This was my 58th trip and Jan’s 16th. We went into Lake Insula for the 7th year of base camping, again on Site #26 up in Museum Bay. Again, we had a great traveling day in, with an early start and a tailwind. We got to Insula in 6 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, the barometer began falling, it started to get cloudy, and by the next afternoon we had sprinkles. The next two days were spent in the tent with rain, high winds, and generally good hypothermia weather.
However, when the rain stopped, radiational cooling gave us a beautiful morning mist on the lake. We had a chance for a couple of day trips on the lake and again, for the second year in a row, saw no people during our 5 nights on Insula.
We had a nice travel day out and decided to go all the way to Lake One, to avoid the traffic on the campsites on Lakes Two and Three. All was fine until about 3 a.m. on the last morning, when my stomach felt queasy, and I said, “I think I’m going to barf.” No, I didn’t use the word “think.” I KNEW I would. Got the tent unzipped and retched right outside. Nice. Really, really nice. First time in 4 decades that has happened on a canoe trip. But whatever I got in disappeared, and we departed Lake One seeing the beautiful fall colors in the North Country. These were the best we’ve ever seen in a lot of September trips.
People ask about bugs and cold this time of year. Answer: no bugs. We had one day of frost. There were very few people. But we wouldn’t go a week later, as October canoe trips can be really dicey with the weather.
Pictures from the trip: http://s986.photobucket.com/albums/ae344/michaelspinnersmith/BOUNDARY%20WATERS%20PICTURES/2010%20BWCA/
Tags: Canoe Trips
Boreal B[l]og 
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