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The Minnesota Arrowhead

US-61, The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

and the Gunflint Trail, Part 5

Part 5	1990 BWCAW Canoe Trip
Part 1	On The Road...	Along US-61: Gooseberry Falls	Cross River Falls	Temperence River Falls
Part 1	New Tunnels	Grand Marais	The Gunflint Trail
Part 2	Along the Gunflint	Honeymoon Bluff	Magnetic Rock Trail	End of Trail Campground
Part 2	Flour Lake - 1988	Flour Lake - 1992
Part 3	Hungry Jack Lodge	Around HJ Lodge	Hungry Jack Lake - 1989	Hungry Jack Lake - 1991
	Hungry Jack Lake - 1994	Hungry Jack Lake - 1995	Hungry Jack Lake - 1996	Hungry Jack Lake - 1998
	Cabin Moose (1995)	Cabin Hawk (1998)	Cabin Lynx - 1989, '91, '94, '96
Part 4	Seagull Lake - 1990 Seagull Lake - 1994	Critters	Fish!	Sunrises and Sunsets
Part 5	Clearwater to Lower Lily Lake	Moose to South Fowl Lake	Royal River to Pine Lake	Pine to Clearwater Lake

1990 BWCAW Canoe Trip

bwca route

Click to go directly to the slideshow

1990 was the year Ron and I decided it was time to do one of those BWCAW canoe trips. I mean, how can you say you were always going up to the BWCA, without taking a real canoe trip? Right?

Well, here's the experience in a nutshell. You're going to take a trip, quite a few miles in length, where you have to carry your clothing, food, transportation and shelter. During those days, you are on your own. Rarely is there a way to bail out of the trip, so once you start, you're pretty much committed.

I have to say it was an educational experience. It's the first time those little lines on the map met reality. It was a pretty rough experience, but at least I can say I did it.

We outfitted and started from Clearwater Lake, then followed the border lakes for a few miles. Some of the portages are directly on the Canada-US border, and there are metal, official border markers along the trail. Not only can I say that I stood on four states at one time, but I can boast that I pee'd on two countries at the same time. Hey, do you think there are public bathrooms around here?

Speaking of bathrooms, the National Forest Service provides primitive, unprotected uh... boxes. I took a couple of pictures. Over in Quetico, there are no official campsites, and you grab a shovel and find a log to sit on. Not sure which I'd prefer more. Or less.

1990 BWCAW Canoe Trip - Clearwater to Lower Lily Lake

1990 BWCAW Canoe Trip - Moose to South Fowl Lake

The Canadian border turns south as we followed it, then came back West and looped back into Clearwater. Relatively short portages, we gave ourselves four days to do it. It should have been 5. At least we had a week up at Seagull Lake to rest up afterwards.

Other than learning a valuable lesson in load balancing and dumping the canoe in Lilly Lake, the only other real lesson of note is the prevailing West to East winds make for crappy paddling on those long East-West lakes like Pine and Caribou... :-)

1990 BWCAW Canoe Trip - Royal River to Pine Lake