BWCA Border Route Trip of a Lifetime

thanks guys. It’s timely that this post was brought back to the top as we’re in the process of planning our trip for this May where we will complete the loop with the Pigeon River and Grand Portage.

We have a late May permit for Duncan EP and will go into Rose and spend 2 nights there, then > Rove Lake > Watap Lake > Mountain Lake and spend 2 nights there, then > Fan Lake > Vaseux Lake > Moose Lake > North Fowl Lake > South Fowl Lake and spend 2 nights there. I reached out to the grand marais DNR fisheries office and got some intel on the Fowl lakes and theres supposed to be good walleye fishing there, so I’m excited to fish those new waters as we didn’t fish Fowl on last year’s trip.

Then after the Fowl Lakes, we will embark on the ~13 mile Pigeon River and spend a night dispersed camping at Fort Charlotte, followed up the next day with the almighty 8.5 mile Grand Portage finishing with a well deserved splash in Lake Superior.

This spring is shaping up to be much better conditions for flow rate on the Pigeon with the minimal snow we’ve got this winter. Talk about a 180 from last year. In fact, if spring runoff is as light as I think it will be, we might actually be struggling with low water and having to drag the canoe over sections of rocks and low water. Its quite remarkable how the balance in life is so finite.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I look forward to your epilogue, from the Pigeon River, over Grand Portage, and the (brief) splashdown in Superior. I’ve wanted to walk the Grand Portage someday, just really interested in the history.

I couldn’t agree more. The history of the Grand Portage absolutely fascinates me. I will definitely be thinking about the voyageurs who walked the trail hundreds of years before me as I embark on that 8 mile portage. It’s incredible how they were able to navigate through the same waters and trails that I went on but they did it with handmade canoes and extremely primitive gear. I would like to read more on the voyageurs history so if anyone has any book recommendations, please share!

jwellsy wrote:

Any aurora lights?

Unfortunately, after 10 hour/25 mile travel days, a hearty dinner cooked over a campfire and a couple nightcap whiskeys, we crashed pretty early every night. I’m sure we could have caught glimpses of lady aurora had we been able to stay up late.

Dutchboy wrote:

I’ve always wanted to boat the entire Missouri River, I don’t know why and I doubt I ever will but it is something to think about.

You should do it! A few years back when there was a story about those who guys traveled down the whole Mississippi, I was fascinated with the story and wanted to do something similar. Ironically, the mighty urban Mississippi scares me a lot more than the border route’s 200 mile route in extremely remote wilderness. Someday down the road when I’m able to take more time off work, I’d like to do something like paddle the entire perimeter of Lake Superior.

There’s a pretty cool space weather website that has an aurora forecast map that shows how far South and intense the aurora will be as it moves around the Earth.
Press the play button on The Aurora graphic.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov
If that graphic showed a high probability of some red aurora over my location, I’d probably set an alarm to see it.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

The history of the Grand Portage absolutely fascinates me. I will definitely be thinking about the voyageurs who walked the trail hundreds of years before me as I embark on that 8 mile portage. It’s incredible how they were able to navigate through the same waters and trails that I went on but they did it with handmade canoes and extremely primitive gear. I would like to read more on the voyageurs history so if anyone has any book recommendations, please share!

I think you would love this book:
Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage.

In this book, Brian Castner retraces Alexander Mackenzie’s famous expedition of 1789. This was Mackenzie’s attempt to find the fabled northwest passage via the unexplored river that now bears his name.

The tie-in to Minnesota is that word of this mythical river that ran to the west reached Mackenzie via voyagers arriving at Grand Portage loaded with furs and stories. By 1789, eastern Canada and the US had been over-trapped and voyagers were moving farther and farther north and west to find prime beaver trapping. Eventually, they discovered a huge river that appeared to run to the west. If that was the northwest passage, proving it was the biggest feat a man of the fur tread like Mackenzie could accomplish.

The book alternates between Mackenzie’s history in the fur trade and in exploring and Castner’s modern-day retracing 1200 miles of Mackenzie’s canoe route down the river and ending in the Arctic Ocean.

I agree, thinking of what these explorers and voyagers accomplished without a map is beyond incredible.

Fished Mountain and Moose back in the early ’80’s. Good laker action in both – although smaller @ 1-4# size. Caught many from shore and could see other lakers following the hooked fish as I reeled them in.