The BWCA or Boundary Waters Canoe Area is a wilderness area about 1.1 million acres in size set aside for canoeing, back packing and, in the winter, dog sledding. It is located in northern Minnesota along the Canadian border. Interestingly enough, Canada also has a wilderness canoe area that joins up against the BWCA - it is called Quetico Provincial Park which is about 1.2 million acres. It is very easy to go between the Canadian and US canoe areas. However ,it does require a wilderness border crossing.

The part of the BWCA that we visited was a section called the "Gun Flint Trail". The Gun Flint Trail is a 57 mile long road that goes from Grand Marias to Saganaga Lake. It was originally a foot path used as a trading route from Lake Superior inward. Our team used an outfitter called "Hungry Jack Outfitters", which is along the Gun Flint Trail.

Our reason for selecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area is because of its pristine condition. The lakes have limited access with a permit only, with only a few exceptions of lakes that have public access and allow small motors. The camp sites are designated and have only a fire grate and a potty (about 150 ft uphill from the lake). Other than that there are no man made objects in the BWCA. In short, there is no trash, no roads, no houses, and no telephone poles. It is about as "untouched" as it could be given this day and age. The bottom line is the BWCA and Quetico wilderness areas are very scenic, beautiful, and because of the remoteness they make a great canoe trip destination.

Starting in January we planned this particular trip making a loop through several finger lakes (Clear Water, Caribou, Little Caribou, Pine Lake, McFarland, Little John, John Lake, East Pike, West Pike and back to Clear Water). We brought our own equipment and food with the exception of canoes. Hungry Jack Outfitters provided light weight Kevlar canoes for our trip. Kevlar canoes are preferred because they are light weight and sturdy and are easy to portage. Yes, the "P" word - we did have several portages.

Our method for handling the portages was to do a "double haul" portage, meaning that each person in a solo canoe would take a light pack and their canoe on the first trip over the portage, and then come back for a heavier pack to carry over the portage. Essentially, we made two trips on every portage. This worked well for the most part, but I will have to admit that portages are not the best part of the trip - more of a necessity to get to the scenic lakes. Rick and Kevin were in a tandem canoe and had three packs and one canoe, so they also made double haul portages.

As for food, most the breakfasts were oatmeal and lunches varied from summer sausage, tuna fish, and peanut butter and jelly. Dinners for Dale, Sam, and Steve were of the freeze dried varieties. Rick and Kevin cooked mostly pasta dinners with salmon, tuna or chicken mixed in - the type that comes in foil pouches. Both types of dinners worked well but I think Rick’s idea with the pasta tasted better.

We started out on Sunday, September 12th, when the wind was blowing 20 to 25 mph from the west creating white caps on Clear Water Lake. We needed to cross the lake to our first portage in a south east direction. Due to the high winds we were blown about and only Steve made it directly across; the rest of us were pushed off course. Rick and Kevin were able to recover but Sam and I came just west of the portage point and had to catch up to the rest of the crew. In hindsight we probably should have held off a day and waited for the wind to die down.

Monday and Tuesday, we still had some wind at maybe 15 mph, but it was to our back and didn’t cause much of a problem. Also on Tuesday we had three portages in which we were able to just walk the canoes through small connecting streams. Great!

However, no good deed goes without punishment. On Wednesday we had to do two portages because all the camps on our target lake of East Pike Lake were taken. As we finished up the last portage is started to rain. The rain continued for 3-4 hours and we had to break out our dining canopies as we set up camp. By 6 pm the rain stopped - that, along with a couple of drinks, and everyone was smiling.

Thursday, we did our last portage into Clear Water Lake where we spent the last two days. In general Thursday was a beautiful day with very little wind.

Friday was mostly fishing, and Sam did a little hiking. Kevin caught the biggest fish - a nice lake trout.

Saturday morning, we got up to get an early start - to beat the wind. Too late; the wind was on the water before we were. However, we did take a few minutes to spread some ashes from our dear friend Paul Boling. Paul was supposed to be part of this trip but he passed away on June 22, 2010.

Overall, the trip was great and we all had a good time. We had more wind than we wanted and less rain than we expected. The bottom line is the scenery was beautiful, the weather was great and the people we met on the trails were nice and friendly.