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Dave contemplates running Curtain Falls. Maybe when the water's a little warmer... or maybe not.

Yesterday we were greeted by clear skies and a south wind which propelled us for most of the day. Eric led us through a myriad of islands and points, giving Crooked Lake its name. Soon we could see the "white horses" of Curtain Falls prancing in the distance, and its thunderous roar grew louder as we paddled toward the portage. We pulled the canoe onto shore and skipped along the rocks to the edge of the 15' falls. Below the falls, several hundred yards of easy rapids boiled and gurgled toward Iron Lake. We were tempted to run these fun-looking rapids. We chose not to because Maymaygwishi, Ojibwe spirits, are said to live in the rapids, and cause canoeists to tip over in what would normally be an easily run rapid. Bob Carey, a longtime canoeists and author, was preparing to run these same rapids when an Ojibwe friend came along the the portage and told him about the Maymaygwishi. Bob ignored his friend's warnings and ended up slicing open his leg and his canoe, when a strange "wind" pushed the bow of his canoe into a rock.

Remembering this story, we took the portage, leaving the Maymaygwishi to wait for someone else.

Later in the day we portaged into Lac LaCroix, making our way toward a stunning set of pictographs. I will never tire of gazing at these glimpses into the past.

After a long day of paddling, we filled our bellies with fresh fish, blew out the candle, damperd-down the woodstove, and crawled into our sleeping bags for a great night's sleep.

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We've completed some of the last portages we will encounter on our way to Winnipeg. Some portages we'll be happy to see end...

The river is full of life. Otters playing in the shallows and diving for fish, active beaver lodges lining the shore, and dozens of bald eagles are a few examples of the critters that we encountered today.

We would like to thank Lincoln School's Room 101 for their nice message. We love getting messages from students while on the trail.

It felt great to get back on the water after a productive day off in Ely. As our muscles readjusted to paddling, the skies cleared bringing warm, sunny weather. It felt like the end of summer rather than the middle of autumn. We paddled in T-shirts and vowed to remember the unseasonably warm weather on the cold and windy days that inevitably lay ahead.

We woke up this morning to similar temperatures and clear skies. The canoe seemed to paddle itself, and the miles drifted by easily. Along the Basswood River, rapids are common. Perhaps to the the fine weather, or perhaps due to our confidence, we did not portage around any rapid that seemed runable. We short 5 good sized rapids throughout the day.

The river became less and less steep and flattened out to assume its docile and tranquil nature. As we rounded a bend a remarkable granite cliff shown brightly in the sun. The cliff is home to some of the finest pictographs in the surrounding area. Pictographs were painted hundreds of years ago, but no one can be completely sure when or why the pictographs were painted. Pictographs are usually reddish orange in color and depict animals, people, or spirits. According to the Ojibwa, spirits called Maymaygwishi live in the cracks of the rocks. The Maymaygwishi are playful tricksters who choose cliffs along the waters edge because they have access to all three worlds: water, earth, and sky.

While the pictographs may begin to fade over time, the spiritual connection to these places is felt by each traveler who passes. Whatever the pictographs represent - directions, visions, guidance, or simply art, they are intriguing. We'll continue to be on the lookout for more pictographs.

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Frosty stops to admire the oldest tree in the Boundary Waters. It's estimated that this Cedar tree is anywhere from 700 -1,100 years old! It's hard to imagine how many fires and windstorms this tree has survived. This tree was old when Columbus set off to find the new world!

The Pictographs on the Basswood River are stunning. They are about 4-6" large. What do you think each painting depicts? Post your thoughts to the message board.

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Pictographs are usually found on cliffs that come straight out of the water. The sites of pictographs usually have very vibrant rocks. This cliff has amazing pinks, greens, blacks, and whites all mixed together like the paints of a painter's pallet.

As we sat, talking about how strange it was that the moose hunters did not know what a moose sounded like, we heard grunting and crashing the woods across the bay. Soon we could see bull moose with a huge rack lumbering along the shoreline, just out of plain view. We grabbed our cameras and hopped into our canoe. Edging along the shoreline, trying to stay as close to the crashing. Soon the giant creature turned toward us and walked out of the woods. We floated in our canoe, awestruck, as he slurped water for several minutes before casually returning to the cedar thicket from which he had emerged.

Awestruck, we paddled down Ottertrack Lake, observing eagles, ravens, and mink. It seemed that all the creatures were enjoying this warm, fall day.