Day 1: Monday, September 11, 2023 -The day started early. Our goal was to drive from Minneapolis to Ely, hit the outfitter, drive to the entry point, launch, and make camp all in the first day.
We packed up and hit the road by 0600. The drive to Ely was about 3.5 hours, but we stopped for breakfast on the way, which got us into the outfitter around 1100. After we checked in and got the canoes on the truck, we headed off to EP23. We hit the parking lot around 1200, did our final gear checks, and started down the trail by 1240. Access to Mudro through EP23 starts with a portage, #716, into a shallow river bed. The map had #716 marked as 27 rods, but low water during this time of year made parts of the river impassable. We portaged for around 100 rods or more until we were able to put in further up the river. Once we were in the water, we paddled up the river heading northeast toward Mudro. There were points in the river where the water was too shallow, so we had to jump out and pull the canoe through until it was floating again. Thankfully the riverbed was solid sand which made these stretches much easier to manage. Despite the pop-up portages, the paddle up the river was quiet and peaceful with a lot of scenic views. We noticed the clouds gathering during this paddle. Thankfully, we expected a little rain during the paddle in, so we were prepared. We broke into Mudro around 1320 and headed northeast towards our next portage and stretch of river. After a short 25 minute paddle across Mudro, we arrived at portage #104 (41 rods). It was quick and flat and brought us into a small pond that must have been an extension of Mudro. We paddled a couple minutes across the pond to the next portage, #101 (115 rods). This portage had a slight incline, about 20m for the first 55 rods and then an equla decline on the back half. It took about 10 minutes and emptied us out into another puddle which led directly to the next short portage, #96 (24 rods). This was our last portage before Fourtown Lake. It was flat and quick. It took about 5 mintes and then we pushed off into Fourtown to look for our first camp.
As we paddled up the narrow channel at the south end of Fourtown, we could see the rain gathering. As we looked north into the larger open water, we could see the wind picking up. About 10 minutes into our paddle into Fourtown, as we were looking north around 1430, we could see the rain coming at us from the north, across the water. Shortly after spotting the rain, we felt the wind hit us in the face. At that point, we saw the lead canoe start to disappear into the rain. We got blown over to the shoreline and decided that we needed to take cover as our canoe was taking on rainwater. The lead canoe also got blown back with the wind and started taking on rain water. They ended up beaching at the same spot we were and we all decided to wait out the worst of it, if we could. On shore, we flipped our canoes to keep our gear as dry as we could and waited, hoping for the best. Thankfully, the worst of it only lasted about 10 minutes and it slowed to a light drizzle just before 1500. We decided to hit the water again, knowing that we could always beach if we needed to. We wanted to try and cover the bigger water while we had the chance, so we hit the water and paddled north, targeting site #1098 on the western shore of the southern section of Fourtown, just west of the large island. The paddle from our weather shelter to site #1098 was only about 30 minutes, and the weather cooperated, with only a few drizzles here and there. We landed around 1530 and started setting up camp. The rain held off for the most part and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day staying fairly warm and dry, despite some cloud cover and wind.
After a long day of driving, portaging, paddling, rain storms, and choring. We called it an earlier night and went to bed.
Day 2: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 -We did get a little rain over night, and at one point in the early morning, I woke up to sounds in the trees around camp. The sun hadn't risen yet, so it was difficult to look out of the tent to figure out what it could be, but it sounded big. At one point I heard a large tree being shaken and dragged. I started to think it was a large animal, either a bear or a moose, making its way through camp. It was a bit of an anxious morning. Eventually the sounds stopped and I was able to drift back to sleep for a bit. Once I woke up for the day, around 0730, I got out of the tent and was greeted by Lee, who usually sleeps in a little later. I didn't think much of it, assuming he just didn't sleep that well and decided to get up. I asked him if he had heard the noises around camp a couple hours earlier. He responded, "oh yeah, that was me!" Apparently, during the night, Lee's rainfly over his hammock tent had failed and slowly allowed a consitent drip into his tent. He didn't realize it however, because the drips just gathered underneath his sleeping pad, between the pad and the tent, slowly accumulating and pooling until it was like he was floating on a pool floaty, inside his hammock tent. He woke up realizing he had to pee, so he leaned over to unzip the tent and as he shifted his weight the water underneath his sleeping pad came rushing over the sides and into his sleeping bag, getting him, and his gear, wet. It was in the 50s overnight as well, so he was pretty cold. After trying to ignore it for a bit, he realized he needed to get active to stay warm, so he just got out of bed around 0500 and started choring. The noises I heard from my tent were from Lee tromping through the woods gathering fire wood. He mentioned that he had found a pretty big fallen tree and dragged it out of the woods to camp. That was the moose I thought I heard. While it was good to know there wasn't any large animal activity in the area, it was still a bit disheartening knowing that Lee's gear was wet, and it was on the cooler side. Thankfully, the sun came out for most of the day, so he was able to dry out his gear a bit.
We took Tuesday as a base camp day and spent the day fishing, choring, and exploring some of the campsite-less islands near our site. We spent some time exploring the larger island just northwest of our site, fishing from shore, eating lunch, and relaxing. We also checked out a smaller island northwest of the larger island which had seen some fire damage in previous years. It was a cool spot to expolore and check out the power of the fires that affected the area. After a day of exploring, we headed back to camp to make dinner and discuss our plan for the next day. Our plan was to move camp into Horse Lake and stay there for the rest of the trip.
The weather at night was partly cloudy and warm and offered a great view of the sunset to the west, just around the corner of our site. As the night went on and some clouds started to clear out, we noticed a light glow in the northern sky. It slowly started getting brighte and we realized it was the northern lights. The views were amazing and provided some great pictures.
Day 3: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 -We woke up Wednesday morning to a dense fog over the entire lake. It was a pretty amazing view. We couldn't even see the island that was probably 200-250 yards across the water. By 0845 the sun had started to burn off the fog and the skies were clear. We estimated that our next target site, site #1113 on Horse Lake, was about 2-3 hours away, so we targeted a 1030 launch, giving us plenty of time to set up camp at the new site or explore for others in case it was occupied. We broke camp and launched at 1100, just shy of our 1030 goal.
We paddled east, aiming for the channel between Fourtown and Horse. The first paddle was about 20 minutes to portage #590 (9 rods), a quick, flat portage into a small section of Fourtown. From there, we paddled 10 minutes southeast to portage #591 (10 rods), then to portage #384 (16 rods), and finally to portage #386 (71 rods) which brought us into Horse. All of these portages were pretty quick and easy. The last paddle north to site #1113 was about 40 minutes. The whole time we kept our eyes open to see if we could tell from a distance if it was occupied. We also spotted some cliff to the west of us that might be fun to explore later in the day. As we got close to the island site, we realized that it was unoccupied. We landed right around 1300 and claimed our camp. We spent the afternoon exploring the entire island, which we had to ourselves. After a couple hours of relaxing an reenergizing ourselves, we decided to double back and check out the cliff faces we saw on the way into Horse. We paddle south, back toward portage #386. The cliffs were on the western shore, just north of the portage. We landed the canoes and headed into the woods looking for a trail. We found some game trails and some man-made trails that eventually led us up to the top of the cliffs. The view down to Horse was amazing. We could see all the different islands dotted throughout the lake. The weather was clear and warm and we could see forever. We headed back to camp around 1800 and spent some time fishing on the way back.
The rest of the night was clear and warm and perfect for a fire. Around 2120, we were sitting around telling stories of previous trips. We recalled our first year (2019), where we saw some strange lights in the sky that none of us recognized. It wasn't until we got back to civilization a couple days later that we were able to use the internet to find out it was a Starlink satellite launch that was visible. Shortly after we told this story, we saw the same thing! At about 2130 we saw a string of satellites crossing the sky, roughly northwest to southeast. It was pretty amazing considering we were just talking about the first sighting 4 years prior.
We called the night an hour or so after that to rest up for our day trip on Thursday.
Day 4: Thursday, September 14, 2023 -this was our last full day in the park. Woke up early, around 0730, to clear skies and warm weather. Our plan this day was to make a day trip up to Bass Wood falls to the northeast along the Canadian border. We spent the morning relaxing a bit and then launched around 11am, knowing it was about a 2 hour trek to the falls. We paddle south along the eastern shoreline of Horse to the first cove leading to the Bass Wood River, heading northeast. As we paddled upstream there were a few pop-up portages due to low water levels that took a couple minutes to navigate. This defitely added some time to our trip. Eventually, we came to an actual portage, #359 (48 rods). It was a mostly flat and relatively easy portage, especially with only the canoe and some fishing gear. We continued upstream and came across two similar portages along the way, #347 (49 rods) and #336 (72 rods). After about 2.5 hours we broke into the opening of Bass Wood River near the border and paddle north/northwest to the falls. We landed right around 1330 and spent the early afternoon eating lunch and exploring the area. It was a beautiful area with a couple campsites nearby on the US side of the border. We explored the area for an hour or so, rested up and then decided to make the trip back to camp so we could enjoy a few more hours of daylight at camp. The trip back too about 2.5 hours as well, crossing the same portages as on the way in. We made it back to camp around 1700 and spent the evening choring, fishing, and relaxing around the fire.
The weather was dry and warm, with a little cloud cover to end the night.
Day 5: Friday, September 15, 2023 -Friday, our last day in the park, we woke up early and hung around camp for a bit. We knew that our paddle out was going to be around 3 hours, but we didn't have a set return time, so we figured we stay in the park for a bit and enjoy the last bits of nice weather. We fished for a bit and caught lunch. After lunch, we broke camp and packed up the canoes, launching around 1400. Instead of doubling back the way we came, we decided to head out through Tin Can Mike Lake. We paddled south for about 40 minutes until we hit portage #405 (88 rods). It was relatively flat and easy and took about 10 minutes. The paddle south across Tin Can Mike was a quick 20 minute paddle until we reached portage #435 (129 rods). This was another very flat and easy portage through some reeds. Part of the portage was on planks as well. 10 minutes later we were in Sandpit Lake. A 20 minute paddle along the shoreline to the far west end of the lake brought us to portage #445 (78 rods) and after another flat portage we were back into Mudro. There were brief periods of drizzle during the trip, but nothing like the paddle in on Day 1. From there it was about a 25 minute paddle to the west across Mudro until we found the spot we launch off portage #716 on Day 1. We loaded our gear onto our backs and portaged out of the park and to the parking lot. From there we packed up our gear, loaded the canoes and made the 45 minute drive back to Ely Outfitter. After checking the canoes in, we headed into town and stayed at the Grand Ely Lodge for the night.
Day 6: Saturday, September 16, 2023 -Woke up Saturday morning, and headed home after a quick stop at Gordy's Hi-Hat in Cloquet.