Six people on BWCA trip- Curtis Ray (organizer), Adam Shiel, Duff Bement, Jenny Liethen, Matthew Walukas, Samantha Houghton
We drove to River Point Resort and Outfitters in Ely, MN on Thursday June 22 and stayed in a couple bunk houses over night to leave Friday morning. We were driven to Entry Point #32 parking lot on the South Kawishiwi River where we then portaged 140 rods (2310 feet or .44 of a mile) to the landing. With our gear and canoes it took about two trips each person to get everything to the river. We pushed off at about 9:15 am from the landing.
The first observation of the Boundary Water wilderness area is it does not lack rocks: in the water, on the paths, and everywhere you look.
We had another 10 rod and a 63 rod portage to arrive at Clear Lake at noon.
There were four campsites on Clear Lake. People were just leaving the site that we were hoping to stay at. It had enough tent sites and a cooking/sitting area for a large group. The weather was good on Friday so we were able to set up and put our 12’X16’ cover over our gathering area because we knew we were in for some rain the next two days. Another obstacle was a fire ban in the BWCA - so no open fires -all cooking was done by jet boil or stove. This did however eliminated the problem of finding dry fire wood.
The next two days we relaxed, did a little fishing and enjoyed the light rain. Instead of moving to Little Gabbro lake on Sunday we waited until the weather was better on Monday. It was about a 3 hour paddle and 2 portages. We stayed on a island campsite on Gabbro lake for the one night.
We were able to enjoy a few fish with our other food on two nights but most of our meals were dehydrated. Samantha did a excellent job in preparing chicken stir fry for one meal and taco meat and vegetables for another night.
Tuesday June 27th was a beautiful morning to break camp and paddle about a hour to entry point 33 where we would exit. On the way out we were checked by a Ranger for our permits and fishing licensee. We still had a 149 rod portage to the parking lot where the outfitter would pick us up at 11 o’clock so we could take a shower and head back home.
Over the four days we enjoyed seeing and observing many Eagles,tundra swans,ducks,geese,beaver,deer, a fox and of course loons, and a few cranes fly over head. The best story was of a large snapping turtle that tried to untie and steel a fish that was on a stringer next to shore. Lucky for us Jenny was close by and saved the day.