My first BWCA solo.

[Powerstroke]

I share a couple weeks ago that I had gotten permit and was ready to go. Well my trip has come and gone and I thought I would share the report with all of you.

My initial plans were to go somewhere else within the BWCA, but since permits were still somewhat at a premium in the first week of June, I found the available permit list and found a trip to match. The permit I chose was at EP #14 Little Indian Sioux River.

The Little Indian Sioux EP is fairly popular and allows 6 permits per day. I did not think I would be alone, but it was a new area for me. I had a plan in place and it wasn't going to be easy. I had to work friday night and I wanted to get my permit on Saturday. This, the plan was I had everything packed up and ready to go on Friday. I went to work on Friday at 6pm. I worked my regular shift until 4am. I changed clothes and was on the road by 430am on my way to Ely.

Had I been paying better attention, I would have seen that I could pick my permit up in Cook at the Lac La Croix ranger station, but since this area was new to me, I made the longer drive. It cost me an extra hour of driving, but at least I traveled on familiar routes. I picked up my permit in ELy and filled my waterbottle. I checked the weather and called my family to let them know I got up there safe. Time to hit the water.

LIS has a short portage before you even see the water. When I arrived at the parking lot, I was a little surprised. It was just after 11am and I was not the last person putting in. There was one group unloading and another showed up just after I parked.

I quickly unloaded my stuff and prepped my canoe for the first portage. I bring bungies to attach my paddles and fishing poles to the boat. I like to have my hands free on the portages. I put my pack on my shoulders and the canoe on my back. I like to make my portages in one trip if I can. I decided this trip would be no different.

Before I left I weighed the pack at 41 lbs. I added some random things to the pack before hitting the trail. I did bring my personal carry gun so all in all I figure the pack was an even 50 pounds to start. The canoe starts at 42 lbs and with the two paddles, two fishing poles my life jacket and the map, that weighs about 50 pounds also.

[Powerstroke]

There were a couple things about this trip that did have me a little concerned and one was the weather. Overnight temps were forcasted to be around 40 degrees. While that is not terribly cold, it is colder than summer and I planned by bringing an extra layer of clothes if needed. Also about the weather was the wind. The wind was forcasted to be steady on day 1 and then again to kick up early next week with the next system.

I made the short 35 rod portage to the river and started on my way. I saw so many interesting things on that first portage I had plenty to think about the rest of the day. One group was hauling their gear in large round totes using stretcher poles to carry them. It seemed like a heavy and inefficient way to move things. Another guy had a homemade pack frame hauling three large duffle bags. A different boat had homemade ultralight paddles that were falling apart. The father was remarking how he was surprised they survived the trip. It was a sight.

Once on the river I quickly realized that I would be heading into the wind. The recent weather change had brought steady northwest winds. Paddling into the wind wasn't especially difficult, but it did require a bit of attention or else the boat would be blown sideways.

The next portage was an easy 60 rods. I landed gently and met the couple traveling in front of me. He was in a solo canoe and she was in a kayak. He was doing all the heavy lifting. This was a really neat portage because it travels around a nice waterfall hidden in the trees.

After this portage was a long stretch of paddling straight into the wind. It felt as thought the wind was getting stronger. I did have two beaver dams to pass over, but with my shallow draft, I was able to get a running start and slide right over the top. One of my glide-overs took place while a young couple was stumbling their way over with a very over-laden canoe. Needless to say that poor young man got some dirty looks when his female companion saw me fry over the top of the dam. Did I mention I was going upstream? LOL

Well, I made it to Upper Pauness Lake. There are two ways to proceed. Either paddle across the lake and take a medium length portage or paddle a short distance along the south shore, take a short portage than paddle a longer distance on the next lake. Well, in good weather I would have likely taken option 1, but because of the headwind, I chose option 2. I used the wind to drive me towards the short portage. It was very rocky, but pretty neat and once I was on the other side, I was shielded from the wind.

[Powerstroke]

The next portage was a long one. 220 rods or 0.70 miles. I met a very nice couple at the landing and we spoke for a bit. They were from Illinois and they were trying this route at the suggestion of their daughter. They were a bit taken back that I took all my gear across the portage in one trip. I guess I'm always surprised why some people have so many loose items in their boat. DIfferent strokes for different folks.

At the end of this portage, or so I thought, was a lake or pond or something. Once in the water, it was a short 100yd paddle and then you took out again. In the water were the remnants of an old boardwalk made of log halfs. I can only assume the beavers have raised the water level so high that the portage became flooded. Well, I unloaded and finished the remaining 50 or so rods. to Shell lake.

Shell is a beautiful large lake with islands, bays and points. It was my initial plan to cross this lake and the next one and camp further on, but if you haven't thought about it yet, I've been awake now for about 28 hours. I decided that I did not want to travel any further today. That is one of the great joys of solo paddling. All decisions, good or bad, begin and end with you. There may be some internal arguing, but in the end only one person decides the outcome.

I saw some camps were already taken so I kept paddling east. I was surprised to see the camp on the southern tip of Con Island was not taken. I paddled up to the shore and checked it out. The camp was very large and well used, but it was clean. I checked the latrine and it was also clean. You can tell a lot about a site by how clean the latrine and fire pit are. Usually these are the places lazy people will dispose of garbage. The camp was very large and clean and had plenty of firewood stacked up. I decided this would do.

I quickly got camp set up and organized. I use a hybrid setup for my water filtering. I use the Katadyne gravity bag attached to a Sawyer gravity filter. This is a great setup with no effort. You collect water in the bag and then hang it somewhere. (It is visible just above the tent in my photo.) I place my water bottle or a platypus bag at the end of the hole and open the valve. Water drains through and filters by gravity at its own pace and there is NO PUMPING! It takes very little time to fill a bottle or bag.

I made a delicious dinner of a stroganoff nodle mix with cut of cheddarwurst sausage. I kept one sausage and cooked it over the fire. It was delicious!

For a stove I use the MSR Dragonfly. While it is not the smallest stove, it does have the most features. One thing I like to do in the BWCA is cook good food. We do use some freeze dried meals on our trip, but we also like to make different dishes and soups. That requires a stove that does more than boil water. The dragonfly can simmer as well as burn water with the best of them. It does use liquid fuel, but that is also another reason why I love this stove. It is not affected by weather. I can use this stove in the winter, just as easily because it does not get affected by the cold the way iso-canisters do. ALso, liquid fuel is a great fire starter when you need a little extra something to get the fire going.

[Wanderer]

Good read and great start! I'll keep up with this story.

[CHM]

Nice report. I'm heading in at that same entry later this month.

[Powerstroke]

Doh, somehow I lost a whole post I made.

By this point in the day, the wind had not calmed any and I did not feel like fighting the wind anymore in an attempt to get some fishing in. I made some casts from shore all around the campsite, but did not have any luck. I only saw a couple of boats out fishing in this wind.

So, I ate my supper on the rocks and watched the day settle into dusk.

I got everything put away in camp and settled into my tent. One of the main things I brought along on this trip was my cell phone. I did not have cell service, nor did I expect to. I brought my phone for use as a GPS, a camera, for lake mapping and for reading and games. I used the Google mytracks app to track my route through the entire trip. I enjoy seeing my pace as well as the elevation changes in the route. I also have the onXmaps app (formerly huntingGPSmaps) and one of the layers on their maps displays all of the BWCA portages. I used the maps app for one small section of the trip that was not covered by my paper map and it worked very well for navigation help on large lakes when knowing a GPS location is helpful. It made for a great backup map to the paper version. Also, I have the Navionics app for seeing lake contours while I was fishing. Although it didn't help my fishing any, it was nice to have the information and to know it was available for BWCA lakes. Additionally, I had downloaded the book Lone Survivor by Marcus Latrell for some light reading. Its an amazing book that goes far beyond the movie and I think every American should read it.

So, you're probably wondering how someone keeps a phone like a Galaxy S4 running on GPS for several days? I have a Goal Zero solar charging setup that I absolutely LOVE!

This packages consists of two parts. The Goal Zero Nomad 7 panel and the Guide 10 battery pack. The solar panel is two panels in a soft case that folds nearly flat. The package is the size of a piece of office paper. It has a built in regulator on the back and several output options as well as the ability to daisy chain with additional panels. It has a USB outlet so it can charge your phone or other USB accessory directly, but it is regulated somewhat low. It also has a special output port that goes into the Guide 10 battery pack that has a higher output for faster charging.

The Guide 10 is a battery charger for 4 AA or AAA batteries and also serves as a power pack using the batteries as storage. The Guide 10 also has a USB outlet. So, if you need batteries for different accessories it works great for that and it also works great as a USB charger. When I arrived at camp, I connected my phone to the battery pack to begin charging and then I hooked up the solar panel and left it to charge. The phone charges faster from the battery pack, so I let each piece do what it does best. Before bedtime, my phone and my batteries were completely charged. Also, the panel does not need direct sunlight, so any amount of solar light will help with charging. The speed up the process I kept the panel strapped to my pack during the day and I had full batteries the entire trip.

I have used this combination several times this year. I took it with my spring turkey hunting, on my trip to Yellowstone and now to the BWCA it is fantastic for keeping youe electronics ready when you want them. It works really well when bringing a child along (hunting) and they can drain a battery in the morning sit alone.

After reading a few chapters in my book, I could barely keep my eyes open and the moon was starting to rise. I turned into bed at 830pm.

[Powerstroke]

I slept pretty well the first night. After all, I was awake for 32 hours straight. I did wake once during he night and there was some sort of critter in camp. I saw it run past my tent and it seemed to be about 12" tall. A coon or something. I don't know. When I woke up in the morning, nothing was disturbed.

The morning was amazing. The wind had come up again during the night and changed direction, but by the time I woke up, there wasn't even a whisper of wind on the lake. The water was like glass.

I was initially concerned that it would be very cool in the mornings, but with the sun already up, it was quite comfortable. I put my rain coat on initially, but ended up taking it off. It was gorgeous! I made my breakfast and prepared for the day. I like to keep my breakfast very simple and today was no different. I use Herbalife meal replacement shakes at home for all my breakfasts and they are perfect for lightweight food that is nutrient rich. I brought two flavors along and they taste amazing made with cool lake water. I made my shake and took my vitamins and I was ready to rock.

I packed everything up and loaded the canoe. I decided I would do some fishing while I paddled this morning. I always like trolling when I can so I placed my rod holder and rigged up a pole. One last picture before I took off for the day.

[Powerstroke]

I made my way across Shell Lake and towards the portage. The first portage of the day was a short one, but it was needed. There was a small creek running between Shell and Little Shell, but there was a large boulder field that the water came through. It was very neat to see the normal water level and the different moss and lichens on the rocks where the water level would sit earlier in the year.

I quickly made the short portage and moved into Little Shell. The portage took longer to load and unload the canoe than it did to actually walk it. Little Shell was a quiet little lake. I addled through it without any fanfare. There was a short portage shown on the east of of this lake too, but when I paddled up I saw that I was able to paddle right through the channel into Lynx Lake. I really wish I had taken a picture of this, but I didn't. The stone walls of this channel were fairly tall and I could only remark about how long it must have taken nature to carve through this rock.

Lynx was my original destination for Day 1. I think I could have made it here, but I'm glad I stopped when I did. I paddled my north through Lynx, but I was beginning to notice something unusual in the water. I swear I was looking at little jellyfish! I had never seen anything like it before. I tried to get a picture, but it was too difficult to get a good picture using my phone and I did not want to drop it in the lake. I tried to "catch" one, but I couldn't get one close enough. All of these things were fairly precarious actions when you are solo paddling a canoe. So, I made a few mental notes and paddled on. When I reached the portage landing, I decided to take a little break. I ate a snack and even played some solitaire on my phone. The portage had been difficult to find because the tree at the landing had blown over in the wind and the uprooted rootmass blocked the view of the portage.

This portage had a fairly steep incline for the first 1/3 of the portage. I deicided to drop the canoe at the top of the hill and finish the portage in stages. I made it to the end with the pack and then went back for the canoe. Somehow I stopped the GPS track, so I got that restarted and then continued on. I put into Ruby Lake and made the short paddle across. The landing to go from Ruby to Hustler was kind of neat with large shelf rocks leading into the water and and old submerged dock under the water. I saw more jellyfish on this lake. I could also see lots of smallmouth bass near this landing. I did not try to fish for them, but there were lots of fish here.

I made the short portage into Hustler and continued my way east. By now the wind had picked up just enough that I could feel the breeze while paddling. It was actually very nice to have a little breeze at this point. I made my way across Hustler lake with little fanfare.

I had not had a single bite while fishing and it was starting to get old. I felt like it was slowing me down some, so I packed up my fishing rod. Ahead of me was a 330 rod portage. That is roughly a mile. When I got to the portage landing I ran into the couple from Illinois again. They had stopped for a snack, so I opted to do the same. I grabbed some water in the filter bag and filtered some water since I was out. While we ate, we chatted about all the neat places we have visited. I generally don't consider myself a traveler, but the last few years have brought me to some pretty neat places. It was neat to discuss them with someone you're never met before.

[Powerstroke]

I edited this post to add some pics I found.

After chatting for a bit and getting prepared, I made my way across the 300+ rod portage. I did drop the canoe about halfway through the portage. I made it to the end and then came back for the boat. I said my farewells to the Alan and Jan from Illinois and shoved off into Oyster lake. I knew they would be heading north after today and I would not see them again. The wind had definitely come up now, mainly from the south east which happened to get in the way of the direction I was traveling. The first campsite on my way was already taken. I could see a man with a large camera on a tripod taking pictures. I heckled him about photographing me as I paddled by. He did not think I was funny when I told him I didn't authorize him to use me in his images. I was just trying to make a joke.

Anyway, I saw on the map that there were three campsites to the east. I was trying to decide how to approach it. If I paddle south east into the wind, I could check all 3 sites and take the best one, but if the southern site WAS the best one then it would be a pain to get back. I eventually decided to head to the middle campsite. It was in a little bay and rather sheltered from the wind. As I approached I couldn't tell why there was a very light color on the shoreline. I thought maybe it was foam from having whitecap waves. I approached I figured it out. it was SAND! The entire little bay had a sand bottom and was very clean and there was a sand beach that ran for 100 yds.

Needless to say, I got camp set up in a hurry and then went for a swim. It was amazing. A strong afternoon sun and swimming in a sand bottom lake is fantastic, especially when you're all alone in the BWCA.

Tonight I made Stove Top stuffing with pouch chicken and mushroom gravy. It was FANTASTIC. Its one of my favorite meals to make. I again enjoyed a glass of whiskey with dinner and relaxed.

I knew Oyster lake was a good lake for Lake Trout, but I wasn't sure if the water had cooled off enough to make them easy to find. Fortunately I had my Navionics app and there were some neat areas in this lake to check out. I trolled with several stick baits and spoons and I moved between 50-80 feet of water. There was a nice hump in the lake that came up to 50 feet from near 100 and I trolled over that several times, including using a bottom bouncer for help getting the bait down lower. None of it helped. I spent about two hours fishing and did not get a single bite. Oh well, the lake was gorgeous and quiet. Only a fish would have made it better.

I made it back to camp right at night fall. I decided I wanted to have a small fire. I grabbed a bunch of driftwood on the shore and some birch bark and proceeded to burn stuff for the next hour or so. I had a little more whiskey before snuffing out the fire and turning into bed.

[Powerstroke]

Day 3 woke me for the first time. The sky was clear, but the winds were blowing. I knew that another weather system was supposed to come in this week, but when I left, the timing was iffy. What I knew is that when it came it, it was going to be windy and then rainy and then cold.

Today was kind of a flex day in my mind. I had the choice of finding a lake to camp on today or trying to make the trip all the way out. I left some flexibilty in my trip to accomodate bad weather. I started out the day with that in mind. My plan was to camp on Agnes lake (for fishing) or Nina Moose lake (proximity to the exit).

I started off by paddling north along the east shoreline. The wind wasnt much of a factor so I trolled my way north. By golly I caught my first fish! A fiesty little smallmouth bass hit my lure while trolling. At least I didn't get skunked. I eventually found the portage after some searching. This lake is bigger than it seems.

The portage was an easy 60 rods that would bring me to a river system. As soon as I broke through the woods into the river landing, I was greeted with wind in my face. Not a good sign.

I loaded up the canoe and started down the river. The water channel was anywhere from 10-20 feet wide with short weeds and brush around the channel, but the actual river channel was 50-100yds wide. I generally don't like river systems because they are slow moving areas and its difficult to see much because you are the lowest thing in the area.

The river had numerous switchbacks and lots of weeds and wild rice. I did not see much for wildlife, but there were many beaver drags and moose trails. I offered up a few moose calls when I got bored, but I never did see any. As I made my way down the river, I noticed there were two options to get into the next area. Either take a long portage about halfway down the river, or take the river all the way down and make a short portage into a river delta. My experience had taught me that these river areas don't usually have very clear intersections and they can be difficult to navigate sometimes. I decided to take the long portage because I knew it would be easy to follow. I was worried I wouldn't find the portage landing in the area because it all looked the same, but there was a very definite trail from the land into the river. I was glad to be off the water. These narrow river corridors work just like a wind tunnel and make it very difficult to paddle solo. I spent most of the time on my knees in the middle of the boat because that provided the best weight balance and kept the canoe pointed in the right direction. If too much of the bow or stern were exposed to the wind, then the boat would "weathervane" and get pushed in a direction I did not want to go.

I made the portage to Agnes lake using the leapfrog method again. I did not have any loyalty to the single-trip portage any longer. Once on the east end of the portage, I stopped and made lunch and evaluated my plan. I was now on Agnes lake. I knew I had several miles to go and the wind was howling. There were whitecaps on Agnes, wind form the south east and I was heading......south. This lake had a very nice landing spot.

I decided that fishing was going to be out of the question so I might as well make my way to Nina Moose lake. I shoved off and headed into the wind. I got a little off-course when I mistook a point for being the south shore of the lake. The only good news was I was on the lee side of the point for a few minutes and out of the wind. As I cleared the point, I saw a canoe making their way out of the river channel and into the lake. I paddled hard to catch up to them. I intercepted them just as they were about to enter the lake. The said they had come from the Entry Point this morning and that it had taken them 5 hours to get this far. They were a group of 3 boats with 7 people and lots of gear. I asked them what they thought and they told me to stay on Nina Moose. The time was about 1:30pm.

[Stick in Mud]

Very nice report. Congrats on the first solo!

[laker1]

Fun trip,done many solo trips myself,love it.

[Powerstroke]

So, with ominous advice from those who had the wind at their back, I continued down the river and into the wind. I decided I could make my decision when I reached Nina Moose lake. At this point, I really just wanted to be out of the woods. I knew the wind was not going to let up and cooler temps and rain were forcasted for tomorrow. One of the guys in the group I passed confirmed it for me. I entered the Moose River and started south.

I passed another solo paddler heading north. He was in a gorgeous cedar strip solo canoe. It was a perfectly engineered setup. He had fishing items mounted in the right spot, the boat was trimmed well and he seemed cool as a cucumber as he paddled past me. I entered the confluence of the two rivers; this was the area where option 1 of "paddling the river and taking a short portage" was supposed to come out. As I looked to the north, I could see the opening in the trees that gave an idea where the river was, however I never saw a channel leading north. Between the tall grass and the thick weeds, I'm glad I chose the option I did. It would have been an aquatic bushwack to come through that weedchoked creekbed.

My paddling south was going rather well except for the beaver dams! Despite being on numerous river systems in this trip, I had only found 1 dam so far that bloxked the water and I slid over that on day 1. Well, the large group I passed earlier had mentioned the beaver dams in this river and they were not kidding. I passed another boat heading south as we each crossed a beaver dam in opposite directions. This dam required me to get out and pull over the dam. I went over 2 more of these pullovers as I went south, however none compared to this engineering marvel. I felt as if it was a lock and dam on the Mississippi. The beavers had a dam that spanned the river at least 30ft wide and had raised the waterlevel upstream by at least 1 foot. This was a sturdy structure.

I pushed on and through a longer 90 rod portage. Another beaver dam or so and then into a 70 rod portage. As I approached I found a large group of people and several boats staging on the portage. They did not seem concerned that I was trying to make my way through so I paddled right in and landed. The group almost seemed disgusted with me that I had chosen to land before they were ready to leave. I unloaded my pack and carried the canoe up past the landing. Once I was "out of their way" I sat and filtered water and ate a snack while I watched the group SLOWLY make their way onto the water. It seemed that either they had a guide or only one of them knew what they were doing. After a good 10 minutes, 1 guy had placed three boats in the water and loaded close to a dozen packs into their boats all without saying a word to me.

Another older couple had come along during this time and set up next to me and waited for their turn. They also had a large amount of gear, but seemed well organized. He started talking with me because my shirt was red and gray. He and his wife were from Ohio (Go Buckeyes!) I'm not an Ohio State fan but it was a good icebreaker. He said he has been here many times and he had brought his wife along on this trip to photograph the pictographs on Lac La Croix. They told me it had taken them just over 2 hours to get to this point and he said the waves on Nina Moose were pretty intense. He also warned me of the weather forecast.

I thanked him for the help and wished them luck on their trip. He went north and I went south across the portage. On the south landing I found this turtle sitting on the rock. I felt he was a mascot and a good omen for me. Despite the hard work required, this had been a slow and steady kind of day. Just for scale, this turtle was more than 1' long. He was a big boy.

[eyeguy 54]

just dandy! congrats on the solo

[Powerstroke]

I had a short paddle ahead and then I reached Nina Moose Lake. I had spent approximately 2 hours getting here. As I made a corner, I could finally see what lay ahead on Nina Moose Lake.

The picture doesn't do the conditions any justice. Waves were whitecapping and there were rollers 8-12" high. Once I turned the corner and cleared the point, I saw exactly what I was up against. I had to kneel in the middle of the boat to keep the wind from overpowering me. DOn't get me wrong, if I wasn't paddling, the wind would win. Every time I tried to sit up or back, even for a moment, the wind would shove me in the wrong direction or turn me sideways leaving me at the mercy of the waves. That being said, I was making progress. I checked my map and aimed for a line of campsites on the western shore. I figured I could rest and check out a site as I went.

The campsite was not that great and offered no protection from the wind. I decided to continue on. I paddled near the next site. At this point I made the decision that I did not want to stay the night again just because of this weather. I felt like staying in the woods another night was not a good enough reason if all I would do is hide from the weather.

I trudged on and paddled for the river outlet on the south side of the lake. I watched as a canoe with 2 paddlers paddled south passing me as they went. It was a little demoralizing at first, but it made me think about how tough I had to be to keep pushing. The waves were tough and the wind was strong, but I was stronger. Once I made it into the Moose River again, I checked my GPS. Despite a solid 20 mph headwind and waves, I had averaged just over 2 mph solo paddling into the wind. Yeehaw!

The Moose River was a little different than the other rivers I had been in thus far. This river had very tall alder brush that grew right up next to the channel. The river also was shallow enough that my paddle would frequently contact the bottom. The good news is the bottom was rather firm and made it very easy to "push-pole" my way along. Since I was using a plastic paddle, I had no concern about pushing off. Poling along seemed to move the boat much faster and was alot easier on my shoulders.

The map showed 2 portages on the river but I somehow found three. Each one was 20-30 rods and fairly flat.

Unfortunately, on the second "easy" portage, I slipped on a rock in the trail and rolled my left ankle. In an effort to "protect" by body, I went down with my ankle. I didn't hurt my body, but the canoe landed with a weird thud. When I looked at the boat, I could see why. The wooden yoke in the center of the canoe had broken free of the bolts securing it to the side of the boat. I had damaged the main part of the boat required for portaging! After analyzing how the yoke had previously been attached, I slid the yoke back into place and I completed the portage while holding the outside of the boat and applying pressure. It worked and I was able to complete the portage. I had to be gentle when I set the boat down, but it worked.

I made my way over the next short portage with the same method and it worked well. I fell down again and got muddy and wet, but I did a little better job of protecting the boat. At this point, I didn't have much left in the tank. I paddled the final stretch of water before I reached the final take out. The entry point at Moose River does not begin at the river. Similar to the start of my trip, this route begins in a parking lot with a portage to the water.

I stopped at the portage and celebrated a little bit. This was my first summer solo and I had completed it! It was not easy to do on this last day. I was overjoyed at what I had conquered and was full with the confidence that I could do it again at any level. I snapped a few pictures and started down the portage.

I was on the home stretch as I struck out down the 160 rod (1/2 mile) portage to the parking lot. I started up the hill and got roughly 100yds from the river when the yoke let go once again. This time, it did not look like I was going to be able to continue the way I had. The wood was splitting and breaking away around the two bolts that secure it and it appeared it was not going to continue.

I set the canoe down and began to work through a solution. I've dealt with many things, but I cannot remember a time when we had something break while in the wilderness. I decided on getting a wooden pole and lash it to the two metal crossmembers in front and behind the yoke. I would use that to support the yoke and add strength through the boat to complete the portage and drive home. I removed the Sven Saw from my pack and located a good looking branch. I trimmed the branch from the maple and removed the branched. I measured twice and cut the pole so the straightest portion was right for my repair. I secured one of the pole with some 1/4" rope and wedged it against the yoke so that it was in its proper place. I lashed that portion together and then lashed the other end of the pole. It wasn't pretty but it felt strong. I tested it briefly and it held well.

Once on my shoulders, I started back on the half-mile trek! The portage trails was neat and open. The only downside of such a portage is seeing the trail go on in front of you and disappear into the trees before you can see the end.

[Powerstroke]

I finished the portage without another hiccup! I had finally made it out.

One detail I failed to mention in the first post was the gap between my entry and take out. The two entry points are 8 miles apart. So, before heading in on Saturday, I had hidden my mountain bike in the woods near the take out.

I had exited the BWCA at 645pm after starting the day at 930am. I rode my bike 8.5 miles back to the truck. Everything was the way I left it. I drove back to the EP and loaded everything up. That was the end of my solo trip!

Day 1 - I traveled 7.1 miles in 3 hours and 30 minutes.

Day 2 - I traveled 9.1 miles in 5 hours and 10 minutes. I leap-frogged on the long portages and took a lunch break with the folks from Illinois. Overall, this was a great travel day.

Day 3 - I traveled 13.1 miles in 9 hours and 15 minutes. I took 4 breaks and took time to repair the canoe. While this was a marathon day, I never felt unsafe or unable to continue.

In the end I know I could do a trip like this again. I also learned a bit about the length of a travel day and which days were better than others. Everything had worked according to plan except for the canoe repair. I can't wait to do it again!

[Duffman]

Great read and pics Powerstroke!

Nice fix-it job on the equipment failure.

I also have the Goal Zero, but my phone doesn't take a charge from the battery pack for some reason, the solar panel itself does a fine job charging the phone. But I can use the battery pack for charging my Ipod and Bluetooth speaker.

You put some miles on. Much more than I ever care to do on a solo trip.

I'll be heading up in a couple weeks myself for a solo.

It's very nice to only worry about me, myself and I on those trips.

Although I usually go where I can get some cell reception to check in with the Mrs. daily. That and checking weather radar.

Makes it easier to get permission to go.

Congrats on your first solo.

It's sweet to get away by yourself at times.

[NoWiser]

Nice job on the trip and great write up!

You seem like you'd be the perfect candidate to write up a real nice elk hunting story in the future!

[Stick in Mud]

Awesome report, and nice job on the solo. I've had the portage yolk bust on me twice, and neither of my solutions was as good as yours.

I'm also heading up for a little jaunt in the next few days. Leaving Thursday, entering Thurs night/Fri morning depending on when I arrive. It's nice to to not have to fight for permits, and it looks like I've got amazing fall weather for it...pretty lucky timing. There's something about solo tripping...It just seems to get in your blood. That, and most people have to work.

[Powerstroke]

I definitely decided solo is my favorite way to trip in the BWCA. I prefer to reply on myself instead of others anytime something needs do. I'm not a control freak, but I do like things done a certain way. Some call me particular.

One thing I plan on adding on the future is a Delorme or SPOT unit to communicate my location and call for help if needed. Very few places I visit have cell service and one of those units will provide the peace of mind to the Mrs. to let me keep going and I will be able to venture a little but farther from camp without worrying if someone would be able to find me in case of an accident.

I would like to use a solo canoe and see what that experience is like.

[Stick in Mud]

You can rent satellite phones for a few dollars a day...that's what I do on my more ambitious trips. There are pluses and minuses to PLB's, the SPOT thingy, and sat phones, of course. I used to not bring them, but now I do. Older and wiser, as they say.