saw of the controlled burn:
http://www.bryanhansel.com/grandmarais/index.php?p=149
future trips…
Yes, I am interested if I can avoid portaging…I just love it up there…I spent a week solo kayaking Voyageur’s…it would be nice to do it with friends…
Small World
Indeed, the world is small!
Thanks for the post. I thoroughly enjoyed your self interviews and the photos of your trip.
And, a special thanks for the rock cairn on the far side of the Pine Portage. We too would have been hours looking for the portage without the cairn.
I have not done a thru hike of the AT like you but am a 50 mile and a 250 mile section short of completing the trail (Mt Washington and NH border to Monson.) My longest section was Springer Mountain to the PA 501 Shelter in '95. I don’t know if I will get back to finish those two sections. Lately, I have been doing CDT sections in New Mexico.
I think you mentioned in one of the interviews the possibility of a bicycle tour. That is a different type of experience from long distance hiking and canoe tripping. I did Anacortes, WA to Cambridge, MA five years ago, 4035 miles on my bicycle odometer. That too was a good trip but I gained weight with all the convenience stores on the route. I have been toying of going around Lake Superior by either bicycle or canoe.
In '93 when I first went to the AT I started in Maine at the big K. I was utilizing the NOLS food plan but quickly abandoned it in favor of the Liptons approach; much less hassle and less weight in the pack. I will probably go back to that approach if I do one of the long river trips.
Stumped
Future Trips
If you want to do a week or two somewhere, let me know.
Stumped
"Real Treat"
That was a treat! I certainly was not going to get on the water with that wind. The biggest concern though was getting to the pickup on time.
Thanks for the note.
Stumped
Small World
It was so much easier just to walk into a store on the AT and buy Liptons instead of doing the mail drops…
I’d to like to paddle around Lake Superior. I’ve been seriously thinking of, at least, doing the North Shore of MN next year, but I’ll have to see how some projects come together before then. Keep in touch if you do this. I’m in Grand Marais, so if you need any support in the area, I’d be happy to help out. I had a ton of trail magic on the AT that I still need to pay back.
Bryan