Just completed an outstanding “Return to the Place of Fire” Boundary Waters canoe trip with six participants and two co-guides, Sue Plankis and Zoe Kesselring. I believe Pam, Beth, Brian, Valerie, Nell, and Lara had a great trip. We went down the Moose River camping the first night on Nina Moose Lake. The second day we went further down the Moose River including running the rapids instead of the 96 rod portage. This is usually possible only in the spring but because a huge beaver dam had burst, the flow on the Moose River was dramatically enhanced. From Agnes we portaged to the Boulder River and then over to the Dahlgren River and up that, past an exquisite grove of red pine and 2 falls, eventually to Stuart Lake which had only one available campsite. The next morning a 320-rod portage to a string of lakes and up to Iron Lake where we camped, took a afternoon swim a a paddle, sans packs, to Curtain Falls. That night we waltzed under the moonlight, watched shooting stars and called back and forth to a Saw-Whet Owl. Then it was a drier than usual Bottle Portage, a glassy water paddle across LacLaCroix, and a nice camp on Agnes. The last day was a dash up the Moose River with visions of ice cream cones dancing in our heads. Those of you familiar with my “food is fuel” refrain might be surprised that we dined on grilled chicken, rigitoni and real meat sauce, mexican night and hearty chicken soup. All cooked over wood. We did not even bring a stove on this trip. Plus fresh Honeydew melon, Zoe’s homemade cookies, oranges, apples and bannock. We had a big fun group which also might explain not seeing a lot of wildlife, but mammals sighted did include deer, beaver, marten, otter, chipmunks and squirrels.
43 species of birds we observed are listed below. The best part of the trip was the crew fun, cooperative and quirkie folk (and the weather- 5 dry warm, but not hot, days)
BWCA Uncommon Seminars BWCA Place of Fire Trip 8/12-8/16 (thanks to sue plankis)
43 species
Wood Duck X
Mallard X
Common Merganser X One large group of 25 on Iron Lake
Common Loon X
Osprey X
Bald Eagle X
Broad-winged Hawk X
Spotted Sandpiper X
Herring Gull X
Great Horned Owl X
Barred Owl X
Northern Saw-whet Owl X
Common Nighthawk X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird X
Belted Kingfisher X
Black-backed Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Merlin X
Eastern Wood-Pewee X
Least Flycatcher X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Gray Jay X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Common Raven X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Boreal Chickadee X
Red-breasted Nuthatch X
Brown Creeper X
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
Veery X
Thrush sp. X
Wood Thrush X
American Robin X
Cedar Waxwing X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
warbler sp. X
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak X
American Goldfinch X