Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Grand Marais, MN
Ever since moving to Minnesota we have been wanting to get up to the Boundary Waters to do some canoe camping. It seems like practically everyone who lives in the Twin Cities (slight exaggeration) has been there, and they all describe it as serene, quiet, and an amazing experience - “You think you know quiet, until you go up to the Boundary Waters”. Needless to say we were so excited to finally have a trip in the books, and better yet, we planned to make it a trip for four with our friends Laura and Jeremy (technically five, with our furry friend Bear joining us).
Day 1: Getting there!
We left Minneapolis around 2pm on Wednesday August 7th, and the lack of traffic (since we were driving up in the middle of the week) was a refreshing start! We stopped in Two Harbors and picked up a pizza from North Shore Pizza Cafe, then brought it to Castle Danger Brewing to enjoy a couple of beers with our pizza. We ate and drank out on the patio, then got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to the outfitter. It was around 9pm when we finally arrived, welcomed by the light that was left on outside our bunkhouse. Our outfitter had a series of bunkhouses where we could stay the night before heading out - this one had 3 sets of 3-story bunk beds in a little cabin. We set up our sleeping bags and tried to get some sleep. Laura, Jeremy, and Bear got in around 2am, then we all settled down for a few more hours of sleep before our early wake-up call (with the occasional pitter-patter of Bear’s little paws on the wood floor).
Day 2: Gunflint Lake to North Lake Paddle
We got up around 6am, organized our stuff, then checked in at the outfitter. We picked up a few supplies, watched the required video, and then had breakfast at Gunflint Lodge down by the water before heading out. Gunflint Outfitters is located right on Gunflint Lake, so we were able to just take our stuff down to the shore and put in there. We rented a Kevlar canoe for this trip - they are much lighter and easier to pick up and portage versus an aluminum canoe. We packed up the canoes, got in the water and started paddling a little after 9:30. It was SO windy, and the lake was really rough - the waves were high, and the gusts of wind were tossing our canoe around like a leaf blowing in the wind. It was a really stressful start, and at times we had water coming into the canoe and we were worried we would tip. The route-finding was also difficult - a map and a compass only got us so far, especially in heavy winds where taking out the map wasn’t exactly convenient. This meant lots of turning around and extra paddling. At one point Laura and Jeremy actually got out of the canoe on shore and tried to walk it through knee-deep water rather than paddle, but this proved to be a mistake, and a few bruises and wet clothes later they were back in the canoe again. In an effort to try to turn around at one point, we ended up getting stuck in a bay…the story could go on and on. We finally got to the east end of Gunflint Lake, and it made us feel better that Laura and Jeremy (the experienced ones of the group) thought it was a terrible paddle as well. The running joke became “So next year, Ely?” This is another area of the BWCAW where you can put in a canoe, instead of Grand Marais - this is where Laura and Jeremy have gone in years past. On a positive note, little Bear did so well in the canoe with the rough water! Once at the beach, Jeremy’s GPS really came in handy to help us figure out which waterway would take us to Little Gunflint - there were two different options and without a GPS to show us our location, our only option would have been to try both of them and hope we guessed right on the first try!
Main lessons learned here? 1. A GPS would really come in handy (can’t rely on a map and compass alone), and 2. Either put in the canoe early in the morning (like, really early), or don’t put in on such a large lake to try to avoid a hectic paddle.
After the “Paddle from Hell”, we paddled down a much calmer Little Gunflint Lake, a smaller lake with lots of lily pads, white lotus flowers, tall plants, and moose-shaped rocks (even though Ashley is the only one who thought they were moose). After paddling through Little Gunflint, we reached our first portage. The distance of all portages is measured in “rods” - one rod is equal to 16.5 feet, the typical length of one canoe. So 20 rods is equivalent to about 20 canoe lengths. We took two trips carrying our gear - we each had our packs filled with camping equipment as well as 2 fishing poles, 2 lifejackets, and a pair of hiking shoes for each of us. Ashley portaged the canoe on the first trip (with a little lesson and help from Laura) - this definitely takes a lot of balance and core strength - and getting the canoe down was just as hard as getting it up!
We paddled through Little North, then North Lake. The landscape was beautiful - rolling hills, high cliffs in the distance, and the water sparked greenish-blue in the sunlight. Some of Laura and Jeremy’s stuff got wet in the “Paddle from Hell” fiasco, so we decided to stop at a campsite sooner rather than later so we could dry everything out before bedtime! Speaking of campsites - all the campsites in the BWCAW are designated as first come, first served. You can’t reserve a campsite, but you DO have to reserve an entry point - this is the place where you will put the canoe into the water. Our situation was a little weird - our entry point was technically South Lake, however, there is no boat access to South Lake…the only way to get there is to paddle in from another location, in our case this was Gunflint Lake. Once you’re in the Boundary Waters, you can pick any designated campsite for camping (key word: designated). Unlike the SHT, however, people do not share these campsites. This adds a little stress to the situation to make sure we would be able to find something, but everything worked out in the end!
We paddled on a little bit longer through calmer, pleasant waters. It was really neat to be paddling on the border of MN and Canada all day! We found a cool campsite on North Lake right on a peninsula facing a beautiful bay. We set up camp, had some food, and hung out at our campsite. The water was crystal clear, you could see straight to the bottom even after the drop-off into deeper water. We cast a few lines from shore, swam in the water, and relaxed by the beach. We were exhausted - Laura took a nap, Joe and Jeremy took off in a canoe to do some fishing, and Ashley relaxed and read in a hammock by the shore (joined by Bear for about 3 seconds haha).
We turned in early after our long day. Overall it wasn’t the best start to our trip - in the moment while paddling on Gunflint, we were afraid of what we got ourselves into! And then the water calmed down, the sun came out (and so did the smiles), and we thought “This is what we were imagining - let’s get up and do it again tomorrow.”
Day 3: North Lake to Rose Lake Paddle
We woke up with a goal to leave camp early and get to Rose Lake for our second night. Rose Lake is a pretty popular lake in that area, and we knew campsites were likely to be competitive. We paddled southbound on North Lake until we reached the portage to South Lake - this one was longer than our first - 80 rods. We took two trips again, and Joe portaged the canoe this time. We continued our paddle on South Lake, and threw a couple of lines in the water to troll for some fish. According to our outfitters, South Lake has some of the best Smallmouth Bass fishing in the entire BWCAW. Well, the fish were sure biting! Joe caught 11 and Ashley caught 7, just from trolling across the lake! Jeremy caught some nice ones too.
The water was calm and made for nice paddling, and the scenery around South Lake was just as beautiful as North Lake, with a lot more pines, tall ridges, and elevation changes. Then came a series of two portages - the first was 57 rods, and the second was four rods. The longer portage was a little more difficult, with a little bit of rocky terrain and elevation change. The second (shorter) portage was pretty simple, we just put on our packs and then carried the canoe together up and over the portage. Then we were on Rose Lake! This was the prettiest lake yet - the tallest cliffs and crystal clear water. We ended up getting our second choice campsite on this lake, but this site ended up being really awesome (except for the lack of trees to hang our bear bag - more on this later).
Our campsite had a small pebble beach, a little hill, and lots of open space and tent pads. The ground was a mixture of dirt and pine needles with lots of trees to hang hammocks, and a combination of sunny and shady spots. We set up, had lunch, put up our hammocks, and relaxed. There were no good trees to hang a bear bag, so we had to improvise…Jeremy got a rope around two adjacent trees, creating a sort of bear line, and Laura tied some carabiners into the rope so we could clip in our bags. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but it would fail (haha). Joe and Jeremy went out fishing again, and Laura and Ashley relaxed in the hammocks and read. We tried out no-rinse shampoo…it felt good at the time, but left our hair feeling a little tacky - I would still recommend it though, as it did make us feel a little less greasy!
We had a campfire, chatted some more, then tried hanging the bear bags - the hammer that we used to secure the rope broke, then we lost the line over the tree. This of course happened at dusk, right before we were planning to go to bed, haha. We ended up trying another tree, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the bags up as high in the air as we would have liked.
Lessons learned today? 1. If you’re going to be picky about which campsite you want, make sure to get a really early start, and 2. Get a bear canister or bear-proof bag, instead of relying on the perfect tree branch to hang your food. It would have made our bedtime routine much smoother and faster, and there would have been much less to worry about should a bear have decided to visit camp in the night.
Day 4: Caribou Rock Trail Hike & Rose Lake to South Lake Paddle
We got up, had breakfast, then set off for our hike! We planned to hike part of the Caribou Rock Trail - it is 4 miles one-way, starting at the portage between Rose and Duncan Lakes and heading southbound toward a parking lot off of Highway 21. We knew we wouldn’t have time for all eight miles, especially considering the challenge of the hike, so we planned to hike south a little bit, then turn around and come back. Finding the trail was challenging - there is another trail in this same area, the Border Route Trail. Between these two trails, and the trail for the portage between Rose and Duncan Lakes, we got quite turned around and it took us a little under a mile of hiking around to get on the right track. We started out on an overlook of Rose Lake, high up on the cliffs above the lake. We passed by a small waterfall and hiked along the “Stairway Portage”, a series of wood steps leading from Rose Lake toward Duncan Lake. There was another group of people there portaging, and we were thankful we would not have to carry a canoe up those steps!
Once we were on the Caribou Rock Trail the real challenge began - the trail was very step, not well-maintained, and required a significant amount of route-finding and path-clearing. It was reminiscent of the Superior Hiking Trail in the fact that there was near constant elevation gain and loss, but the vegetation was much thicker and the trail more difficult to navigate. We hiked as far as the overlook of Duncan Lake (after an accidental side trip actually hiking down to the lake), then turned back.
We went back to camp (a short paddle from our hike), packed up, and headed toward South Lake. It was a little windy, a challenging paddle but nothing compared to our first day. Ashley took the canoe on the 57-rod portage from Rose Lake, and after paddling through tiny Rat Lake, we were back on South Lake - time to look for a campsite. We got onto South Lake pretty late, since we hiked in the morning, and there was some concern about being able to find an open site. Overall the BWCAW was a little busier than we expected it to be - we did see quite a few other people out in canoes, and as I mentioned earlier there were some campsites occupied (more than we thought). We got lucky here - we passed by a full campsite, and continued on to our next option. We ran into another group paddling towards us, and we worried that the campsites on the other end of the lake were full. The group then confessed that they passed an open campsite to see what else was available. We took the opportunity to paddle ahead and snatch it up!
We explored our campsite and set up - there was a large open area around the fire grate and after setting up, we found a better, flatter area, so we moved our tents - worth it for a softer and more level place to sleep! We swam in the cold water to cool off and wash off some of the sweat from our hike, and even though the water was quite frigid it felt great! We had dinner, dessert (10/10 would recommend freeze-dried desserts, you won’t be disappointed), then Joe cast a few lines from shore. We attempted to hang the bear bag - again, there were a minimal amount of branches available. We picked the best possible branch we could find, and when Ashley tried to hoist the food up, it snapped a little…luckily we were able to secure it, but if there had been a storm, we would have woken up without food! We turned in early, exhausted from our hike and paddle!
Day 5: South Lake to Gunflint Lake Paddle
We got up early, around 6am, to do some fishing on South Lake before leaving camp while Laura and Jeremy slept in. We had a lot of luck fishing on South Lake on our paddle through on Friday, and we were excited to get back out there and try some more. We took the canoe out and trolled around the bay by our campsite, and we got lucky again! We popped back into camp to make a plan with Laura and Jeremy for when we wanted to leave, then went back out again for a little more fishing. We packed up and left camp around 10, did a little more trolling across South Lake, then reached the 80-rod portage onto North Lake. We did great fishing - a total of 13 fish (Ashley caught 9, Joe 4), including the Simon Family’s biggest catch of the weekend! We made the 80-rod portage in one trip, which was something we hadn’t been able to do yet on the trip.
Once we were onto North Lake, we paddled toward Little North. We passed the same campsite we stayed at on our first night, and thought to ourselves how quickly the trip was flying by. After paddling through Little North, we walked the canoe through a small stream onto Little Gunflint instead of portaging - this was much easier than unloading and carrying the canoe, it’s a bummer we didn’t see this on our paddle out! Joe trolled a little bit through Little Gunflint and caught another bass, bringing the total up to 9-5 for the day (Ashley still won).
Next thing we knew we were back on the beach of Gunflint Lake, where we recovered from the “Paddle from Hell” on Thursday (scowl). All that was left was a paddle across part of Gunflint Lake to our planned campsite for the night. Luckily the wind wasn’t bad, nothing like our first experience with this lake. We paddled into the wind against some small waves, and eventually made it to our campsite. It was out on a peninsula, very exposed with only a few trees - it was sunny and HOT. We swam in the water off of our campsite, had some snacks (including lots of wild raspberries from our campsite), and relaxed in the little shade we had. Jeremy and Joe attempted to set up a tarp for some shade (key word: attempted - they eventually made something work though) and the girls relaxed in a hammock and read. A family of loons floated by our campsite, complete with two little babies! There was no shortage of loons on this trip - it seemed like everywhere we looked while out paddling there was at least one loon in sight. One of our favorite things was listening to the loons call out to each other, especially at dawn and dusk.
We made plans for an early start, since we wanted to be able to leave Grand Marais at a decent time and make it home by dinnertime. We also wanted to avoid even the slightest chance of wind on Gunflint, so we decided to try leaving camp by 6am. As I mentioned before, there were very few trees, so we took our chances with a lone branch on a dead tree to hang our food. When pulling on the rope to hoist up the food, the branch snapped clear off and came crashing down - we all looked at each other and chuckled. Without a better option, we proceeded to hide the bags in the woods which definitely wouldn’t have stopped a bear, but there was no other choice! We had pretty much given up hope on being able to hang our food correctly at this point. We listened to the loons call out to each other and snuggled into our sleeping bags, warm and cozy in the chilly night air.
Day 6: Back to the outfitters
We started crawling out of our tent a little after 5am, and were greeted by one of the prettiest sunrises we’ve ever witnessed. We slowly packed up camp, stopping frequently to admire the blue and pink cotton candy sky turn a fiery orange and red, with the silhouette of two white pines on a nearby island in the foreground. We hopped into the canoes and paddled west toward the outfitter, through a little bit of fog, sneaking peeks at the sunrise as often as we could. It was an easy paddle, the lake as calm as glass, and we watched some beavers jump from shore into the lake (Bear was especially interested in this!) After about an hour and a half of paddling we made it to the outfitter. We unpacked our canoes, loaded up the cars, and took much needed showers. We had some coffee at the lodge, stopped for lunch in Grand Marais, and then started the long trek home to Minneapolis.
We reflected on the trip on the drive home, and how sorry we were it had come to an end so fast (isn’t that always how it goes, though?) It was a rough start, and paddling is hard work, but it was so different than any kind of trip we’ve done before and we absolutely loved it! We 100% will be back, and would like to make it a yearly trip. Big shout out to Laura and Jeremy for taking us first-timers out there - we’re hooked! For anyone considering going to the BWCAW, do it! If we can do it, so can you, and there are endless options and different types of trips you can take. You could base camp and stay at one campsite the whole time with day trips to other lakes, you could do an out-and-back route like we did, or you could plan a longer route with a different entry and exit point. Whatever you choose, you’ll have a great time.
Here are some tips and tricks we are keeping in mind for next time, and want to pass along to anyone considering heading to the BWCAW for the first time:
- Bring a GPS - just do it. It’s just as important to have a map and compass too, but without Jeremy’s GPS there would have been a lot of guessing and trial and error when it came to our route, which would have meant extra work and time. Best to have all three, as there were definitely times where the map saved us as well. It might even be possible to rent a GPS from an outfitter.
- Two canoes or groups? Bring some walkie talkies for better communication during paddling.
- Water shoes - sandals didn’t work the best for us during portages, and we both ended up with some blisters which made the portaging extra uncomfortable. There was a lot of getting in and out of the water, so having something comfortable in both scenarios would have been nice. No matter how comfy the sandals are dry, if you add water and friction to the equation you will likely end up with blisters. We’ll be trying water shoes next time to try to avoid this, and avoid sunburns on the tops of our feet!
- Bear canister - again, just do it. We never ever thought we would want one of these, they’re so bulky and heavy…but after three out of our four campsites did not have good trees to hang bear bags, this seems like the best option to make sure your food stays safe.
- Route - we did a simple in and out route, with the same entry and exit point. This was great for our first trip, because if something were to go wrong, it would be a doable paddle back to the outfitters. Now that we have more experience, though, we think next time we’d like to get farther out into the wilderness and have a different entry and exit point to cover more ground.
- Dry bags - can’t emphasize this enough. Finally something we did right! We had dry bags for our sleeping bags, clothes, food, and electronics, and we put our books and maps in plastic bags to keep water out. This really saved us especially on our first day with the “Paddle from Hell”, but is a good precaution to take in general, just in case. All it would take is accidentally dropping your pack into the water getting out of the canoe at a portage, and you’d be in for a crappy, wet, and cold night.
- Balance between keeping things accessible vs. packed away while paddling - We didn’t want a bunch of loose gear in the canoe while paddling, so we put everything we could possibly fit into our packs. This was really helpful when we had water coming into the canoe, and when we had to get everything together for portages; however, we wished we would have had better access to certain items, like sunscreen and bug spray. Next time we plan to bring some travel size items to clip to our pants loops with carabiners so they aren’t anything extra to carry, but we always have them within reach.
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