Gliding along the border.

Day 7
July 19, 2003
Today's miles: 15.5
Total miles: 71.5
Destination: Campsite at Rat Lake/Rose Lake portage

This is great! A nice change of pace after the Kekekabic bushwhack.

Allen and I began paddling on a glassy Gunflint Lake at 6:30. As far as we could see, we were the only people on the water. Early morning mist rose and loons called as we glided along the border between the U.S. and Canada, the forest dense on either side.

Two and a half hours and six miles later, we came to the end of Gunflint Lake and, after some searching, found the ten-foot entrance to the channel between Gunflint and North Lakes. We carefully passed between two beaver dens, and the channel widened, with marsh grass and white lilies flanking the passageway.

At the end of North Lake, we came to our first portage, but we'd been told by canoeists who'd passed us in the channel, that we could walk the boat up the little rapid rather than unload our packs and carry our gear and the canoe across the short trail to the next lake.

Portages are measured in rods, a surveyor's instrument Allen tells me, one rod being sixteen feet. There are 330 rods in a mile. Our second portage today was 76 rods, or 1,216 feet, a little under a quarter-mile. I wanted to see if it could be done in one trip, so I put my backpack on and, with Allen's help, lifted the canoe over my head and set the padded yoke on my shoulders. I got about two-thirds of the way to the water before the weight of the canoe pushing down on the top of my pack became too much for my shoulders. So I tipped the stern of the boat down and rested until Allen took over. Looks like portages will be done in two trips after all, including 660-rod (2-mile) and aptly named Long Portage tomorrow. So for that one we'll hike six miles total, two with packs, two with nothing, and two with the canoe, which we'll take turns carrying.

When we got to the 55-rod portage between South Lake and Rat Lake, we met a party of four, portaging in the opposite direction. Since the portage trails are narrow, Allen and I waited until they all came through with their gear before we headed the other way with ours. The man of the group, who appeared to be in his seventies, offered to carry our canoe on his way back to retrieve theirs, so we'd have to make only one trip, but we declined with thanks. It just didn't feel right to have someone else shlep our weight if we couldn't shlep theirs in return.

When Allen and I returned for our boat and as they were packing up to paddle on in their two badly-dented aluminum canoes, we chatted for a bit. The foursome was made up of grandfather and grandmother, 15 year-old granddaughter and her friend. The granddaughter had read about the Voyageurs' Route and wanted to make the trip. This was day four of their 18-day, westbound adventure.

We stopped at the end of Gunflint Lake to search for the entrance to the channel.

On this first day of Allen's and my five-day paddle, we were on the water for nine hours, including three portages and several short breaks. We called it a day of canoeing at 3:30 and relaxed, resting our arms and shoulders here in camp on a narrow strip of land between Rat and Rose Lakes, just off the four-rod portage. Thunder clouds are forming and rumbling all around, so I think I'll take a little hike to the open-air latrine now, rather than wait for the rain that will surely be here soon.

--Ramkitten