BWCA, October 2005 with Rob and Chris
In mid October of 2005 Rob and Chris and I did a repeat of our 1998 trip to the BWCA. We used the same boat, took the same route, and we were still awed by this place. There were some differences though. On the '98 trip we had a little bit of rain every day of the trip, but we also had sun on every day of the trip. We never had very strong wind, and the temperatures were always above freezing. In 2005 we had a sunny though windy start, followed by a very windy day, followed by a long day of hard, cold, unrelenting rain which changed to snow in the evening. Add this to the utter failure of Chris's and my rain gear and Rob's tent floor, and it spells a very very cold day. But we lived to paddle another day, and that night we actually had a nice break in the clouds so that we were able to wake up from naps, and have a 2:00am hot chocolate under a brilliant moon. One more day of comparatively calm and dry paddling put us at Miles island where we stayed in for our final night. The next day we egressed, and on our spare day we spent the time car touring the waterfalls of the Minnesota North Shore. Another big difference of this trip was that we got motored across Saganaga by Bud Darling's Water Taxi service (we rented the boat from Bud's as I've been doing for more than fifteen years now). Having taxied twice now I'll never paddle Sag again. It's a beautiful lake, but it's so large that it's prone to waves, and it takes a full day to cross. Add in the fact that motorboats are allowed on the lake and it just makes it nicer to do Sag in 30 minutes rather than a day. The last time I paddled in the BWCA before this trip was in May of 1999. Two months after that trip, on July 4, the BWCA experienced freak "straight line" winds from a storm that swept over the area. Non-rotating winds exceeding 110 mph raked over the pristine wilderness, and left a path of natural, but none the less devastating destruction. The following January Rob and I went winter camping south of the bulk of the destruction, but we did see some swath's of downed trees. This year was my first time back in the summer. Not only was there no snow to hide the destruction, but the Sag/Knife/Ogish/Seagull loop seems to have been the epicenter of the storm. Still seemingly fresh after five years the destruction is amazing. Huge areas are devastated. Some are blackened probably from fires of the downed wood. One of the more obvious comparisons available to me was Miles Island on Seagull Lake. In 1999 the large group of us braved the mosquitoes to hike up the hill for a view. There, on the top of the rocky spine of the island stood huge pines possibly as old as 100 years. The trees were beautiful though they did block most of the view. In 2005 our view was sadly spectacular due to the vast number of downed trees. One small valley on the island looked like some sort of "pick-up sticks" game. Nature will reclaim these damaged areas, but life is slow in the harsh conditions of the BWCA, and it will take time. I hope I'm paddling long enough through life to see the area returned to its former glory.
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