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!
Tags: Canoe Trips, Outdoor writing
Boreal B[l]og 
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