Friday, July 17, 2009
My brothers-in-law, Carlos and Lorenzo, and I drove up to Isabella in the morning. We got to the Isabella ranger station at about noon. We listened to the video and got our permit. Then we went to our cabin, the Knotted Pine Inn & Tavern near Isabella. We moved our stuff in for the night, and then went to see what we could get for dinner. We first went to a local café. Right before we were going to order, though, we found out that they didn't accept credit cards. Since we didn't have anything else, we had to leave. We ended up driving to Ely on the windy roads. We ate at Subway. We also stopped by the supermarket to pick up something for breakfast. Then we headed back to the cabin for the night.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
We left the cabin at 4:00 AM to make the drive to the entry point. It took almost one hour to get there on the twisted forest service roads. When we were almost to the landing, we saw a small black bear on the side of the road. That is the only bear I have ever seen in the wild in Minnesota.
We launched onto Kawishiwi Lake at about 6:00 AM. We got across Kawishiwi without incident. At the beginning of the creek going out of Kawishiwi, we saw a cow moose. I think we got lucky because there were quite a few paddlers out. The moose must have come out just after the paddlers ahead of us had passed. The moose went back in the woods as we were passing.
As we were on the river, we were passed by a group of 3 people in two canoes. The "soloer" was in a canoe tied to the lead canoe. As they passed, Carlos turned back to me and said, "I think he is sitting on a generator!" If that was really true, I'm glad we didn't end up on the same lake as them.
The portage at Square, according to the map, was only supposed to be 20 rods. Well, 60 rods later I finally found the end. It was a lot longer than what the map said because the water was low. It was a bit muddy where I was going to put the canoe in, but I didn't think much of it. I took a step and ended up sinking up to my waist in mud. I couldn't move my legs at all because the mud was what you would call "boot-sucking." I didn't want my brothers-in-law to see my predicament (I would probably never hear the end of it), so I tried to figure out a way to get out myself. I still had the canoe on my shoulders, so I flipped it off next to me. It was now sitting on top of the mud next to me at shoulder level. I grabbed the yoke and slowly pulled myself out of the mud. The mud didn't want to give up its prize easily, so it took some work, but I finally got out. I decided to put the canoe in at some other spot.
It was a nice day with only a slight wind. Paddling went without incident. There were quite a few portages. The most tiring was the back to back portages from Kawasachong to Townline to Lake Polly. Polly is a pretty lake, but it was very busy. I also know that Polly has a lot of bear problems.
We went through Koma and into Malberg. We passed the campsite that I stayed at on my only other trip to the BWCA. It was a trip I took with my Boy Scout troop. We stayed at the campsite next to the portage leading to the Louse River on the east side of the lake.
We saw a few nice campsites. The campsite next to the 64-rod portage leading to the Kawishiwi River is a sandy beach-and it was unoccupied. It was very tempting to stop, especially since we were getting tired. We had already been on the water for 6-7 hours. I left the decision up to Carlos and Lorenzo. Carlos was leaning towards staying, but Lorenzo said that we had come this far, we might as well keep pushing on to Amber. So we kept going.
The last portage was interesting. There was a beaver pond in the middle that we had to wade through. The other end was also very muddy, which made it difficult to load the canoe up again. But we got going again.
Amber Lake Camp from the Water
By the end of the portage, I almost had a mutiny on my hands. Both Carlos and Lorenzo were very tired. It took us 45 minutes (now 2:00 PM) to get to Amber Lake. From my research prior to the trip, I knew that the northern campsite could hardly be called a campsite at all. The south one, though, was very large and had a nice sandy beach. I could see that there were two canoes on the lake, so I was very worried that our campsite would be taken. When we came around the corner, I was surprised to see that the campsite was open. We were ecstatic. There were still some small coals in the fire pit, so it had only recently been vacated.
The people fishing on the lake eventually came over to see the campsite. They had made a daytrip to Amber to try out the fishing. We welcomed them and let them look around. These were the only people we saw on Amber the entire week.
We had lunch and then set up camp. There were several good tent pads. Lorenzo was going to be in the solo tent. Carlos and I were staying in the 4-man tent together. I also set up the tarps.
At Amber Camp
Amber Lake Site
Lorenzo's Tent
Trail from Tents to Kitchen
Tent Pads at Amber Lake Site
Kitchen at Amber Lake Site
Rest of the Week
We spent most of the week fishing and reading. I read
Dune by Frank Herbert. Fishing was decent, but nothing extraordinary. We managed to catch dinner most days. My only "fishing" story comes from when I went out alone. It was raining, and Carlos and Lorenzo were both sleeping. It was just sprinkling and there was no wind, so I decided to go out by myself. While I was fishing by a downed tree, something big grabbed my line and took off. My line just screamed out for a couple of seconds, and then nothing. I reeled my line in, and it was bitten clean through. I actually had a six inch leader on, so the mouth on that fish must have been huge. My heart was pounding, even though the whole ordeal was at most two seconds. I think that was the biggest fish I have ever had on the line.
Bass on Amber
Northern on Amber
Walleye on Amber
As you can see, I caught most of the fish during the week. However, Carlos did have his one day...
Carlos's Bass
Day Trip to Whiz Lake
During the week, we took a "short" day trip to Whiz Lake. On the DNR website I had noticed that it said that Whiz Lake was 40 feet deep. However, it also said that basically the only fish in it were suckers. I couldn't believe that a lake that deep would only have suckers, so I convinced Carlos and Lorenzo to go there.
The map shows that there are portages into that lake-there aren't. We had to bushwhack our way first into Bow Lake and then into Whiz Lake. It was very tough work, and I pretty much had a mutiny on my hands again. I don't think either Carlos or Lorenzo has anything good to say about that trip. But we did it. After getting into Whiz Lake, we stopped and ate lunch. Then we tried fishing the lake. We didn't get a single bite. I tried dropping a jig down to see how deep the lake was. It was extremely windy that day, though, so we couldn't keep the canoe still long enough to get an accurate reading. However, I never touched bottom, so I have to believe the DNR website on both counts-that it is deep and has no fish.
Day Trip to Fishdance Lake
On another day, we took a trip to Fishdance Lake to see the pictographs. There was one portage around some rapids. However, the portage was a little "deceiving." When we were going to Fishdance, we heard the rapids and saw on the left what we thought was the portage. We unloaded everything and started down the trail. It was muddy, narrow, and winding-definitely the hardest 20 rod portage I've ever been on. After we finally were able to put in again and get going, we passed the rapids-and what do we see? A well-worn, straight, wide highway right next to the rapids. We didn't make the mistake of taking the wrong trail on the way back.
The closer we got to Fishdance, the more people we saw. When we got to the cliff, there was actually a line of canoes waiting to see the pictographs. We waited our turn, and then got to see them. After seeing the paintings, we all thought,
Ehh. It probably wasn't worth all the effort to just see the pictographs.
We went and ate lunch on a peninsula on the lake and then went out fishing. This is where Carlos had some good luck. Then we saw a nice thunderhead rolling in. We took shelter at a nearby campsite until the thunder and lightening passed through. It was still raining, but at least it wasn't lightening.
Carlos with a bass on Fishdance
As we left Fishdance, there was a family fishing in the narrows. They said that they had been having good luck on the walleyes there. We fished around there for a while. We caught a few small walleyes, but not anything worth keeping. Carlos fished at the rapids at the portage on the way back and caught a nice bass that we had for dinner.
Other Photos
Sand Beach at Amber Lake
Our sand beach-we spent quite a bit of time swimming, especially the last day. I ended up getting burned worse than I ever have before.
Food Pack with Pulley
Our food pack to begin with was about 80 pounds. We could only get it a few feet off the ground, and it took all three of us to do that. To help with getting it up into the tree, I made a pulley system out of some cedar branches. With the pulley system, I could get it up by myself.
Dinner on the Rocks
One night the bugs were so bad by the fire grate that we made our dinner right by the lake. This is Carlos and Lorenzo washing dishes afterward.
Thunderhead on Amber Lake
Carlos and I were fishing on the north shore of the lake one afternoon. We didn't see this rolling in until it was basically right on top of us. We paddled as hard as we could back to camp. We just beat the storm back.
Walking on Water
There was a rock that was just below the surface in the middle of the lake. I actually had some good fishing around it. We also thought it would be neat to take a picture and make it look like I knew how to walk on water.
Point on Amber Lake Campsite
This is the view off the end of the campsite looking west.
Sunset on Amber
Sunset-you always need one of these pictures.
The Trip Back
We were supposed to come home on Saturday, but we decided to come out one day early. We packed up and left. The paddle out was uneventful. It only took us six hours to get out compared to eight hours to get in. We stopped in Twin Harbors on the drive back to get a burger from McDonalds. It was a great trip, and I was able to get to know my brothers-in-law a lot better. Hopefully we'll be able to make it back to Amber Lake someday.
The "After" Photo