posted by
02/06/01
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| We try to get Tundra to stop and enjoy
our beautiful surroundings but he always wants to
keep pulling! |
Yesterday, we made it to South Fowl
Lake, and the last one and a half days have been smooth sailing
on big lakes. We covered 21 miles in one and a half days,
approximately the same distance we traveled in the first four
and a half days. The scenery has been gorgeous. White
Pine studded hills topped with 100 to 300 foot cliffs
line the lakes. We headed into light snow and driving wind
as we crossed Mountain Lake today. We devised a new pulling
system, Tundra pulls one sled while OB and I pull the other.
It works quite nicely and the miles seem to glide by. We are
camped at the west end of Rove Lake. We will start tomorrow
with a two-mile portage into Rose Lake; another beautiful
lake surrounded by saw-toothed cliffs.
We have not seen another soul since we left Mike Clark. We
are enjoying all this solitude and the incredible silence.
We saw two neat beaver
lodges today; there were no neat beaver
tracks on them at all, can you guess why?
posted by
02/04/01
For the past two and a half days, we traveled on the Pigeon
River. We thought we had it licked, when the river played
what we hope is its last card. We are camped 100 yards from
the portage into South Fowl Lake, at the end of the Pigeon
River. Unfortunately, there is open water between us and the
beginning of the portage. The river opens and closes and we
had been zigzagging back and forth from one bank to the other.
The last two miles was all open water, and by chance we ended
up on the wrong side. We are faced with several options, none
of them ideal. I think we will end up going up the Stump River
and getting on the Superior Hiking Trail, which will take
us along the south bank of the river. We hope to leave the
trail and blaze a path to South Fowl Lake, when the hiking
trail turns to the West. It should make for an interesting
morning!
We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day
today, including a lot of animal signs. A set of Otter
tracks kept us marveling for two miles as we watched its tracks
explore the river. We have seen a lot of beaver
sign, but are surprised at the lack of active lodges to measure.
Perhaps, they are living in the edge of the bank as beavers
often do in rivers. At one point, there was evidence on the
river of where a Moose
had been walking around and then broken through the ice. While
we were talking about this interesting occurrence it happened
to me! I plunged into the icy water and more than fear or
shock I was annoyed. I shot out of the water onto the bank
and quickly changed my clothing, and continued up the river.
Just before lunch we came across three otters
they were popping in and out of their icy holes and let us
get quite close before they disappeared under the river. Tundra
was very interested in the otters.
I was afraid he was going to take off after them, but as usual
he was good and just watched with interest.
posted by
02/03/01
Nice to travel on a river, every bend a new view, a new challenge.
We are quickly learning to read the face of the river. Sometimes
it smiles with fast travel, other times it frowns slushy.
White
Pines love sun, and there is plenty of it near the edge
of a river. Big pines protrude over the canopy, offering clues
as to which way the river will turn next. For you kids can
you find out what the typical life span of a White
Pine is?
We’ll miss Mike Clark who provided tasty food, good
conversation, and a cheery disposition even when the going
was tough.
We are having a good time. We travel
hard all day, seeing much evidence of the furry lives all
around us. Snowshoe hare and Otter
tracks are most common. At night, we listen to the wind and
sleep like babes.
Posted by
02/02/01
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| Mike, Tundra, and I resting before
we set up the tent. |
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| The tent goes up quickly and with in
an hour we were inside basking in the warmth and preparing
a nice dinner. |
Mike Clark, a teacher from Chicago, greeted OB and me this
morning. Mike arranged to meet us for the first few days of
the adventure. Our team became three, and we all sat
down for a hearty breakfast of grits. We got off to a late
start leaving at 11 am. Bright sun and a cloudless sky over
head were with us all day and several miles of fairly flat
travel brought us to the Pigeon River, the end of the Grand
Portage. The sun was beating down as we munched our well-deserved
lunch. Soon a slight breeze picked up and we flailed our arms
and jumped around like mad men to warm our freezing hands.
After our brief, cold lunch we marched
up the river leaving the beautiful portage excited about the
river ahead. It didn’t take long before we were finding
slush. Slush forms when water seeps onto the ice and is insulated
by the snow. When you break through into the slush it freezes
immediately to snowshoes, boots, dog paws, sleds and everything
else, making life very difficult and sometimes dangerous.
Mike broke through into slush over his knees! We all worked
quickly together to get him into dry boots and socks. Cold
hands and feet are a distant memory as we sit in the cozy
75-degree tent.
Posted by
02/01/01
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| OB, Tundra , and I at the edge of Lake
Superior ready to start the Grand Portage and the
Adventure. |
Dawn found OB and I eating a hearty breakfast and making a
few final adjustments to our outfit. Our friend Natasha met
us at 8 am, and we loaded the sleds on to OB’s car. The
drive to Grand Portage was uneventful, and we were soon standing
on the shore of Lake Superior admiring the fort which was
the beginning and end of many Voyageur journeys. The Grand
Portage lay ahead of us, 8 and a half miles of trail that
climbs from 600 ft at Lake Superior to over 1,300 ft at its
highest point. The first 1.5 miles of the trail was packed
and the going was relatively easy. Then we entered an untracked
portion of the trail. After another mile the snow was so deep
Tundra could barely keep up let alone pull a sled. We unhooked
him, and he struggled along behind post-holing into his belly
with every step. OB and I took turns breaking trail, and we
slowly progressed up the portage. Ten-degree weather with
a nice breeze kept us cool, as we grunted and groaned up the
steep hills. The trail wound through some beautiful country,
and we enjoyed considering the fact that the large White
Pines, and Cedars
around us had been passed by voyageurs as they carried far
greater burdens than ours some two hundred years ago.
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| The remains of a Grouse that we watched
an Owl fly away with. |
We disturbed an owl that had recently killed a grouse.
The startled owl flew off with the dead grouse
in its talons. All that was left were grouse feathers and
the hole were the grouse had been resting when its predator
pounced on it.
We are camped two miles from the end of the portage. The map
shows the going to be easy the rest of the way. Tomorrow we
will have our first look at the Pigeon River and its wild
rapids, which flow through narrow canyons.
A few stats: we saw a three-toed woodpecker, the tent is seventy-two
degrees, we had great burritos for dinner, Tundra is sleeping
and OB is tired.
Posted by
1/31/01
I wanted to send one last update before we head off into
the Wilderness! OB’s house looks like a bomb hit as we
are making final preparations for our departure in the morning.
One sled is packed and sitting in the front yard with Tundra
and we will finish packing up the second sled as soon as I
finish with the computer so that it can be packed up as well.
We drove up to Saganaga Lake where we left a car so that
OB can get back home after his portion of the adventure has
been completed. It was a wonderful drive and I was kicking
my self for not bringing the digital camera because we saw
6 moose and a beautiful barred owl. The moose
like to lick the salt off the road and this causes them to
congregate on the Gunflint trail in the winter when the road
is covered in salt. The owl was sitting in a dead birch
tree, we stopped the car and sat watching it less than
50 ft away as it scanned the adjacent clearing for food. It
seemed unconcerned about our presence and the whole experience
was wonderful.
I hope you enjoy the adventure and
log on to follow our progress. The first few days should prove
to be very challenging and interesting especially since we
are starting with a nine mile portage that is up hill most
of the way!
posted by
This is the new BorderCountryAdventure.com
website. On this page you can view the continued progress
of my journey through my journal entries. Hopefully you will
find it a little easier to use and a little faster in terms
of load time. Please nose around the site and take a look
at all the sections. A couple of them don't have any information
right now, but will as the journey progresses, so remember
to check back.
My old journal entries can be found through a link at the
bottom of the page to the journal archive, or you can click
here.
If you have problems finding anything on the new site, or
just have general questions or comments, please e-mail
them to me.
Talk to you again soon.
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