Archive for October 2nd, 2009

BWCAW 2009, LAKE INSULA

October 2, 2009

This may have been my favorite trip to Insula.  We had the best travel day in, with an early start, changing sides frequently so that we wouldn’t stress our elbows, and with my boots and Jan’s gaiters, she didn’t have to climb over packs to get in and could get out sooner.  Loading and unloading went well, portaging went well, the water was calm, and we got to the point site in Museum Bay by 2 p.m.  We saw not one other group for 5 days, which is remarkable even in September.  Four of those days were with near perfect weather.  I actually swam, we day tripped there and to the north end of the lake, saw an eagle, mergansers and a moose.  The latter sloshed and clopped his way along the shore one evening, which was one of the more memorable sightings, even if the picture wasn’t good.  Two days later, we went by to look at the tracks and found fresh wolf scat plus urine!

Day 5 was cloudy but cleared, so we stayed another night, and then got the frontal passage the day we left.  The rain mostly held off until we hit the Insula portage.  We got another hit on Lake Four and had lunch under the tarp.  We took the same point site on Lake Three that two women (from Arizona, no less) were vacating, and then had high winds and rain all night.  We came out with 30 knot head winds gusting to 40.  Lake Two was pretty epic, and Lake One was no piece of cake either.  But hey, this is Minnesota in September and this sort of stuff happens.  My watch barometer was right on target with a 30 millibar drop, so while the weather stayed decent, the drop concerned me, and I knew something was due.  It finally came.  I have now spent 32 nights on Lake Insula, which is a real blessing.

On the slide show, notice the two consecutive sunsets and how far south the second one has moved.  At the equinox, the Sun is moving either north or south the most rapidly.  The Sun set nearly three minutes earlier each night.  Up in Alaska, they lose about 8 minutes of daylight each day this time of year!

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BWCAW 2007, LAKE INSULA

October 2, 2009

This was the year we reviewed all the campsites on INsula.  We immediately got hammered with rain and wind after we left the Lake One landing, so instead of getting an early start on the campsites, we made it maybe a mile into Lake One!  Still was a good decision.  Next day was better, and we got to Insula.  We did some of the west end sites and then set up on an island site.  We went out in the afternoon and got a few more sites done before increasing winds made us get back to camp.  The next day, we did sites in between storms–sort of.  I recall leaving one site in sunshine and within 5 minutes, we had sleet and high winds on the high seas of the lake!  We had one last day to do the whole northern half of the lake–20 sites.  We got an early start and went hard all day, using a tape recorder and talking to each other about the kitchen, the landing, the tent pads, the bear hang, the latrine trail and other amenities.  We finished late, and I would later have tennis elbow from all the paddling that lasted about 6 months.  It was still worth it.  We picked up Site 2 on the way out, wrote it up, and it appeared as a 20 page article in the Boundary Waters Journal winter 2007-8.

Funny follow up, along the extreme makeover campsite.  Site 37 was on one map and not another.  We looked all along the shore for it and found nothing except one sawn log.  I landed in brush, bushwhacked up the hill and found a firegrate, one tentsite, and about the emptiest latrine one will ever find in the BW.  We called it the worst site on the lake, don’t stay on it unless it is the last one, and even then don’t stay there.  We day tripped to the site in 2009 and could see it from the lake!  The firegrate was surrounded by a rockpile, there was a decent landing, and while I still wouldn’t stay there, somebody from the USFS had obviously done a great deal of work.  Nice to know we probably made a difference!

 

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BWCAW 2006, LAKE INSULA

October 2, 2009

This year, we took two days to get in, camping a night on the Kawishiwi River.  We had a point site on the southeast end of the lake with a fair amount of traffice.  But the site was huge, with a large grassy area, loads of room for tent sites, and a beautiful point where we could sit and read under a tree.  It was cold in the mornings as the mist and the outfits show, but the days were pleasant, and the one thunderstorm that came through did not dump a lot of rain on us.  This is one of the “5 star” campsites on the lake, with probably great swimming during the height of the summer.  It is also the site featured in the article here in the blog called “The Legend,” where the late Mike Manlove and I wrote up a family for an illegal fire.

This was our third year base camping on Insula.  We would explore campsites and volunteer to evaluate all 47 (more than even the Forest Service or the cartographers knew about) the following year.

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BWCAW 2005–LAKE INSULA

October 2, 2009

This was our second base camp trip to Insula.  We stayed on a site just north of what we call the cut-through, a narrow isthmus between two major sections of the lake.  It saves a lot of time paddling through the lake.  We wanted to go further, but the map was misleading about the site we wanted to stay at.  We could have gone further, but the site we stayed on was open, it looked pretty reasonable and we moved in, staying five nights.

We took a daytrip up to Alice Lake and then to Fishdance to see the pictographs there.

On the way out, on Lake Two, I awoke at 0130 and went outside.  It seemed awfully bright for a night when the Moon had set.  Sure enough, we had an aurora!  I awoke Jan and asked her if she had ever seen one before.  She hadn’t.  Imagine.  We had been married nearly 35 years and I didn’t know that.  I’ve seen more striking aurorae, but this one was pretty nice, and besides, I made sure my wife saw it!

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

October 2, 2009

Michael Spinner Smith Born:  1948.  Married to Janice Rae Littleton (MD)  (all our children have paws or hoofs).  Two brothers, Stephen (deceased) and Andrew (deceased).  My parents were both educators, my father’s working his way from high school science teacher to school superintendent in 3 cities and assistant dean at the college of education at Cleveland State.  He authored several science books used in the 1950s and 1960s.  My mother was a sociology teacher and raised 3 boys.  She could be labeled as a saint, but as a Unitarian, she didn’t go in for that sort of stuff. High School:  Pierre S. duPont, Wilmington, DE (valedictorian), 1966; College:  Dartmouth, BA in Chemistry (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), 1970; Medical School:  University of Colorado (magna cum laude, AOA), 1974;  Internship:  Presbyterian Medical Center, Denver (Rotating/medicine), 1974-1975; Languages:  English (native), German (B2), Spanish (A2). Military Service: US Navy:  Reserve Ensign, LT (j.g.) 1971-1975.  Active Duty: Medical Officer USS St. Louis (LKA-116), 1975-77; Medical Officer, Amphibious Squadron SEVEN, 1976-77.  Honorably discharged as LT,  5  July 1977; Residency:  University of Arizona, 1977-1980; chief resident, 1979-80; Faculty:  Assistant professor, University of Arizona, 1979-1981.  Adjunct Assistant/associate professor of neurology, 1981-1990. Private Practice:  Neurological Associates of Tucson, 1981-1992. Medical Director, St. Mary’s Hospital, 1993-1998; senior medical director (quality), 1998. Graduate work: M.S., Experimental Statistics, New Mexico State University, 1998-2000. Consulting in statistics, quality and patient safety in medicine, 1999-2005.  Reader for AP statistics examination, 2003-2006. Organizations past held office: Pima County Medical Society, 1981-2011; vice-president, secretary/treasurer. Arizona Medical Association 1981-2004; treasurer, vice-president. Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Chief Observer, 1986. Volunteer work:

  • Wilderness ranger, US Forest Service, Ely, MN, Kawishiwi District, May-October 1992.
  • Volunteer work, US Forest Service, Minnesota Boundary Waters, 1993-1999.
  • Mathematics, chemistry tutor, CDO High School, 2002-2011.  Substitute teacher, CDO HS 2010-2012.
  • Mathematics tutor, Sabino High School, 2002-2011.
  • Literacy Volunteers of Tucson, 2006-2010.
  • Tucson Audubon Society Field Trip leader, 2006-2012.
  • Rowe Audubon Sanctuary, Gibbon NE, 2008, 2010-2018.
  • Past docent, Kitt Peak National Observatory, 1986-87.
  • Eugene, Oregon Parks and Outdoor Services 2014-17
  • Eugene, Obsidian Hiking Group 2014-  (100, 200 hike leader award; 600 hikes award) Over 1000 hours
  • Eugene, SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), 2014-15
  • Eugene, Lane Community College Math tutor, 2014-20  Over 1000 hours.
  • Eugene, Science Factory (Hands on Museum for Children), 2015-2017
  • Cascade Volunteers 2019- ; Secretary 2020-22  Over 2800 hours (including Scorpions)
  • Scorpions Trail Crew 2017-; Certified Crosscut Sawyer (bucking)-B certification. Over 2000 hours
  • Winter Trails (High Cascade Forest Volunteers-now C.V.), 2017-
  • Covid Vaccination (2021)-75 clinics, 390.5 hours

Publications:  60 articles, not including twenty years of weekly astronomy columns (750 in all) in the Arizona Daily STAR and 9 years of monthly columns in Pima County Medical Society. Articles published in the following fields:

  • Military Medicine (Naval Institute Proceedings)
  • Mental arithmetic (The Arithmetic Teacher)
  • Wilderness ethics (The Boundary Waters Journal)
  • Volunteering for the Forest Service (Medical Economics)
  • Patient safety columns (Physician Executive)
  • Neurology (clinical) (Archives of Neurology, Neurology)
  • Neurology (humanities) (Neurology)
  • Eclipse viewing and chasing
  • Variable star viewing (Intl Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry)
  • Past CME Web page on why physicians make errors

Writing awards: American Academy of Neurology: Creative Expression Award for Human Values in Neurology (A Wise Owl),2003.  Prize donated to Médècins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). Writer’s Digest:  Honorable Mention, Non-fiction, “Lunar Phases for Writers and Editors,” 2003. Hobbies: Canoe Tripping, Backpacking and Hiking, Amateur astronomy and eclipse chasing, Mathematics and anything numerical, Reading, Freelance writing, Running, Former cyclist (65000 miles, until I had one too many accidents, bringing my fracture total to nine); past volunteer with PBAA for  cycling events. Taking care of more cats than I ever thought we would have. OUTDOOR RESUME CANOE TRIPPING: 25 trips into Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario–150 days.  Guided four trips (1967); 69 trips into the Boundary Waters/Quetico (Minnesota/Ontario)–325 nights, 360 lakes; the upper 200 miles of the Yukon River, including Lakes Laberge, Bennett, Nares and Tagish; the Nahanni River (World Heritage Site) from Rabbitkettle Hot Springs to the Liard River. BACKPACKING/HIKING: Section hiked the southern quarter of the Appalachian Trail (527 miles). 6 multi-day Grand Canyon trips, including rim to rim. 2 times over Alaska’s Chilkoot Trail. 2 trips into ANWR (Kongakut and Aichilik River basins). Arrigetch Peaks (Alaska), Alatna River (and Takahula Lake), Gates of the Arctic (Dalton Highway to Summit Lake). Noatak River (Alaska), 16 miles backpacking, Wulik Peaks (NW Alaska), 40 miles of hiking), 80 miles of river travel. Walked the length of Isle Royale (wolf in my campsite for 10 minutes, 10 miles from nearest other person.) Multi-day trip into Olympic National Park. Fourteen twenty-plus mile days, including three in a row. Fifty times up Wasson Peak, twenty times up Mt. Wrightson and Mt. Kimball (Tucson). Nine hundred ten hikes into Oregon by 20 Nov 23. NATIONAL PARKS: Seen 50; have hiked more than 10 miles in more than half, 50 miles in nine. VOLUNTEER WORK: Five months with the Forest Service in Ely, MN (1992). Week-long trips from 1993-1999 with the Forest Service in Ely. Volunteer at Rowe Sanctuary (Audubon) during Crane Migration, Gibbon, NE, 2008, 2010-2018. ECLIPSES: Seen 26 central solar eclipses, 19 total, 7 annular on or over all continents, both North and South Poles.  Seen 15 total lunar eclipses.  The total eclipses were seen in Baja Mexico, Bolivia, India, Siberia, Aruba, Zambia, over Antarctica, South Pacific Ocean, Libya, over the Arctic Ocean, China, Argentina,  Australia, Uganda, over the Atlantic Ocean, over the equatorial Pacific (2019, 8m 27s totality) Indonesia, and Oregon.  The annular eclipses were seen in Arizona (2), San Diego, Oregon, Costa Rica, Spain and Kenya.

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