I love the water. And I love to fish. I do both locally on the Little Miami River and the Great Miami River.
Every other year I take a trip to the Boundry Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA or BWC). The name is
quite a mouthful, and abbreviated versions of the initials abound.
In short, the BWCAW is an area set aside by mutual treaty with Canada to limit commercial expansion into the area and
to conserve it for recreational use. Most of the point of entry lakes and immediately adjacent lakes allow boats with
motors limited to 25 hp. Beyond that - farther into the wilderness - no motors are allowed.
*
Consequently, the farther into the back country one goes, the better and better the fishing gets. The backcountry
permit system is the means to gain access the area overnight.
*
I've never had a bad trip to the BWCA. It rained on me all week one time, but one week of being rained on in the
BWC is better than your best week at work. Here are some of my pictures and links to "my" outfitter that I've used (Canoe Country Outfitters) or other BWCA resouces.
Generally, we take off after work on Friday and taking turns, drive all night. We drive to the outfitters in Ely,
MN, where we pick up our permits and passes. There we purchase fishing licenses, maps, etc. If we are renting
canoes, we follow the outfitter's van to the put in point.
Sometimes we camp out at Fall Lake State Park Campground and the outfitter drops off any rental gear at the campground
boat ramp or at your campsite - whichever you prefer. CCO has been FANTASTIC to work with in this regard! (BTW,
CCO is the OLDEST outfitter in Ely, MN. It is a family business currently being run by the THIRD generation of Olsens.
I located them while doing my research for the first trip that I personally led to the BWCA. Since I had my own gear,
all I needed was an outfit to handle the permit and to rent me a canoe. CCO had the best prices of anyone. But
enough about CCO. Any more about them and I'll have to charge them for advertising! ;-)
The first day out, we minimize our fishing time in order to get out of the "motorboat lakes" and away from the crowds.
Occasionally we will still stop to fish the foot of a falls or rapids, but we usually release those fish because we don't
want to abuse or kill those fish during our upcoming portages. On the first night out we make sure to get onto the lake
where our campsite for the night will be in time to set up camp and catch dinner. Some folk prefer to bring frozen steaks
to fix the first night out. I usually don't. I LOVE fresh grilled walleye.
Sailing, Sailing...
Some folk like to make a base-camp and do day trips. Some like to make an expedition, do a loop trip and set up
a new camp every night. Sometimes, by concensus we do both; bascamp a couple nights then make a small loop.
In any case, we futz around for a week in the backcountry. You can hike. You can swim. You can
explore. There are indian petroglyphs to photograph. You can sleep and relax. There is all kinds of
wildlife to observe and photograph.
North Woods Wildlife is
very diverse. One of the quintessential North Woods creatures is the loon.You
can hear it’s warbling cry all night long.It can be a little weird if
you don’t know what it is.Loons are a species of diving and swimming birds
– not ducks.It can float and swim like a duck, but the really interesting
thing is that it will dive and swim underwater. And I don't mean disappearing to bob up a few yards away like a duck
or goose, I've seen them go 100 yards!
If, by chance, you make
it to the first night's camp without seeing or hearing a loon, and you have newcomers along, it's fun to spin a campfire ghost
story about the spirit of a murdered woman whose wail sounds like this: (insert your best loon imitation)! Then wait
for a real loon to start the fun!
It's really fun to find one in a playful mood. Paddle toward one. Unless it simply flies away, it will dive
underwater an come up elsewhere. It's fun to try to guess where it will come up and go there. Of course the bird
knows where you are and sometimes it seems to delight in playing with you.
I think I heard that the American Bald Eagle was off the endangered species list.
(Tastes like Spotted Owl - sort of like chicken. ;-)
I've been going to the BWCA over the course of 12 years and there has always been plenty of them there. If you
cruise slowly and quitely around the shores of the lakes you can often get quite close to eagles that are perched in trees
along the shore. They are scouting for fish. (or for Osprey's that have caught fish and from whom they're likely
to steal)
But don't "troll" for eagles TOO close to the bank. If you are directly under them when they take off, well, let's
just say you don't want to be looking up! They frequently poop on takeoff. It's something to do with relaxing
their lower half to let go of the branch while at the same time exerting maximum effort with their top half to get airborn.
Once we saw an osprey catch a fish out of the water and carry it to a tree near shore. Along came an eagle and
attacked the osprey and ran it off. It dropped the fish. The eagle took it. It ate some then took off
with what was left.
In the BWC, it is required that all camping be done in established campsites. (This also helps the BWCAW organization
sell maps, because each year the campsites at which one is allowed changes. It's not fun to try to find an alternate
site in the dark!)
The wildlife gets to know where the campsites are. Mice and chipmonks are very common. They will get into
anything you leave. Eagles have been seen trying to make of with a stingers of caught fish. Once we had caught
a stringer of fish for dinner and as usual it was tied to the canoe while we fished. On our return to camp we unknowingly
beached them along with the canoe once we got back to camp. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, since we were
going to kill and eat them anyhow, except that a family of badgers got to them first and ate a few bits and pieces of all
of them before we discovered it.
Every time you leave camp and every night, you have to clean up all your gear and hang your food in the trees to keep
it away from not only the varmints, but also the bears. On one trip one of the other canoes pulled into camp and scared
away a bear that had climbed a tree and was batting at the food cache.
Hanging your food in "the bear bag" is always such a joy to rig! (not!) Even if you've
done it a lot, it's rarely fun or quick - as demonstrated in this instructional video from Backpacker Magazine. Enjoy!
Ok, all this video did was to highlight how difficult it can be. Here are a few tips:
That's NOT a rope. That's a string. String that small will cut the tree branch if you have a
heavier bag such as would be needed for a multi-day trip. Use paracord instead.
The method that uses TWO shorter ropes is better. The one has a small pulley on it so that, over the
course of the week at the same campsite, or during high winds, the paracord doesn't cut the tree branch, it goes through
the pulley. It's also a LOT easier to lift that way when the bag is heavy.
Tie your tent peg stuff sack or a sock (with the rock in it) to the end of your rope. It's much easier
than trying to tie directly to the rock. You don't even need a rock. Use sand or dirt or anything in the sack
for weight.
If you're on a fishing trip, get your most accurate line caster to put a weight on his/her fishing line
and simply cast their fishing line over the branches. Then tie on the paracord and pull it across.
I prefer, if possible, to NOT tie my ropes off to the same trees that have the branches supporting
the bear bag. Bears regularly climb trees to bat at these bags. Why do they keep trying this? Because
it works! One of the ways it works is that the bear can easily break the ropes holding the bags while climbing the tree!
Tag team the lifting! For heavy bear bags, such as would be used for a multi-day cache for a group,
it's tough for one person to hoist it and to tie it off. Also, even paracord will cut into your hands given enough time
and weight. Have someone lift the bag while the other pulls the rope. Continue to help by pushing it higher
with a paddle. Then while the one person holds the rope, have the other person tie it off.
Tying off a heavy bear bag can be a problem for two people much less by someone trying to do it alone.
To help out with this, tie the very ends of both ropes (the fixed, pully rope AND the hoisting rope) to the trees such that
the bear bag is on the ground. (This also prevents you from accidently letting go of the end and it zipping up and over
the branch!) In the tag end of the working rope tie a loop. Hoist the bear bag up to the right height and tie
another loop such that you can connect that loop to the loop in the tag with a carabiner. Set this up with
only enough weight in the bag to get the bag back to the ground. And rig it tight. Once weight is in the bag you
won't be able to get it that high, BUT the extra weight will stretch the paracord. Otherwise the weight will make the
bag sag too much. Expect to have to adjust for rope stretch over time anyhow. Using this tip there are no free
rope ends to loose and no holding the weight while you try to tie a mid-span knot that will hold.
When hoisting the bear bag before bed, make sure to get everyone to check for anything that might need to
go into the bear bag. I've been in camp where the bear bag went up "for the last time" about a dozen times!
That can be annoying when it takes two people to hoist it.
Never eat in your tent if it can at all be avoided. Even if you get all the food out, you leave crumbs
and scent behind. I've gone to people's tents of a morning and found was a food wrappers. Q: "Did you
get the bear bag down already?" A: "Oh! No. That must be left over from last night." My standard
reply" "Well, thanks for being willing to take one for the team like that. If a bear had come here last night,
I would have been very safe!"
Ah, Ha! Ha! Watching folks hang bear bags is amost as funny was watching folks who don't boat all year at the boat
launch ramp on Memorial Day or Labor Day.
Of all the times I've been to the BWCA, I've only seen one bear. I've seen lots of "sign", but only one bear.
Here's a picture of it. If I really wanted to spin a yarn I'd say this were a picture of Sasquash. It looks about
as much like that as it does a bear. We couldn't tell what it was either till it got to the edge of the lake and ran
up the other shore. And then that "little thing" swimming turned out to be it's head and a real big bear charged up
out of the water.
Here are some resource links and other items of interest for folks going with me to the BWCA.
Everyone who goes to the BWCA should watch this! (Click on the High Quality button!)
I was going to comment that this was typical of a trip, but these guys are doing much better than average. They're
also getting lake trout. Sweet! Also notice their canoe seat backs. These are really nice and better than
simple stadium seats.
Here's some good information on what to take and how to fish the BWCA, HOWEVER, keep in mind that when he says, "no live
bait"and "only barbless hooks" he's speaking about the Quetico or Canadian side only! Live bait and barbed hooks can
still be used by real men, women and children in the land of the free and home of the brave.
;-)
