Canoe Country

 AThere is a magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude and peace.  The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten.@

  From The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson  

Packing camping supplies and enough food for a week into a canoe and paddling into a 1.2 million-acre wilderness may not be everyone=s idea of a vacation, but that is exactly the way I=ve spent mine many times during the past 20 years.  The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is near the town of Ely, which is in northern Minnesota along the Canadian border.  The area is rich in scenery, with more than a thousand sparkling lakes dotted with picturesque islands and a variety of wildlife which includes black bears, moose, wolves and many types of waterfowl.  Nothing compares to sitting around the campfire in the evening and listening to the loon=s yodel-like laugh or lying awake in your cozy sleeping bag at night and hearing the local wolf pack=s mournful song.

 From around 1760 to 1840 this area was a major thoroughfare for the rugged fur traders called voyageurs.  In the spring the voyageurs, representing trading companies such as the Hudson=s Bay Company, would make the trip from the Lake Superior area through what is now the BWCAW to trade furs with the Sioux, Cree and Chippewa Indians.  It was a demanding and hard life, but promise of adventure drew many young men into this frontier.  When the fur trade subsided, the logging and mining industries were active in the BWCAW until the early 20th century.  In 1964 the Boundary Waters area was included in the Wilderness Act and the present-day canoeing paradise was ensured.

Many BWCAW visitors choose to book their trip through one of  the numerous outfitters in the area.  For approximately $60 per person per day, your group is outfitted with canoe, tent, sleeping bag and pad, cooking gear and food -- virtually everything you will need for your wilderness experience.   The outfitter will also give you a short course on how to best use the equipment he has provided and assist your group in route selection.  If you already have the equipment and some knowledge of the area, outfitting yourself is another option -- which is the method I choose.

 Many guidebooks and maps are available to help you plan your trip. The guidebooks provide the wilderness paddler with a wealth of knowledge by describing many potential routes.  Waterproof topographical maps and your compass serve as navigational aids.  Many of the highly accurate maps are scaled to two inches per mile and clearly show the designated Forest Service campsites in red.

The advantages of lightweight equipment will become apparent on your first portage.  Although there are thousands of lakes in canoe country, it is necessary many times to carry your canoe and gear between lakes or around rapids.  Portages are denoted on the navigational maps in rods (16 2 feet per rod).  Some portages are very short -- simply lifting the canoe over a beaver dam, and some are rather long -- 2 mile or more.  Routes can be selected with virtually no portages, but you will encounter more people.  Generally the longer portages you experience, the more solitude you will enjoy.  Please don=t let the thought of portages discourage you.  It is really a great time to see the backcountry up close -- wolf tracks, wild blueberries, grouse preoccupied with drumming along the trail -- you just never know what is around the next bend.

 To keep your trip to the  BWCAW a true wilderness experience, the US Forest Service has some regulations in place that everyone should be aware of.  A few notable ones are listed below:

 !   Cans and glass bottles are not allowed.  Containers of fuel, insect repellant and medicines are permitted.

!   Nine people and four canoes are the maximum allowed in your party.  

!   You must camp at a U.S. Forest Service developed campsite.  The  thousands of designated campsites in the BWCAW each have a steel fire grate and a wilderness  latrine.  A wilderness latrine is like an outhouse but without the house.  

!   You must obtain a travel permit to enter the BWCAW.  Permits detail your date-of-entry and entry point and are obtained for you by your outfitter.  After you have entered on the date and at the entry point specified on your permit, you are free to travel anywhere within the wilderness area.  If you choose to outfit yourself, you can reserve your own permit by following this link http://www.canoecountry.com/plan/permitcenter.htm  The cost of a permit is $10.00 per person per trip with a $12.00 processing fee for advance reservations.

 Immediately north of the U.S. - Canadian border, Ontario has its own version of the BWCAW.  Ontario=s provincial park, the Quetico, is also about a million acres in size, and has a similar permit and reservation system

I prefer to travel with a group size of two canoes with two people in each.  With groups larger than this it is sometimes difficult to find enough good tent pads at the designated campsites.  My favorite time of year to visit the BWCAW is fall.  By mid-September the mosquitoes and other little biting insects are virtually gone and there are fewer people since school is back in session.  Even though this is predominantly a coniferous forest, many areas are ablaze with the yellows, reds and oranges of the aspens and maples.  One day on a fall trip after a day of paddling, we set up camp during a snow squall.  While the snow wasn=t a problem, it reminds us that the weather can be unpredictable during a fall trip.

 Every year it seems that I take more photo gear with me.  I load my two Canon bodies, 17-40L mm zoom, 100 – 400L mm zoom, flash, about 25 rolls of Fuji Provia and Fuji Velvia, and various filters  into a Tamrac 777 photo backpack.  It is a good idea to have a waterproof bag for your camera equipment in case of a sudden downpour, or worse yet if your canoe develops  a mind of its own and flips over.

 The common loon, Minnesota=s state bird, is a common sight on many lakes.  In the spring, the female loon may be seen giving one or two greyish colored chicks a ride on her back.  Loons seldom visit land except to nest. They catch fish by diving underwater, usually for about a minute at a time.  You never know exactly where they will surface -- it makes for some exciting photography.  And, who could talk about the loon without commenting on its eerie yodel-like call?  It is a sound you will never forget.

 A family of mergansers put on a show for me during one of my trips.  I was sitting on a rocky point overlooking Lake Kekekabic one morning while the rest of my group was out fishing.  I could hear the group of about 15 rather noisily making their way up the shore towards me.  As they passed the point I was on, they all lined up side-by-side  as if in the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby.  Then on some command unknown to me, they half ran and half flew across the water in a frenzied race.  After a couple hundred feet of this, they calmly settled back to traveling along the shore in single file.

 Wolves are common throughout the BWCAW, but don=t count on seeing one.  It is fairly common to wake up in your sleeping bag at night to hear the howls of a local pack echoing over the lakes.  The International Wolf Center, located in Ely, is a world class visitor center for those wanting to learn more about canis lupis.  It has many fascinating exhibits including a AResident Wolf Exhibit@ which allows you to view wolves in their forest habitat.  The naturalists will show you how wolves use their specialized senses to survive in the wild.  The center also sponsors interesting adult education programs like: Tracking the Pack, Wolves and Wilderness Dogsled Adventure, and A Wildlife Photography Weekend.

 While there are no grizzly bears in the BWCAW, black bears are plentiful.  At times black bears can be more of a nuisance than a threat.   While sitting around the campfire one evening we began to hear sticks breaking in the dark woods behind camp -- big sticks.  Apparently unaware of our presence, the black bear casually strolled up the trail and into camp.  When it was about 30 feet away, we began yelling and banging pots and pans.  It quickly turned and bolted back into the woods.  We slept with one eye open that night.  The Forest Service instructs everyone on how to handle a bear coming to dinner.  Food packs should always be hung in a tree to prevent bears becoming habituated to human food.

 Feeding moose are a common site along the weedy shorelines.  Although I=ve seen many moose in the BWCAW, they have been one of the most challenging for me to photograph.  The combination of slow film speeds, long lenses, shooting from a moving canoe, and the fact that I usually see the moose when the lighting is poorest all seem to work against me.  My Canon 100-400L  image stabilized lens is supposed to allow hand holding at 400 mm down to 1/125  which should help.

 One route I have taken several times would also be a good route for a first time visitor to the BWCAW.  This route takes the paddler through a maze of six lakes, 12 portages , and covers about 30 miles.  The first stop upon arriving in Ely would be the Kawishiwi Wilderness Station, here you will pick up your permit and view a short, well done video about the dos and don=ts in the Boundary Waters.  The Kawishiwi Wilderness Station, which is just east of Ely on Highway 169, shares its facility with the International Wolf Center.  There is so much to see that many people wish they had allowed more time to look around this fascinating visitor center.