Don:

It's interesting that your experience occurred roughly 10 years ago. Apparently there is an 11 year cycle between peaks in auroral activity. Since we are entering a new peak, about 10 or so years ago we should have been at another peak.

Being "up north" during a peak time appears to increase your odds for seeing a decent display. I guess there's still the element of luck at play, determining whether or not you are there and looking at the sky when the show decides to start.

I can only hope that I will be lucky this summer.

Agnes is a beautiful lake, isn't it? It was the first major Quetico destination I visited and I have many fond memories of Smallmouth Bass, Eagles, Loons, rock outcropings, and excellent campsites.

It is also the site of one of my most major blunders. My partner and I awoke one morning, planning to do an easy 15 mile paddle from the north side of Agnes to the south side to wrap up our trip. The wind was blowing at about 20 mph from the south and there were whitecaps all over the lake. We had to make it to Ely by the next day.

It was the most gruesome effort I ever experienced. Each stroke of our paddles gained about a foot of progress. As soon as the paddles came out of the water the canoe virtually came to a stop.

We just made it to the south end by nightfall. What a bear... There are several other interesting stories associated with that leg of the trip, but we were glad to make it and still be mostly dry.

Thanks for your comment.

...Tom

Posted by Tom Swulius on December 09, 1999 at 01:36