Boundary Waters Trip Report – July 2015
My son and I participated in a Boy Scout trek through the Boundary Waters several years ago. While the trip was fun and memorable, the boys were just a little too young for the amount of gear and food we took. I decided to do another trip now that my son is physically larger than me at 16 years of age. We would be traveling much lighter, doing a better job of planning meals and require less gear
Our last trip took us in at Moose Lake and then west through the bays of Basswood Lake. This time I did a little more research and decided on a trip through Knife Lake. Originally I thought of going in at Moose Lake again with a tow to first portage but upon looking at maps decided to go in from the Gunflint Trail to the east. We are frequent campers with backpacking experience so we had most of the gear we needed for camping. I contacted Seagull Lake Outfitters in January to reserve a canoe, additional supplies, a place to sleep the night before and a tow to American Point on Saganaga Lake. The permit was reserved in late January. Now all we had to do was wait until June…and plan.
June 27th
We left Central Ohio early Saturday June 27th. The trip was just a bit too long to do in one day and still have decent energy when we get on the water so we decided to give ourselves two days to get to Seagull Lake. The fastest rout is to drive east to Indianapolis and then north to Chicago. We stopped at the Michael Jordan statue at the United Center in Chicago so my son could get a picture.
As we continued the drive north Elijah slept from Chicago to Madison Wisconsin. We decided to stop in Spooner Wisconsin but the local hotel was full. We continued north looking at hotels on the GPS. Elijah called the first motel on the list but there was no answer. The second call was to Swanson’s Motel Cabin and Campground. They had a room. We were six minutes away so I told Elijah we would take a look and if it looked bad we would keep moving. It was great. http://swansonsmotel.com/
We traveled around 780 miles this day. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Newark,+OH/United+Center,+Chicago,+IL/Swansons+Motel+%26+Campground,+11829+U.S.+53+Business,+Solon+Springs,+WI+54873/@43.8551772,-86.3948897,6z/data=!4m20!4m19!1m5!1m1!1s0x883817d9b080117d:0x11616c35e1b4991c!2m2!1d-82.4012642!2d40.0581205!1m5!1m1!1s0x880e2d46eb6b3ed9:0x4c99db102b38a58!2m2!1d-87.6796214!2d41.8822546!1m5!1m1!1s0x52ae85ed2073674d:0xf9d91d8cd9b5e35b!2m2!1d-91.822388!2d46.336953!3e0?hl=en
June 28th
We woke early and started the drive to Seagull. We ate at the Perkins in Superior Wisconsin for breakfast and then started the drive up the north coast of lake Superior. We stopped a Gooseberry Falls to stretch our legs. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/gooseberry_falls/index.html
We also stopped at a couple of turn offs for some views of Lake Superior.
There were several other stops along the way we could have made but Elijah said he just wanted to get there.
Before turning onto the Gunflint Trail at Grand Marais, we hit a local grocery store for last minute fresh food items. We also stopped for lunch at Sven & Oles Pizza (http://www.svenandoles.com/), filled up the gas tank and started on the Gunflint Trail. We checked in a Seagull Outfitters (https://www.seagulloutfitters.com/) around 2:00pm. We repacked our food and gear into the bear barrel and the Duluth pack we rented. We then explored along the Gunflint Trail including a stop at the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center (http://www.chikwauk.com/). We had dinner at the bistro in the Gunflint Lodge (http://www.gunflint.com/index.html) and then went back to the Paddlers Lodge at Seagull Outfitters for the night.
We traveled around 200 miles this day. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Swansons+Motel+%26+Campground,+11829+U.S.+53+Business,+Solon+Springs,+WI+54873/Seagull+Canoe+Outfitters+%26+Lakeside+Cabins,+Gunflint+Trail,+Grand+Marais,+MN/@47.2441607,-92.3701777,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x52ae85ed2073674d:0xf9d91d8cd9b5e35b!2m2!1d-91.822388!2d46.336953!1m5!1m1!1s0x52a6f0cc70d0d84b:0x242b1e5a0c1d8c84!2m2!1d-90.868415!2d48.159741!3e0?hl=en
June 29th
We woke at 5:30 to do our final packing, eat breakfast and secure the items we were not taking in the car. We were at the outfitters around 6:30 to get the canoe, PFDs and paddles and then in the car to meet the tow boat on Saganaga lake. We were on the tow boat by 7:00 and the boat dropped us off at America Point on Saganaga lake by 7:30. The tow was around six miles and probably saved us a day of paddling to American Point. Saganaga is a huge lake with lots of islands and I can image that the paddle could be tough on a lake this size if the wind picked up.
